Los Palos, Timor Leste, 3 January 2019 -- (Fr. Tomas de Carvalho is the Rector at the Los Palos community in Timor Leste. Throughout 2019 he hosted two young Cagliero volunteers from Australia for six months each and has previously hosted short-term volunteers. He reflects here on his experience):
1. Please describe your experience of hosting volunteers
There are many experiences in hosting volunteers. The community of Salesian Don Bosco hosting volunteers last year, we were hosting three volunteers from Lateran University in Rome for one month. One from Africa and other two are Italian. It was wonderful that can live together with the people from different cultures, mentality, etc. this year, we host two volunteers from Cagliero group from Australia, Alasdair and Xavier. Our community experiences joy of been live together and work together with the young people from different country.
2. What was one of the greatest joys of hosting volunteers?
The volunteers were helping our pre-novices to experiences speaking with the English speaker people.
3. What was the one of the biggest challenges of hosting volunteers?
They have different mentality and from different culture and sometimes misunderstanding happened.
4. Describe one thing you learned from hosting volunteers?
One thing I learned from them is that I am able to know and to understand young people from different countries, especially their spirit of being volunteers.
5. How does the presence of volunteers impact the life of your community?
The impacts are good because both community members and volunteers try their best to understand each other.
6. How does the presence of volunteers enable you to live the dream of Don Bosco?
- Their ability to share their life with other young people in teaching, involving in oratories and youth activities.
- They were able to adapt to local situations.
