South-North volunteers look back

Eleven young people from Latin America and Africa have completed their voluntary service in Germany. Four of them looked back on the year.

Leaving everything behind, that you know and are used to and - for a year  - to take on a social task in a foreign country: Pretty and Mamotumi (both from South Africa), Mica from Paraguay and Bianca from Brazil have this experience in common. The four young women were part of the volunteer program of the Ev.-luth. Mission in Lower Saxony. Their placements were very different: Pretty looked after elderly people in a retirement home in Osnabrück, while Mamotumi was involved in youth work at the Himmelsfels international meeting centre near Spangenberg in Hesse. Mica completed her volunteer service at the Protestant kindergarten of the Marktkirche in Hanover and Bianca helped out at Lobetalarbeit, a facility for people with disabilities.

Now they have come together in Hermannsburg for their final seminar and, shortly before their departure back home, are reviewing their impressions once again. "The problem at the beginning was the language, but the better I got at it, the easier it became," Pretty remembers the early days at Heywinkel-Haus in Osnabrück. The 26-year-old mainly worked with people with dementia there. She baked, sang, played and attended devotions with them. In her free time, she completed her degree in criminology online, including her final exams, which she had started in South Africa. "In record time", as she proudly remarks.

For Mica from Paraguay, the first six months were a difficult time. She remembers: "I was very nervous because I knew that Germans are more reserved. I met a lot of new people at the beginning, but I didn't get to know them well. My colleagues supported me at work and the job was good. Nevertheless, after six months I was disappointed and lonely and missed my family. Then I found a Protestant free church in Hanover and made good friends there. Now I also have a 'family' and a church in Germany."

Bianca, who prefers to speak German rather than English, worked as a sports teacher in her native Brazil, where she also gained experience working with people with disabilities. "In Brazil, these people live with their families; at Lobetal, they live in groups. I think they have a good life here," she says. At the weekends, the 24-year-old travelled a lot by train and travelled all over Europe. Of all the cities in Germany, her favourite was Essen - and Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria.

She felt a bit like an ambassador for her country in Himmelsfels, says Mamotumi from South Africa. Many young people from different countries met there to meet, pray and talk. As well as accompanying the young people, there were also very practical things for Mamotumi to do. "It was also physically demanding. We worked in the garden. I learnt to keep going until 'closing time'," she says. One of the best experiences for her was when the supervisor of the team invited everyone to his home - for a barbecue. "As a South African, I like that," beams the 26-year-old, who is a hydraulic engineer by profession. But the leaders also took good care of everything else, even when it came to reconciling different interests. "We lived in a flat with several volunteers. There were sometimes conflicts," says Mamotumi.

All four women had already lived and worked in a church environment in their home countries. Faith has also accompanied them during their voluntary service and they have discovered new perspectives on global Christianity - both negative and positive. "The church service is very different here," says Pretty - and after some hesitation, she also finds an adjective for it: "boring". She believes this could be changed if the young people were more involved in the organisation.

"I didn't go to church that much, but Jesus was always by my side. I have learnt: I can want something, but it only happens if Jesus wants it too," summarises Bianca. Mica has memorised the 2023 biblical watchword : "You are a God who sees me" from Genesis 16:13. "I relate this to myself personally, it has become true for me this year," she says.