To be frank, I never had much of an opinion about volunteering during my 27 paid years as a teacher and the head of a school department in the Netherlands. I worked hard and got used to not expecting anything extra if I paid special attention to a student. There simply was no direct correlation between the amount of energy of your input and the outcome in successful results. I got to know a lot of very dedicated professionals and for the most part tremendously enjoyed my time at the Montessori High School, especially because it was founded on the principle of, “help me to do it myself.” Longstanding friendships with a few colleagues resulted, but the work yielded not much time to enjoy outings. As many teachers can confirm, at the start of holidays you finally permitted yourself to give in to sicknesses. And there was this ever-nagging feeling that you never had enough time to do your job properly, that there was always student X that you had forgotten to tell about topic Z or had wanted to help with subject Y, or material K that still was not updated/corrected, etc., no matter how many hours you worked in a day.

The first thing I started to do upon arrival in the DC area was to look for a job as a teacher. However, I soon found out that the school environment was so different from what I had been used to that I gave up on this idea. The confrontation with myself was not easy. Who was I if I was not a French teacher? I frantically took every course that I could find on reorienting my career and wondered how on earth I would ever be able to reinvent myself in this environment where I had no friends, no family, no colleagues, only my husband.

But, everything changed the day I walked accidentally into the WBFN Office where the then WBFN President-Elect Chantale Holzmann greeted me with a broad smile and soon found out that I liked to write. “Mosaic is yours,” she said to me, and then joked to her colleague, who was also looking for a volunteer, “I saw her first. You are not getting her.” We all laughed, and suddenly I felt at home.

There she left me, with a lot of freedom to set up a new schedule, new ideas for content, and I slowly started to build a team. Her input during Mosaic meetings was incredibly rich and varied; it gave me the feeling that everything was possible. So, there I started out my volunteering and gradually got to appreciate the fact that I had so much free time on my hands. For the first time in my life I could give as much time as I wanted to an activity I had chosen and really go for quality, instead of doing some things half-baked due to time constraints.

I came to appreciate the fact that being paid for a job is only one way of getting self-respect. As a volunteer at WBFN I felt rewarded with friendship and respect from others and regained self-respect in a new way. I found a fulfillment much richer than money…because a picnic was a success, an article was well received, a new way of presenting information to newcomers worked out well, a shy and depressed newcomer left the office much happier after I had put her in contact with another newcomer or found her a fun activity to join. As a teacher, I had had similar experiences, but I never really had the time to think things through, to read the articles or books on the subject I wanted.

At WBFN, I tremendously enjoy the opportunity to meet with newcomers from so many different backgrounds and mostly to have enough TIME to speak with them. The richness of a multicultural group of people makes you aware of a lot of cultural assumptions, makes you rethink your own values, and for some obscure reason, seems to endlessly evolve into new viewpoints, as if you are constantly changing the content of a kaleidoscope. Of course, I have learned new skills like speaking in public, organizing events, writing in English, but nothing compares to the strong friendships that develop while you have fun and get energy from working with so many talented and professional fellow WBFN volunteers. I really found a new home and a new family. I know they will be there if I have a real problem. I realize I am blessed not having to work for financial reasons. And to all those who also have the possibility to enjoy their time while in DC, I would strongly recommend they give volunteering at WBFN a try. You make friends, learn to network almost without knowing that is what you are doing, learn a lot of new skills…and you can even mention your volunteering proudly on your resume if you are searching for a job.

Maaike le Grand