I grew up there on a farm and also graduated from an agricultural school (MY 2020, HBLFA Raumberg-Gumpenstein). I found out about the Open Heart community through a friend and immediately felt drawn to it. After a long period of preparation for the club, I flew to El Salvador with Paul Eberhart on October 3rd, 2023. My new community siblings were waiting for me there: Joanna from Poland, Luz from Argentina and Selen from Turkey, not to mention the intense heat and the beautiful landscape that we immediately noticed.
On the first day, when I arrived in the slum in the capital, which was my home for many months, I felt care and warmth at my welcome. The children became my first friends and playmates there. Looking back, these were also my great teachers when it comes to language, patience, trust, simplicity and peculiarities in culture. Especially in the early weeks there was often the chance to play a game of Uno, Interception or Monopoly. When I think back today, so many wonderful friendships have emerged from this. The beauty of the mission with Open Heart is the human touch.
Slowly my friends got older, I mean, after a few weeks I was visiting more and more young people, later adults and families and, towards the end of my mission, the old and weak. In general, I would and would like to visit them all every day and this effect came about simply through the empathy and the continuous improvement of my Spanish. Visiting old people has always been for me. All these small meetings were always in the simplicity of the charisma of Open Heart, which is simply the presence that I gave there for free. Precisely that presence that gives people a counterpart; I listened, looked and didn't hide. We, as an international, small house community, have encountered suffering so often: when Don Jeppe (95) died, when Uli (19) lost his job, when our neighbor Fernando (8) showed us the scars he had suffered has to bear the violence of his grandmother and his playmates and also when Danilo (38) was taken to prison. We were able to pray with Virginia and whisper small words of comfort to her when her granddaughter passed away. At the same time, we were also able to share moments of joy, celebrate and laugh with old and young, at birthday parties or just have fun with the little things.
Above all, I loved the simple existence there. We were at home and had visitors or visited our neighbors, friends nearby who we hadn't seen for a long time. We rarely went on trips, mostly with friends: to the beach, to sights, to the country or to the mountains. My favorite trip was this: Oscar and Aquiles took us (3 Austrians) with them in their car and we drove into black rain clouds, into adventure, had a tire blowout, met old friends for dinner, who also gave us accommodation. The next morning we went to early mass at a well-known pilgrimage site and then off to the volcano of San Vicente, where a five-hour climb, coffee plantations, a jungle and lots of volcanic steam awaited us. Our effort was rewarded by an amazing view and we were able to have some great conversations along the way. By dinner time we were tired but hungry and some friends nearby invited us over for barbecue and beer.
This time will remain an unforgettable memory for me and will continue to shape me even further as I reflect on it. I was able to learn to forgive, be patient, trust, rest and exercise, speak and understand Spanish, and also contemplate and pray more deeply. In the encounter, where it is about love, being loved and accepting, there lies a wonderful treasure, often slumbering, but it is possible to awaken it, in the friends from this strange, distant land, in you, in me.
Today I benefit from my service because giving always brings fruit. I can't keep what happened to myself and I talk about it and think about it. To be honest, my missionary service there has become a key piece of the puzzle in my life and it remains to be seen in which direction I will continue.
I am currently working on my home business mainly in direct marketing and forestry work. At the beginning of March I will start studying geosciences in Graz.
Gracias a Dios for the time in El Salvador!
A look back at El Salvador (author text and images: Josef Kurzmann)
