My second attempt at work-away

Despite the fact that I was a little unlucky with my first work-away, I decided to give it another go. When I had made the decision to go travelling for a longer period, I really wanted to make sure I stay in some places a little longer and also try out working in a few different areas. I was hoping that it would help me get a better idea of what I want to do in my future and it is also a great way of getting to know a country and its people. Another obvious plus is that I save a lot of money.

Ok so I was determined to find a new work-away. I had tried in Mexico a few times, but with little luck. It felt like that there weren’t enough hosts for the amount of people wanting a work-away. While I was in Tulum I started reading a book called ‘Man’s Search for Meaning’ by Viktor E. Frankl. (Thanks Glendon for the recommendation) To be honest I wasn’t going to read the book because it was the week before my Ayahuasca ceremony. The book is chronicling Viktor E. Frankl experiences as a prisoner in Nazi concentration camps during World War II, and it describes his psychotherapeutic method, which involved identifying a purpose in life to feel positively about, and then immersively imagining that outcome. I didn’t feel like reading anything negative or heavy so close to the ceremony, however while I was chilling at a cenote a girl close by was reading a book. It turned out it was that exact book. So I thought, okay universe, I will read it.

You wonder why is she talking about a book when this post is about work-away. You have a good point, but I will get to it. The book was a great read and it sparked some new ideas on how to make life more meaningful. (Something I’ve been struggling with for a long time) As soon as I had finished the book I picked up my computer. I went to the work-away website and typed in Non-for-profit organisations in Central America. I figured, that I find myself a work-away where I can help people and can make a difference in their life. The book indicated that helping others can make your life more meaningful, so why not find a place where I can help someone.

I found a listing in Costa Rica where I was to live with a young adult with mental difficulties. The volunteers were going to get some guidance and training to be able to better help the young man living in the house. I was quite excited because it was an area which I was previously interested in. To my surprise I received a reply quite quickly. It is quite common to not receive a reply at all. I organised a call with the young mans mum and we agreed that I would come and work at the house in Tinamastes, a little town in the mountains in the south-west of Costa Rica.

So it was time to farewell Guatemala and to fly to Costa Rica. The first challenge was how to get to the house. So far travelling from A to B was very straightforward. I either used shuttles or tourist busses, however in Costa Rica the shuttles are super expensive and they only have public buses. It’s quite tricky to find out the information when you travel by bus. Luckily my work-away host gave me instructions so I could begin my journey. I will talk about the bus system some more in another post. The trip to Tinamastes went without problems. 2 buses and few hours later I arrived in my new home.

John (I changed his name for this blog), the young man, was supposed to pick me up, but apparently he had some problems on the day so the other volunteer picked me up. This was the first indication that things were not going so well at the house. I was happy to meet the other volunteer and started to bombard her with questions when I realised she didn’t speak any English. Oh ok that will be interesting. I don’t speak Spanish and she doesn’t speak English. How will we communicate? Next we walked home and we took a turn onto the road that leads to the house. Soon enough the road became a steep hill. Probably one of the steepest hills I’ve seen. (Actually San Fran was pretty steep too) So I was thinking to myself, oh dear I will have to climb up this hill every time I leave the house. Oh well it will be good for my fitness.

Finally we arrived at the house and it was a little more remote to what I thought and was told. It was a very simple sparsely furnished house, but had a killer view. John didn’t really feel like talking to me that day which was the second indication on how things were going to be during my stay. So I tried to settle in as well as I could and tried to find out what we would be doing all day.

It turned out not much. Apart from watering the garden twice a day and cleaning the house there wasn’t much to do. We were supposed to be there if John wanted to talk and I think also encourage him to leave the house, however the whole time I was there he only left once to come to the market with us. At that moment I was thinking, thank good for Netflix…ha, ha.

It also became quite quickly clear that John had more issues than his mother had indicated. From what I understood he had PTSD, but it turned out he had a severe case of paranoia. It wasn’t a great life at the house. He pretty much just barricaded himself in his room and only came out to cook and make a mess in the kitchen in the process. I never did so many dishes in my life. Maybe I was supposed to do this work-away to get over my issues of doing dishes…ha, ha. There were so many ants and flies, so I constantly tried to keep the chaos in the kitchen under control. John didn’t make that task easy. Otherwise, I kept myself busy with some gardening, migrating my websites to a new server (perfect timing to do this boring task) and watching Netflix.

As time went by John’s behaviour became more erratic. I really don’t know why his mum thought it was a good idea to have her son, that has severe paranoia, live in a foreign country, in a place he doesn’t know and in a house with volunteers/strangers that come and go all the time. It makes sense to me that he only would get worse rather than better. On top of that his mum hadn’t been home in months and the therapist only came by once a week. Us volunteers did not receive any guidance on how to deal with the whole situation.

About 1.5 weeks in, John decided that I was a threat to him. Did I mention he was allowed to carry weapons on him. When I brought up the weapons with his therapist he said: “Don’t worry, he hasn’t hurt anyone yet and it makes him feel safer” Mhh ok great it makes him feel safer, what about the people living with him?

One day John asked me to leave. Initially I didn’t want to leave straight away. I didn’t want to leave the other volunteer alone with John and I also was keen to meet his mum that was due to arrive that following weekend. But his behaviour towards me worsened quickly, so much so that the night before I left we were quite frightened and we ended up locking ourselves into our rooms for the night. I was very glad when I finally left the house. I needed a good 3 days of doing nothing and just spending time at the beach to feel better.

It was definitely an experience that I wont forget so quickly. I did enjoy spending time sitting on the porch and enjoying the beautiful view though. The sunsets were spectacular every night. The way the other volunteer and I ended up communicating was quite fun too. We would sit mostly silently next to each other, but use google translate to have conversations. It is an interesting way of communication because you have time to think of what you’ll say. Somehow I quite enjoyed our silent chats. As for John, I hope he can get the help he deserves so that one day he can live a more normal life where he doesn’t have to be afraid all the time. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to help him, but I hope he finds someone that can. From what I can see on the work-away website John and his mum have moved to another place and there is another person staying with them.

The 2 work-away experiences have left me a little scarred of doing more, but I’m sure with a little bit of time I will give it another go. Never give up, right? Thanks for stopping by, Sabine xxx

Check out the photos and videos below. Click on the thumbnail to enlarge images.