A few weeks after I get home I'm going to set right off again, this time for the U.S. and Canada, visiting most of the Esperanto-speaking Pasporta Servo hosts listed in my address book and lecturing about my trip in their local universities and high school. This way I hope to fortify the Esperanto movement in the U.S., which is pitifully weak in contrast to, for example, the German Esperanto Youth Organization which has several hundred active members, a large budget, and state subsidies, which means they can organize awesome meetings like their yearly International Seminar (a week-long winter fest in a youth hostel attended by several hundred young esperanto speakers from all over Europe). I know maybe 5 other active young Esperantists in the States, so I'm hoping to increase that number at least 10 times, especially by spreading knowledge of Esperanto by doing interviews and articles with university newspapers and radio stations.
With each lecture I'll do a quick intensive Esperanto course and give people info on how to learn it (through the internet, books I recommend, etc.)-and with the help of the local Esperantists I hope to make the youth movement active again in the U.S. After all I've received from Esperanto, I want to give back what I can, and when I get home I'll nominate myself to be one of the leaders of the E-o youth organization and will spend several years being active in it.
If you're interested in inviting me to lecture in YOUR university or high school, send me an email! AmandaHigley@hotmail.com
Here's how it began: when people came in, I wasn't there, but on the two large whiteboards were two interesting things to look at while they waited for the talk to begin: a drawing I'd done of France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Hungary, with cities I'd visited connected by dotted lines and arrows indicating where and when I participated in Esperanto conferences or get-togethers, and a list of subjects I would talk about, not in order:
Finally I came in, fully dressed for heading out to the train at wintertime, including coat, scarf, hat and gloves under my strapped-on backpack--and found about 100 people there, including floor-sitters, chair-occupiers, on-table-sitters and standers (one of whom was a good Norwegian friend, who I was delighted to see was filming!), and the standing room only section near the door, which got more and more crowded as the talk went on.
As I came in I said, 'Hello!` to the crowd, who was filled with people I knew and liked, so I wasn't a bit nervous, and they, already in a good mood, enthusiastically responded. `Well,' I started off saying, 'who wants to try out my backpack and give a guess as to how much it weighs?' Of course my Czech friend in the front row volunteered, among others who called out 'me!' He guessed much too low, and with a laugh I announced it weighs 13 kilograms (about 26 pounds).
Then I tossed the pack onto the table behind me and said, 'Do you mind if we start with the strip tease, 'cause I'm sweating in all this!' Of course everyone laughed, and several guys shouted 'yeah!' So I sang a strip tease song and took off my jacket, thick sweater, thin sweater, turtleneck, long-sleeve top, unzipped my pant legs and took them off over my boots, and started to strip off my black leggings too (under which I had black stretchy shorts) as a teaser before I stopped, to the boos of several jokers. As I tore off each item, I explained, 'See? This is how you pack light---layers! These are almost all the clothes I have!' Then I pulled everything out of my pack, first the sleeping bag and air mattress (instantly used as seat cushions for the floor sitters), followed by my other shoes, the rest of my clothes, my toiletries, and all of my handy dandy tools and tricks of the trade, like my pocketknife, compass, earplugs and eyeshade, whistle, etc., explaining simultaneously why you don't need more stuff.
I went on to give the itinerary of my trip, pointing out on the map where I went when and telling stories along the way. People interrupted with questions, which made me think of other stories to tell. As went through the itinerary, I touched on most of the list of subjects when they fit in with what I was talking about--the rest, I talked about afterwards, checking off each one. For example, when I got to Brittany in the itinerary, I showed them a Breton dance, which I taught to a volunteer partner (who didn't get it too well, but that didn't matter because they nevertheless got a little taste of what it's like and heard the music for 2 minutes). And the same when I came to Hungary, with a different volunteer (who didn't get it any better, but at least he had guts!) After about 45 minutes I finished and opened for questions, and they had a lot--good ones, too, which I'll see again when I visit my Norwegian friend in July and watch the video, which I'll use to critique myself and make improvements for my lecture tour.