United Kingdom. Hereford. Rural experience.

Hereford is a nice city about 4 hours from London by train. It is close to Wales and here Borderlines Film Festival takes place. I was in Hereford for almost 4 days and spoke a lot with REHAU UK employees, Borderlines organizers, and representatives from other companies taking part in the organization process of the film festival.

I left part of my heart in Hereford and here are the reasons:

Community.

The city and people try to do their best to create communities in different ways and different directions so that people do not feel lonely and can be an active part of society despite of age.

I have been living in a small town in Germany for two years and I feel loneliness and deep alienation. I communicate only with my parents and my sister, and sometimes if I am lucky with my colleagues. There are no communities, no activities, and even no possibility to drink coffee as all bakeries work only during particular hours. In Hereford people are taking care of other people, creating everything so people do not experience loneliness and feel full and important parts of society.

The Courtyard, Herefordshire’s Cultural Creative Hub.

Here you can find everything for everyone beginning from small children and finishing with Grandmas and Grandpas at 90 years old. I was working one morning there on the ground floor and saw a ballet class on the second floor where there were women from 20 to 90 making ballet figures like a flying birds.

Charity.

In a positive meaning people in Hereford are addicted to charity. For example, the Borderlines Film Festival which is the biggest rural film festival in the UK survives because dwellers take care of and invest money, and make donations. The other example - Courtyard restaurants and other facilities give all profit for the existence of the Courtyard and to support such building and structure they need to pay 2700 pounds per day (if I am not mistaken).

Charity shops.

These are the analogs of second hand BUT they look like very fancy shops. Again very different experience in comparison with Germany and Ukraine. If you have old clothes and things that you do not need anymore you give them to a charity shop. Each charity shop addresses all profit to a particular fund, organization, etc. You know it because it is even written on the shop itself, so when you are bringing old clothes you choose whom you want to help: cats, dogs, old people, homeless people, etc. Besides, it’s very popular not only to bring old clothes there but also to buy them there.

Churches and the Cathedral.

They also turned into special places for communities. That’s why you can find there exhibitions of children's drawings, places for children with toys, and even caremats for yoga. Yes! Why not? They want you to come to church and make you believe that here you can feel comfortable and again not lonely. Even more you will find there cafes and restaurants.

Cafes & Coffee Shops.

OMG even in this small city there are numerous cafes with tasty coffee in different variations and delicious desserts.

And last but not least.

They asked me all the time if I had allergies, what products were prohibited for me, would I like milk or lactose-free milk, would I like normal bread or gluten-free bread. When I asked in a small city I lived in Germany in a cafe if they had gluten-free dessert and lactose-free milk, they looked at me as though I came from Mars….

All these examples are very simple but they show how people care about others.

Each nation and country has its advantages and strengths and we people need to learn from other countries and other nations to become stronger.

March 11, 2024.