Local values and attitudes

Now I have been here for 1 month and 3 weeks, and after this time I would like to talk about the local values and attitudes of Iesi's inhabitants.

We can start with the facilities that the society provides for the integration of the newcomers, this is thanks to their emotional expressiveness that is always accompanied by a characteristic lively and energetic gestural communication, it is through this characteristic and warm way of communicating that great efforts are made to make the newcomer feel part of the tradition and culture (be it gastronomic, customs or historical of the country, and in my case of the region).

Within the Italian society we also find a strong feeling of family unity, this may be due to the fact that religion plays a very important role in the society, which ends up conditioning most of its values; a very remarkable thing is the involvement of young people in the ecclesiastical and spiritual part of themselves through the catholic church, most young people are happy to follow the Christian religion and its values so they participate actively, in fact, in Italy there is the so-called servizio civile which is basically a voluntary service in the community that consists of a great variety of ways to help from civil protection to the preservation and promotion of cultural values and historical heritage (among many other things).

In short, this society and the way it behaves is a great opportunity to reflect on how different perspectives and values can enrich one's life experience, in my case it has been thanks to the interaction between my home culture and the culture here, that I have been able to gain a much deeper understanding of the complexity that defines the identity of Italian culture, an understanding that has also helped me learn to open up to new cultures and consequently become richer (metaphorically speaking).

Comments

Arrivederci, Jesi!

I can’t believe time has passed so quickly. It feels like yesterday that I arrived in Jesi and got a tour though the whole Caritas facility. But since then, six months have passed. This experience has been valuable to me in more than just one way and I will never forget the precious time that I spent here. It’s hard to put into words how much this project helped me grow personally and how much I learned while volunteering here. I’m so grateful for all of the people I got to meet during my stay in Jesi. My ESC project here gave me the opportunity to make friends from all over the world who shared a lot about their countries and cultures with me. Therefore, they made it possible for me to widen my horizons and it’s their fault that so many places got added to my travel list 😆 Of course, I also found a lot of new friends from this area who introduced me to Italian dinners (something I’ll certainly continue after coming back to Austria!) and who often planned trips to show me around the a...

Ciao, sono Emma!

Ciao! My name is Emma and I joined Caritas Jesi three weeks ago as the new ESC volunteer. I have only recently gratuated from school in my home country, Austria. After having studied for years, I could not picture myself attending university right away, which is why I decided to take a gap year. I wanted to use it to improve my knowledge of the Italian language, as I had already studied it at school. However, finding something suitable, even after I had learned about the European Solidarity Corps, turned out to be rather challenging. I eventually came across Caritas Jesi and decided to send in my application, which turned out to be just the right decision. After having completed all the necessary steps before my departure, I finally arrived in Jesi three weeks ago. As you can see, I haven't been here for long, but I already feel like being a part of the diverse, committed and unbelievably welcoming team of Caritas Jesi. At the beginnig, I had this fear of feeling alone in a foreign...

Ciao, cześć, hallo, hola, olá, salut, szia, tere and terve!

Ciao! It's Louise and Emma. Today we would like to share a wonderful experience with you, which we have made last Saturday. But first, we need to go back in time a bit… About 4 months ago, I (Louise) was called for my "On Arrival Training" (if you're wondering what is the OAT, go see our blog post on this topic ). There, I was lucky to meet other ESC volunteers who have the same coordinating organisation as us (Vicolocorto), and also live in the Marche region. I particularly bonded with Laura, a finnish girl who is doing her service at the Red Cross of Cingoli, and Madalena from Portugal, who is volunteering in Caritas Senigallia. After the training, we kept in touch and decided to see each other again... which we did. We visited the Frasassi caves, Ancona, and -more important for our story- at the end of August, we organised an ESC lunch at our appartment in Jesi, where we all cooked traditionnal dishes from our home countries. From that day, we had the idea to do s...

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