We woke early for breakfast at 8pm, and then joined a tour of the campus. After the tour some people helped in the garden whilst others swam in the pool, or relaxed, before we met the community for an information exchange.
After lunch, we cycled into town, just 2 km, to the local refugee project, Der Winkel, info cafe, a project also connected to the ZEGG.
There we cooked with some people from the project, a traditional African feast, and listened to some of the stories from two brothers now living in Bal Belzig, who are fighting for asylum in Germany after leaving Camaroon not long ago. The brothers warmly greeted us and our journey ahead, comparing it to the journey they made across the borders of africa and europe.
The project Der Winkle set up over 20 years ago, as a direct response to the right wing dominace in the area and to provide a free space for migrants and refugees. It was also one of the first internet cafes in the area. There we also met one if the founders of the first Ecotopia Gatherings, who was happy to see the Biketour, 23 years on, still very much alive, with new and different priorities, but with the same pure determination to do something different, and not follow the status quo. After a delicious feast of traditional food, some people played a game of football at the nearby refugee project, whilst others cleared up and head back to ZEGG to prepare for the circle that evening. Back at the campus, and practical information delt with, we had an ´emotional go round´, and each person in turn said a few words about how they were finding the tour so far. Many people said that they were a bit overwhelmed with the size of the group, but that the group was feeling smaller each day as the community was becoming stronger!
