Dirty Feet and the International Sweat Perfume

There’s great food, purposeful coffee and a lot of people doing a lot of work. But what does this place feel like? What do our senses pick up from our surroundings? How do the participants drink up what’s going on in such an intense environment? I’m here to guide you through the textures of the conference you can’t find in the minutes.

So lets start with some of our senses. Remember there are over 100 people at this years IJBC so surely that means sweaty feet?  Well actually I got told it was more like “people in action” (Dhvani-India) or “Grass when it rains.” (Pya-Indonesia). I wondered if we smelt different to outsiders, so I asked Ico from the International Mosaic Committee and he could only describe it as “International Multi-sweat” which I think would be a fair comment and a good reflection of how hard we’ve been working. The most interesting smell was described by the Mosaic Committee’s alternate chair Enrico who told me ” It’s a good smell, it’s like perfume. If you think about perfume it’s a sophisticated process to make it, many people have to work to make IJBC work so it’s just as sophisticated.”

Next, let me turn the volume up on our meeting. Dario (Italy) said, “It sounds like a river, sometimes running sometimes it meanders and other times it goes from a waterfall to a murmur.” Maru (IJR Candidate) didn’t think quite the same and described it as a rainy rock concert with a wide range tempo and a range as varied as jazz music.” Well, take from the combination what you like but the reference to water might have something to the heat of Florence and the need for water.

Next I wanted to explain how we’re living in 3 different hotels near to the site where we work. Some are closer than others but our hotels are where we have breakfast. I asked our delightful IJR Kelly (Canada) to enlighten us on what the deal is. “Well, there’s lots to chose from. There’s an intense coffee vibe and I had no sugar yogurt this morning. The peach yogurt is really gross, but then I found the other flavours and they’re delicious. I’m not quite sure why but they refrigerate the fruit.” There is some debate about the juice machine and the colouring of the product. Sakari (Finland) is rumoured to have said: “I have come to believe that this is orange juice”, which is actually in fact red in colour.

I asked the French NJRs– Mathilde and Guillaume to summarise in three words IJBC. Mathilde said, ” Unfair, inspiring and productive.” and Guillaume went with “New, intense and split”. I think I could have asked this question to every member of the IJBC and would probably of heard three different words from all of them. The point is that there is no right and wrong. The feelings and the perception of our meeting, the insight into what we are eating and hearing and seeing, I could never try to summarise because it quite simply isn’t possible. Everyone here has a different interpretation of what their surroundings mean to them.

If you asked me what visual image I’m going to take from this year, it’s rows and group and gatherings of hard working people but with feet dirtier than you’d care to imagine.

Lizzie – GB