Before I went to Slovakia, I decided to write this blog in
Dutch, but It’s part of the EVS program to improve my English. So I made this
change. Don’t blame me if my English isn’t correct, it’s a learning process
like whole life.
So many new impressions. Everything was new, but I felt at
home very quickly because of the wonderful people that I met. It started when I
arrived at the airport of Vienna. I found my suitcase immediately at the
baggage drop. And then my Slovak mentor was waiting for me together with
another mentor to welcome me with Dutch tulips, Staphorsts hood gear made of
paper, traditional Slovak sheep cheese, my name cut out of orange paper and poppy
seeds cake. They eat so much poppy seed here, I can’t wait for the summer, I
expect the whole landscape to be red of these flowers. I also started to eat
oats with poppy seeds in the morning. I tried to have no expectation before I
came here, so I wouldn’t be disappointed when I came here. But when I went to
the on-arrival training I felt so lucky because our project is well arranged as
far as I can see now.

One thing I learned at the training after we spoke with a
social worker of the Roma culture, who has Roma roots himself. Is that Roma people don’t want to learn by teachers. They were taught by their grandmothers/grandfathers
to learn ancient crafts. They are proud of their traditions. That’s one reason why
they don’t always accept to learn in current school systems. The iceberg of a
culture is deep under water and there are so many things we don’t see or
understand as a foreigner. When we adapt to a culture we need to respect the
culture, but also be ourselves.