LION

4th of July.
But also typical Wisconsin things, like seeing a rodeo, a
demolition derby, a fare, or trying some Wisconsin cheese
curds! And I dared saying I didn’t like cheese!
But now,
what was one
of the biggest
experiences to
me?
Being able to
see all these new
places! Hearing
the local stories
about them,
seeing animals,
buildings, or nature you don’t see at home. All these different
things you get to experience, and all you have to do, is open
your eyes.
The People
“Sometimes you get to meet an old white man living at the
end of a dirt road.”
Needless to say, you’ll be meeting many new people, and
some of these, you’ll remember for the rest of your life. This is
one of the harder things about the program, the fact that you
know you’ll have to leave them again.
But this is also one of the more interesting parts, this is
where you really find out what that certain country is all about!
You can look at all the monuments, visit every museum, and go
to all the “typical” things a certain place has to offer, but as long
as you don’t meet the people who live there every day of their
lives, you haven’t seen what that particular country is all about.
What To Expect vs What Is Expected
“They’re not strangers when you talk to them.”
There is one thing I cannot stretch enough: GO WITH AN
OPEN MIND!
The reason why you participate in this program is because
you want to learn about a different culture, not to expect your
own, nor to change theirs. You can only experience as many
things as you are open to. You have to be open to learn from
them. However weird something may seem to you at first, that
is the way they live, and the way you will live for the coming few
weeks. Not only will opening yourself up to this, makes it so
that bonding with your host family will become easier, you also
broaden your horizon as a person.
So again, go with an open mind, act as if you’ve lost all your
memory of who you are the moment you step out of that plane,
and now you are being brought up by these nice people that
decided to take you in and learn you all about their doings and
habits.
Camp
“Magic exists, and it happens right there.”
Camp… oh camp… The first thing they told me was “When
camp ends, everyone will cry”
Of course no one believed this. Camp is really an amazing
place. I experienced it as being a kid again for 1 week.
You get brought to this nice place where you meet many
youth from different countries, the councelors organize all
kinds of fun things to do, while the cooking staff makes sure
you have something to chew on whenever your stomach is
making the rumbleys.
Apart from that everyone… now when I say everyone, I
literally mean EVERYONE, gets along well! It doesn’t matter
where you come from, what you do, or how you look, everyone
starts bonding in just a matter of seconds. Our generation
should learn from this, and set an example for the future!
You arrive at the camp alone, you go out with every single
person being your friend.
The setting is just perfect for that, you really have nothing to
worry about throughout the whole week, in our case we didn’t
even have internet, so no contact with the outside world, the
only place you had to be, was right where you were. We all had
an amazing time, and we still write eachother, some people even
meet up afterwards!
But when that final day arrived, and the busses started eating
your friends to take them away…
My Story
“Now I’m
sitting here
this morning,
drinking my
American coffee
without my
American coffeepartner.”
I already told
quite a bit about
my own trip throughout the other categories.
This was hands down one of the best experiences I have ever
had throughout my whole life.
The things I was able to see, do, and the people I met.
Living with a host family, 8000 km from where I live, all these
things, I feel like they shaped me as a person.
I remember going there, feeling confident about the whole
thing, knowing I would learn a lot while being there, but then,
while I was there I started to feel like I was changing,
I became more confident about myself, and realized that
what I thought I would learn, was only a fragment from what I
really learned. The weirdest thing was when I found out that,
right there in Wisconsin, America, I found a piece of
myself !
I am so thankful for everything already, but as my American
mother said, and I’m sure she’s right :
“You will only really realize how thankful you are when you
grow older, and see just how much all of this shaped you in your
life, and made you to the person you are at that point.”
Thank you to the Lions for making this all possible,
and giving us youth,
a chance to taste a little bit of the world.
Mathias Aerts
DISTRICT A
Janvier 2015 januari 25