A life story....from Danguole

In this article I am going to tell you the story of myself. I hope not a boring story, but an inspiring one!! I will tell some facts of my past and how 14 months volunteering program changed my life completely.

From the beginning: I was born under the linden tree almost 25 years ago. My parents named me Danguole, which translated from the Lithuanian language means “sky”. According to my mum that is because the first thing I saw was the blue summer sky…

I grew up in a big family and I know what it means to share everything you have. We moved to many places around my hometown, and I had to change schools and friends many times…

I remember Russian tanks leaving my town - Klaipeda, and Lithuania becoming an independent state… I saw how the lives of people in Lithuania and of my own family changed because of political and economic alterations…

I have these memories from my childhood - me watching pictures of various magazines’ and thinking that when I grow up “I want to be a traveller". However, I had no idea what this traveller should do…

After school I went to university. I studied architecture at University of Klaipeda for 2 years. I had a job, a place to live, family close to me and amazing friends!!! I was happy you would say… but… I could not stop myself from looking for something else, something I did not know what…

 Very suddenly, after I found out about CICD and volunteering in Africa, I left my country. I told to myself and everyone around me- ‘now or never’!!! I believed that once I do it - I will be able to do everything else in my life.

I went to Mozambique, to a place in the deep bush – the national park of Quirimbas. I spent 8 months working as a volunteer in a vocational school, and a pre-school, later in a HOPE project, fighting HIV/AIDS and supporting families that were taking care of orphans.

The programme was not easy, but I learned a lot about hard work, people, places, languages, cultures and probably what is the most important- myself. The country Mozambique and all I have learned whilst participating in the programme, stayed in my heart until today…

I did not manage to finish my architecture studies or find a place in my country anymore. I continued travelling, volunteering and searching in other places, with other organisations and people… After 3 years I finally realised that development is what I want to do in my life and decided to study it. I have just finished my first year of International Development studies at University of Leeds and I am volunteering over summer in the promotion office at CICD.

It is more than 4 years now since I left my country with this idea of African people starving, dying and suffering. I had the idea that Mozambique existed just in cartoons or books I read. I had to learn that it was not true - people are happy, people live their lives in Mozambique also, just as any other person on this planet.

So today I talk to people who are willing to take the same step as I did 4 years ago, and I wonder- what will they make out of it? Will they realise that there is nothing better than being at home or would they never go back to their own country again? Will they start to value more the things they have? Will they become more sensitive to others’ pain and misfortune, or just feel happy to be the “lucky” one?

We never know what the future brings and where we end up… However, with my own life story, as an example, I want to induce you to take a challenge and to learn from it as much as you can. The 14 months volunteering programme for me was a life changing step, the discovery of how to become a “traveller” and proving to myself that I can do anything.