It is actually well after six months, since Hamilton Manley and I became the new subud youth association (activities) international representatives, wow that is a mouthful and shall be called SYAI from now on.  So here is an update:

My name is Rhyana Blakeley.  I am 27 years old and in the last six months of my degree in European theatre arts. I am British and live just outside of London. I have a great house with 4 people from my course, an Icelandic male Buddhist, a Portuguese girl and two Japanese girls who are all lovely. My history. I am a subud child, and much of my father’s family are also in subud. My father travelled a great deal so I lived and visited various countries mainly in Asia as a child. After my parents divorced I stayed with my mother in England, but we moved frequently. Both my parents were very active in subud, and in my earlier teens my mother always seemed to be doing something for Subud. I think I resented subud as a weird thing my parents did and thought of congresses as boring long meetings, yet I always believed in God very strongly. Then my mother took me to the world congress in Columbia, I was 14. It was an eye opener on many levels, I met many young people from all over the world and they showed me many things both good and bad. After this my mother encouraged me to go to youth weekends in Britain (we have a very active youth culture here) and eventually camps in Europe and national congresses. It was through these camps and talking with many people that I decided to get opened. They helped me form my own relationship with Subud which was very important for me. I even moved to a town where younger subud members were when I was 18. At 21 I was still very active in the Latihan but my life was a mess. My mother had moved to Portugal and I went to visit her to sort my head out. I met some young members and discovered that there were very few active youth in Portugal, and no youth culture. I decided to help the members I meet organise a youth camp in Bucelas (a subud property near to Lisboa) the camp was hard work but an amazing experience for me. After six months in Portugal I decided to stay, and became the youth coordinator there. I was a very difficult job, and I often felt very disheartened. Then zone three created a zone 3 youth coordinator (the amazing Brianna Rose) who brought the youth coordinators together. The support and communication helped all of us, and I believe it helped to create a fire that started up the youth in Portugal. After 3 years in Portugal I returned to England to start a degree. After a while I became involved in youth activities again and was (through the zone three youth team) helping with ideas for the World Congress. Then I was asked to pre test about SYAI, and to my surprise and perhaps horror I got the role.

WEARING TWO HATS

Firstly to explain why I am writing for myself, and not for both of us. Hamilton and I had two days to get to know each other. We will get to meet for the fist time properly at Easter, but we have been communicating and supporting each other by internet and basically have been primarily working on different areas.

To explain SYAI, so far there is no actual structure; there is Hamilton and I a medium travel and communications budget and an incomplete contact list of youth coordinators for the subud world, which is quite large. At a recent meeting with the ISC we decided that it was more appropriate to call SYAI activities instead of association as it was more accurate. Also as a association many people feel that it is invalid that youth should just be at the heart of subud and not separated, I agree with this wholeheartedly, but from many of the things I have witnessed and conversations I have had it is often not true. Many countries or groups have no or very few young members, and as someone who wishes for subud to exist for my children and my children's children, I wish to see an encouragement in involving "the youth" more in subud. Both Hamilton and I have decided that we do not wish to have a set idea of how this should happen at this point. We are still learning and wish to be able to mould ourselves with what is happening rather then get stuck in our own personal mission of how SYAI should be.           

We are also members of the WSC (World subud council) which is a role in itself. Personally I found this very scary, as I think a young member I walked into my first WSC meeting and felt terrified I could not believe that I belonged there. So we have both been trying on these two different hats and seeing how they fit and how we can work with them, exciting and scary.

THE WORLD SUBUD COUNCIL

The WSC is working on more collaboration between the wings and harmony in our work together. Both Hamilton and I support this fully. Personally part of the reason I do the Latihan is to try and be a better person, let go of my anger and my ego. I often feel saddened when I witness people fighting in Subud especially when they are working together. In the Zone 3 team we promised that we would all work on having good relationships with each other in 40 years time. And for me it is more important that the WSC work well together then that I get my own way in how I see SYAI going, this will I think the hardest job of all. Already I can see a blurring in the wings, is a break dancing workshop (a popular workshop at the national congresses in the UK) a youth activity or a SICA activity? etc. I have to admit I was confused about what all the wings do, especially when they are all SWIE and SSCU. I would like to communicate this more with younger members, and for example I have been talking with Sharafin Gardener (who is the new SD rep) about how youth can be more involved with SD, looking into volunteer projects and fundraising activities etc.  At Easter we are all meeting for The Creative Wings Jamboree and should have some more concrete definitions.

I mentioned my own feeling of what am I doing here, with the WC. In a recent meeting about youth in Zone 4 a young member and dear friend Sophia Dickie said that she felt part of my role was to bridge the gap between younger members and the structural side of subud. If I can attend WC meetings and make suggestions and useful comments many young members can share their views whether it is locally or nationally or internationally, yet a lot of young people seem to feel this is only the place for people over 40. Why is this? At an early stage of the preparations for the world congress in Innsbruck several young members were involved in the meeting. The youngest was 15, we were all surprised that we were involved and I also noticed that in the presentations of initial ideas many of the younger members were chosen to speak.

COMMUNICATION

Firstly I am very aware that both Hamilton and I our English speakers, and we are both working to improve our Spanish (not there yet sorry) I will try and use simpler English in reports' remind me if I do not. For some reason the communication between younger members is very important, I do not think it is about cutting out older members it is just natural to want to communicate with people who are in a similar place in their lives.

WORLD YOUTH TEAM

 At world congress there were several youth meetings, the zone three youth team put forward a proposal of more zonal teams, which was very popular. I wrote a report suggesting this a few months ago. Yet it has been pointed out to me that most of the zones do not work in the same way as zone three, and therefore zonal teams may not be the best choice. Yet for Hamilton and I to be able to find out what is happening in every country in subud and keep personal contact and support with those involved in youth activities is nearly impossible and the former SYAIs warned us about this. So we have been creating an international youth team. Many people have stood forward. We have Rachel Murry in Israel, Louise Hamilton in Britain, in Columbia, Heidi Hitcock in Canada, Begimine in Indonesia. Louise is the official zonal rep for zone three but due to a very busy life wishes to stand down soon. She has organised a meeting for as many of the national youth reps in zone three as possible, which will take place in 2 weeks time. Apart from general support and getting to knew each other we will look at definite plans for future youth activities, whether they are a simple dinner party or a month long youth camp. The rest of the team have been finding out what is going on with the youth in their zones and offering support. This team is still in the early days, it is like a machine that is half built and we need to start it up.

Also Harun Kennedy and Stewart Horthy have offered SubudLife.com, which is already the site for SubudYouth.com and .org It can be used as promoting any youth focused activities, reports and chat. It also has various forums for youth coordinators to swap ideas and support.  And online helpers who can offer advice and support to isolated members, which has yet to be fully developed. Of course this is not only available to youth, but is just especially aware of the things younger members have asked for.

YES Quest

For those who have not heard about this, I first heard about it just before the congress in Bali. For me one of my biggest sadnesses has been that so many young subud members seem so lost and confused. A few years ago I watched some old World congress videos. In one there was a teenager presenting his groups work on what they felt was the future of subud. He was so full of energy and life just glowing. A latter congress video happened to show the same guy, now in his 30s talking about how he was running workshops at the congress for ex alcoholics and drug addicts as he had just recovered from both. He had a real presence and sense of humour but there was a real sadness in his eyes. I was so shocked that this was the same guy. Though this is an extreme example I knew many of my friends myself included are very confused about life, like many young people generally, but often it seems that instead of subud being a help it is an extra confusion especially if it contradicts with your non subud life.

Recently I talked with the mother of a friend who just went to university in England, and because he does not drink he was being not spoken too by his flat mates and class mates. In England with have a big binge drinking culture which often goes crazy in university, along with drug taking. At my university cocaine is a very communal drug, and I think I am lucky that the fact that I am older and my course is very practical (drama) people knew me well and just think I am funny we also have several cultures in our year so the fact I do not drink a lot and don't do drugs has been gotten used to (it did create problems at first). But it is not just drink and drugs, also just life direction can be a problem. I am also aware of congress blues, i.e. after many camps or congresses that last more then a few days, many people find it hard to go back to everyday life. It is like the bubble is burst. I realised that is was ok for me for the first time after Innsbruck and bucelas (I went to an amazing youth camp in bucelas after congress) as I was going back to a life that I really enjoyed, a great course and really good friends who all live close by. But many of my friends found it really hard to readjust and those with no clear path in life found it much harder.

At the end of Innsbruck we tried to organise a post congress blues meeting which ended up being the yahoo subudyouth forum. This has proven to be a great form of support and of sharing of info for those who put down for it so thank you to Roland who created it (you can also download IBU Rahayu's congress talks there).

YES Quest for me places all of the great facilities we have in subud.... houses in great locations, people with real skills in versatile areas, and of course the Latihan. They take young members and bring them together using these skills. There DVD shows the guys tackling nature in the Australian outback and the jungles of Borneo and working together using various techniques to look at themselves and come up with some clarity about whom they are and where they want to go, including a 12 month life plan and support. I have spoken with many young members who have been on a YES Quest and they feel they really benefited from it. I have always been really inspired by their work, and often feel like shouting thank you at last when I look at things they have done.

The YES Quest team are wishing to branch out, creating more then one camp a year in varying parts of the world, training more facilitators, and as well as encouraging such a clear and intense plan as the original camps also encouraging younger members to travel and mix with different culture and cultures, and offer the opportunities for youth to experiment with areas they are interested in, to help them have clarity about what direction they wish to go in. Both Hamilton and I are hoping to train with them to gain more skills when working with youth, and the most recent camp will take place in La Source from of July until of July.

To help young members who have problems getting the money to attend they are asking fundraising events. So if anyone is interested in going, or thinks they knew someone who would benefit, who would like to help fundraise or are interested in training to be a future facilitator please contact the team at www.yesquest.org if you are just interested in finding out more, check it out.

SCHEDULE

Since I left Innsbruck I have attended:

           An amazing youth camp in Bucelas Portugal.

           An ISC meeting in Lewes England (where we changed the title to activities).

           The wonderful snow camp in Switzerland. 

I will be attending:

           The zone three youth meeting in Loadwater, England, in two weeks time.

            As mentioned above - the wings jamboree in La Source France over Easter.

            The WSC meeting in India

            Hopefully also the Yes Quest in La Source.

            The National congress in Britain.

            There is coming up a big camp in ..... Which sounds great and I hope I can attend. And talk of youth focused camps in France,   Portugal (again in Bucelas which has been talked about as a possible annual camp) in Greece and Spain, but hopefully I will be clearer on this after the Zone 3 Youth meeting.

There have been proposals put forward about:

             Looking at more clarity for applicant helpers, possibly in the form of a camp.

             An international youth coordinators meeting or camp.

             A sports based youth camp in Germany.

             An arts camp in Norway.

             Creating enterprises to help raise funds for SYAI (example helping youth coordinators or the world youth team to travel, recently Begimine (SYA Indonesia) asked for help to go to a youth gathering in Chile neither I or Hamilton could go, so he could have gone in our place, but we did not have the budget, or enfilstrucher to do this).

Though many of these things have taken their initial steps they have gone no further. If I had the time I would organise them but at this point this is not possible. But we will see what happens to them in the future.

Sorry for talking for too long. This is a rough breakdown of the past six months. I Will communicate more often from now on. Will head off to read unreadable theory about theatre, and then in 4 months join the confused youth I was talking about when I try to find a job again.

Lots of Love to all.

Rhyana.