Volunteer Paulína: “I see miracles that somehow just happen on their own.”

Volunteer in Angola since September

Salesian missionary volunteer Paulína Hírešová left for Angola in mid-September 2025. A long-time youth animator from the Salesian center in Dubnica nad Váhom, she paused her studies in preschool and elementary pedagogy in Ružomberok to pursue her dream and experience the greatest adventure of her life. In just a few months, her year-long missionary volunteer service with children and youth in the Lixeira slum—where the Salesians run a school and a youth center—will come to an end.

A mission of ordinariness, yet full of miracles

“I couldn’t imagine what life would be like here and how I would fit in, and now I can’t imagine leaving this place,” Paulína writes in her latest mission blog, continuing:

“I’ve stopped struggling here long ago; now I just live a normal life. The mission has blended into the flow of days—completely ordinary days made up of small joys and great love. The kind of love that doesn’t burn you up, but warms you. Sometimes it’s hard knowing that I can’t help everyone and that I’m not here to ‘save lives.’ I can’t pull people out of poverty, but I can give them myself and my time. And then, I see those miracles that somehow just happen on their own.”

The most beautiful experience in her latest blog post

In her blog, Paulína shares one of the most beautiful experiences she has had in Angola, as well as how she copes when things are out of her control.

“My plan for this year was to give and offer what I have, but in reality, I am receiving so much more. Not material things. I have gained insights that move me forward. I have received acceptance that embraces me. I have been given the chance to start anew,” she concludes.

Volunteer

Read the full article, filled with beautiful reflections and titled “Normally Abnormal,” along with other blog posts at: saleziani.sk/smd/blogy

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