Juan Sebastian Mejia Cifuentes
Before I travelled, I was very excited about getting to know a new country and, above all, learning a new language.
In terms of expectations, I don't think they were very positive because the place where I was going to live was a therapeutic community for drug addicts, so I had the feeling that it wasn't going to be easy.
In fact, I arrived with a bit of fear and panic. I was greeted by another volunteer from Fazenda da Esperança who welcomed me and explained a bit about how the farm works (work, living together and spirituality).
When I first met the people I was a little scared, because as well as living with them, I was going to be residing with them, but they welcomed me in a way that made me feel confident as a family. What was difficult for me at first was the language, as I didn't have anyone to give me basic lessons and the boys sometimes didn't have the patience for my little Portuguese at the time. But those were just some of the people who recovered.
I don't think I have an experience that I can categorize as the most beautiful or the least beautiful, it was all an experience that happened at all times, both in the bad times and in the good times, it's an experience that managed to touch sensitive fibres of my soul that made me suffer, but also helped me mature and overcome my own limits
I was able to learn a lot about drug addiction and how it enters people's lives and gradually takes things away from them. At first it's imperceptible, but over time it takes everything away, from material things to human dignity. That's exactly where this experience touched me, not because I'm a drug addict, but because if these people who have lost everything in their lives are willing to move on, I can do it too. I can sum up my experience in a phrase that is very common at Fazenda: "All life has hope." That's what Fazenda gave me.
Now that I'm at the end of my experience, I can't help but feel proud to see how far I've come and how far I'm going. At the beginning I said that my expectations weren't very good and now that I'm at the end of my experience, I can say that I was right, but that it was only 10% of my experience.
I take home hope and the maturity to face life.
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