Blossoming in Santiago

Carmen Ronan
Arizona, USA

When I first told my family members and friends I would be working with children in Chile for a year, I was surprised at how many of them responded with puzzlement. “You’re going to be working with CHILDREN?” They asked incredulously. “But, do you even like children?” Despite their skepticism, my rusty Spanish, the fact that I knew no one in Chile, and that I was pretty much clueless about kids, I believed that somehow it would all work out. 

The first few months I lived in Chile felt like one big adventure. Although my Spanish was terrible for the most-part, I found that the great thing about working with kids was that I could just jump and run and play with them without having to really say much. And when I did say something, you can bet that they got great joy from correcting/mocking me. (Who knew a bit of friendly ridicule could be such a great mechanism for learning?) My desire to learn and my fascination with the new and different got me through those first weeks at my institution, Domingo Savio.  My capacity for patience with myself and others grew by leaps and bounds, which was no easy task. 

Little by little I learned Spanish and stopped getting lost everywhere I went. Ok, well I still got lost from time to time, but I started to feel much more like a resident of Santiago and less like a tourist. I also felt an amazingly tight-knit camaraderie with my fellow VE volunteers, which certainly helped me navigate the sometimes intimidating, and often overwhelming, waters of living in another country for the first time. My life was never without new and exciting cultural stimuli, but I began to comfortably settle into the VE and Santiago communities.

My love for the children I worked with did not appear overnight, and they certainly didn’t open up to me for quite some time. But I remember that one day it just kind of hit me—I had found people to love in Chile. A roommate, a coworker, a few tiny faces; somehow they had become a part of that small group of people who just kind of make your insides go to mush.  From that day forward Chile felt much more like home to me because even though I had no family to surround myself with, I had people to love. 

Around this time, I also took on the role of Marketing and Communications Coordinator for VE. Working part-time in the VE office was a fabulous way for me to challenge myself professionally, while sustaining the emotionally enriching experience of working with the children and staff of Domingo Savio. There was never a dull moment in the office, and working there gave me great insight into the nonprofit world. Working in the office also made me reevaluate some of my previous career goals, as the nonprofit sector grew more and more appealing. Part of what makes VE Global a powerful organization is that it provides a platform for volunteers to leave their mark at their institution and at VE as an organization, which more often than not spurs them to reflect on how they can leave their mark on the world. 

Every VE volunteer blossoms in his/her own unique way during her time in Santiago. One person might discover independence and self-sufficiency, another might learn to love children, or someone might find their calling in the nonprofit sector or in social work.  Or maybe someone might be lucky enough to experience all these tumultuous joys while volunteering with VE Global. But I can tell you one thing: no matter who you are, you will come out of your experience a changed person. And for the rest of your life you will look back at your time as a volunteer in Chile and say to yourself, “Yeah, I did that. Wasn’t that something?!”