written by Valerio Dominici (participant from Italy)
I can’t put in words how this experience literally changed every aspect of my life. During my program I took part of the filipino community, I went to a filipino school, I had a filipino family and I ate filipino food. I basically lived as one of the million filipino teenagers. I got to know the culture and dealt with that every day, I faced fears and problems by myself, I grew up and changed a lot and at the end of my experience I can finally say that I’m proud.
I’m proud of the process of my experience and from the beginning until the end I would NEVER CHANGE any point or any step of it. I’m proud that I did it and I’m completely satisfied of how it went. As now I have another family that loves me even if I’m far away from the one that once I called home, I have built relationships that will last forever with people which I have lived and shared memories with.
All of this because I jumped into the one that I call “the black hole”: the mystery of a country which I fell in love with and will be part of who I am now, and forever.