Citizen of the World
EVS in Germany
It was a sunny day. Strange for Germany in February, but I thought of it as a good sign. Train stopped at my new destination- Bonn. It was not only a destination, it was my home for the next one year. First look from the station didn´t say a lot, but later I got to know this wonderful city makes me my fall in love in it every day more and more. It was not my first time to live in a foreign country but this time it was different because it was EVS-one year of voluntary service. I was a volunteer before in many different projects, so I decided to try out this challenge.
I am just a simple girl from a small country where I had to deal with wars and political crises during my life. I am used to the fact that most people don´t know where Serbia is and that sometimes it can became Siberia, after I have to explain that I don´t live in a very cold part of Russia. Also I had questions if we have cars and supermarkets in my country. In this case I kindly explained that I have donkey that takes me to the market.
One question that I also heard many times when I lived in other countries was ´Why did you decided to come here?´´- well, why not. World is an open place that we should explore in order to understand it better. What does it actually mean being from a foreign country? Foreign is a very strong word when we thinkof it. Aren´t we all the same, just humans with the same problems and needs. I meet people from many different countries and continents and still I always find some common topic to discuss with all of them. Even if somebody has language difficulties that doesn´t have to be an obstacle. Sometimes sharing a smile on some situation can sometimes be enough to connect with this person.This is how I feel here, away from my country but still trying to create some connections in this way. For me there is no one place that I consider my home, but rather I try to make it where I go.
I traveled a lot and always when I meet new people one of the first 3 questions is ussualy´´ Where are you from? ´´. Also I did it many times and then I had situations where people didn´t want to answer because, as they said, they don´t feel they belong to the certain country. That made me think a lot, it should be just a simple question right? But it is not for some people because they feel like they shouldn´t be identified with their country. That made me think, this was suposed to be just a simple question, but it is obviosly not. Some people just think that they should be identified with their country of origin. Truth is that when you hear name of some country you already make some prejudice about this person, even if you try not to. After hearing it you think of location, religion,politics,conflicts, common food, stereotypes and so on. After hearing this way of thinking it made me to change my mind about asking this question, but instead of it to try to meet this person as he or she really is not as I think people from that country are.
I did some seminars where we had to do international evening and to make presentation of our country. We started by saying name of the country and then people would say some typical things they know about it. First there were people from ´´popular countries´´ in Western Europe where people had many associations with but some of them were so stereotypical. When it was my turn I found out how people hdon know a lot about my country and also if they know it was not so good opinion. That didn´t make me sad, but just opposite it made me happy that I will have opportunity to try to represent them my country more. I really like the reaction of the people after this presentations when they get surprised how every country has some beautiful landscapes and cities that after seeing this pictures and hear stories it makes you go and explore them.
That is why I think we should be open minded for meeting people from other countries and not to get surprised that they came to your country, but to be happy that you have this great opportunity to share moments with so many different people. I am very glad that I have this amazing opportunity to meet so many great people from everywhere here in Germany . During this period here I started to look things differently. And I hope that we will all start to look at the person as an individual and not to judge them by the country from where they came from, and in this way to make the world a better place.