Much more than cultural shock
My EVS experience in Philippines completely changed my perception of everything. It’s the Asians we are talking about! Not a few people who don’t affect the future of everyone and of the whole planet. They are half of the world population and if your plan in life is doing your best for a better world you better take them into account. When I was leaving my town on October 19th I said to my mom: “Don’t worry, I’m not going to another planet. There are human beings also over there, like us”. Well, what I learned is that humans are extremely shaped by the environment surrounding them. Humans have huge adaptation tendency and they become completely different people depending on the society where they grow. Now I know that we can practically become every kind of people depending on our society. Each one of us grows and creates his personal beliefs, values and convictions and rarely weareaware of how much our society affectsus in this process. I had always thought that the values that I’ve found out in my 27 years could be shared by every other human being. I’ve fought throughout my life to find values that in a humanistic point of view could be shared and accepted by everyone. Those values that would certainly lead to happier people and happier societies. I’ve read a lot, I’ve talked with many people, I changed my behavior with relatives, partners, friends, Iwrote a book. I was so happy because I thought I had found a better way. I could never expect that once in Philippines all the values that I had found out would be worth less than nothing. All those behaviors that are so appreciated in Italy or in Latin America here are not even noticed and sometimes are disapproved. |