Erasmus+ Programme in Mayotte, March 2-15th. Hi, this is Halime Maria, a participant from Turkey with a Danish background. I'm a dental clinic assistant with a passion for travel and meeting inclusive cultures and love the idea of crossing borders, seas and continents even. It's such an amazing trait to possess linguistic skills and cultural understanding as languages open the way to engage with other communities. Through Danish, I'm able to communicate with participants from the Scandinavian countries, whereas with Turkish and the Turkish culture I am able to engage with even more cultures with similar traits and can establish a sense of belonging and understanding with them. That's what I love about the Erasmus+ travel programmes of mixed nationalities traveling together to train inclusiveness and to realize common regional and even global values regardless of the distances. I love these opportunities and love that I am further benefiting from traveling around the world to places I would otherwise not be able to, I also improve my English and are much more aware of the benefits of continuous improvements in a language, lastly my social network has increased and I love the fact that I can reach a few friends almost anywhere in the world now. That is truly amazing and a valuable gift to me. I am forever grateful to ÇEVKA and Erasmus+. Each of the projects I have participated in have provided more and more. I've improved my interpersonal skills, my linguistic skills and developed a truly open mind. I am also much more confident as an individual and can hold speeches in front of a crowd of different backgrounds, I am more straightforward and strong and much more willing to try something new and have become more adventurous, but also more caring of others in our group and more willing to step forward in case of need. Our project in Mayotte is my 6th. project with ÇEVKA through Erasmus+ and possibly the best project yet. Mayotte is this beautiful post-colonial French island near the African coastline in the Indian Ocean. It's especially beautiful and exotic with tropical fruits, fauna and flora on land and in the waters and trees I had not seen before in this way and with amazing animals you would only encounter at advanced Zoo's in Europe and Turkey. We arrived in Mamoudzou and took the ferry to reach our final destination. We were welcomed by a local Mayotte resident, a kind Muslim woman. It was amazing to see this small muslim community living in peace and being content with their small and modest religious establishments in the coming days. It was even more amazing to see how their culture and belief shaped each other to something unique to them, but still very inclusive and respectful of other participants identifying with their belief. At our residence, we met 20 other participants and grew closer each passing hour as participants and locals. The joint dinner with barbeque and later this welcome party with music and dancing really helped us all engage on a personal level from day one and provided memories to treasure for life. We were also quick to start our project as we realize the importance of it and the value it provides. Our project was also truly unique with its interest in how nature is formed and shaped and helped us to think about how nature is best preserved with a focus on the social element with our surroundings also. We engaged in small daily projects and workshops in rotating groups, to make sure that all of us had engaged, socialized but also worked with each of us and made sure to be both inclusive, but also actively engaging. We also went hiking to explore this untouched and exotic nature surrounding us. It was indeed one of the highlights of the project. The hiking included truly engaging hands-on with nature through climbing, crawling, walking up this 594 meter high mountain formation coated in green. Once up high on the mountain top, the view was truly spectacular and breathtaking. A view to remember for life and a memory shared with the many friends I shedded sweat and tears of joy with. The local participants were truly kind by waiting on me and other friends not used to this altitude and terrain. Such kindhearted humans and a truly inclusive and collective culture. As a Muslim myself, I was truly surprised and greatly appreciative of finding a hallal kebab food stand in Mayotte as I am generally prepared to just eat vegan or side dishes when on one of these projects so realizing how different dietary needs is accounted for is truly amazing to see even though I do not require or expect it. We are in fact guests and should be open minded. This program was indeed beneficial in terms of training us on such values and helped us re-appreciate many things otherwise taken for granted. Other entertaining activities especially memorable for me have been: visits to the local community to see the lifestyle and living conditions and how people engage with each other, kayaking and joining informative seminars and workshops by the locals and much more.