On Wednesday Martine arrived at Managua airport, but she was only able to travel to Juigalpa days later as public transport closed down because of Holy Week. So it was Saturday when she finally arrived at our community home for which she had been preparing for many months. Martine will be doing doing some research how to improve the quality of our care. She will return after one month to the Netherlands to process the collected information and send us her recommendations.
Below Martine will introduce herself and will tell us what motivates her to live and work with us. She is a student at the University College in Rotterdam, my employer before I left for Juigalpa.
By the way, I’m pleased to say that Ruach is open for volunteers, interns or reseachers (in the last phase of their studies) of all ages who would like to contribute to our work in the community home or activities centre for at least one month. In the period leading up to a placement, we will in consultation agree on a set of activities that would be beneficial to both parties. If you (or someone you know) is interested, please send me an email. Martine writes:
Hello everybody,
Or do I have to say: ‘Hola a todos’? Because a week ago I arrived in Spanish-speaking Juigalpa, in Nicaragua. I’ll be staying for just over three weeks in the Ruach Community Home.
I’m Martine, 23 years old, and I’m currently studying’ social-pedagogic care’ at the University College in Rotterdam. I’m in my final year. Although my fellow students decided to do their end-of-study course work in the Netherlands, I’was looking for a big challenge abroad. Ever since I turned 15 I’ve been keeping my eyes open for an opportunity in a less developed country where I could make a contribution in the social sector. So that’s why I chose to travel to Juigalpa to discover how much of what I have learned can be transferred to Ruach employees. I hope of course that because of this collaboration the care for the residents of the community home will improve little by little.
For me it’s also interesting to get to know another culture that is so different from the Dutch one. People’s way of life here is so different and it reminds me that I should not take everything from my own culture for granted. So I’m hoping to learn a lot from the Ruach employees and their way of working, and to return to the Netherlands with some new ideas that I can apply in my work with autistic children back home. My first impression here is that the Ruach fellow workers do their work with a lot of love and passion. They try to stimulate the by-and-large quite passive residents as much as possible, and I am full of admiration for the steps of progress the residents are able to make, even if the steps are small. Every tiny step of progress is to be cherished and is a seed that can result in further growth.
‘The greatest gift you can give someone is your time. Because when you give your time, you share a portion of your life that is unique, it will never come back.’
Saludos,
Martine Verkade