Heated debates

In this blog, I would like to tell you something about our students’ meetings. I am going to answer what we are doing in these meetings and what kind of role they are playing in our daily life on the ship.
Regularly, for example every Saturday after our splice the mainbrace-ceremony, all students gather. If it is cold, raining or stormy, we are meeting in the dry and warm messroom. Yet whenever it is possible, we are sitting on the main deck – and if we are on land, we meet just where we are. This could be in a hotel in Cuba or in a community-house of the Naso indigenous people in the middle of the jungle of Panama.

It is really nice to live with 49 other lovely people on one ship for such a long time, but this life can sometimes also be a little bit complicated. There is not a lot of time for privacy, so it is necessary to have a good concept to handle any challenges and complications that occur. That is what our student’s meetings are for. They are an opportunity for us to give feedback and talk about new ideas, broken rules, wishes, and problems. Often, these discussions end in a heated debates about the best solution or way to put something into practise. The other main reason why we hold a meeting is to organize a range of things. Organisation on board is very complex because we are a group of students, teachers, and wise sailors on an old traditional sailing ship, doing all the work by ourselves.

As you can see, there are always a lot of interesting things to talk about. If all students discuss these different topics at the same time, it would end in utter chaos. This is one reason why we elect two student moderators in the beginning of every new leg. They organise and present the meetings, and they are in contact with our project coordinator. This contact is really important for us and the crew. For example, the student moderators tell them about our solutions for problems, and they also turn to them with our requests or other concerns we have.

At the beginning of our trip, the student’s meetings often took a long time because many people wanted to share their personal opinion or experiences. Therefore, a lot of people got annoyed by them. To keep the meetings short, we introduced our own new system. Now, not everybody has to say something, we avoid repetitions, and it is easier to avoid getting lost in unimportant details.

To show you share the other person’s opinion, you have to raise one hand and shake it. If you put up both hands, you are not just showing approval, you show BIG approval. It is the international sign language for deaf applause. Sometimes, somebody says something you disagree with. In this case, you form two fists and cross your forearms in front of your face to an X. There is another easy rule to keep the meetings short. You want to say something that has to do with the current topic or you want to counter another person’s statement? – Just put up one finger. You want to discuss another topic? – Put up two fingers like a peace sign.

In one of the first meetings, we decided to install a small blue box. If there is something you want to say anonymously, you can write a note on piece of paper and put it into the box. Sometime before the meeting starts, the student’s moderators open the box and read the notes. Till now, nobody has used the box. Another more successful idea was the “good fairy”. Everyone on board has one person and does nice things for them. This could mean that they hand them some little sweets, presents or lovely words – for example in form of a short text or poem. It is like a sign somebody looks after you and can also happen anonymously.
One Sunday morning during Carnival, we did our own Carnival. All students put on a costume, and we started waking up the adults, who were extremely surprised, with some nice music. We all had a super funny morning, but this would not be possible if we had not planned this action in one of our student’s meetings the day before!

There are many different tasks on board, and everybody has to contribute to them. At the beginning of a new leg, we organise who is in charge of these tasks. Every student takes some responsibility, even during the ship handovers. Before the ship handovers, we make sure that there are enough applicants for every job. We do not just organise sailing and daily life, we also coordinate some parts of school. For example, additionally to the long presentations, there are smaller presentations about different topics (e.g. frogs in the rainforest). We distribute these topics, because everybody has to give at least one small presentation during the whole journey.

I think the student meetings are really useful. Next to the organisational part, you can talk about serious topics and funny ideas. They are a space and place to solve conflicts and problems. Even though the meetings are sometimes long and a little bit annoying, I think it is worth to spend some free time for them.