Salustino Villalobos Mondragon, is a Peruvian Columban seminarian currently living in Taiwan. He has been working as a volunteer at the The Ai Jia Development Center for more than six months and says the experience has been difficult at times but a fruitful experience.
The Ai Jia Development Center was founded by the Hsinchu Catholic diocese in Taiwan to help and support mentally challenged adult students. Like in many other countries, mentally challenged people in Taiwan are not considered important. Consequently, there are not enough social benefits to cover their daily needs.
When I started my volunteer work, I was not able to communicate well in Chinese with the teachers and students. I needed to talk with the teachers about the daily activities for the students, but I could not understand what they were talking about which was frustrating. In the early days I had no self-confidence even with simple words. Moreover, in my daily activities I had no one to speak to in English, so I had to speak Chinese. What I learned from this experience is that the spoken language is not the only way of communicating.
For example, the students frequently manifested their feelings in their facial expressions or gestures.
At the beginning I did not feel comfortable with the students. Even though in theory I knew the students at the Center were the same as me, I felt that I was normal and they were not!!
In order to realize they are the same as me, I needed to stay, spend time and share with them. I started by learning their names and began to feel comfortable and enjoy my time with them. The borders I had created between being normal and abnormal disappeared. My feelings of ‘who is normal’ and ‘who is not’ changed
Since I had completed two degrees at university, I thought I could teach the students but in reality it was the students who taught me particularly to appreciate the simple things in life.
They have clear priorities that always include others. In our daily prayer time at the Center the students always pray for their close relatives, teachers, staff and other students. This made me think that I too must care for people around me. The students made me aware that I cannot be individualistic. Others must be present in my daily life.
During my time at Ai Jia Center I have been challenged to break down my prejudices and to live and accept those who may seem different from me.
As Proverbs 19:21 says, “Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
Salustino Villalobos Mondragon, is a Columban seminarian currently living in Taiwan.
Related Links
- Read more from The Far East - August 2017
