Month: December 2015

It already passed a year since the beginning of my adventure in Jordan, since the so much awaited November 9, that had become an utopian goal. It’s been a year since the responsible of the CaBuReRa project in Jordan, Rami, was waiting for me at the airport; a year since I rang the bell of my new future house in Al Fuhais and I met the first of my travelling companions, Catarina. A year since the beginning of four intense months of work, sharing, travelling, of Arabic language classes, of empathy and understanding, knowledge, discoveries, study.

And after one year, I am here now with tears on my eyes for laughing and crying, reading the list of our adventures in Jordan, a list made with such discipline, written every day, so we won’t forget all the amazing moments shared together. After one year social networks have become really important to maintaining contacts and to know day by day what is going on. After one year I do not miss possibility to read and look at everything that has to deal with Jordan, from international to local news, from tourist video sponsorship to documentaries filmed in the streets of Amman or in the refugee camps.

After one year, I am facing a new adventure in a new continent, totally different from Jordan but in some ways similar. And so everything becomes a comparison: “well, instead in Jordan…”, “You know that in Jordan”, “but people in Jordan”, “Oh let me talk about food in Jordan…”; and are rare the times when Jordan lost the comparison.

After one year, memories are not yet blurry but are much milder, more tender, more intimate: I imagine floating on the Dead Sea, to ride a camel in Wadi Rum. I feel the taste of breakfast with humus and falafel, I remember the first time I tasted pomegranate juice or the enthusiasm to be in line waiting for a hot slice of knafe. Chatting with the workers of souvenir shops, living Amman and Jordan through the eyes of a local, feeling part of something I won’t never truly understand but that makes me feel at home.

Because after all, I am far away physically but Jordan never let me down and I relive it every time I am holding something that reminds me of its places and its people, its history and its present. I think back to the first time I got in the adventure of preparing the most typical Jordanian dish, or when I got in front of the treasury of Petra, or when I got in contact to the fascinating world of Bedouins; I relive Jordan when I watch the photos I took by myself and I am so happy to have had the opportunity to spend four months in this amazing Country. With a smile on my face I think back to the mornings when I was trying to wake up my companions, to the crazy drives around Jordan, to the despair because of taxi drivers, to the last minute shopping among shops filled with colours, smells and sounds.

I think back to the sweetness and kindness of people who always gave you a warm welcome in their Country, offering you a tea or a coffee.

A whirlwind of emotions, a stream of moments and a lot of flavours. And Jordan in the heart and mind, always, because somehow I also feel it a bit my Country.

Alice

CabuReRa was a really great experience in all levels: I had the chance to meet new people from other countries, different backgrounds and experiences, different points of view and all of the experiences in different contexts made me grow as a person.

I also had the chance to work, for the first time, in my field of studies – cultural heritage. I worked in Lebanon with a group of young entrepreneurs that were building a company of cultural tourism. My role was helping them to find the right strategy to grow and to implement themselves in the market. For the first time I felt that what I have studied was useful and that feeling was amazing!

Back to Portugal that feeling grew even more: I started working with a project that is really what I want to do with my life – develop the cultural tourism in Algarve. This project is called The Mediterranean Diet Route (www.rdm.pt) aims to cover not just food/ restaurants but also local products, artisans and heritage!

For me it was very positive to work in this project not just for the project itself but, mostly, because to work with culture in Portugal is very difficult. There is no money and it’s extremely hard to “enter”! The feeling I get is that one door is already opened, I just need to keep working, show my value and hope for another door to open…

Mónica Mendonça

Beginning of September, Palermo shows its beauties on a shining sunlight. A soft breeze coming from the sea cool down the heat and suddenly everything looks just perfect. It’s our rendezvous. We left each other only few weeks before but it seems so far ago, another life perhaps, another place for sure. Beirut, Amman, Birzeit used to be our homes and now Palermo is going to replace them for the next three months.

We look funny with our big luggage, perfectly mixed up with the dozens of tourists surrounding us. But we’re not tourists, not today. Among clothes, shoes and other personal effects, we also brought ‘nduja, taralli and other basic supplies we missed abroad and that we now need as fresh air. Each one of us had chosen something typical from its region with the clear idea of sharing it with the others. That’s us, there are no mistakes. We just look somehow different. Maybe it’s our clothes: eventually we had the chance to make a renewal of our wardrobe and we’re not used to see each other with a new shirt or a different pair of jeans. Some of us went to the barber shop and now are showing a new haircut too. Yet, we still look different, you would tell there’s something on our faces this time we didn’t have that day we said “see you soon” one month earlier.

“How are you? What did you do back home? It’s nice to see you again!”

That’s us, pretending nothing has changed. Same old jokes, same old laughs, but they’re just a little less funnier and spontaneous than they used to be. And an embarrassing silence suddenly comes by, a silence we had never experienced before. It seems we know each other so well that we don’t have anything new to say. But our eyes speak for us, and they tell  things only we can understand: they speak about the places we have been, our experiences, the people we have met. It’s the way we look at us that is changed. “Do you remember when… ?”

That’s it. Of course we remember, our memories are still fresh, our old routines are still vivid in our minds, but they’re over and we can’t resign to this basic, simple truth. We left each other with the pledge of keep going and now we find ourselves lost in this melancholic state we just can’t let go.

“Let’s go for a coffee”, Mario says. He was in Jordan with Alessia and Antea and he has a talent for saying always the right thing at the right moment. A coffee and a relaxed chat in a nice and not-so-crowded bar are all we were longing to let ourselves loose that much we needed. And the river starts flowing again as it used to: “What have you planned to do in the next months? Have you heard that news? What do you think about it?”

If there’s something we truly love that is chatting: we could speak about everything for ages, no matter the topic. Once we got stuck discussing about “shaving” for about a couple of hours (and our unfair balance with the girls-to-boys ratio helped a lot); with “food” or “music” we usually go even beyond that limit, but most of the time what we talk about are work related topics or opinions on general life subjects. For as many jokes we would ever do to each other, the truth is that we have a really high mutual esteem and we take into deep account our different views. Even when we don’t agree on something, which happens often, we usually dig enough (that means we waste that much time needed) to reach a common point after that nobody has nothing more to say.

From an outer point of view we might seem sick, and we would also agree on that. One of our colleague at work once said: “You guys are amazing, you are kind of a guild: no matter what you are doing, no matter to whom you are speaking with, whenever you find some of you ‘Cabureri’, you move toward him, or most likely her, almost unconsciously, as if there is a special gravity at work only for you”. And we all know it’s true.

Our base is in via Sampolo, intercom “Liberty House”. This is the place where those of us who are not from Palermo live. It’s a nice old style building and we are five (we used to be six but Rosa had to go back to Napoli earlier due to hers university commitments). Even though we are all different, with different life cycles and interests, astonishingly we get along very well and we’ve hardly had any serious quarrel, so far. From time to time, usually on Friday, we organize a big dinner open to friends that normally shifts close to a cooking competition: we are all really proud of our cooking skills and we can’t wait to prove it every time we can (except for Dario, he’s not even able to boil a potato). Those nights often ends with laughs and empty glasses of wine. Sometimes our neighbour appear at the door to share some of her complaints, we apologize and life keeps flowing as if nothing happened.

At home we have our rites. We follow a strict schedule on who has to put some music on and you will hardly listen to the same song twice: we move from Arabic to Latin music and from Italian songs to Electronic or Jazz sometimes. Garbage is a male thing and a late night briscola decides who between Mario and Dario is going to throw it away, even though recently Luisa brought some new games saving us from this vicious circle. Alessia needs hugs, don’t ask why while Federica has a thing with cactus and tea, so we all started collecting both. Rosa was the kitchen coordinator and since she left our meals are a bit messed up, but luckily, every now and then, Valentina goes to Catania and she brings back a lot of food: those are happy days. To express this harmony we chose the Guayabita as our anthem (an old Colombian traditional melody) which instantly loose our daily stress and put us in a happy mood.

La Guayabita

Days pass by, seasons as well. Now Palermo is getting colder, rainy and nights come earlier, but its beauty still remains. We already know this feeling, it’s the same we experienced last summer: our time is almost over, once again. What will remain of this experience? Of our relationship? Will our neighbours miss us?

We know what will never change: that glance in our eyes every time we will meet again in the future. Those eyes will always make you understand that there has been a story our lips would never be able to tell. And we already apologize because of this but it’s not our fault, that’s what we are: a family.

Alessia, Dario, Federica, Luisa, Mario, Rosa, Valentina

Here I am doing the second part of the internship in my country Palestine, after coming back from Greece which was a magnificent country with its kind people and its amazing landscapes.

Due to the bad circumstance that we “Tg2 Palestinian participants” have faced since the sending organization delayed the continuation of the training because of the financial problem that it was suffering from, which in other way resulted in the limitation of our training only in the organizations or associations next to our houses and as I am living at a small town next to Jerusalem, and this area lacks for the existence of non-governmental organizations, it was difficult for me to find a place to start the local internship in. So I have to begin my internship in a business company that belongs to the private sector.

Siniora Food Industries Company is the company that accepted to host me as a trainee at the Human Resources department. From the first day that I’ve come to the company I started to utilize what I have learned abroad and applied it in the new workplace. I’ve gained much knowledge from them in the field of HR principles, planning and individuals’ management. They introduce me to their company and to the policy that the company follows in recruiting employees, they offered me a separate office at their department with all its equipment.

Most of the work I am doing is secretarial work; and here are some of the duties that I’ve been trained on during the last two months:  inserting transportation bills, survey the employees’ files, setting up new records for new employees, prepare training for the supervisors and their employees, writing official letters issued from the HR department such as: Final Appointment Letter, job evidence letter, health insurance, bank correspondences, inserting each employee assets, irregularities, certificates to the company’s network system in addition to many other duties.

I believe that this internship in and outside my country will add value to my career life. It will give me better chances in the future to apply for big enterprises and organizations or maybe to establish my own business.

This experience has definitely benefited me on both personal and professional levels. Concerning the first one, it let me meet different people from different countries with different cultures and to spend great time with them. For the second approach it developed my knowledge in the field of management in general, and also it introduced me to new concepts and terms in the public relations. So I completely support the idea behind these programs that give youth in this region a great chance to develop their personalities and their knowledge, and it paves the way towards eliminating youth unemployment in the community.