The Peace School in Ekinci, Turkey, through the eyes of Mehmet Ates

World Peace villages; Servas Peace school 2024 Experience

Ekinci-Aydiy, Antakya, Turkey 2024

Our village has become a village of the world!

So, how does a village become a village of the world? When the people of the world come to a village every year and live with local families. This is what has happened in our Ekinci village in Antakya, Turkey.

Since 2009, when we founded the Servas Peace School, volunteers from different countries shared their knowledge with the children and adults in our village, and this bond with the world was formed spontaneously. The relationship became stronger as the guests got to know the culture, diversity and mixed with local people. The connection, which spanned all years and knew no boundaries, colored people's spiritual world and the borders gradually began to disappear. The Peace School main program, like every year (July 04-14th, 2024), enabled this togetherness to flourish even further.  (Note: Servas Peace School has become a permanent (throughout the year) school after the earthquake).

Ana Maria, who came from Colombia, developed strong relationships by dancing Latin dances.  She also cooked Colombian dishes with children and local people. The colorful bracelets she knitted for everyone, and most importantly, her smiling face made her a popular person in a short time. Amazing! What can a smile achieve? By spending time together in homes, on the streets and in nature, she showed everyone that we are not different from each other. Actually, we are different from each other, but the differences create an opportunity for us to transfer our own colors to each other's lives. Ana Maria says; "This is my third time in this lovely village. The peace school and the people are now parts of my life. We will live together throughout my life."

Gabriel, who came from Spain, shared his travel diaries and life experiences, which he has been keeping for years, with everyone. He wrote the names of everyone he met in his interesting diary. Here are the drawings, travel tickets, postcards and many more in that magical notebook...

Gabi wandered around the world map spread on the ground with the children; from country to country, from river to river, from person to person. Children are more curious about the world now. He made us all feel that traveling from one place to another is actually a kind of self-construction. 

The eyes of thechildren and young people were always on him.

It was as if a saint who had traveled the world was talking to them. At that moment, I realized again how attractive the differences were and believed again that if we don't move we will fall down and get exhausted. Gabriel: "Doing everything outdoors, in contact with nature, in a spontaneous flow, without screens and without experiencing school stress, is the strongest aspect of the Peace School. On the other hand, it is hard to believe that thousands of people died in the earthquake in this region. People are very lively. They host us in containers and sometimes in their tents. They share the little they have. It is hard to believe. My hopes for humanity are getting stronger.’’

Aysever, who made a speech at the Peace school party said: ‘’Our container house, where we live, is too small. The volunteer Emma from Italy, was able to stay with us when my son Ege gave her his bed. My daughter Aden and Emma became like siblings. I would like to host more people in the future because we need it to decrease our pain and have some fun after the earthquake. Our lives became joyful. We forgot about the earthquake and our losses for a while. Martha is a young woman seeking her self-realization. She has her own style and is a curious person who loves sharing and dancing. How valuable it is for such people to come together with children.

Kemal brought colors and experience from Turkey's different lands and lives to children. He showed us that games actually mean getting together, making friendships and being at peace with oneself. How enthusiastic he was while playing! His voice was always lively as if he was talking about a serious issue. Zale is an experienced volunteer woman with a vast cultural background. All the experiences she has accumulated over the years are brewed in Zale's eyes; calm and meaningful. I'm sure the kids were learning a lot from her eyes. Arzella's ancestors are from Egypt. She always wore her smile and kindness. A passionate woman who loves to share and is eager to teach goodness. While she was making Ashura (Noah’s own pudding) she was talking like one of the grains she was throwing into the pan. While making sourdough bread and tarhana, she was trying to transfer all the knowledge of our ancestors to the children. She looked like a shaman woman.

Fatma, Selin, Nazire are younger and more enthusiastic volunteers. They joined us this year. They embraced the children and activities as if they had been waiting for this opportunity for many years. Accommodation of people from different cities and countries in the village with local families allows for uninterrupted and mutual cultural transfer. No matter how different the cultures are, no prejudice or negative emotion can survive when we live together!

We are humans, after all, and even animals. Love attracts us, and so does compassion... We are attracted to things that we want to be safe with. Unfamiliar and unusual things are usually  appealing. In fact, all the power of the peace school lies here. Peace school wants the rivers of the world to flow into each other. There is no need to do much for this; neither to build schools, huge buildings, print books, prepare curriculums, nor to create curriculum... Bring the people of the world together. Let them spend time in the same house, on the same street. World knowledge, skills, cultures and colors will mix together, people will grow up, become cheerful and of course, a climate of peace will be created somehow. Schools form tight boundaries and high walls. Rather than the common points of unity, solidarity and bringing joy to each other's lives in the experiences of the human species, the existing educational system impresses on the fresh minds of children how different we are from each other and that we are even communities competing with each other. School systems usually do this with different school subjects; biology, but mostly with history, literature, geography and also with official ceremonies.

Peace School tries to show that people from all over the world can live in the same garden, sometimes conflicting but finding peaceful solutions to their conflicts. In peace school, we are outdoor. It creates feelings of well-being. Children understand that the options are endless here. While walking by the stream, swimming, watching the fish and frogs... How many things do children encounter in olive, fig, pomegranate fields or on the street... What do we all experience in our minds at that time? What thoughts are formed without words? We calm down and become poetic. A sudden urge to run engulfs the body. That's why Peace School comes to life outdoors. It is a free, earth and happy school.

At the peace school, we have a multilingual choir every year. This year, children sang songs in 7 languages. Some of them were Arabic, Korean and Georgian. Can children growing up with so much difference and diversity be discriminatory?

Yusuf, 12 years old; "This place is not like a school at all. No one gets angry with us. There is no homework. It's like we are always on a break. We play games, learn languages, different countries and the people from Servas who come. They are very nice. Lorenzo, for example. (The kids nicknamed him Watermelon). They all love talking and playing with us. I want the Peace School to never end. Volunteer Nazire explains; "About my niece Irmak, she wasn't very keen on coming at first. It was a strange place for her. You know we come from a different neighborhood. However, after her first visit, she kept saying "auntie, let's go today too" throughout the program. Then one day when we came home, he said to me, "Auntie, tell me everything you know about Spanish." "How can I say this to Ana Maria?" "Can I tell this to Martha in the morning?" She was constantly trying to communicate.

. I would like to thank you very much for making this happen"

In previous years, during the Peace School program, we went to Turfanda village, located at the zero point of the Syrian border in Yayladağ district, with children and volunteers and held one-day Peace School activities. This year, we went to Iskenderun, Arsuz Madenli village with the invitation of Sevilay teacher and Rhosus Association. We experienced diversity, inclusive games and different languages ​​with the children in the courtyard of an earth house and under the shade of an ancient mulberry tree. The first seeds of the peace school were sown. The excitement of Rhosus association employees, local people and children shows that we will continue to organize Servas Peace School in Madenli.

In the peace school, children consist of different age groups. They learn a lot from each other, just like the human species has experienced from the beginning. But now, our current schools are divided into classes of the same age groups, and that's why those children remain poor. Peace school is a copy of life.  Everyone and everything plays a role here.

Peace school includes everyone in the party. Stray animals, trees, those with disabilities, the weak, the strong, those who are bored, those on the road, those who cannot go on the road, the angry, those who want to do different things find rooms here for themselves...

Thousands of Servas members who are connected to each other around the world may one day find themselves in the Aydiy-Ekinci village of Antakya. Even those who cannot come can feel a part of this unity. This is a village of the world.

Servas Peace School sets out to create universal peace villages from our village to Georgia, Uganda and Argentina. There are many villages and many countries next. As I look at the city of Antakya, which was devastated by the earthquake, I feel the need for people to come together with the values ​​of the Peace School in order to get back on their feet. It is easy to bring buildings side by side, after all...

Mehmet Ates

Diversity is good

20 July ‘24

Antakya is again very windy. Spacious ...