Spending few days with people from different countries, with different cultures, was a nice experience for me. I was convinced that understanding and respect were brought to people. It was precisely our age that united us. The first few days were a little bit difficult, until we got to know each other. In the end we became good friends and we spent many unforgettable moments together.

I was part of the training program “DIFFUSE” – Digital Inclusion for Further Use – which was held in Calabria, Italy. The meeting place was called San Giorgio Albanese and was a small village in which Arbereshe lived. Arbereshes are Albanians who moved from Albania to Italy after Skanderbeg’s death in order not to fall under Turkish rule. Although more than 500 years have passed they still retain their language, culture, and religion. The Arbereshes were very welcoming and we were introduced to the culture, traditional clothing, schools and books that they had most carefully preserved. Among the young people from the other countries I felt very good. We had many activities, different games; the seminar was well prepared and every evening there was organized live music. These activities made it overall interesting. We have the members of the group participating together with locals and sometimes other people were coming from nearby villages. One day we had a presentation of traditional food and we enjoyed different dishes, which tasted great.

In various activities, we have been asked to write both a good word and an offensive one that we use against the people with whom we live in a state and a land. In general, in Europe people tend to show racist behaviours, especially toward people of different color. People also tend to use insults of religious affiliations and habits that need to be removed. In our group there were Catholics and Muslims, people of different races, however, we became good together and we had a great time. Everything depends on the relationship between people. All the people are equal and we should respect and love each other.

Also, worth mentioning is the coastline of Calabria which was very beautiful. Youth, company, music, sea, activities… I enjoyed being part of this project!

Veton Sela