“I want to be the adult a child can trust”

What were your reasons for applying for this particular project?

The project that really intrigued me was the Parent-Child Centre in Stuttgart. When I looked at the website, I was surprised that there was a place where parents and children could get together. I didn’t know of any such centres in my country, and maternity leave times are much shorter than they are here. Parents can’t spend as much time with their children.

I imagined how I would talk to the parents in the hall about how their children were doing and how I would meet with mothers who were drinking coffee while their children attended a theatre class. It was simply magical when I found that this part of my dream came true. I got to know mothers and fathers with very different stories. Some of them enjoyed their time as parents to the maximum. They organised yoga classes for pregnant mothers or attended the summer concerts at the Centre; they came in the morning for the children’s singing and danced with the children in the afternoon.

There were also more difficult moments: I met parents who were going through a divorce, who couldn’t find work, didn’t understand the language or whose child was ill. Every father, every mother, every boy and every girl I met was unique, and I’ll never forget their stories and all that they taught me.

What was your job at the Parent-Child Centre?

The Centre has a cafeteria, a kitchen, the miniature kindergarten and the “Open Child Care” section. My boss told me immediately when I arrived that I’d be deployed in Open Child Care.

There were children from under a year old to 7-year-olds. Some children came regularly, others attended occasionally. My task consisted of opening the room, welcoming the children who arrived first, entering their name on the arrival list and getting information from their parents, if needed. I took care of the kids, changed diapers, brought them to the toilet, helped them with meals, played with them and read books to them.

I loved being there, taking care of the kids and making them laugh. Learning new words and new games was fun. Organising the children’s singing group on two mornings a week was my high point because I loved singing in German with the children.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

Looking back, I would make it clear at the onset to colleagues and parents at the Centre that I’m a volunteer and not a kindergarten teacher. This would have spared me from taking on too much work and getting pretty tired on some days. It would have helped me to say “No” every once in a while, to be strong and say: I can’t right now, I’m busy with this child or: I don’t know how, please do it yourself.

It can be challenging to be away from your homeland and family for so long. How did you deal with homesickness?

I think you never stop missing your homeland and your family, no matter how well integrated you are. In the courses held by the Bolivian Children’s Charity, a psychologist told us that what we felt was normal and that there were many ways of coping with these feelings. In my case, both the mentoring and the monthly get-togethers with other volunteers helped me quite a lot. It helped me to describe my development in the reports.

During the Christmas season or when you’re sick or find certain rules in the host family or at work pretty strict, you are most vulnerable. What helped me was to call home and listen to cheerful Bolivian and Latin American music on the way to the train station. I remember how, on grey winter days, I listened to Cumbia with headphones; I imagined my entire reality in this rhythm. On other days I played children’s music and danced with the kids.

Is there a funny or exciting anecdote from your volunteer service that you’d like to share with us?

There were definitely lots of laughs with my colleagues at the Open Child Care Centre. It was always funny to hear the jokes the children told. There was a little boy, for instance, who asked each time we played a board game: “May I win?”

Now that I’m about to graduate from the University of Stuttgart in Environmental Engineering, I can proudly make use of these skills. I’m on the Board of the Bolivian Children’s Charity, where I take care of the affairs of the child centres we have in Bolivia. I also worked as an assistant at the University Diversity Office. Soon I’ll begin an internship at a company that deals with environmental projects in Latin America. All the things I learned this year provided me with skills that will differentiate me from others.