Over the summer I had the privilege of travelling to San Miguel de Allende to work with Centro Infantil de Los Angeles (CILA) - an NGO preschool heavily relying on donations and volunteers looking after children from low income backgrounds. To reflect, I edited a video talking about my experiences and what they taught me over the month. Here is the link for it (I am afraid it was too long to upload it here directly): https://youtu.be/BwDBLW3nZEw?si=VgOVU6M3dCi5lbBf

The project goal was to build a connection with these kids to leave a lasting impact in the field of health education. Going into this month I didn't have a strict plan to allow myself the flexibility of building on ideas which was very beneficial as me and another volunteer who was a dentist decided to work together. During our last week we organised a dental health day talking about the importance of eating healthy and maintaining good dental hygiene. With Mexico having the second highest rate of obesity in the world after the US, I thought that it was important to show them that eating healthy can be fun. We played games and coloured in pictures for the whole day to explain to them why an apple is better than a chocolate and why we need to brush our teeth twice a day. However, in order for these children to remember our lesson, I needed to establish a close relationship with them first which is what I did over the first three weeks working at the daycare full time. At the end of the month, the educational health day was a success with the kids showing off their vegetable calendars to me explaining that they've had their 5 a day over the weekend. It was extremely poignant to see the fruits of my work be acknowledged and I am definitely going to go back to work with this NGO again. 

Script for the video:

In the beginning of this summer, I got on a plane to Mexico to work at an NGO for a month. Alone. So here are the crazy fun stories of salsa Thursdays and the difficult lows of being on the other side of the world by myself.

Everyone should solo travel at least once in their life. It’ll teach you responsibility, make you trust yourself and show you what kind of person you truly are is what they all say. What they don’t say though is how hard it is figuring out public passport and not having anyone to laugh with after accidentally saying that you’re pregnant instead of embarrassed. But as hard as it was, I am so grateful to Laidlaw for giving me the opportunity to do it because I had one of the best months of my life. 

Leading up to the trip I was more anxious than a 15 year old before their first date so I followed my mum’s sacred advice to live through the fear imagining the absolute worst. After hours of journaling I realised that I was most scared of spending the month completely alone. I vividly imagined crushing onto my hard uncomfortable mattress in my small stuffy room on a Tuesday afternoon and falling asleep to escape the loneliness. I imagined sitting in cafes alone on weekends with strangers passing by pitying for me. I imagined going to dinner by myself and anxiously looking around the room thinking that everyone there is judging me. When I paint it like that, it sounds awful and not quite what you imagined when you heard “Ulli is going to Mexico for a month”. But what if I tell you that my biggest fear became my reality? And what if I say that it was the best thing that could have ever happened to me? 

For the first two weeks I was alone in the volunteer house so my daily itinerary was exactly that. However, I loved working with the kids so much I was exhausted by 5pm trying my absolute best to learn Spanish by staying with them for as long as I could. The highlight of many days there for me was waiting with my friend, Christopher playing “barcos de tutis” discussing his dreams of coming to London and seeing Big Ben and describing his house to me. Innocently thinking he was just another little boy I worked with, I was the happiest girl on Earth when his mum sent me a video of him saying hi to me 2 moths after I left. I spent my afternoons speaking to the teachers while playing with the babies to learn new words so that the next day I could understand the kids when they told me about their passions and and lives. At the end of the day, I floated back home on a cloud of happiness and fulfilment. The connections I fostered with these incredible kids will stay with me forever to remind me of how many people I am still yet to meet and how many lives I’m yet to impact. Never have I ever had a job that made me so incandescently happy. 

The first few weekends I did spend alone. Moreover, I would be lying if I said that feelings of loneliness didn’t pass over me from time to time. But that’s all they were – just feelings that I needed to acknowledge and feel. Because at the end of the day how could I feel lonely when a lovely old man made me a free coffee and offered me his shaded seat for the Dia de los locos cárnival? Or when the young woman working in the artesian market complimented my newly purchased headband. Or when a lovely young man wanted to teach me salsa because he saw how much I was struggling yet enjoying the music? But what’s even more important is that when I was sitting in a café completely alone enjoying my perfectly prepared coffee overlooking the sunset, my head was filled with thoughts of my friends and family. How lucky I am to enjoy this view and how I need to take it all in for them. How grateful I am to be surrounded by my people who called me every day to check that I was okay and reminded me how proud they are of me. Even though I was alone, I never felt less lonely.

Later, when the other volunteers arrived, I cherished the stories they told me and the wonderful times we’ve shared together learning how to salsa (both dance and food) and seeing even more of the city. Every stranger you meet has such a beautiful story to tell and has the potential to become your closest friend if you just let them in. By the end of the week they were my second family. I vividly remember sitting in the kitchen at 3am on a Saturday night all together waiting for the airport shuttle sharing photos, exchanging numbers and inviting each other to visit. In that moment, I realised that I would have never put so much energy into getting to know them all, regardless of age or nationality, if I hadn’t come alone. Our brain will always choose the path of least resistance – someone you’re already friends with over a complete stranger and a favourite restaurant over trying a new one risking being disappointed. it’s a dangerous position to be in because the only way to expand your world view and remain open minded is by trying new things and gaining new perspectives on the same situations. It’s the rarest most invaluable skill that is necessary in all aspects of work and human relationships. 

Making friends helped me feel safer to get to know the locals better which opened me up to a whole plethora of new experiences, interesting stories and slightly sleepless nights for my mum. After promising myself to say yes to all opportunities unless they were very obviously dangerous, I understood how people there really live, what their life values and goals are and of course where to eat the best tacos al pastor. Aside from conversations, I learnt to dance authentic salsa, bachata and cumbia, visited the local market to try the best mezcal and was taken to the best hidden spots for the best views of the city. All experiences that I will never forget that gave me a newfound sense of self-confidence and funny bedtime stories for my future kids. 

Speaking of kids, because on the contrary to what it looked like on my Instagram stories I did actually spend most of my time with them, I loved working with them with every fibre of my being. The non-profit pre school and daycare that I worked at allows parents to send their kids there for free heavily relying on donations, the help of the local community and international volunteers. Seeing kids from a low-income background rush into school every morning and get excited about the newly arrived donated books or play with the leaves outside for hours imagining the wildest of stories, reminded me of what one really needs to be happy. It urged me to be more grateful for everything I have now and to do my best to help the kids and teachers. After spending weeks building rapport with them and figuring out which way can I leave a lasting impact, me and another volunteer who is a dentist decided to combine forces and give them something invaluable – attention and information. Together we organised a dental health day teaching kids all about which foods are healthier, what is the correct technique for brushing one’s teeth and how often they need to do it, making it fun and easy to remember. By spending the first few weeks establishing a connection with them first I hope they listened to what we had to say because as Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”.  

The hardest thing for me during the trip was by far, leaving. Having to go back home felt like waking up from a fever dream but the time over the rest of the summer has allowed me to reflect on the lessons I was taught and be grateful for the opportunity The Laidlaw Foundation so kindly provided for me.