The HEFAT training included a kidnapping simulation. Attacked by masked armed men on the road to Mexico DF we were blindfolded, questioned and taken to a house where we could only smell dust and hear barking dogs. After an hour of fruitless negotiations with the criminals, both our bodies and strategies exhausted, our respective personalities stepped in, adding to the hand-made tension which, ignited by our aggressors, started to spread among us. We were all trying to get out of the situation with different, often conflicting approaches. Everything was used against us: our job, our association to IWMF, and finally our link to the United States and its current president. That’s when Gaia made use of what happened to be an unexpected federating tool – humor. “Just so you know, none of us is pro-Trump”, she simply remarked.

-Laurence Cornet and Gaia Squarci