Leonardo da Vinci Internship in Turkey

A Marta passou 3 meses em Kayseri na Turquia a fazer um estágio Leonardo da Vinci. Leiam aqui o artigo que escreveu sobre a sua experiência para um jornal local! Podem também ler a brochura informativa!

My name is Marta. Strange name, you may think?! Yes, it is not Turkish, I am from Portugal. Through project ‘Fast Forward’, hosted by the Portuguese Spin Association for the Exchange, Training and Cooperation among Peoples in Leonardo da Vinci Action from European Union Lifelong Learning Programme, I was the lucky chosen to do an internship at Kayseri Youth Center Association for three months.

So what do I do? As a sociologist and a social and youth work enthusiastic, I work on local and European projects related with youngsters. I was even luckier to have not one but three workplaces: Talas Youth Center, Kayseri Youth Center and Kayseri Youth and Sport Directorship. This allows me to get to know better this beautiful city, its different transportation systems (and all that is included, from getting lost to observing people), the city dynamics and how it is organized. Professionally, this enables me to understand more about the diverse phases of the full process related to youth and sport development and its activities. I could also verify that there is more than one way of working and managing tasks in the similar activity with different resources and distinct people that share the same cultural background. And of course, more people to know – absolutely marvelous people that are always ready and willing to share a lovely word, tasty food and the traditional Turkish tea with me – and fascinating personal and professional stories to discover!

Every time I can, I encourage youngsters from different ages to speak with me and improve their English (and also give some support with their homework), since it is our only way to communicate with each other – did I mention before how bad is my Turkish?! Usually they are very nice, curious and interested in me and my culture but also very motivated and active in showing me Turkish culture. It is a truly enjoyable and reciprocal learning, for both – I hope.

Besides the daily-life at the different workplaces, I would like to highlight three special and occasional moments of this professional adventure. In October, I was part of, as staff and as participant, the International Youth Exchange ‘Culture Occurs in Kitchen’ with other young people from Romania, Slovakia, Spain and of course Turkey. In November, I was part of the organization team and the project facilitator of an International Youth Exchange called ‘European Toy’ with youngsters from Bulgaria, Poland and Turkey. The big visible project for the month of December was a local one called ‘World has a Meeting at Talas: International Intercultural Exchange’ – one afternoon dedicated to the exchange between the cultures present in Kayseri.

We invited all foreigner residents to share their culture with us alongside Turkish people and culture! 15 countries accepted our challenge and we all understood, one more time, the advantages and the challenges related with cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue.

It is almost over, less than one week to go but like I always say, so far so good! I am very grateful for everyone that I met so far for facilitating this big challenge that is to get to know this peculiar culture and way of living that is so different from the Portuguese – and my personal one.

Marta Correia