Volunteering with GVI on the community childcare program in Playa del Carmen has been one of the most eye-opening and rewarding experiences of my life. The staff were welcoming and helpful right from my arrival at the Cancun airport. Playa del Carmen is a bustling city with lots to see and a beautiful culture. I met the other project volunteers and interns on the first day when I arrived at the flat. We all got along great and became very close, and continue to keep in touch. After my first visit to the toy library where I was to be volunteering I already had a sense of the amazing impact that was being had on the children there. Through the next two weeks I got to know the toy library teachers and the kids that attended. The teachers were all smiles and made myself and the other volunteers feel very welcome there. The kids were eager to play and learn some English and were happy to have any help I could provide them with their activities given my limited Spanish. I attended Spanish lessons every week day and found it very rewarding to begin to be able to converse with the kids a bit as I picked up the language. I observed and helped implement important lessons learned by the children about peace and love, how to protect themselves, and how to respect themselves and others. I also had enough free time to explore the local beach and nearby sites on the Yucatan, including the amazing Tulum ruins and some cenotes (sinkholes filled with cool clear water that can be snorkelled). Leaving the program, I feel as though I now am more aware of the diverse array of humanitarian needs at all corners of our planet, and now recognize the many ways I can harness my own abilities to make a difference for others in need. I can't wait to travel with GVI once again and continue to make an impact!
Global Vision International (GVI)
I recently embarked upon an incredible and life-changing two-week journey in the beautiful city of Playa Del Carmen, Mexico participating in the Childcare and Arts program. To start my week off I met up with my fellow volunteers, Josie, Christie and Tom who are also from Australia, and Camilla and Josh who are from the Isle of Mann and Canada.
Instantly I can’t believe how lucky I am to be spending two weeks in this fascinating place with such awesome people! Everybody has such amazing stories to tell, and I’ve had such a great time getting to know everybody. As this is my first volunteer trip abroad I wasn’t quite sure what to expect, but everybody has been so welcoming. Mexican people are all very friendly and the culture here is so vastly different to the one I am accustomed to back home in Australia!
Family and love form a very strong basis of the values shared by the people here.
There is so much happening I almost don’t know where to look first! The streets are alive and buzzing with people selling everything from intricate little trinkets to the most delicious authentic Mexican cuisines!
In my first week we also began Spanish lessons at the local Spanish school. It has been an incredible learning curve trying to master a whole new language in the space of two weeks!
The highlight has been spending my time at the local Ludoteca (toy libraries) with the children and Ludotecarias. It is customary for both students and Ludotecarias (teachers) to greet visitors with a hug and a kiss! It is lovely to be immersed in a culture that is so affectionate and promote such strong values such as family, love and peace. The children are all so beautiful and friendly, and so enthusiastic to get to know us and where we come from. It is certainly a different world, coming from a highly industrialized country and working facilities into a place that is still growing and expanding. The Ludotecarias do an amazing job, and the children are all keen to learn and have such amazingly bright and positive attitudes! Their beautiful smiles are infectious and you can’t help but feel so happy to be there! It’s truly an incredible feeling to know you are making a difference. This has by far been the best, most rewarding and fulfilling experience of my life to date and I wish I didn’t have to leave! To anybody who is considering volunteering – DO IT! It will change your life in more ways than you can imagine!
I had wanted to volunteer for a long time when I came across the GVI teaching project in Laos. I had heard many stories about volunteering overseas and I was hesitant to commit as I wasn't sure what to expect, and as a student I only had one chance to spend the money and go for it. If only I had known just how amazing this trip would be I would have gone years ago! If you are interested in travel through South East Asia I would strongly encourage you to consider teaching in Laos. Even if you can only commit to 2 weeks the impact it will have on you will be life changing. Even if you doubt your teaching abilities or your confidence in English the staff will have you running your own lessons in no time.The town itself is quite developed so I'd recommend this to people who like some level of comfort. You stay in a guesthouse which is more akin in my opinion to a 2 or 3 star hotel. When I went we had our own rooms with en-suites overlooking the river, the family are so welcoming and friendly and will treat you like one of their own if you do the same. This is a fantastic experience that I would highly recommend to anyone considering a trip to Asia. The GVI staff are fantastic and I promise you will learn more about Laos on this project than you will simply by traveling (as great as that is!). I really enjoyed my time in Luang Prabang, and whilst the first week was a bit hard adjusting to a new place, the people you meet, both locals and fellow volunteers make it all that much easier. You get to work and be productive, yet at the same time you will have enough free time to explore this beautiful part of the world. By the end, you will not want to leave. The people in Laos are the most friendly, welcoming, funny people I've come across in my travels, and the insight you get working as a teacher in this country will stay with you throughout all your future adventures. Don't hesitate, book it today, you won't be sorry!
I did the Marine Conservation Expedition in The Seychellen: What an amazing experience. You live on a base camp in Cap Ternay, Mahé island. The island is absolutely breath taking beautiful, with it's white beaches and clear blue sea. And that's the office! You have 1 or 2 dives a day to do underwater surveys in either fish/coral/invertebrates. The first two weeks of the program are pretty fully booked with PADI Advanced, EFR, Marine Biology and your survey domain training. And of course everybody needs to help out on base as well, to make sure it's all clean and that you get a nice meal :) But of course you'll spend most of your time on the stunning coral reefs. When I was there, the age range of the volunteers was very wide, from 18 to 44, and we had about 20 volunteers and 8 staff. You get two days off a week in which you can go to one of the many stunning beaches, or keep your family posted on your adventures from the internet cafe in Victoria (the capital). This expedition was truly an amazing experience, I would highly recommend it.
If someone had told me one year ago that I would soon travel to the Costa Rican jungle with complete strangers for two months, I would have laughed. Traveling is something I enjoy, but for short periods of time and in familiar places. Studying wildlife without a background in anything relevant? Eating meals without any dairy? Tromping through mud pits expecting it to pour into my boots? Not me.
Or so I thought.
When it came time to plan out my GAP year, I knew I wanted to do three things, in whatever order or form they took: an Outward Bound Program, which I did and enjoyed; work, which I have done and am doing; and travel. The last one, presented to me in the form of Global Vision International, is far and away my favorite.
Getting to fall asleep every night to the sound of Caribbean waves, strolling for hours without boredom through the dynamic forest, preparing a huge pot of curry for a group of hungry people. They tell you to lose all expectations when you step onto the plane, and I tried. But nothing could prepare me for the experiences I had on a daily basis as if it were the most normal of things: massive hawksbill turtle and the defiant heat of the sun. The surprisingly delicious gallo pinto and the wreckage of army ants. The call of tropical birds and the suppressed thud of a kicked coconut. The endless watercolor sky and the freedom to just sit and read. None of these experiences I could have had without the wonderful program that is GVI or the wonderful research base that is Jalova.
In rural Vermont, which is my true home, I have a very limited scope on so many things. In Costa Rica I met people from all over the world with incredible stories and opinions and perceptions on life. I shared the kind of laughter that bridges continents. We played card games and discussed everything- customs, movies, politics, school, travel, and religion. It made me proud to be the only cold-blooded American volunteer, at least for the first month, and as such I found myself unusually outgoing to the two Americans that joined us later on. I though I was going to Jalova for the flora and the fauna and résumé, but I stayed because my heart attached to the jungle and it’s creatures.
Because what goes on there IS everyday. It is exotic to us because we don’t see it, but the ways of the rainforest have been existent for as long as time. To be in a place like that gives modesty a whole new meaning, but moreover it gives inspiration and a peace of mind. There’s no better trip to take.
