„I do the best I can, free of charge, in order to help others“ – Mother Teresa
I've always enjoyed helping others and I would say that volunteering has always been close to my heart. As a high school girl I wanted to finish med school and go to Africa to volunteer. However, life has its own unique ways and so I graduated from an entirely different college and got a job far from Africa. Still, volunteering was always somehow present in my mind and I knew that someday I was going to make my dream come true.
At first, I started to collect aid for children unprovided for. Those were very small-scale events for a close circle of friends, but they spread slowly as time passed.
Then I started to volunteer in a center in Zagreb for children that are unprovided for and who are mentally challenged. In that center I got the chance to experience what it meant to have no parents, have numerous physical and mental impairments and to see how much pain and suffering can be hidden in those tiny eyes. Nevertheless, I've learned that those little hearts harbor an endless source of hope and love that they selflessly give away.
India instead of Africa
I found out about the "Blue Angel" association over the Internet and so I immediately contacted the president of the association, Dragica Kopjar. Finally, my dream of going to Africa was starting to come true. And so, completely out of the blue, I decided to volunteer among Tibetan refugees in India after seeing a presentation of the association in KIC.
It was a decision made “on the spur of the moment”, a decision I am highly proud of today.
That decision was my ticket to a world so completely different from mine; it led me among people whose views changed mines so much.
In August 2013, I travelled to India together with my friend Tomislava Papić. We decided to volunteer for three weeks in McLeod Ganj, a place where the majority of Tibetan refugees live today after the Chinese occupied their country in 1959. Every year new refugees trickle in, unable to bear the terrors of Chinese authorities over their people in Tibet. In McLeod Ganj are also the residence and temple of the Dalai Lama, a great man and peacemaker revered not only in his home country, but all over the world.
As soon as I arrived in the town, I felt this immense hospitality and kindness of these humble people. Their patience and faith in returning to the free Tibet are simply contagious. And even though they have to stand up to mighty and powerful China in their fight for the independence of Tibet, the Tibetans firmly believe in their victory. Justice may be slow, but it is inevitable. And Tibetan people believe in justice.
Tomislava and I got our first volunteer task: teaching English to one Tibetan girl. Her name was Samten Kyi (Samteki) and she was already attending English lessons in her school. However, because classes were so big and teachers couldn't focus on each individual pupil, Tomislava and I helped Samten Kyi do her homework and also to improve her pronunciation and conversational skills.
Actually, that was a mutual learning experience. Through this work we got to know first-hand about Tibetan culture, while at the same time we were telling our pupil about customs and traditions of our country, Croatia. Soon we realized how alike our two countries are; how we shared similar history and fate because we were both at war with a far more powerful enemy, fighting for independence.
The plates of happiness
After a few days in McLeod Ganj, Tomislava and I got our second task. I started to work in the soup kitchen, and she worked in a day nursery. In the mornings we would work there, and in the afternoons we continued giving lessons to Samten Kyi.
I found volunteering in the soup kitchen a real breeze of fresh air. I learned to prepare traditional Tibetan dishes and got to use many ingredients I'd never heard about in my life. A young girl named Tsering was running the kitchen, who was also a Tibetan refugee, and her cooking skills simply amazed me. She always put a personal touch in every dish and she would proudly point out that "that meal is typical for this and that region in Tibet."
Undoubtedly, the most beautiful part of each day was giving out food. Around 12:30 the first beneficiaries started to arrive and they waited until 13:15, which was the meal time. As soon as we opened the food cans, everybody would line up with their small dishes, waiting for their ration of delicious Tibetan food.
My heart was filling with love with each passing day because, for the first time, my efforts were paid back with warm smiles and words of gratitude. Everyone was thanking for their ration like I served them the entire world on the plate, and not food.
The power of gratitude
I realized for the first time in my life the meaning of thankfulness and the power it has in our lives. And while the Tibetans cherish every single ration of food, we should also stop for a moment and say our thanks for living in a world of abundance. Potable water and a warm place to sleep is something we take for granted; however, these people are lucky if they can have it. The western world offers the possibility of choice, choice that the Tibetan people have been denied. Nevertheless, love and understanding in this mountain nation exceeds even the greatest western altruism. He can learn many things from them.
Living in this community has changed my life in so many ways. Now I thank for every single day that lies ahead of me, for every situation that teaches me how to handle difficulties. I thank for every person that walks into my life and enriches it, I thank for people around me and I shower them with love every day, because tomorrow it might be too late.
By doing volunteer work I haven't only helped others, I helped myself as well. I discovered an endless source of love for me and other people and realized the power of gratitude. Our pupil Samten Kyi once said to Tomislava and me: "You must've been good in your past lives because God has rewarded you. Now you have your own country where you can express freely who you are. You have friends and family, you are free to choose what you will do in life and you can decide how much spiritual and material to incorporate in your lives. We don’t have that."
I am so happy and proud I got to form part of this large Tibetan refugee family, at least for a little while.
Morana Čunko
