di F. Ambrosino, G. Alaimo, A. Migliore, F. Vethusan, G. La Rosa
From 14th May to 20th May 2017, we (five students selected among 22 schoolmates in the Erasmus+ Italian team) have been in Petra, on the Greek island of Lesvos, to take part of the second meeting of the international Erasmus+ project (“Every Child Matters – Refugees And Immigrants In Education“). During the week, we had the opportunity to meet a lot of important people, such as Mr. Antonis Kelaiditis, President of the Town Council, and Ms. Georgia Kokkinogeni, the headmistress of Petra’s Junior High School, teacher of Ancient/Modern Greek and History. Also, we’ve been able to improve our English by having conversations and socializing with boys and girls from the other three countries (Portugal, England, Turkey) and we’ve been working in groups to write and illustrate our own original stories about immigration, a phenomenon which is sadly becoming really common in many European countries. At school, in the afternoon, we presented the products we prepared for the trip when we were in Italy and mostly in the morning we visited a lot of interesting and cultural places near Petra (A castle in Molivos, a small town but still one of the most important and popular commercial zones on the whole island; A ruined Greek temple and a church). Also, a specialized instructor taught us four traditional local dances and on Thursday night, when we had the farewell dinner, we used the recently gained experience to dance with a group of experts! It was really enjoyable and funny and it was great to learn interesting things about this country, its uses and costumes, but on the last day, it was hard for all of us to leave and say goodbye to our new friends, because this trip let us meet teenagers just like us from all over the world, and we’re sure everybody would have taken our places if they had the chance to.
