It’s been a while since I posted a blog entry on here, but after recent events I felt the need to write.
Just hours after posting my last status on Facebook at the Airbnb Open conference, we started to receive texts from family about some ‘trouble in Paris’, and messages asking ‘are we ok?’. At the time we were blissfully unaware of the atrocities that were happening just a couple of metro stops away, and started to learn about the horror via updates on Twitter from the safety of our apartment.
The theme of that day at the Airbnb Open was: trust, sharing and remembering that we are all the same no matter what part of the world we come from, or what our beliefs may be. It was truly inspiring hearing stories from every day people who open their doors to welcome strangers as guests in their own homes. They had experienced and learnt so many things – culture, language, the art of listening, to name a few, and I wondered if it was something I could do. Of course they earned some money along the way, but it somehow feels better than that money going to a faceless hotel. At Harestreet Farm, we love welcoming people to visit our barns and our local community, and although we don’t live alongside you in the property as many on Airbnb do, we still share a part of our lives with you and have met so many people along the way.
We were shown an advertising campaign which was entitled ‘Is Mankind?’, and walking away that day I felt the answer was ‘yes’. Then that evening a few people took it upon themselves to take the lives of so many innocent people, that I felt perhaps I was wrong. However, witnessing the response from the people in Paris and the world at large, of course Man is kind, and the few that have chosen the wrong path should not destroy the faith we have in our fellow man.
I would strongly urge people keep that faith and to travel without fear (whether in the UK or abroad); it is something I have had the privilege to do quite a lot of, and don’t intend to stop now!