People are capable of so much more than they think of themselves. With a thirst of exceeding our expectations once again, we decided to get involved in an activity called “Human rights on bicycles”. The concept was as simple as it was crazy: we were supposed to spend 3 days traveling around a certain route (including 3 small villages of Moldova: Mereseni, Caracui and Sarata Galbena) on our bicycles, promoting human rights and organizing seminars for children mostly between 12-18 years of age. The hardest part, however, was getting there, considering the fact that the starting point of our trip (camping zone) was only about 60 km away from Chisinau! I won’t try and describe what we, 6 “normal” people felt on our way there, but I can definitely say that never in our lives have we felt [literally!] the differences of Moldova’s landscape better than we did now.

Finally, when we reached our destination, exhausted but with a feeling of major satisfaction, tents and sleeping bags felt like the perfect way to end the first day of our challenging excursion. The next day, after having some problems with standing up and walking properly, our bikes were once again eager to take us to our first seminar in a village called Mereseni (about 6 km away from our camping base in Sarata Galbena). Then followed the excitement to achieve what we came for. Even a modest number of children (10 out of the expected 25) present at our seminar didn’t impede us from giving all our efforts and information available to teach them at least a small but vital part about human rights. Besides, we even had a university professor of law among us. Our activities (that included theory, games, debating) kept them involved and curious to find out as much as possible about their rights and how to use them correctly. They didn’t hesitate to ask questions, draw conclusions and just have fun learning about something so important and extremely necessary nowadays. The kids filled us with the energy we lacked and gave us hope for a better future.

The next 2 days went by just as exciting and even more tiresome. It felt like the hills were playing killer jokes on us, and the bicycles just got heavier and heavier, but that certainly wasn’t a reason to give up or quit. The 9 of us were still having the time of our lives (even at 40ºC and hot, burning sun). We probably would have returned home just as enthusiastic as we were on our way there, if it weren’t for certain technical difficulties (some flat tyres, non-functioning brakes…nothing serious J), which made us go back home by bus.

As for the whole trip: there are no regrets whatsoever. And maybe if the road hadn’t been so difficult, we probably wouldn’t fully estimate this endeavor, and we certainly wouldn’t feel personal growth and satisfaction as much as we do now. As a matter of fact, we are even thinking of repeating this activity next year!

So, with the very best of impressions, and an accomplishment to brag about, we all had something to learn from this experience. And I dare mention that after this trip, we all felt like nothing is impossible, and that maybe, in a considerably small proportion, but we somehow were able to change the world (either the inner, or the outer one, doesn’t matter).

Olga Beleavschi