Editorial: Living in the Moment
What happens when a Finnish introvert spends half a year in a small and lively town in Mexico? This may sound like a beginning of a joke, but it isn’t, although I could come up with a few good ones from my time as a volunteer in Mexico. Well, fun stories more so. But what happened? A lot of funny occurrences, awkward situations and most of all, countless times of getting thrown into the moment – and usually, all three things at the same time.
For example, I still vividly remember how I was asked to sing a birthday song at my workplace in the kindergarten in front of sixty students and the teachers. There I was, having a bit of a stage fright, my voice a little bit (read: very much) out of tune, singing ”happy birthday”. There was also a moment when I had to dance Mexican folk dances – again in front of an audience – with a young man whose toes were probably hurting days after. Or that one time when… There are a lot of stories like these, and they all are about living in the moment.
To me Mexicans appeared as sociable and fun-loving people who talk openly about their feelings (and others’, too). Well, at least the Mexicans I met during my stay there we like that. People threw themselves into situations spontaneously. It didn’t matter, if you didn’t know how, you tried anyway. People were willing to seize the moment, and they encouraged others to do so too, me as well. For a moment I was truly living “an introvert’s dream”. But while living and spending time with these people I learned about the importance of the moment. I also learned that as long as you’re smiling and able to laugh, you can survive almost
anything.
That’s how life sometimes goes, throwing us from one moment to another. The theme of this issue is Latin America. I wish you a happy reading and courage to live in the moment!
Titta Tuovinen
ICYE volunteer in the season 2013
Member of the board of Maailmanvaihto 2014
In the issue
2 Pääkirjoitus: Heittäytymisen hetkiä
5 Kutsu Maailmanvaihdon syyskokoukseen
Teema: Latinalainen Amerikka / Theme: Latin America
– 9 Lattarimaat kiinnostavat
– 10 Vuoristoratoja ja vapaaehtoisarkea
– 12 Hölmö nuori sydän
– 15 Valmiit ja rohkeat
– 18 Muistoja Meksikosta
– 22 Matka vapaaehtoiseksi
– 26 Bolivia Enseña
28 Into the ICYE Network by Coincidence
30 Päivä koulumaailmassa
31 Vapaaehtoistyötä itsekkäistä syistä
32 Tule mukaan Maailmanvaihdon toimintaan
34 Lehden toimituskunta
35 Maailmanvaihdon tapahtumakalenteri
ISSN 2342-2629 (Painettu)
ISSN 2342-2637 (Verkkojulkaisu)