Mesian Tilmatine

What is your personal scouting story?

I became a scout when I was six years old, because my older brother was scout, too. I learned ridiculously many things over myself, other people, nature and generally the world we live in and got good, loyal friends here in the following years. With sixteen I got my first troop to lead, later I worked more in the local and regional “scouting politics”. Today I’m a bit less active because I don’t live in Berlin anymore due to my university studies.

Why do you want the Scouting-Train to move?

Intercultural exchange is luckily becoming something usual in my generation. But still, as someone from Berlin you've got the weird situation that you live in one of the most important middle European metropolises without knowing anything about most of the other languages and cultures surrounding you in the European heartland. And this is, apparently, just because a political conflict that is actually said to be ended years before my birth is still controlling people's minds. After understanding the beauty of western and southern Slavic countries in the past few years I personally want to see the enormous east of that what definitely is Europe. And I want as much more young people as possible to finally know their continent, 25 years after its official reunification – equally if they come from a very east of the Eurasian continent in Irkutsk or from Salzburg in Austria. The component that we're doing all this under the banner of the international scouting movement that had such an influence on so many of us over years, just makes this project even more important for myself.

What meaning does tradition and modernity have for you?

In my opinion, tradition and modernity are the two always concurring forces that shape every culture. Modern, changing influences try to break traditions and if they're strong enough, they become traditions themselves. Other traditions just stay because they're too worthy to be lost. That's how we develop and go further. And if we discuss our different traditions we do, as cheesy as this may sound, learn from each other. And thus, I'm very excited to do so, to learn about what shapes your understanding of culture, may it be your language, your music, your excellent food, or just your lack of traditions and love for modernity. In either case, I'm going for food. I love food.

Do you want to say something else?

Choo-choo! ѬШШШШШ

T & M

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