EP 17 - German development work in rural Philippines

Pop Your Cultural Cherry

This episode is a bit special. Instead of my typical interview with an expat or immigrant in Europe, I thought it would be nice to get insights on life on the other side. I stumbled upon Simon "Sim" Tschunko on YouTube. He together with his wife Ruth have given up their comfortable lives in Germany to become development workers for the church. They have been living in the Philippines for almost 5 years now. Previously they were based in a very rural part of the Philippines called Samar, and until recently moved to a small city called Tacloban, which is still to some extent recovering from a one of the strongest typhoons ever recorded.
I wanted to understand why a young German couple would move half way around the world, to a place that to most people would consider very underdeveloped. The Philippines and Germany are worlds a part in a lot of ways - socially, culturally, economically, etc. It wanted to find out what type of challenges Sim faces and what important things he is learning from his experience there
Sim is also a YouTuber, where he shares experiences and learnings in his daily life in the Philippines. You can find the link to Sim's YouTube channel here https://www.youtube.com/c/SimKosays/
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