Coaching for an active citizenship

Erasmus plus is about the people.
I always go to a training course and expect to be served with new, fresh and interesting info and I always find myself asking the questions and answering them.
In this training course that was held in two places due to logistical problems, Chișinău and Vadul lui Vodă, I managed to understand why these peojects are funded by the EU, even though they cost a lot and seem too good to be true.
For whoever doesn't know yet, an Erasmus+ training course implies basically no cost for the participant and it provides food and accommodation for 8-10 days in a foreign country, one of the many partner countries of the program.
How much money?
2 000 000 000 💶 per year for all the Erasmus+ projects
Why?
To unite the European Union even more!
To make it natural and normal for a Romanian to go to work in Denmark for the same pay as a Danish would get. To make it normal and natural for a Danish company to employ a Romanian who speaks decent English.
To learn from each other. Our differences can make us way greater than anyone might think.
And that's exactly what we learn in these projects - how to learn from each other, regardless of our nationality or social status.
I was asked what was the most important thing I learned in this project, and even though I practiced writing a project, I was stuck when I remembered that I talked to Ukrainean and Armenian people about the ongoing conflicts in their countries - just for a piece of land.
Thus, for some, the love for their country transforms really quick into hate against another, whichever one. And we all know that an AK-47 is more exciting than a huggin' flower, especially when you're not doing it for you, but for your country.
I talked to a guy who just returned from the army, three days before the project, and who now, two days after the project starts his first job - as a structural engineer. Another one is looking for a job and he knows that having done the two years of mandatory military service, he will be advantaged when HR look through his CV.
Have I learned something from them?
Have they learned anything from me?
Hug yeah!
Or at least I hope so.
And no, we didn't learn how to be the same, but we learned how to be active citizens, and not by being thought, but by asking ourselves the right questions.
Coaching for an active citizenship, Moldova, October 2017

Cezar, George and Stefan
P.S. did I mention all the beautiful girls involved in the project?