LA BRUNCA Session A – Summer 2024
My whole life, I have been fascinated by love languages, but before spending the past two months in our community with our La Brunca volunteers, I hadn’t thought much about how love transcends language. From watching the way each volunteer would rejoin the group each morning, bragging about the food their family had spent hours cooking for them; to the chest bumps shared between local kids and AMIGOS volunteers after another goal during an impromptu soccer game; to the loads of giggles and squeals over hours of card games; and the tears shed during the families’ goodbyes, I learned that love does not always require words.
The theme of our program was sustainable farming, but I now believe it should be called “Sustainable Farming and Love.” While volunteers collaborated to build new coffee bean drying beds, there was no shortage of heartwarming smiles and laughter sparked by the nicknames given to volunteers by community leaders, encounters with unusual plants and bugs, and the funny mistakes they helped each other recover from. I would often step in to offer the volunteers water and snack breaks; more than a few times, I heard the response, “Could we please keep working?” They worked with such dedication that they never wanted to stop.
Open hearts lead to endless learning opportunities. Our volunteers learned Costa Rican slang like “mae” (which means “dude”) and “chunche” (which means “thingamabob”). They learned how to make traditional rice tamales. They learned to dance, gaining confidence in themselves and their bodies. They learned traditional Costa Rican games, which opened doors to even more connections with locals. They also learned courage and gratitude. One volunteer reflected, saying the experience gave them “perspective on how people live outside my immediate area—gave me more love and appreciation for the depth of humans.”
The love that filled our volunteers’ hearts each day was the most magical fuel for adventure. Each day brought something special: hiking through Parque Nacional de La Amistad, painting our faces with the natural coloring plant achiote, chasing after sunsets, frolicking across playgrounds, spending generous amounts of time hanging out at the pulpería (small convenience store), processing sugarcane, and so much more.
I now realize that it’s not necessarily language that connects people but rather love and the desire to connect that makes people want to speak each other’s language. Our volunteers returned home with promises to keep practicing their Spanish and with a new home where they will always be loved.
~Maguire Hansel and Melissa Peraza
