After I'm home again arrived in Germany, I can read whatever ruckzuck my mail without having to have them scanned and have to send extra. In itself, something positive. Unfortunately, however, to finally write a letter from AFS, my sending organization, the process in which I was invited to a 5-page final report as feedback about my stay abroad.
This is a hand to help the program to check for any weaknesses and as a source of information serve for future "Hope" who want to get an idea about the transient life in another culture.
Due to the length I think it is more appropriate to the report, which I will not deprive you to publish in two parts. The style is something substantive this time held more than you I know, but that a report is now time to then. Nevertheless, I hope you read my lines, evaluated, and of course commented on my blog .
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This final report will deal with various aspects of my year abroad in Paraguay. My name is Jan, 21, and I lived and worked almost a year in the capital Asuncion. My employer was the non-governmental organization "Tierranuestra", which is involved primarily for environmental protection and youth musical education. to show better
the complex context, I will try to list the various sections separately.
, I would like to look at their country and people have left for me to speak.
beginning seemed Paraguay actually not very strange, because I recognized a lot from Germany. Even the food consisted of no strange new foods as you would usually expect from a far away country. The only unknown at the dining table was cooked cassava, doch selbst der war der heimischen Kartoffel nicht allzu unähnlich. Auch wurden viele Limonaden und Wasser getrunken. Insgesamt kam mir alles wie eine ärmere Version Deutschlands vor; etwa so wie man sich Osteuropa vorstellt. Da ich anfangs in einer temporären Familie untergebracht war, kam ich in das nächstbeste Heim, das mir AFS anbieten konnte. Ich war in einem 3-Personenhaushalt untergebracht, die alle bei der Polizei beschäftigt waren. Die Unterkunft war insgesamt recht bescheiden, zumindest aus meiner mitteleuropäischen Sicht. Es war ungewohnt für mich, kein eigenes Zimmer mehr zu haben, sondern mehr oder weniger im Durchgang schlafen und sämtliche Besitztümer in meinem Koffer aufbewahren zu müssen. Es war also ein Verlust of privacy given. I also barely spoke English, which sentenced me very silenced. Normally I'm more talkative and argumentative. Suddenly to my verbal tools have been torn from his, made me not only helpless, but angry and frustrated me quite a lot. Overall, the behavior of my family rather reserved and I felt more as a liability. Before long I was also forced to contribute money for food. My impression of the Paraguayans would be quite negative have been if I had not the people on my work, convinced of the contrary. Not only were they contrary to my host family, curious and polite; but always took care of me over and asked for many times whether I want nothing.
While I was in the first weeks and months to learn had to, to accept the sometimes excessive curiosity and even some hearty manners of the Paraguayan population, I got used to the time but it and found the warm crude type of people usually also very personable. Even so much that I found many German now quite unfriendly and uninterested to repellent.
was unfamiliar to me, the unrelenting heat, poor infrastructure and especially the national drink, the Tereré that a particular herb, which is usually eaten cold. Since
I come from the land and a car for me has always been a must, I was initially somewhat surprising always take buses for transportation to any need. But on all these things I quickly got used to me and much of it is missing now. I am here in Germany now much less mobile, often feel cold and does not want to miss my daily ration Tereré.
Since Paraguay with an average age of 21.9 compared to 44.3 years, with Germany seen demographically a very young country, I have always had a lot to do with their peers and young adults and teenagers. In all three families, in which I was staying during my year abroad, I had at least two host brothers and sisters, on average only 16.25 years old. Also on my work, I have worked especially with children. My work colleagues were also almost all in their twenties. For me this was an extremely positive aspect as peers or young people, in my opinion, are generally open and curious than older people. Also were able to empathize with my former rather situations.
course, there was next to the dualities of liberal time management, educational gaps, and generally unhealthy diet also many similarities, they helped me just starting for me to integrate into the new society and culture. Both nations are big fans of football, which helped always to find a common topic of conversation. Since two of the best players in the country have played both times in Germany and still working there, was my own, never completely unknown. It is also important to mention that Paraguay has taken over the German constitution completely and political systems, at least in theory, are almost identical. A contrast, however, is the degree of corruption, compared to South America in Germany is still manageable. Generally people are the same everywhere but, I think. Everyone wants to be happy and live in peace and financial security. The wishes are very comparable, which resulted in one more good about politics and the Faults could discuss this.
it certainly is important to describe my work a little closer.
The duties that were applied to me, were very diverse. This was mainly because we have done with my work many different projects. The official name of my employment would be "coaches", often came to other services such as translation, cleaning up or cataloging. When we went to schools in order in the form of lectures and games the children closer to the environment, I was beginning to build, preparation and transportation of the materials employed. As my English improved then, I could also explain games and bring me more actively in the presentations.
The working hours during the year have varied very much. In the first month I worked only in the morning because the afternoon was held my obligatory English course. From late August to mid December, I had comparatively much work, sometimes on weekends, as camps for children and young people were convened, which lasted up to three days at a stretch. At the time, was a 50-hour week my usual workload. The late December and January, however, were very quiet, as had been taken at this time most of my summer colleagues, above all, because their children were then vacation. The rest of the year in terms My work is not too exhausting, because hardly any projects have been carried out, and I particularly office work such as sorting the library or cleaning up of the workshops was applied, although they were clearly visible as job creation programs. However, I was pleased to be able to be useful, as my colleagues still were very nice and courteous and I still polite about my life in Germany and questioned my future.
is now the big question is whether I get along with my workload. Was it too little or too much? Again, this can not be answered generally. Initially, the claims certainly unusual high, but the noch existente Sprachbarriere verschlimmert wurde. Mit der Zeit gewöhnte ich mich an die Anforderungen, die interessanterweise immer leichter zu handhaben waren. Gegen Mitte des Jahres fühlt ich mich tatsächlich etwas unterfordert, was ich aber versuchte durch aktive Integration in unsere Stiftung zu kompensieren. Leider ließ sich nicht wirklich immer etwas finden, was dazu führte, dass ich mich außerhalb meines Arbeitsplatzes engagierte. Dazu zählten unter anderem regelmäßiges Fitnesstraining, verstärkte Widmung meines Blogs, Mitarbeit bei Rotaract, dem Jugendzweig von Rotary International und schließlich die Belegung eines halbjährigen Intensiv-Portugiesischkurses.
Zu Beginn wohnte ich sehr nah an my job and was able to arrive within 7 minutes walk from Tierranuestra. My second host family lived a little further away, which meant a 10-minute walk to the nearest main road, followed by an approximately 25-minute bus ride and then a 5-minute steep climb on foot followed. This includes waiting times for buses, of course, could be up to a quarter hours. Also my third family lived not too close, resulting in a 25-minute travel by bus and foot with the result.
Host families are an integral theme of my experience abroad, as it eventually lives with them and with time, a part of one's own to life.
My first home was, as already mentioned, in fact only a temporary solution, as my original family jumped in the last minute, two hours before departure, to be exact. There, I've never felt comfortable and was not taken very cordially. After the expiry of the scheduled six weeks I was then due to the inability to find AFS 'a new and permanent family, summarily to the sister of my first host mother deported to me but my own room, but still did not give affection. So I was forced about for weeks to sleep at about 30 degrees in my room without ventilation, while the rest of the family at night, modern air conditioning systems used. Both families
hatten von Anfang an einen eher schlechten Eindruck gemacht und diesen auch über die gesamte Zeit nur weiter bestätigt. Als ich Mitte Dezember schließlich meine dritte und auch finale Familie zugeteilt bekam, ging es allerdings aufwärts. Mir kamen sowohl meine direkte Familie als auch die Verwandten sofort sympathisch vor. Obwohl ich annahm, dass dieses Gefühl der Geborgenheit wohl nur vorübergehend bestehen würde, nachdem die anfängliche Freundlichkeit abgeklungen wäre, durfte ich feststellen, dass meine Familie tatsächlich wunderbare und hilfsbereite Menschen waren. Dabei half sicherlich auch, dass meine Gasteltern beide bereits Auslandserfahrung hatten und mein ältester Gastbruder momentan auch ein Austauschjahr in Deutschland spending, also with AFS. This cross-cultural understanding has contributed much to the fact that I could feel myself understood and respected. Also helped our daily dinner and regular visits to relatives on the weekend about to forge a close relationship. The farewell I fell really hard. Also today, I'm often with my host family over the Internet to contact. [...]
Stay tuned, next week when I talk about my true opinion of AFS, language problems and my future in the development policy.
your January
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