Meeting in La Reunion

This time our Erasmus meeting was in La Reunion, on island that is situated in the middle of Indian Ocean but is a part of France. The meeting was only for teachers. During seven intensive days we learned a lot of island’s uniqueness and diversity of for example landscapes, cultures, religions and languages.

On Saturday we arrived quite early in the morning and had already ability to have first tastes of atmosphere by wondering enormous waves at the cliffs and taking part of Tamili New Year in St Leu, a city nearby. Celebration was colorful and vivid with awesome dresses, dance and music.

Sunday was a day for something very unique: we were hiking at the volcano Piton de la Fournaise. Last eruption on the volcano was on Monday previous week. We were lucky to get in to the top because it was closed several days after eruption, and later we heard that it was active again day after we had left the island. The landscape was something you can see in the Star Wars movies and massive clouds surrounded us every now and then.

On Monday we spent the morning at our partner school Lycée Antoine de Saint-Excupéry in Les Avirons. The local students told us about daily life in the island and their plans for the future. Many of them are going to study abroad because there’s no such opportunities on the island than for example in continental France, and they want to see the world. It was heartbreaking to hear them saying: “We love our island but we have to go.” 

We also heard about a volunteering project that plenty of students had participated, and sow an art exhibition about equality issues like race, gender and sexual orientation. At the afternoon we had a walking tour in St Leu focusing on the revolt of the slaves, and at the sunset we went to a boat trip where we sow dolphins jumping in the waves. <3

On Tuesday we were discussing about gender equality and had a lecture by local association for domestic violence. Then we head more student´s speeches about the day’s topic but also about how they see Europe and European Union in their daily life even though they live so far away from European continent. We also planned next meeting that will be in Wales in October 2018.

On Wednesday we had ability to see a colorful and extremely beautiful Tamili Temple at St Louis with one of the partner school’s teachers as our guide. We also familiarized us with a Mosque and a Chinese Temple in St Pierre and visited a local handcraft market.

Thursday was about the Creole culture with literature and music. We were really privileged to have one of the most popular maloya artists, Zanmari Baret, to tell about the Creole music (maloya and sega). Besides listening their beautiful playing we got also play different instruments and sing along.

On Friday we saw more about the power of volcano on a visit to the lava flows Gande Anse. It was a huge flow all the way from the top to the sea by eruption occurred on 2007. Two years it had been so hot that it was impossible to walk on it, but nowadays there is a route through the area. We also visited one of the most beautiful beaches we had ever seen. In the evening we had a farewell party at the beach under thousands of stars.

Saturday was the day to leave the incredible island and say good bye to our host. The whole week had been something very special and will be unforgettable. We saw a lot of things that can’t be seen anywhere else and heard stories that only can be heard at the place like that. Nevertheless, we saw that people are the same with their dreams and values no matter where you are.