"Chocolate faces that make you happy"
Elif Taluk on her voluntary service in Costa Rica
After graduating from high school in 2007, I decided to go to Costa Rica for nine months to work with an organization called "Soñador", which translates as dreamer or dreamer.
I lived in the small village community of Longo Mai with around 400 inhabitants, most of whom were refugees from El Salvador and Guatemala and who farmed a certain amount of land that was made available to them and were therefore able to live independently.
Apart from the dialect, which was a communication barrier at first, it was the new, unfamiliar way of life in small wooden huts with only cold water, the poor situation of the inhabitants and the climatic conditions that were a big change for me.
Despite everything, after a short familiarization phase, I threw myself into the work with other volunteers from Germany, Austria and Switzerland and together we planned play afternoons for the children.
The Soñador project basically had no contact persons on site and did not provide any financial resources to buy materials. As a result, we had to buy and pay for all the utensils such as play balls, paper, pens etc. ourselves. Over time, the number of volunteers decreased for various reasons and the children's motivation soon waned.
When this initial idea didn't work out, I turned my attention to another activity. I decided to support a single mother called Maritza, who sold jewelry to visitors and volunteers in the village, in her work. Maritza had four sons and in addition to the physically demanding work in the pineapple field, she spent a lot of her time making jewelry from various seeds or other natural ingredients from the forest. Later, she had the idea of sending a large quantity of them to Austria because a friend agreed to sell these extraordinary handicrafts in her small store. Personally, during the time I spent in the village, I saw this as the most meaningful work and support I could provide.
After four months in the village, however, I decided to try something new and moved to the nearby town of San Isidro, where I worked in an orphanage for girls for a total of five months.
My work mainly consisted of looking after the children aged 12-15 in the afternoons. Time and again, I came up with alternative programs to bring a breath of fresh air into the rather dull daily routine. As well as helping them with their schoolwork, there was plenty of room to do lots of arts and crafts, try out different circus elements such as juggling and poi, or cook Austrian specialties such as pancakes, which resulted in almost all the girls smearing their faces with chocolate. When I think about it, I still smile today and realize how much those afternoons made me happy.
I had the feeling that I had taken on a multiple role, on the one hand I was a tutor and supervisor and on the other a friend and sister. I can't even say which of us learned more, the girls from me or vice versa.
However, I know that my decision to go abroad alone for a longer period of time and to work on different projects has given me the opportunity to get to know myself a little better and to develop further. This time and experience had a huge impact on me and contributed significantly to the realization that it doesn't really take much to be happy or to make others happy.
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More information:
- Sonador (Community of Longo Mai)
