I did another cartoonathon with the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center some weeks ago. Cartoonathons are events where I listen in and draw comics about what people are saying (or not saying but should be.)
I started doing these in 2020 and I still find them nerve wrecking. There’s very little I can do to prepare and I’m always scared I will have an hour and a half long brain fart when it’s show time. And then there’s another challenge that I have…
My English hasn’t improved since I moved back to the Netherlands and it can take me some time to calibrate when people have an accent that’s not familiar to me. Luckily, once I understand what people are saying I always find these cartoonathons a tremendous boost for my creativity. I generally create at least four cartoon ideas per hour, which is not something I do every hour every day.
This event was about women farmers in Nepal and it was SO inspiring. Farmers in Nepal are at the forefront of having to adapt to climate change and they’re not sitting around and waiting for help. These women are not only making necessary changes to help themselves, like cultivating crops that are resilient to draught, but also sharing knowledge and resources with their communities.
Here’s one of the drawings I made.
I’m doing another event later this week and it’s my first in person cartoonathon. Tomorrow I’m taking a train to Luxembourg and I’ll be attending the European conference on community disaster preparedness at the European Investment Bank.
I’m so nervous, but YAY!
With love,
I just upgraded to paid, Betje. I look forward to every dispatch from the Netherlands, and just your misunderstanding of "religious" and "villages" in that Cartoonathon made me laugh. If anyone can draw something funny about an event at the European Investment Bank, it is you. You're a genie! Or is that heinous? I mean, "genius."