A way to make people mobile or living on a boat

There are some women who are not in the limelight of the ESF-2004 but they play very important roles in the Forum. Part of their contribution is putting up activists at their homes for the time of the event.

That is how I met my host. I had nowhere to sleep and I was connected to her. "Two women, willing to share a bed on a boat-house" - that was the announcement. She did not know who was going to come. Strange women from different countries, no background, just their names.

Strawberry Hill - that was the address I knew, which somehow reminded me of the Beatles’ song. Did I get it right about the boat? Is it possible? Yeah, a small community of interesting people, living on boat-houses on the Thames. "It’s quite safe", she says, "you can feel the waves, when you go to bed". And you can feed the swans from her living-room window.

She is a vegetarian, environmentally-aware, she has been active in Women in Black - a feminists’ organisation - for more than eleven years - "it seems as I have been there forever." She arrived in Britain in 1979 and a few years later got into these movements. "The beginning more or less was with the campaign against US military base for missiles in Greenham Common in the UK. More than 50 000 women protested against it and it was the first time non-violence resistance strategies were developed in this way."

Her house looks like a youth hostel sometimes because of her son’s friends. I was lucky to meet this woman. She was part of my chance to attend the ESF. It is not easy for a person from Eastern Europe to come to London. She is inspiration and hospitality. "That is a wonderful way to make people mobile. It is not only a matter of costs but of hospitality and let’s say cultural experience. It is as if I am also travelling. We spoke so much about your country - about social welfare, the system of education, nurseries, child care, women, people’s mentality, etc. It is very interesting. Come again!"