December 1, 2016.
Whoa. Hold up there… I cried on the first night, that’s just not on!
There was massive excitement in the hotel before the inaugural HB dinner. We all walked over to a neighbouring hotel (in the rain) to a function room with a fantastic view over Ushuaia.
After intros by the faculty, the film team etc we were given instruction to record a 10 second video to our ‘terminally ill mothers’ and then post it with #mothernaturesdaughters and #homewardbound16 on every social media site we normally use. There was wifi in the hotel but obviously it wasn’t coping with the overload of some 80-odd phones trying to access the net all at once, so this turned out quite convenient.
So, somewhat bewildered, Jen and I recorded each other’s videos. Mine was hopeless as I was a little lost for words and was particularly annoyed at this seeming high-jacking/exploitation of my relationship with my mum – the point being that once posted, the video was a message to “Mother Earth.”
I feel so totally different about the Earth from how I feel towards my mum and I’M NOT AN ACTIVIST even though I’m a part of this (apparently) global movement. Anyway, in trying to keep an open mind, I sucked it up, dried my tears and told myself my mum wasn’t dying so why the hell was I crying? Needless to say, however, I didn’t post that video (thankyou struggling wifi)… I re-recorded one later in my hotel room that was specifically for Mother Earth. I told her to have a piece of dry toast and vegemite and a flat lemonade to feel better. This was a severe cop-out, I know, but really I’m just here for the rocks and penguins, with a bit of leadership thrown in. Besides, what if all my friends on bookface started ringing Mum to find out what was wrong?
Obviously I wasn’t the only one upset by this… some of the other women didn’t even have their mums anymore. Not a great start to the program, Fabian, even though the following video is what it was all about…. launching the HB project in the media.