The Ivory Coast is probably a country that you may not be able to locate on the African map, and wonder whether it’s big or small, rich or poor… but at least you know it’s in Africa. That’s exactly what happened to me a month ago.

My name is Carlos, and last June, a few days after finishing my university entrance exams, I set off with a few friends from school to the Ivory Coast, one of the poorest countries in Africa due to the constant fight for power between the governments and the army. Almost seventy of us went to volunteer for three weeks, building a school in a village in the tropical ivory jungle, called Djangobo.

During those three weeks, I started to slowly realize the great help we were giving them, even though on the first or second day no one was aware of it. You begin to see how people live with what they have on and don’t aim for much more, and that what you’re helping achieve means a thousand times more for them than it does for you. They were never tired of thanking us, and during 4 of the 16 nights we were there, they came to our houses and performed dances and songs to us as a token of their appreciation. Now I realize that they probably won’t receive more help like the one we gave them in a long time.

After these days, the culture and the people make you change. You look at the Ivory coast, or at the whole of Africa, in a completely different way. It’s no longer another place where people send their money, it’s a whole continent that needs us.

Now I’m back in Madrid, and my father shows me the initiative of Más Por Ellos, and as a volunteer who has already been in contact with Africa, I must help this project in order to help many more people.

To finish, here are a few pictures. The first is very expressive…it’s not me, it’s a friend. The building was finished, as you can see in the second picture, as proof that 70 young 18 year old guys are more useful than it seems!

Carlos Irisarri Suárez-Llanos. July 2013