I’m sitting in a crowded train, checking the time… Two hours to go…
My eyes are heavy, and it’s hard to concentrate on schoolwork, but the dream of a hot tub and a comfortable hotel bed, where I can rest my bones, is soon forgotten, when I get a message from Susanna, saying that we are asked to join a concert. My dream has vanished as quickly as it appeared.
Late-night Narva welcomes us with its whole glory and just before ten, when we arrive at RoRo and the wild party has already begun, the tiredness is gone! Ye, the hottest band in Narva, makes us forget our longing for sleep. Still… the duties of tomorrow and a rare opportunity of taking a hot bath, make us order a Bolt at twelve and as soon as my head touches the pillow, I fall asleep like a log.
Next morning I have my three obligatory coffees, to boost me up and the adventure begins – first we drop off Maria at the Objekt startup hub and then Susanna and I go to grab some snacks for the day. Everything is going according to the plan and soon the first participants arrive. There will be 14 of us!
The day begins with a task of creating a “human machine” and after that a task of mapping the population of Narva. Local youth, who are helping to organize these games, are much more energetic then we thought, everyone is actively participating and soon the whole floor is covered with colorful pieces of paper, representing different types of people. For example- What is the essence of being a “Babuška”? It turns out that they like to take a bus everywhere. Or how would you describe the youngsters of Narva? Very active, attentive, with a spark in their eyes- that’s how I would describe them after this busy morning.
An interesting game is about to follow- we place all the people on a social welfare scale. There’s a lot to learn from these conversations – who’s living a good life in Narva and who needs support. These topics are not easy to discuss, so to cheer us up we end our day with dreaming BIG.
How should Narva look like in the year of 2030? We drew our dreams on paper, instead of just discussing them (creative people as we are) and together we created a world, that you wouldn’t want to miss- renewable energy, solar panels and electric cars. You could easily take a bike ride through Narva because there would be biking roads everywhere. You could grow different types of veggies on every rooftop of Russian-era otherwise ugly panel house. There would be an amusement and water park in Narva. Joyful and colorful street art would cover the walls of buildings. Everyone would feel involved and happy, all the permanent folks of Narva and also the young families, who have just moved in.
Our day ends with all these good emotions. Sadly it’s time to go and The PACE team begins their journey back to Tallinn. But already this day was enough to make me miss Narva, eagerly waiting to be reunited with this beautiful city!
25.10.2020
