By David Urueña
UNal-Med, Colombia
This is my first time in Asia and my first time in Indonesia, actually is my first time on this side of the world, I’m full of expectations. After more than 30 hours flying and 4 planes, finally I’m here in Yogyakarta the place where we are going to have EcoDrr 2018 (Ecosystem-Based on Disaster risk reduction). I do have to say that all the activities the day before of the opening ceremony were splendid, specially the dinner full of new flavors, and new friends from 12 different countries.
The “real” first day started with a speech from our hosts, in that moment I realized how beautiful is the academy, no matter what culture or religion you have we all are trying to solve problems from our society. Believe it or not those problems are common all over the world, and our necessities don’t differ a lot from one side of the coin to the other.
The first lecturer, Prof. Dr. Sunil, with a conference called Disaster Risk management on Tropics: Geomorphological Perspective. At the beginning he gave us a quick brief about some concepts that put all the participants in a basic level of knowledge, also he answered one question, Why the tropics? After his lecture it was a phrase that is still surrounding in my head “disasters are not natural”, this means that a disaster is a consequence of inappropriate manage of the risk.
Moving forward to Prof. Dr. Junun talking about Eco-Drr through geo-pedological approach at the volcanic transitional landscapes. I understood the importance of the communities in the developing of the project, they should manage the project, they must understand what is happening on in his territory, and they need to know what the benefits are. Finally, using the local knowledge and experience makes the things easier. I also saw that this project not only “fixed” the mountain, likewise his economy.
After our lunch time, the committee told us the rules of the game, assignments, projects, etc.
For my surprise, at the end of the course we must do a presentation about one of the problems in the city related with the thematic in the course with a transdisciplinary, intercultural and multilingual group, it sounds amazing, isn’t it? At the end my group and I went to do a little field work in the corresponding area, we made some interviews and took some photos.
This was just the first day, I will be aware in the next 12 days on this lovely experience.