Another highlight of our stay here is the Cultural night where us volunteers from 4 different countries prepared a presentation about our homelands to show to the locals. In our presentation, we chose a short promotional video about the Philippines and we prepared a traditional Filipino snack which is Kamote Que (Sweet Potato deep-fried in caramelized sugar). The locals found this strange as the sweet potato itself was already sweet but they found it interesting. Also, when we showed them pictures of our place, they were amazed! On the other hand, it was also quite an experience for me because I’m not used to talking in front of a lot of people, but at the same time, it felt like an achievement that I was able to pull it off. It was a wonderful experience for me to share something of our culture to them.
In between all that happened in our first month, we further immersed with the locals, helping them prepare for some events, helped some local with farming up in the mountains, spending time with the teenagers and getting to know the place and the people more. This whole month was mostly getting to know the community in preparation for our project, in which we are trying to determine what the community needs and how we can help in such a way that would have a big impact on them. In our next weeks here, we are really looking forward to starting our project and be able to give back to the community. All in all, our first month was a great experience.
Jance, filipino EVS volunteer in KUD PLAC, Slovenia