Three weeks have passed since our first day here and I can easily speak for the both of us that time is flying by so quickly! At first, the days seemed to go by extremely slow. I felt bored just sitting around not doing anything, waiting for the next meal or activity. When minutes felt like hours, in my head I constantly thought, what am I doing? Why am I here? How is sitting here benefiting me or the community members? I questioned the purpose of my position. As a volunteer, I initially thought that I should be helping clean, cook, or do some sort of physical work instead of just sitting around doing nothing. It wasn’t until a fellow volunteer gave me some advice when I better understood my purpose. He told me that we don’t need to be doing something every second, that our job is not only to do chores but it’s more so to spend time with the community members. That advice changed my perspective and attitude when sitting with the community members. Even though I can’t speak much italian with the community members, sitting with them is not doing nothing, but it is being present with them, enjoying each other’s company, and sharing a common experience. I realized this opportunity I have right now isn’t like most volunteer experiences I’ve had in the past. L’Arche is so unique because we are living in community with intellectually disabled peoples. And living in community with people can be very similar to community living, such as dorms or even our own homes, where everyone contributes to the running of the house or building, and we do almost everything together. With this new knowledge, I now know that my job here is to be just another member of the house, to eat, to relax, to dance, to pray, to clean, and to participate as the other community members do, even when that involves sitting around. As week four comes to a start, days seem to be going by much quicker, days are more routine, relationships with community members, other volunteers, and assistants are growing stronger, and every day challenges are getting a lot easier to overcome. I can say with much confidence that I am loving it here and I do not regret coming here one bit!
