Just your friendly neighborhood not Spider-Man

Hello Steemit!

I hear that there is a quite nice community around these parts, thus I am here to look for my own little corner. I learned of this network from a presentation given by @martin.mikes, who I have the pleasure of meeting often here in Bamenda, Cameroon. I am really excited to see how Steemit rewards its users by producing interesting and relatable content, sharing thoughts and giving constructive feedback. I feel like I am not the only one that is sick of the most popular sites being ravaged by trolls, racists, sexists and annoying non-informative content in general.

Ok, enough complaining and let’s get to it.

My name is Krišjānis Liepa, and if you’re wondering “what crazy letters are those?” the answer is – Latvian, those are Latvian letters haha. But friends usually call me Kriš (the sound is something like “sh”). At the moment I am 25 and I have spent my life between two cities in Latvia – Bauska (where I was born) and Riga (the capital).
Up until the age of 21 or so I was a regular middle-class materialistic brat that had went through a good high school and continued to Uni for studying economics and become a wealthy big-shot. I reckon that during the last part I realized what kind of attitude and work ethics is attached to that. So getting through my Bachelors was not useless – I found out who I don’t want to become. I guess these are the things that still bothers me most about people – arrogance, disregard for your fellow people, unnecessary competition and most of all SHORT TERM THINKING.

Everything changed when I went on my European Voluntary Service (EVS). 2 months or so, after my graduation I found myself in Bulgaria, doing archaeology. WHAT? Yes, archaeology –> the project didn’t really require much experience. The whole thing… was something different. In a matter of days you find yourself living in a different country, using different currency, surrounded by only people you don’t know and given all the freedom for initiatives you want to.

So what I realized in Bulgaria:

• [x] I love working in an NGO;
• [x] Erasmus+ provides tons of opportunities for young people;
• [x] Most importantly –> if everything around you suddenly changes, that’s where you find the real you.

Since then – I have been working in IT to cover the rent and in NGOs to cover my interests, haha. The organization I am currently working in as a volunteer is called ESI LABS!, and it doesn’t have anything to do with laboratories, however it does translate to “Be good!”, and we’re actively sending Latvian volunteers around Europe (and hopefully soon enough around world). Just to add to that if you’re a young person (up to 30 y.o.) and would like to have a similar experience anywhere in Europe- you can ask away, I will provide you information and advice! With some like-minded people we have also established an organization for organizing Repair Café events in Riga. It’s actually really exciting, but as I am making this article so long already, I will just leave more info for later.

Nevertheless at this point and time, I find myself sitting in an office in Bamenda, Cameroon! How come? Simple –> when you are a volunteer, your life somehow becomes really flexible and if given the chance you are ready to participate in exciting projects just like that. So I am here for a three month internship in a local NGO focusing on community initiatives. Specifically –> to work on a plan for creating a social enterprise. The internship is part of a yearlong training cycle regarding issues like north-south relationships; colonialism, power structures, critical whiteness and all these topics I had little or no clue before.
However! I thought, that this is also a nice opportunity for practicing something I always wanted to –> filming and editing. So I armed myself with a borrowed GoPro Hero3+ and started to learn the ins and outs of this complicated art. No worries, all the videos I make will be posted here for your critique or praise.

This is my work on my Cameroon Experience until this point

If we focus on less formal description of myself – I love outdoor activities, boards, boards and another time boards and discovering beauty in places you might not expect it. I also enjoy finding like-minded people in the same places haha. I laugh a lot and have a terrible sense of humor. I must say though, I believe that a joke is a joke, so it should not matter what topic it is! Right?

To sum up – what you can expect from this blog is:

• My experience and situation in Cameroon through videos;
• More detailed description of volunteering projects and opportunities;
• Projects I have and will work on back home in Riga and of course
• Adventureeeeeees!

And just the last thing – the friend I mentioned above also has in his disposal a genius voting bot that lets you get paid through Steemit WHILE you’re planting trees in Cameroon. Check it out at @treeplanter .