Kā jūtas brīvprātīgais, kurš atbraucis uz Latviju no zemes, kas, lai gan reizēm līdzīga, tomēr ir rkasi atšķirīga? Ko brīvprātīgie Latvijā dara, kur dzīvo, ko ēd? Lūk, viens no stāstiem – par Kristofu, kurš Latvijā pavadīja vairāk kā pusgadu un guvs pieredzi, kurai nav līdzīgas.

I came in Latvia in October without knowing anything about the country and its language. I was really welcomed by the people of my project, my village and my hosting family. The beginning was really difficult as I was only able to speak few words of Latvian and whenever I had many lessons it was really exhausting. At this moment, I found also other volunteers whom I shared really good time and travelled a little bit.

The greatest moment was the French day I organised in the culture house of Penkule. About 80 people came to visit and 60 stayed at dinner. It consisted in an afternoon with games, history, geography, presentation of regions and projection of a movie about Paris. Then came the aperitif with a dinner with a typical food from my region (it was a little difficult to find such amount of cheese). It was a really difficult preparation but what a moment.

Other parts of my project were carnival and French lessons for local community and for free. I teach French to people from 9 to 72 years old. The friends who visited me from France and participated to these lessons were really surprised to see such people but find it interesting as it’s representing the whole life education.

At last but not least, I work on the website of the municipality as I studied it. It’s really interesting because it’s the really first time I’m programming for someone else than me.

My project for the future it’s to stay in Latvia and maybe try to build a future capital but it’s still not really clear.