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International Organisation of Youth with Rheumatism
 
Once upon a time…


by Gábor Kürtösi, Hungary
Once upon a time there was a place called Haraldvangen where many young arthritic people gathered together from all over Europe. Haraldvangen was in the middle of a great forest by a clear watered lake.

I started my story like that because the whole week was as exciting as if we had been in a fairy tale. Our bungalows were set in a fabulous environment, as was the auditorium where there were many interesting presentations connected to our different kinds of rheumatic diseases.

The first presentation had the title ”The Power in You” which was also the slogan of the congress. The presentation, by Kĺre Dreyer, showed us how we can make our hidden power come to the surface and how to use it more efficiently. This power is often blocked by our subconscious.

“Breaking Barriers” was the title of the presentation the next day. Rolf Husebř talked about psychological barriers, which stop us doing what we are able to do - maybe because of our own stereotypes about ourselves.

Before you should think we sat in a lecture room all the time, I will write about our outside activities, too. On the afternoon of the second day we could test whether we had been good students after the first two presentations. We could try breaking barriers through different programmes like horseriding, fishing, sailing, and water skiing.

Water skiing was my barrier to break since I had never thought before that I could speed on the water like that. You should also try it! Break your barriers and use the power in you! You will enjoy it!

The third day was a bit more relaxing with one presentation in the morning and two optional ones in the afternoon. I would like to highlight the presentation in the morning. ”Owning Your Health” was the most interesting one for me since it was again a kind of continuation of the above presentations. The title also suggested that we should not just break our barriers but we should also know our limits. In my translation: you should not go on an 11-kilometre-long tour if you know you will end up in a wheelchair next day.

In the evening, after the presentations, everybody joined the ”international evening” where all the 17 nations showed their national drinks, food, music, dresses etc....

Day 4 was an exciting day on a Viking ship. Sailing in a Norwegian fjord was really amazing while we could try the widest range of delicious seafood. Although we did not have too much time for Oslo, we could see most of the sights.

On the last two days we took part in some more presentations. The one about new medical treatments was interesting because we got some information about very expensive medicines which could help a lot of arthritic people in the future if their cost decreases.

There was a kind of strange feeling in the air on the very last afternoon in Haraldvangen. It was the mixture of happiness and sadness. We were happy to go home and to see our families and friends again but we were sad because we all knew we would have to say ”goodbye” to our European friends for another three years.

Published in Newsletter no. 7, August 2001

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Articles from Newsletter no. 7 - August 2001

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