Searching for a way to give back

Picture me on the cargo bed of a pick-up truck, crouching and trying to hold on with my 45 litre back-pack, while my most recent French friend drives fast enough to turn that into a challenge.
This funny scene happens on a very small road in a very small village, called Matapalo, located on the central Pacific coast in Costa Rica.
Arrived at my destination and just after shaking hands and listening to the bar, restaurant and accommodation services offered by my spontaneous driver, I walked a short path that led me to a shaky two-story house built entirely out of driftwood.
I was searching for a way to give back.
This was the launching point of my volunteer work in a turtle recovery and protection project, located at Matapalo beach.

Briefly, this is how the organisation behind the project works:
Two or three people patrol the beach for several hours every night looking for mama turtles that come out of the ocean to lay eggs on the beach. They then collect the eggs and take them to the beach hatchery where, hopefully after 45 to 55 days, babies will come out to the surface and will be helped out to sea, closing a cycle.
This natural process needs assistance and 24x7 vigilance to protect the turtles from ants, crabs and their main enemy, who is much bigger and can walk in all directions on just two feet…

During one of my night shifts at the hatchery, relaxed by the sound of the waves and by the fact there were no nests scheduled to hatch (remember the 45–55 day rule), I started to think and realise…
During my whole time volunteering, I didn’t worry about politics, news, economy, traffic, timing or weather.
All I had in mind was solidarity, trust, feelings, love, partnership.
The curious thing was that these emotions revealed themselves to be both easier and less frequent at the same time.
Easier as they came naturally, as a fresh papaya from the tree, but less frequent, as we not always get our fruit in all its essence.

I drew two conclusions out of this.
First, in the same way I was looking for a way to give back to Mother Nature, we all are looking for one thing, something or many things and we have to clarify our mission to reach them.
Second, in the same way I didn’t know how to take care of baby turtles, even if we all have an idea of what we want, most of us don’t adopt the correct vision to approach the right path to achieve it.

Can we put our focus on what is trustful and lovable?

Can we look back or inside or outside or in all ways, and search for these natural emotions?

Can we be more, human?

(In case you would like to find more information on the project I worked for, or other projects run by the ASVPA organisation, please visit their website at www.asvpa.org)