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When I’ve got to know that it will be me representing AEGEE-Europe at the Network Meeting in Dnipropetrovsk, I was positively surprised! As usually I was happy to go to a new and remote place. This journey was expected to be particularly interesting, as the city itself was completely closed to foreigners due to the center of Sovet rocket industry, which was situated nearby. So I packed by suitcase and took off to Ukraine!
But a long trip was awaiting me, as first I had to arrive in Kyiv, where I spent a couple of hours walking through the city in the rain (with a nice beer together with Olga Basok) until I could catch the night train to Dnipropetrovsk. After arriving I have already noticed that it will be a nice weekend, after the very warm welcome by Olga, the president of AEGEE-Dnipropetrovsk. Some walk in the park, short sightseeing and it was already time to head to the opening ceremony at the University of Law and Economics.
This opening ceremony was joined by representatives of the University, some students that are potentially interested in AEGEE and the local television. This concluded the situation of me being actually on TV after giving some very short interview about AEGEE-Europe and my work. The content of this Network Meeting was organised by Netcommie Irina and she also gave the introduction to AEGEE itself. I took over the presentation of AEGEE-Europe and generally the European level and it was the only session on that day that was conducted in English. It was similar during the following days, in which we went to a resort a little bit outside of Dnipropetrovsk, where also most of the workshops were hold in Russian (except mine). One may ask whether this is the right strategy to be followed. Well the Network Meeting should serve the participants and if it easier for them to understand a training in their local language, it can be like that. But of course every non-native speaker should be respected (which always was the case at this NWM).
All together around 18 people were participating in the Network meeting, however only 4 participants were not from Dnipropetrovsk: one from Kyiv, two from Lutsk and one from (maybe future Antenna) Rostow. This naturally is raising the question where were all the other Ukrainian Locals? During many discussions on spot, I could listen to many people telling stories about the lack of cooperation among Locals in that area. We were trying to find solutions and probably a dedicated subcommie from Ukraine would be the best solution. A meeting of all the locals in this area is needed! Another very interesting discussion was about how to encourage participants to visit your city, when it is not well known for its touristic attractions. Of course AEGEE events have another aim than simple tourism, but naturally the city itself is often a driving factor in attracting participants. At this NWM we were developing ideas on how to improve this and fixed the idea of finding some small and unique places in every city, the “treasure hunt” was born.
Let us hope that this NWM was the kick-off meeting for some better developments in the future. I am very glad that I could spend the weekend with these wonderful people!