@Gurmit Eelman haha, I can imagine that! Let's hope we get some people from Luxembourg in this community.

@Clarissa Bellon welcome! I have a feeling we will get more retired nurses or medical professionals in here soon 😁. I am a former physiotherapist myself, but I followed an additional education in Social Work. When volunteering, I combined all skills, though.

@Belinda Duncan it is great that you mentioned this. I recently wrote a post on a Dutch platform in which I mentioned how important it was for my family and a few of my friends to visit me in Flores during my volunteer placement. I will translate and paste it in here. It really helped with my reverse culture shock. Here is that particular post: “That day, I ran from one street to another, determined to show my family everything: my home, the market, the people who had become my world.” People often ask me, “Were you able to readjust to life in the Netherlands after living abroad for so long?” They’re curious. They wonder what life was like there and how it feels to be back here. Sometimes they have their own dream of spending time abroad, escaping the Dutch hustle and bustle, the rules, and the nine-to-five routine. They are curious about the culture shock I experienced when I first arrived in Indonesia and when I eventually returned home. Adapting to another culture is different for everyone. Some people look forward to it, while others experience uncertainty, doubt, and fear. Someone who has lived abroad for a long time and gone through experiences that are difficult to share with family and friends back home may wonder, “Will I be able to settle back into life in the Netherlands? How will it be for my children? And for my husband?” I still remember how proud I felt when my family, and later a few friends, came to visit my island. At last, I could show them what I had been writing about in all those monthly emails. The people I had met, the work I was doing there, the challenges of living in a different culture- I just kept talking. And their eyes were opened too. Finally, they understood. Connecting from a distance is not the same as meeting each other in person. We all know that. But at the time, I didn’t yet realize how important it would be, for my eventual return home, that my family had come to visit me. After I moved back, I was able to keep sharing my stories for much longer. My family knew the people who had become important to me. They had seen what my daily life looked like, how hard I worked to learn the language and adapt to the culture without losing my own values and beliefs.

@Clarissa Bellon Hi Clarissa, yes i recognise that also from my daughter, we have moved back from Indonesia to The Netherlands when she was 10 years old, it took her nearly a year to feel at home, she missed her friends so much. And the language barriere hit her hard. It was a hard time for her at that age. I hope to finish the bigger module tomorrow and i will upload it in the classroom. It goes a bit more in-depth into cultureshock. Many people don't realise what exactly it is they felt or feel, so you are not alone in this!

@Belinda Duncan Great work and inspiring to read. I recognise the answer 'everything' when we talked to schools, hospitals, and rehab centers in Flores and Bali, too. Most of the time, there was not much available: books, bedsheets, mosquito nets, mattresses, teaching materials, and medical supplies. Everything was needed, and as volunteers, we had to think about how we could raise funds to buy stuff locally or gather supplies in our home countries and ship them to Indonesia. Often, they were helped more with sustainable funds rather than goods. Goods would sometimes be stuck in Jakarta, and it would cost more to get them cleared at customs, especially wheelchairs. Luckily, we were with a group of like-minded volunteers, and we were always thinking with the communities what fitted best and how we could help sustainably. We helped each other a lot in those 2 years abroad. And as you wrote, the best way to inspire other people to volunteer abroad is by stories and experiences. And I totally agree with you; it is hard to sit back and be complacent. The mindset has shifted and can't be turned back.