A Tale of Community.

We get out of the train, all of us a little exhausted of the last days but also excited and motivated for what's to come. At the station, people from the camp organisation team greet us and in smaller circles, they explain us the details of where to go and what to do. There is also coffee and cookies and water. I stand in one of the circles and look around when one face strikes me. I know this person and I cannot believe it. I poke out my head so she can see me too and we lock eyes. We both look as confused as when someone would explain the string theory to us. The next moment, we jump into the middle of the circle, hug and laugh. People start applauding. We say "What?!?" because there are no more words for this coincidence. She is an old school friend that I have not seen and heard from in years. I did not know she is into environmental activism nor that she comes to this camp. We arrived the same day, at the same time and stand in the same circle. I am in the right place at the right time at that exact moment in my life.

Later, I arrive at the camp and there are tents everywhere. A lot of flags, most of them anticapitalist, left-wing, anticonformist symbols and slogans and groups. I help building up other peoples tents because I did not bring my own. I did not bring a sleeping bag either, didn't have one. After my friends and I have put everything up we go and check out the rest of the camp. The hygiene area is a shit ton (haha) of Porta-Pottis and wooden sink arrangements that actually work quite well. Everywhere are hand sanitizers and soap containers and signs urging you to use them. At the main area there is a circus tent and a bunch of smaller ones. We line up for food but the news travels that they ran out and it will take a while. So we go to the meeting instead. Translators and cheers. Tomorrow the first action starts. But we decide not to join them and go the day after instead. At least most of us. At night we sit together, get waffles and chill - the analogue version of the popular leisure activity we all know and love. The next morning the first groups go to block the mines and transport ways, but we go to get breakfast. I am amazed that everything works so well. We all are just people, noone gets paid to be here. Every single person is here because they believe in the cause (and somehow managed to be able to miss work or other duties).

After we got breakfast, we make our way to the trainstation because whilst the first groups go to block we go to strike. Fridays for future strikes are up and Greta Thunberg and Rezo join so we go, too. At the trainstation we find out that the whole station has been blocked for hours so that the group that wanted to reach the railways where the coal gets transported by train cannot go. The police officials say it is for safety reasons, but we all know that is not the truth. No train to Aachen for us, so we run with the others to the bus station, miss the bus by a hair and wait. When the next bus arrives at our stop, we finally get moving. We go to the next city and then run to the train to go to Aachen and surprisingly it all works out.

When we finally arrive I realise that this strike is huge. Humongous. The train was packed, the station is even more so and the streets are just full. I think it is one of the biggest fridays for future strikes of Germany and the atmosphere is amazing. We lose some friends, we meet some others and most importantly, we walk, we shout, we stand up for our beliefs and values and we have a great time. I don't know the people I am here with for long, some of them I just met the day before, but we get along well. This one friend and me, we just get super weird in combination and I enjoy being worriless for a while. Well, without personal worries, the state of the world deeply frightens, stresses and worries me a great deal at all times. But it is a success.

In the evening, we go back to the camp. I am tired and happy. We get food, more crepes and enjoy the evening. Or at least we try. While we hang out on a bench in the field, these big ass bugs start buzzing around. They show up in the evening, junebugs. They are so big, stick in the soup and in the hair. I get nervous because there are so many. All the humming and buzzing and nervous hand movements stress me out. When the day light is gone, the bugs finally piss off again.

The next morning I get up so early, the sun has not even waken up yet. I am tired. But today I have to be awake. Today is the day why I am here. Well, not entirely, but surely in a way. Today is the big action day for me at least. Today I might sleep in a surface mine or be detained. What odds.
We say goodbye to my good friend and I am quite sad she is not coming with us. The group I am left with are really nice people. But maybe on a slightly different wave length than me. We are four people, two of us a couple who clings together as much as superglue. The others strangers that didn't know each other a week ago. I thought we got along well but later I realised that person is a pain, too young and whiny and now I am left with a couple and a complaining baby and I am kind of done. Done with the whole thing. I am torn between "this is everything I live for" and "I wanna leave immediately, I have never been so uncomfortable".

The dude complains about being tired, I cannot hide that I am thinking "honey, we all are, grow up". I try to tell him that he should not join if he is not feeling well but the couple motivates him to stay. I am exhausted and sad that I cannot share this with good friends but rather strangers that I do not understand. I would have the best time right now with different people. But here we are. The dude is indecisive and goes back and forth between leaving and staying. He does this for hours. The whole manifestation, the long wait for the trains, the ride to the location and the line up for the action. All this time, he is complaining about being tired and exhausted - which we surely all understand - but FOMO keeps him where he does not want to be in that moment and where I do not want him at that moment. Before we actually start, he finally decides not to do it and says goodbye. I cannot say I am not relieved. But then I panick. Now, our support system is uneven. He was my buddy. I am buddy-less. What a great illustration of life. The three of us decide that it is fine to go as a group of three. We don't know this whole environment well enough to know that this situation is not very ideal. But I also do not want to miss out just because this whiny ass could not decide since yesterday afternoon whether to join or not. Sorry but he is not stealing my fun and game. So we stay. Stick together. And we march.

Boy, do we march for a while. In the hot summer sun, it is midday and we are all sweating like salt on butter. But of course we keep going, this is just a minor inconvenience if anything. So we go, we stick to the prearranged symbols and we get to where we want, no, where we need to be. The place where it all happens, where environmental destruction and climate crisis merge. The mine. You can feel the tension building up. The police men and a few police women suddenly do not casually walk past in pairs of two anymore. Now they build up, one for each line of eight of us, a wall of police officers guards us off, forming wall between us and the mine. And then everything happens super fast. The officers are many, but not enough. Suddenly the people before us break off, they run through the police guards and into the grass. Destination: Mine! The three of us - all the first time here - try to check in, we hesitate, we communicate, and then we run, too. I do not make out a lot of distinct things in these minutes, i just look around - people, soil on the ground, plants, in this moment they all are just obstacles that I need to overcome. I feel like a rabbit in a computer game. Not crashing into the blue peeps. Not crashing into anyone - even better. And then I stand at the abyss. Boy, is that a steep way down! I stand still for a second and look up. Where are my buddies? I see one. But we can't find the other. Shit! Then there he is, a couple meters down the path. So we give signs to go down. A couple meters down into the precipice we look around again. He's gone.

We look out, look at the other people going down next to us, look at the people further down and further up. Look at where he stood before. But he's nowhere to be found. So we check in - in or out. We do not know whether we'll find him either way. It is her boyfriend so I let her decide. And she says up. So we go up again. Up the steep way we just came down and worked so hard for. The adrenaline is leaving me. I can't help but be disappointed. But maybe also relieved. It is all very confusing at this point. We hike up, the hot sun burning our backs. When we arrive and take the last step and I help others to get up there as well the police guards come over. One asks us "up or down? Go down now or get away from the precipice immediately" "I am helping others getting up, then I will leave."

The next half hour is no fun at all. We look around at the people that did not make it down either, we ask them if they have seen our friend, we borrow a phone to call the legal support team. He is nowhere to be found. The mood is shit. Why did we have to lose one of them?! Why did it have to be a clingy couple that loses each other? She is about to cry and I cannot make this any better for her. Ugh, this is shit. We give up and walk in the direction of where the rest of the march went. On the way, we find some acquaintances from earlier and join them. There we walk, on the sandy path, exhausted, disappointed, confused and tense. I did not expect for the day to get even worse after this morning in front of the train station. Yet, here we are.

But then, further down the street a person looks familiar. Can it be? We walk faster, we talk about whether it is him or not. Could it really be that we find him again? Yes, oh my gosh, it is him! Thank you Jesus, I'd say if I were religious because this is amazing news. I am so relieved to see him. We apologise, we talk about how it was stupid to go as a pair of three, we are mainly just glad that this did not end with us being split up. Then we go on, check from above how the people in the mine are doing, and go to the demonstration nearby. But we don't stay for long, just walk past. You can feel the exhaustion. A sticky busride later, we are back in the camp. When we walk in, people applaud and welcome us back. It's a lot to take, for now a shower awaits us. There's a line so we sit in the sun for who knows how long until each gets their go in the one shower of this insanely huge camp.

The rest of the evening is calm, we eat, we talk, I meet the friend from the beginning again and we promise to keep in touch. I want to leave. I am done with all of this. Don't get me wrong - I loved it. But it's been one heckin rollercoaster and after a week of intense socialising, activism and group acitivities I need space. And where else would I find space other than in the rural south of Germany. I leave the next day, the couple and me share a part of the way home, then we say our goodbyes. I arrive late in the evening at the train station. When I get out, I meet three other people coming from the camp. And exchange three sentences with them before my mum comes up. They probably don't get what a big deal this is for me. There are cool leftist people in my village that engage in civil disobedience to protect the planet? To this day, I still wonder who they were. Back in the bed I have spent so many nights as a teenager, I almost immediately fall asleep. Right before though, I think about being back home. It could not be a bigger contrast. I know that the next days will be hard. Coming from a euphorious utopian community with like-minded people going to a village that could not care less about anything other than gossiping - it's always tough back home but I know this time it will be even harder. But for the moment, I try to stay in the emotional state of the last week. Just for a little while longer... I like to think that change is possible.