{"id":380718,"date":"2025-05-06T05:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T03:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/?p=380718"},"modified":"2025-05-06T16:38:28","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T14:38:28","slug":"in-the-same-boat-a-journey-toward-peace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/in-the-same-boat-a-journey-toward-peace\/","title":{"rendered":"In the same boat: a journey toward peace"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A few weeks ago, I was part of the MED25 project, a school-ship for peace. We were 20 young people from across the Mediterranean\u2014North, South, East, and West\u2014sailing together on a boat called \u201cBel Espoir.\u201d We set off from Barcelona, and since the weather wasn\u2019t as expected, we stopped in Ibiza before reaching Ceuta. From there, we traveled overland to Tetouan and then returned to Malaga. It wasn\u2019t just a trip\u2014it was a journey into each other\u2019s lives, minds, and cultures.   <\/p>\n\n<p>Living on a boat with so many different people was beautiful, but not always easy. Every day, we had to share responsibilities: cooking, serving meals, cleaning, washing dishes. We rotated tasks in teams, so everyone experienced the full rhythm of life onboard. We also learned how to sail\u2014which was pretty wild at first. I wish I could say it eventually became second nature, but in truth, it was harder than expected. You quickly learn how much teamwork it takes to move forward\u2014literally.     <\/p>\n\n<p>But we weren\u2019t there just to sail and cook. We were there to talk\u2014really talk. We explored eight big topics together: culture, education, the role of women, religion, the environment, migration, Christian traditions, and of course, peace. These weren\u2019t theoretical discussions. They were deeply personal. We shared our perspectives, and sometimes, we clashed. Some discussions got heated. There were moments of frustration. Some conversations even turned into real arguments.        <\/p>\n\n<p>But here\u2019s the truth\u2014on a boat, you can\u2019t just walk away. You can\u2019t go home and sleep it off. You live together. You eat together. You sail together. You are literally in the same boat. And that changes everything. It makes it impossible to stay angry for long. We had to talk it out. We had to listen. And sometimes, we had to admit we were wrong.         <\/p>\n\n<p>That, for me, was the most powerful part of the experience. I realized that most conflicts\u2014between people or nations\u2014don\u2019t come from hatred. They come from ignorance. From stereotypes. From misinformation. And just like we had the chance to truly get to know each other on that boat, the world can do the same. If we could overcome years of misunderstanding in just two weeks together, imagine what could be possible if people were truly willing to listen.    <\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-gallery has-nested-images columns-default is-cropped wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"611\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"380697\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Foto-exp-Bertha-2-611x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-380697\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"380702\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Foto-exp-Bertha-3-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-380702\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img alt=\"\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" data-id=\"380707\" src=\"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Foto-exp-Bertha-5-768x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-380707\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n<div style=\"height:39px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n<p>I also discovered many unexpected things. Like how Lent is celebrated differently in Europe compared to the Middle East. Or how religion plays a completely different role in politics and public life depending on where you are. In Europe, it&#8217;s often a private matter, whereas in many Middle Eastern countries, it shapes laws, policies, and daily life. These weren\u2019t just facts\u2014I felt the difference through the people I lived with.    <\/p>\n\n<p>What touched me the most was that, despite all our differences, we had so much in common. We laughed a lot. We danced. We got seasick together. We also fasted together, since it was both Lent and Ramadan. We created art, read books, got silly, prayed in many different languages at the same time, discovered religions like Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Judaism, slept under the open sky, and shared quiet, sacred moments. And through all that, I realized that peace isn\u2019t something far off or unreachable. It\u2019s deeply human. It\u2019s messy, and it takes work. But it\u2019s possible.         <\/p>\n\n<p>I came back changed. Not because I think we\u2019ve solved all our problems, but because I now believe that peace isn\u2019t a dream\u2014it\u2019s a choice. A choice that starts with truly seeing and listening to the other.  <\/p>\n\n<p>And if 20 strangers could do that together on a boat in the middle of the sea, then there\u2019s hope for the rest of the world too.<\/p>\n\n<p>Bertha El Hajj, Young Ambassador of Peace<\/p>\n\n<p>To listen to this experience or others click on<\/p>\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mediterranean Sparkchagers - Stories, experiences and projects building peace\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1LhXaEau-tk?feature=oembed\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-right\"><em>Curated by Maria Grazia Berretta<\/em><\/p>\n\n<div style=\"height:242px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>8 months of navigation, 30 ports, 200 young people. The ship for peace, \u2018Bel Espoir\u2019 set sail in March 2025 from Barcelona (Spain) and will continue its voyage until October. Its route will link five shores of the Mediterranean. On board, eight groups of twenty-five young people of various nationalities, cultures and religions that share a common desire to build a better world. They will live together and get to know each other, amid debates and personal experiences, tackling new issues at each stop. Among them are traveling twenty Living Peace ambassadors and other young people from the Focolare Movement. Bertha from Lebanon shares her experience. She is involved in the MediterraNEW project which works for the education of young people, predominately migrants in the Mediterranean.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":380693,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2844,3286],"tags":[4133,3349,3196],"class_list":["post-380718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sociale-3","category-testimonianze-di-vita-en","tag-di3-en","tag-notifiche-en","tag-ppg-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=380718"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/380718\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=380718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=380718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.focolare.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=380718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}