My On-Arrival Training – Jasper’s blog
Jasper, our ESC volunteer at IRHOV, joined his On-Arrival training in Dworp, in Flanders, in early June. This training is intended to provide ESC volunteers across the country with opportunities to meet each other, connect and learn more about the culture of the country they live in. In his blog post he tells us more about his experience, what he learned during the five days of training and what his favourite moments were.
My On-Arrival Training took place from the 1th to the 5th of June in a small village next to Halle, in Flanders. We were around 20 ESC Volunteers from several countries like France, Türkye, Spain, Italy, Palestine, Germany.
I have really enjoyed the seminar as I got to meet many new people from different backgrounds. The environment was very open and friendly, we participated in a lot of activities to get to know each other, but it felt really natural to just talk, and ask questions. We talked about our projects, our personal lives, our own experience here in Belgium and the ESC programme, but also about the history of Belgium, which was very interesting to me.
We often worked in smaller groups or in pairs and presented our thoughts to each other, but we also spent a lot of time all together, sitting and sharing our ideas in a big circle. I really enjoyed the open, respectful atmosphere we created together.
We also had the chance to travel together to work on a group project. My group and I went to Brussels and we really had a good time together.
I think that this Seminar was really an important part of my ESC project here in Belgium, because I had the chance to meet a lot of cool personalities and get new perspectives on me and on my time here.
