We are proud to present the articles of the five international participants, as organizers of the project we are very happy that all five articles made it to the papers, but it is welldeserved. Without further delay, please read them and enjoy.

Click this link to view the articles in Danish:

http://globalviewsfromvollsmose.urbanblog.dk/the-articles/

English articles will be comming…

Writing, writing, writing ! 

It is Thursday morning and we are all waiting for the feedbacks of our articles.We have started to work on them on Monday and we finished them more or less yesterday afternoon. It was kind of complex to work in such a short notice but also because we have no ideas about what the newspaper is waiting for. I have decided to write about Islamic poems that I have found on a forum. Young people from Vollsmose write a lot on this website and I have interviewed one of the writers on Tuesday morning. She is a young Muslim girl, about my age, and we had a very interesting talk. We talked a lot about Islam, and she tried to explain me her relationship to God, which, to be honest, I did not quite understand. Then she explained me the reason why she had to go to Denmark, to escape from the Gulf war in 1992. We talked a bit about the war in Iraq and she told me about her trip to Baghdad three years ago. It was frightening to listen to her experience there. I was just feeling so lucky and in a sense guilty to have such an amazing life while so many people are living in horrible conditions.  So, that was pretty much it for the last three days, writing writing writing! Peter also helped us a lot, which was necessary because we had no idea about how to write an article.I am just satisfied now because (I hope) we more or less tried to reflect on the past two weeks and to create something concrete about what we have experienced. I think everyone has written about interesting subjects and it is quite amazing to read the articles from the others. I would have to conclude by saying that this camp taught me a lot. I cannot say exactly what I have learnt there yet but I really enjoyed every moment. I really look forward to continue the experience of camps in the future. And I really think that everyone should try to do something similar at least once in their life because it is a great opportunity to meet different people but also to become more open minded.

Batulo is originally from Somalia but came to Denmark when she was 11 years old, and has lived in Vollsmose since. Batulo is one of the local hosts at the project. In 2004 Batulo spent her holiday in the USA, where she particularly socialized with Somalian immigrants. From the first day, Batulo and the American participant Leona exchanged thoughts and impressions of the USA and Denmark.

Batulo writes: 

Comparing Denmark and the USA

The first day at the project ‘Global Views of Vollsmose’ I had a talk with Leona, which reminded me of my trip to the USA and brought me to reflect on the pros and cons of life in Denmark and America.

Ways around integration

One Friday in 2004 I went for a holiday in the USA. Before that I didn’t know much about life there. I was very excited to see what life there would offer and if I could get through without feeling homesick. During my stay I did not get to know a lot about how ‘blacks’, ‘whites’, ‘Arabs or Muslims’, ‘Latinos’ conditions of life is in the states, but I’ve got a pretty good picture of how life is for Somalian immigrants.  I’ve noticed that the Somali community in the USA is more American minded than Somalian immigrants in Denmark. This is because the American society is built by immigrants. ”It is not what America can do for you, but what you can do for America” is a quote of a former American president, which suits that society quite well. In the States integration is a matter of ‘mutual adaptation’ which is absolutely not the case in Denmark. Integration in Denmark is a matter of assimilation. The problem with assimilation is that it promotes the gabs and the walls between ethnic Danes and people with another origin than Danish, because the respect for one of the parties’ ways and values is lacking. The culture that they carry with them in different scales is not truthfully acknowledged and therefore they will not feel Danish, as they are constantly told how ‘their type’ does not fit into the Danish ways. They will feel ’useless’ and ’lost’ in the Danish society and following there’s a risk that some will accumulate hostility towards the Danish society expressed in for instance criminality. The Danes’ aversion towards people of another ethnical origin is understandable, since immigration for example from Muslim countries is a new thing in Denmark. The first people of another ethnical origin was the ‘guest workers’ in the 60s and because the Danes were convinced that they would go back to their ‘homelands’ they didn’t gain any knowledge about the guest workers and the guest workers did not gain any knowledge about the Danes. The guest workers didn’t return to their home countries on the contrary they brought their families to Denmark. It was the following decades attention was paid to how to live together. And now, immigration and integration problems were on the agenda! I know it will take time for the Danes to get use to people of another background than the Danish. Likewise it will be difficult for people of another background than the Danish to enter the Danish society. Therefore, it is very important to secure that the process of good integration goes in a ‘right’ direction, because one can tolerate that ‘it’ takes a long time, but one cannot tolerate that ‘it’ goes in the wrong direction, as it is the case today. 

To look different is okay?!

I have always wished to be seen as a normal person, thereby I mean just a woman who lives in Denmark. Fortunately, I have never met anyone that personally harassed me because I look different, because I wear the scarf etc. However, I can’t help being poisoned by the air that I breathe which is filled with prejudices and load of dreadful tails. In Denmark, it is very hard for a ‘scarfed girl’ to get a job that truthfully matches her qualifications. She will be rejected on the basis the people will not fully accept different looking people, wearing scarf for example. In Denmark I would be surprised to see a ‘scarfed girl’ for instance working in the airport, shops etc., while in the USA I witnessed ‘girls with scarfs’ working in a big supermarket – ‘Walt Mart’. Danes tell themselves: ”the best integration takes place on the labour marked”, but I am thinking, how that integration is supposed to happen when one do not make the possibilities to integrate, when one do not give them jobs. One would think that Somalians in the USA immigrated way earlier to the USA than Somalians in Denmark arrived in Denmark, but it is not so. The first actual wave of Somalian immigrants in the Western countries was in the 90s, when the civil war in Somalia broke loose. Following the status that all Somalian in the West had was refugee. The difference is that Somalians in the USA have passed the category as being refugees a long time ago, while we in Denmark still are stocked with it and everything that includes. I wish our politicians looked more to countries as the USA, which stands up to resolve the immigration problems instead of looking (up) to countries that haven’t solved their immigration problems such as France, Holland etc. 

Last but not least.

There is not a Western country with which I would switch Denmark, because Denmark is so delighting when it comes to family values. In the USA for example people are to busy working and other tasks, while we practice//cultivate ‘family life’ much more in Denmark. I must admit, I got homesick about two weeks into my trip to the USA which was due to the hasty life of the Americans They are much more materialistic than us, and one will soon enough be fed up with fast food.  

Monday we met with the minister of the local church in Vollsmose. Vollsmose church is renowned all over the world for their succes in getting muslims and christians to cooperate. Many of the methods and ideologies of Vollsmose Church are now beeing applied in other countries, and in Vollsmose the results of the church’s work has been very noticable.

Torben Hangaard shared with us his views on integration and told us about his methods for inter-religious integration, in the end we had the opportunity to freely ask questions. We thank Torben very much for his inspirational pitch.

Our American participant, Leona, felt in the mood for some reflection - of the international and deep kind. Thus, enjoy her essay on integration, diversity and spicy soups!

Leona at our international evening.

The volunteers stagger to the breakfast table around 11am on Sunday morning, after a full day and night exploring Odense.  Rubbing the sleep from our eyes, we are delighted to find an international feast awaiting us – French toast prepared with love by Hester, crepes, sausages, omelets, fried vegetables with spices, hot dogs, hummus & pita bread, havli, and many more non-traditional breakfast foods.  Overflowing from the table was far greater amount of food than we imagined we could ever possibly eat!  Undaunted, the volunteers and leaders raised our forks, delighted to taste some of these new flavors on our tongues.    This international breakfast feast started me thinking of the old adage: variety is the spice of life.  Variety is exactly what I love about being in Vollsmose.  If variety is the spice of life, then Vollsmose is an amazing blend of the most diverse, exotic and delicious spices I have encountered, mixed into a delicious soup.  The residents of Vollsmose can be compared to a wide variety of colors, textures, sizes and tastes from all over the world.  Perhaps half a century ago these spices would not have been found in Danish food.   Could such a diverse mix of Danish and Eastern spices actually result in a tasty food dish?  Absolutely, I say. 

A typical multinational dinner at our camp.

The soup is not perfect of course.  Yes, I’m sure there are a few moldy vegetables in the broth, and perhaps the concrete pot it is served in is not a fancy new pot.  And it does seem that some of the spices are clumping together and perhaps the soup has not been stirred enough. But this does not mean that the entire dish, or any of the particular ingredients, deserve such a bad reputation.  In fact, what it means is that every single bite of the soup is a new and unique flavor.   Eventually, over time, like any good soup, the flavors will blend and mix more.  Some soup will be taken and new ingredients will be added. Vollsmose is a dynamic soup.  If there was a way I could scale the walls of the tallest building in Denmark and shout to everyone to try the soup — to give it a chance and taste a few spoonfuls — I would do it.  But I can’t (building prohibitions and such).  So I joined the “Global Views from Vollsmose” workcamp instead.  In coming to Vollsmose, I hope to embrace the soup and enjoy each unique bite of it.  Perhaps I can encourage others to do the same.   The United States had her largest immigration over 100 years ago when western Europeans immigrated in large numbers to the new land, in search of a better life.  At the time, we were proud to be nicknamed a great “Melting Pot” of cultures.  America was built by immigrants and for immigrants.  I hope that Vollsmose and similar areas can become a great “melting pot” today.  From what I can tell, the only difference in today’s immigration is that the new ingredients added every day are mainly from the East and Middle East.  Far more exotic, but just as delicious — if only people give it a chance.  My suggestion: Just try it! Don’t be afraid of what you might have heard about the Vollsmose Soup.  

In the week since we arrived, the volunteers have been enjoying meeting many children and adult residents of Vollsmose.  The exotic and diverse “Vollsmose Soup” is a big hit with the international volunteers.  Is it better to stick with the same taste every day, just because it’s what is familiar?  Well, if our international brunch table was any indication, I would say no – exotic flavors are a big hit!  Somehow, some way, we managed to enjoy and finish every last bite of the international foods. Diversity is the spice of life, indeed. Bon appetit!

Saturday we had a trip into Odense as a group, we walked around and saw the city, and ended up going to a concert, Hannah from Germany and Marie from France shares their experiences from the tour: 

Hannah and I wanted to share what we experienced during our trip to Odense.

Marie and Hannah

At first the local leader Henrik gave us a tour of the downtown. I was quite surprised to see how clean the streets are, no garbage and no graffiti at all. And also no beggars.
Odense seems to be a very cosy place.

Odense IS a cozy place.

Oh my god! Are they writing about US?! Indeed they are!

Once we left the restaurant we ate in at around 4 o clock, we were really surprised to see all shops closed! We then hanged out in a very nice park eating ice cream before going to Martin’s place, a former inhabitant of Vollsmose.  

On this picture, Henrik, Peter and Mohammed are playing the famous game from Kasakhstan ”give birth to a bear”.

Here we are at Martin’s appartment, small, but cozy.

In the evening we went to a ska concert in a club and it was pretty cool. Everyone was dancing and we really had fun. It was a good opportunity to get to know more about each other and it contributed a lot to our group feelings. 

Happy people at the club. 

Just look by yourself on the pictures

Saturday at 18.30 our project was covered in the national media on DR1. Even though the reporters only gave us 30 minutes to prepare, we believe the end result was worth the very hectic morning. We are very happy about the interest from the media, and we are now top-motivated for writing some great articles about Vollsmose.

Here is a link to the newscast;

http://www.dr.dk/odp/player.aspx?uniqueid=266607&mt=newstab&st=news_TVAvisen&furl=http%3A//www.dr.dk/odp/default.aspx%3Ftemplate%3Dnyhed%26guid%3DDR1200707151830%26autoplay%3D0%26back%3Ddefault.aspx%253ftemplate%253dnyheder%2526day%253d0

Copy-paste the link into your webbrowser.

Before I went to Vollsmose, I thought it would be beautiful: the houses, the nature and the people. Now that I am here, I can see it is even more beautiful. The lake is what I like the most, and also the camp itself. It is a pity that I don’t understand everything in English.

What suprised me was the amount of Arab people in the neighbourhood. I knew that there are Arab people living in Denmark, but not as much people as I met. It is really great, I feel like I am at home in Jordan. Everything is quite the same: the habits, the food etc. In my own language, we can exchange information and talk about our opinions concerning all kinds of things. It makes me happy to meet them, because they tell me a lot about the area. For instance, I found out that all the people (not only the Arab people) care a lot about the children that are living here and about the nature. I hope that my city in Jordan will become like Vollsmose by the care of the people there.

Mohammed got a face paint at the youthclub Ragnarok.

Saturday brought a nice surprise to our workcamp group: Thursday a journalist from Fyens Stifttidende, a very popular local newspaper, came by to interview some the international participants about their impressions of the area Vollsmose, and why they chose to sign up for the workcamp. Luckily the newspaper found our participants and the idea of the camp so interesting that they brought the article on the front page today!

We hope for more media attention in the comming days, and also the participants articles will be written soon, so keep your eyes and ears open.

Here’s a link to the article, in case you haven’t seen the newspaper:

http://www.fyens.dk/article/826834

Today we had two major happenings.  First, we met the principal of the Humlehaveskolen, Olav Nielsin. And his parrot. Everyone was quite impressed. He immediately put us in a personal atmosphere by turning on a loud, funny Danish song. He told us about his life, and although he did not focus that much on Vollsmose, he exposed us to his “philosophy of life”: in contrary to many politicians, he seems to manage to see the essential things in life and he succeeds in applying them to daily life and particularly to his job. This probably explains why he can reduce the rate of criminality in Vollsmose. It is difficult to sum op everything he said, so we will just say that he left us with the impression that he really fits his role of principal. 

 We were all very impressed by Olav and his parrot. There was a very special atmosphere at his office, and we all had the feeling of stepping into an oasis.

In the afternoon, we visited Ragnarok again. And this time, we decided to interview some locals here. We talked to children, parents and people who work at Ragnarok. The general impression that they gave us was satisfaction of Vollsmose. They all wholeheartedly said that they liked living in the area and that they get on well with people from different cultures. They recognize some of the issues of Vollsmose that underline the fact that it does not bother them in their daily life. We had a nice time at Ragnarok and look forward to ask more questions. This was Marie and Evelien, sitting next to the lake of
Vollsmose and Henrik (the most awesomest organizer in the world, we really hope he will start noticing us more)

Yesterday we went to Ragnarok, the youthclub in Vollsmose, to play with the children. They seemed to have a great time with all the toys that were out there (jumping pillows, hula hoops, volleyball tournaments, board games, boxing/jumping matches…) . We joined them and it was really fun (and quite exhausting too!). After playing with the children for a while, I asked one of the organizers whether it was possible for volunteers to organize something too. She was very enthusiastic when I told her about my idea. 

Back home I play a sport called theatersport. It’s a kind of improvised theatre with lots of audience participation. It’s a lot of fun to play and watch, and I thought the kids might like to see/do something like that. Britt (one of the organizers at Ragnarok) really liked my idea, and she encouraged me to talk to some of the children, to see if they’d want to try it. I went over to a group of girls and asked them what they thought of my idea. It was difficult to talk to them since they didn’t speak English very well. Fortunately, with some improvisation, I managed to get the message across, and they seemed very excited about trying theatersports! 

After hearing all this positive feedback I started consulting my volunteering-buddies. Do they think it’s a nice game for the kids? Would they like to help me organize my theatersport activity - and maybe even play too?They seemed very excited, and as it turned out, some of them already had some theatersport experience, and the others were quite interested to learn about it.  

That evening we talked about it a bit more and played a couple of games ourselves. It was hilarious! We practised two different games and discussed which games to use with the children. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to finish the conversation, but the most important thing was decided: we are going to do theatersport with the children! 

Hester 

In the evenings when all activities have ended, things start to happen, here’s a few select pictures from the evenings at the club!

This is the pillowroom, we spend a lot of time in here. The flashlight is ruining the atmosphere because usually it’s only lit by a very comfortable blue, moody light.

trying new things, here we are smoking authentic Arabian waterpipe with apple tobaco - nice.

Tine (left) and Evelien from Holland armwrestling, as you can see, things did not work out in Tines favor, luckily, Evelien was put in her place by Torben shortly after - we can’t have the participants getting too cocky.

Some of Henriks friends from the neighborhood dropped by for a game of pool, from left to right is; Achmed, Mohammed and Mustaffa - Mohammed is our participant from Jordan. The picture on the right shows Martin, he heard about us from the medias and came by. Martin has lived in Vollsmose for 17 years and attended a school in the area.

Getting late. From right to left is; Marie from France, Danish Simone and Leona from America.

Mads, one of the organizers got sick from playing in the rain, luckily Hester (from Holland) was there to cheer him up!

Today we had a visit from the local politician Asmaa, who is a well-known and debated character in the Danish medias. She came by thursday morning from 9.00-11.30 for an open discussion about religion, politics, equality between sexes, usage of religious symbols, intercultural marriages and of course Vollsmose. The participants soon started asking many questions, both out of skepticism and curiosity, which lead to an interesting discussion. Our French participant Marie for instance had some interesting views on the headscarf, which has been banned from schools and public places in France. As we had hoped, the meeting between different cultures created room for questions and discussions and we hope everybody gained from it. We thank Asmaa for comming by to share her views with us, we all learned a lot.

Enormous amounts of water are pounding down on our small group. A mere 5 minutes ago the blue sky was promising a perfect day. To my left is a Mohamed, a guy from
Jordan I just met yesterday. Were both crouching underneath my leather jacket for the very limited shelter it can provide from this thunderstorm, and both smiling.

The rain continues through out the day as we carry out our task of taking care of local kids at a recreational center on wheels. Mohamed doesn’t speak much English, but a lot of the children are fluent in Arab so he is quite popular. The playground is really an awesome sight, with trampolines, volleyball field, soccer field and two huge inflatable jumping pillows. At least 60 playful young voices are filling the air with multiple languages and shrieks of joy. The girls of our camp are being severely beaten by my team at volley ball, even tough nobody seems to keep score. Through out the afternoon the rain is playing hide and seek with us, or more like hide or get drenched. Still we manage to make the best of the situation – wet grass fields are great for sliding soccer tackles. All in all a great active day in the youth club on wheels.   

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