Sharing the daily life of #occupygezi in Berlin

While being in the tent, I friend told me, that there was a call to do an inflatable that was going to be taken to #Taksim. I thought, wooowwww… that sounds great!!! I’ve heard about the inflatable for some time, I’ve always found that they were a great idea and above all great fun!! To have fun while protesting is one of the things I love.
Finally I could not manage to go and actually do the inflatable but my friend was so cute, that she made a whole bunch of photos with the “making-off” and now I want to share them so that the next time that hear about them, you know what they are,join the workshop or directly do one!!!

While in Turkey mobilizations continued,  the streets where full of humor and tear gas was part of the air. When assemblies where taking place in every neighborhood and the discussions about how to organize and coordinate, what working groups should be done, how to support people that where arrested were going on.
On the other side of the Atlantic ocean another #revolution was about to start, Brazil the Latin American giant, was about to wake up, the #BRevolution was on its way.

Life is as it is, and connections some time are already made, so by chance a friend lives in Brazil, he took part of the #BRevolution since the beginning  and we manage to set up a hang out, to connect people from Brazil with the tent, it was a moment to exchange, the moment to get the first contact, the have a first feedback.

After this on-line meeting, which happened in a really grey and rainy summer day, we had the pleasure to have some Brazilian friends with us in the tent on a sunny day, at last!!
The talk created quite a lot of expectation, M. explained to us in detail and with passion, what was happening in Brazil, we could not turn our heads, we had to hear, nobody wanted to miss a word, what she was telling described also Turkey, described Spain, OWS … yes, again was happening, there had been an echo, #revolution moved from #Turkey to #Brazil

This blog  maybe at some point will be  a collective blog. But it has started as a personal initiative, due to the need to explain the daily life in Kotti, where a tent in solidarity with Taksim and occupygezi has been set up.

The first posts will be written by  someone (me) that by chance one day was in Kotti, on her way to some other place, decided to stop and stayed. More than 2 weeks have passed, things continue going on in the tent, and some notes taken of the daily day will be now shared, it is just one point of view, is just a personal approach, totally subjective since I’m a newcomer in the city, with the need to tell what is happening in a small square of a big city.

Soli tent with #occupygezi – Turkey in Berlin

One day I came out of the metro station in Kottbuser Tor, saw the tent, @gezizeltbln, and many images came to my mind.I had been following what was happening in Turkey, with #occupygezi, how what was the defense of a park became something else, a fight for freedom and justice, not just for them but for all.

Somehow I need to explain why I decided to stay. I lived that situation,  two years ago, when the main square of my city, Madrid, filled with tents,  people fed up of polititians and of he economical situation took to the streets. For months, we shared and exchanged, with the feeling that being together enabled us to change everything, absolutely everything, we could dream again. We knew that everyone could teach something, could share something, theat everyone summed. This movement, called 15M (15th of May), is still supported by the 80% of the population. Our lifes changed for always, we had awakened, we were aware that together we could achieve anything, we got empowered, we understood that the future depends on us. And is not a naif thought, we knew/know that the way is a long one, that things won’t change from one day to the other, that us was just the beginning. Since then we’ve seen it happened in many other countries.

Now, in Turkey is happening the same, people have waken up, they’ve already changed, and it’s only the beginging.  So when seeing the tent in Berlin, I had the impression that somehow that breeze of change had reached Berlin, in the form of a solidarity tent, in the street, in a square, open to everyone. So I stayed, with the believe that small things can provoke big changes, hoping that some of this breeze from Turkey impregnates Germany.

gezizelt in a daily activity

So during these weeks, everyday there are things going on, can be live music, dancing, presentations, updates of the situation in Turkey or a follow up of what goes on in Brazil. A life is being built up around the tent, so, in between there is tee, food, conversations go on, films are watched, new relations take place, ideas flow… what can happen next? No idea, we will have to see it and till then we will enjoy 🙂

A live concert in the tent, while in the background everything was prepared to watch the livestream from the streets in Turkey