As a VOICA volunteer, we studied the life of St. Magdalene of Canossa; a woman who challenged the politics, societal norms, and even the Church of her time. In the nineteenth century, she came to us with a message: to make Jesus known and loved. This is one that Canossians all over the world live by, but the message of St. Magdalene, by her example, and that which is closest to my heart is being more, giving more, and daring more in humility and charity.I lived this past year in a community of volunteers and surrounded by a group of local friends that exhibited this way of living and it was in a village called Aru of northeastern Congo that I woke up each morning to the red sunrise. I spent my time at the Bakery, Internet Café, teaching music and helping with art activities at the preschool. I organized, publicized, and taught community English courses at the Library and assisted in the establishment of Aru’s first community newsletter. I have also brought to the U.S. twenty-five hand-made African bags, which I intend to sell and send the proceeds back to the local mama who designed them. My experiences in the Democratic Republic of the Congo taught me that development is based on relationships and commitment it values character over qualifications, and respects one’s strengths rather than faults one’s limitations.
I could have never fully expressed to my friends how much of a difference they made in my life. Service was difficult and days without struggle did not exist; not only did hunger and illness handicap development; but more often than not, it was flour tax increases at the DRC/Ugandan border, copy machines that ran out of ink, chickens that refused to lay eggs and bike tires that went flat. But in a curious way, it was the intensity of struggle that gave me the strength and determination to never quit. The obstacles became ordinary and the people of Congo, my inspiration.
