It has been a while since I last posted something here. I apologise! I have been quite busy though. I (finally) finished my first year at university! I started a new writing project, and I went to the AFS End of stay-camp for foreign exchange students!
I was the only volunteer from my chapter to be there so I felt a huge responsibility for our students but, not surprisingly, they are very nice, smart, responsible, and independent so I didn't have anything to worry about! I was very pleased to notice they know how to deal with difficult situations, they have grown into lovely adults during this year. The BHV students have also managed to stay very humble, for example because they have learnt Dutch better than they give themselves credit for!
During the camp, I was charmed to see how much the exchange students truly love Belgium. It reminded me of my own patriotism. Camille (de Keyser, also an AFS volunteer) was right, it is rare to see so many Belgian flags together in one room! It was also cool to see that they've become such a tight and friendly group!
The camp was a lot of fun, but there were also some serious moments. One of the most interesting workshops, according to me, was "Take it or leave it". The students had to write down three memories: one they wanted to forget, one heartwarming, and one that taught them something valuable. The memory they wanted to forget was thrown into a trashbag - I was pleased to hear though that the students still considered that bad memory as a lesson for the future -, the two others were placed in a "treasure box". The heartwarming memories mostly revolved having a birthday or celebrating Christmas with the host family. This workshop was nice for me in some way, because through the memories of "my" students, I could relive my own exchange year. It's funny how exchange students often experience similar things even though they aren't necessarily in the same country.
The Pyramid workshop
AFS BHV and NOL chapters reconstructing Da Vinci's Last Supper
The AFS airlines was also a fun workshop. Everybody participated in this one! The point is to show the students what will (likely) happen the day they go back to their home country. The students enter a "plane" with their chapter, but leave with their compatriots. In the middle, a poem by Andrew Hunt was read and volunteers gave a little speech thanking their respective chapters for the good times.
In short, thank you everyone for this lovely camp! I would especially like to thank Charlotte Baudot and Toon Van Miert for organising everything!
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