From the Boxing Ring to A School

A Thai Box Fighter for The Kids in DR Congo

Abstract

I was a volunteer in a Congolese children’s school and orphanage as part of a project managed by the Hungarian NGO, Foundation for Africa, supported by the European Voluntary Service (EVS). It is needless to say that I had many disappointments and nothing worked out as it was supposed to be. But this is exactly what I have learned in the ring: you have to hold on and carry on, no matter how many slaps you get in life. However, I have also learned how much a human life worth and that one can still smile despite the deepest poverty. Sometimes I feel I went back in time and I was in the middle ages. In most parts of the country there is neither electricity nor running water – not to mention sewage or paved roads. But despite all of these hardships if I had to characterise DR Congo I would say: no one has anything and still, everybody has what they need. There are unwritten rules which are obeyed by everyone. Africans can learn a lot from us, but we know nothing about human relations in comparison to them. But if we only pay a little attention, and learn from them, in a short period, we may have such a social life in Europe which we have never experienced before.