So…the plane took off on 7th January and a real lifetime experience had just begun! Six girls from Romania, another five from Spain and six from Greece would meet in the beautiful city of Amsterdam the rest Dutch team, ready to do their best in order to make this youth exchange unforgettable! “Icebreaker” games, especially planned to help us know each other better, “chats” about our migration experiences, our hopes, expectations and challenges towards the project and of course… culture exchange activities introducing us to each country’s civilization. We spent ten days learning new things every single day.

We learned the basic techniques of photography and video-shooting and we were proud to discover our own hidden creativity, expressed through many beautiful pictures we took. We practiced our team-working skills to shoot and edit into only 2 days short videos describing our own stories and thoughts. Some of us learned and some of us remembered how to ride a bike, since this was the mean of transport used to everywhere and surprisingly…none of us got seriously injured! We learned how to be patient and tolerant and even if a 25 girls’ coexistence couldn’t possibly be easy, we actually did it very well and we managed to build some good friendships between us.

But what really impressed and in the same time inspired us was the VOW Media organization’s hospitality. Their love about their work, their passion and their will to make this project work was incredible and amazing and many of us were motivated to “copy” them after going back home. Words are not enough… just try it and you’ll see! Thank you for everything and I’ll really miss you all! (…I’ll even miss you…bike!!!!)

Katerina Kotzathanasi

This article was written for Orfeas Organisation’s February 2014 e-magazine.