"A few words about myself"

Hello, my name is Hanna, I’m 18 years old and currently I do voluntary work in Costa Rica and during my time here I hope to gain many different experiences. During my last two months here, I already experienced a lot – some not quite the adventures I hoped for, but well otherwise life would be too predictable.

I work for the organization „Surf Adaptado“ and got to meet many kind people who also work on a non-profit basis for the project. Many of those are para surfer, physiotherapists, and coaches for the athletes. Currently the athletes are practicing for the world championships in California in December 2021. One of my personal highlights was to witness one of those „entrenamientos“ in Nosara, Guanacaste. There I was mainly responsible for carrying the surfboards of the athletes or shoot videos, which I cut into a small film for Instagram & Youtube after the event. Other tasks for the organization I usually do from home such as designing a flyer for fundraising or writing social media posts and answering messages. The people of Surf Adaptado and their motivation for their work are very inspiring for me.

Believe it or not, one of my most valuable experiences I’ve earned here is how to deal with boredom. As our woman in charge also has a “real” job next to Surf Adaptado, she is often times very busy which give us volunteers a lot of free space. This free space combined with working from home sometimes results in being bored or the feeling of not contributing enough to the great cause.

As I had so much free time, my surfing time out in the sea were my daily highlights. However, remember I mentioned some experiences I did not plan? One of those was to break my arm while skateboarding…and therefore my personal challenge with “doing nothing” has now only become greater. Nevertheless, I try to learn from this and to acknowledge the boredom as “gifted time”. For my personal development, learning how to deal with "unproductivity" is probably much more valuable than the other way around. Even if the new experiences I wanted to gain in Costa Rica over the year have not yet met my expectations - I am sure that I can take a lot with me back home.