My Volunteer Experience
Mary O'Driscoll shares how she ended-up volunteering in Nigeria six months after graduating and how she is still volunteers in Africa...45 years later!
Mary O'Driscoll
Mary O’Driscoll is from Ovens in Co. Cork. Having just finished her Higher Diploma in teaching in the the summer of 1971, Mary and her class mates were making plans for the year ahead. One of Mary’s class mates was an OLA Sister, who suggested the idea of going volunteering in Nigeria. Mary did not need any convincing and in January 1972 she arrived in Kakuri, Nigeria where she would spend the next 18 months. Since then, Mary has volunteered her time and skills across Africa, Asia and South America. Below Mary shares her experiences, ahead of her next volunteer mission with the OLA Sisters in Mwamapalala this coming January:
My volunteer work happened by chance really in the beginning. We had just completed our Higher Diploma for teaching in University College Cork before the summer of 1971 and a group of us were sitting around the table talking about plans for the next year. It was then that one of my classmates, Sr. Maria Lee, OLA, said: ‘why not come to Kakuri?’. There was no thought in it for me! I can’t imagine what my father thought when I said that I was going to Africa. I can’t exactly remember the conversation we had but it was more of a case ‘I’m going to Nigeria’ rather than ‘may I go to Nigeria’! The only thing I knew from my geography was that it would be very hot! I had no real worries about going – those things don’t really enter the head of a young person! I suppose the training I received from the OLA Sisters helped my preparations! I felt safe given the fact that I was going to stay with the OLA Sisters.
I don’t remember much about the flight over in January 1972, apart from the plane arriving in Lagos and the great gush of hot air which filled the plane when the cabin crew opened the doors! I thought I was going to pass out. It was like the heat from a very hot oven. In the airport, I was stopped by a customs official but, thankfully, an SMA came to my rescue! He spoke to the official in Hausa (the local language) and there were no more problems! I remember the Sisters taking me to the OLA House, getting a good meal and that they wanted me to rest. However, I was very excited and went out exploring. I recall walking on this lovely sand without my sandals when an OLA Sister saw me and she quickly reminded me of the dangers of walking barefoot. People were very welcoming. It was a very safe environment.
The OLA girls’ secondary school was located within the compound where we stayed, with the OLA primary school and hospital a little further up the road. The secondary school was mainly a boarding school with a few day students. Two young German ladies were volunteering there at the same time, which was great! Soon afterwards, I began teaching in the secondary school. I was there for two academic years. There were big changes while i was there as a new rule came-in which saw all schools change hands and were to be run by the state. The class sizes increased dramatically. I can remember the girls’ dorms, they were like sardines in a tin. It was almost as if the double bunk beds were replaced with quadruple ones! The academic year changed too with school year starting in September rather than January which was the case previously. While there was a big increase in the numbers in the class sizes, the students were very respectful and quiet.
That Kakuri experience was truly life-changing. It really was a terrific – apart from the mosquitos and the humidity! Over the following years, I would travel from Ireland to spend my summer holidays volunteering. This journey has brought me across the world from Peru and Columbia, to India, Vietnam and across the continent of Africa to countries like Zimbabwe, Kenya, Botswana, Zambia, South Africa to name a few! I remember been in Zimbabwe when Robert Mugabe had just taken over. Another time two of us travelled from Botswana to Durban in South Africa, by public transport, during apartheid times. I will never forget standing at a bus stop in Durban and people looking at us funny but we were unsure as to why. It later dawned on us that we were at the wrong bus stop. The one we were at was reserved for black people, while the bus stop for white people was further up the road (for the same bus).
In more recent times I have volunteered at the OLA second level school in Mwamapalala, Tanzania. I will go there this January for two months, where I will volunteer at the OLA secondary school there.
In summary, I guess I have been very lucky in my experiences – one led to another. I have met lovely people. Figures don’t mean anything without seeing for oneself. We shouldn’t have a spare penny really when one sees the value of education. It is a life safer. I have got back more than 1,000 times what I have put in – and continue to do so. Every day is not rosy - nor is it here in Ireland – but it is a great opportunity for people in this day and age with transport so easy. If someone asks me I always say: "If you can live without the 'city life', then go!".
Click here to read the second part of Mary's volunteer experience.
