It was a midsummer in August. It happened after I quitted my job. I had an unexpected long vocation, and then, I joined an international work camp to recapture my long-lost summer vacation.

My workcamp was situated in the western part of Taiwan, a quiet fishing village in rural area. Oyster-breeding was of great importance to Taisi. Many people made their living from it. As in many other rural areas of Taiwan, most of the young people and adults had left to find work in cities. Most parents left their children behind with grandparents. The aim of our workcamp was to boost tourism in the village by drawing graffiti in public area.

Just arrived Taisi, we were all welcomed by friendly volunteers. They were young students studying in local university. Later on, we went to our accommodation to take a short break. In our workcamp, we had 4 Japanese volunteers, 2 Korean volunteers and 1 Chinese student studying in Australia. We were all passionate person and soon after orientation, we all familiarized ourselves with each other. That was really a good start! Before, I was so worried that cultural differences might be interfering in our work.

We were divided into groups and each group was assigned to take turns in daily jobs like cooking, cleaning, leading morning exercise and cleaning dishes. Everything started from basic.

“Early bird catches the worm.”- We woke up at 7am every morning, and started our work at 8:30am after breakfast. We hold different color of paints, and decorated our wall under the burning sun. Truly, I didn’t work or sweat under the burning sun for a long time. Through it was terrible hot, we still continued with our work diligently. Until noon or evening, we would go back to campus to enjoy some local Taiwan dishes that were jointly cooked by local Taiwanese and all volunteers. Wow! The food tasted luscious especially after a hard day’s work!

Local people appreciated so much for our enthusiasm for their community development. They always sent us drinks and their warmest regards. The local volunteers said that all seniors living in the village were friendly and genial. Frankly, I did not experience such kind of special and close feeling for a long time.

We finally finished our personal masterpieces and jointly completed another long graffiti named “Seasons Without Borders”, which was a picture describing four seasons in different countries. Everyone got tanned and that was an evidence of youth hood!

In future, I hope that I can have more chances to join such kind of international work camp. I wish I can enjoy sunshine, work and travel in different places again, without cultural boundaries, without worries.