Volunteer Abroad Blog

One of the must see places in South-East Asia is Angkor Wat. It is one of the most important archaeological sites in Cambodia. Angkor Archaeological Park which includes forest area stretches over approximately 400 km2 and contains the magnificent remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire from the 9th to the 15th century. Preserved are the famous Temple of Angkor Wat and the Bayon Temple with its breathtaking sculptural decorations. The Park is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

Nick Ulecka, one of our volunteers teaching English in Thailand, visited Angkor during one of the long weekend breaks.Let’s see what he said about his experience!

“I went into Cambodia with another volunteer in order to see the spectacle of Angkor Wat.  We had planned this in advance, and it just so happened that we both had Thursday off.  That meant another day to explore the ruins.

Thursday morning we got a shared 3 hour minibus to the Thailand/Cambodia border.  The border crossing took 2 hours to finally cross.  After crossing, it was another 2 hours to Siem Reap. We walked around the town for a while, but were both very tired.

Friday morning we awoke at 4:30 in order to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat, which was amazing.  There were a lot of people nearby, which took away some of its majesty.  Most of the temples were indeed crowded, but that was expected.  That day we went to Angkor Wat, Bayon, Terrace of the Elephants, Thommanon, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, Banteay Kdei, and Prasat Kravan.  My favorite was Ta Prohm because the trees growing within the temple looked astonishing. 

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It can and it will get you, it’s just a matter of when! When in a foreign country whose culture is different from your own, many people have experienced culture shock.  Micquella, one of our volunteers Teaching IT and Basic Computer skill in Trat, Thailand, shared with us her culture shock experience:

“When I arrived in Trat via Bangkok on the 20th of January, I had come from more than 24 hours of travelling and 3 airplane rides which left me very relieved when I saw Meaw waiting for me at the Trat airport with another volunteer. After some introductions and many hugs we caught a songthaew to the house.

After going to dinner for a korean BBQ with Meaw, another volunteer and some of her friends, I finally got settled in my bedroom at what I will call home for the next 3 weeks. Although I was exhausted and extremely jetlagged the first night wasn’t as easygoing as I expected it to be. I was expecting the culture to really hit me when I got in Trat but I never expected it to be as bad as it was. It hit me instantly, I was trying to sleep but all I could think of was how I was going to last 3 weeks alone this many miles away from home.

While attempting to sleep on the first day I was regretting the whole thing as panic consumed me!  Whilst thinking of the sounds, smells and sights I had experienced on my way from the airport I couldn’t help but think that I was in an area where no one spoke my language, very few people lived in good conditions which I thought led to the people being miserable. Basically, I was so very wrong.

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After Happy New Year at uVolunteer Thailand Haley, Holly and Nick from USA arrived at uVolunteer Thailand Program in Trat. All are doing teaching English Program.  They all are teaching in the different schools in Trat province.On the first weekend when volunteers arrive,   there is an Orientation to the country and program. We provide this session to all volunteers when they arrive to the program to help them adjusting themselves to the new location and understand the culture differences. Here is the words from Nicholas about his first few days  at uVolunteer Program in Trat,Thailand.

“I started my journey early on January 4th when I left the Newark Airport and flew 14 hours to Tokyo, Japan.  From there it was another 7 hours to Bangkok.  I arrived in Bangkok at around 11:30 pm on January 5th.  My volunteer program did not start until the next day so I had to stay overnight in the city.  I got a taxi from the airport and told him to take me to a hotel near the bus terminal,

but he wound up driving me to a hotel 30 minutes away.   So the next morning, after 3 hours of sleep, I took another taxi to the bus terminal where I got on a bus headed for Trat.  The bus ride took about 5.5 hours.  There is a noticeable income difference between Bangkok and outside the city.  Meaw met me at the bus station and proceeded to drive me to the uVolunteer dorm.  There were two volunteers already at the dorm when I arrived, Haley and Holly, both from the United States.  By this time I hadn’t slept for about 48 hours straight

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                The Klong Kheaw Waterfall was nothing like I had expected. Although I’m not too sure what I really had expected, it was so much more. Walking along the trail at first everything appeared the same as any park or hiking trail in America, but when you took a closer look you could see it was much different. The vegetation was so lush as well as beautiful and interesting to see. I think my favorite thing in the woods were the intertwining tree roots all over the ground. Some of them stretched as far as the eye could see. It was so beautiful walking through the paths and looking at all the bamboo trees and exotic plants.

I really loved the part in the vegetation when the path was full of tree limbs and plants over your head like a covered bridge. It looked like something you would see in a romantic movie. The actual waterfalls were amazing. The water felt so refreshing and cooling. At first we walked down into the water and tried to navigate our way through the rocks and water.It was not such a good idea!!

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Every year Palmares, the nearest town to San Ramón, hosts a huge festival called Fiestas de Palmares.

An  association run by a board of members –Asociación Cívica  Palmareña  works together with the community for its improvement. The association puts together the Fiestas de Palmares festival which is the biggest festival  to be held in Costa Rica so far. The event runs for  13 days and includes activities such as a lantern walk on the opening day , a horse parade (tope), concerts with international performers, , and a huge fair ground with food stands, souvenirs and ginormous bars and discotheques erected for the festival  where you can dance  for up to 12 hours.

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On the eve of the Immaculate Conception in San Ramón there is a very unique tradition. It has been happening for over a hundred years.

The tradition started with a family in the rural district of Piedades Sur when a lady named Paula  Mesén decided to give to her neighbor María Vargas “melcochas “. Paula gathered the children from the neighborhood to go to doña Maria’s house and shower her with candy. An interesting fact of this first event was that it was held indoors because it was raining outside.

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 Who has lived in Costa Rica for more than three months is quite familiar with the infamous “visa run”. It has nothing to do with running a marathon or winning a race – it refers to renewing one’s visa so that you can return to Costa Rica and stay for another 90 days. Costa Rica is conveniently situated between Nicaragua and Panama, and so one can head to one of these countries for a quick weekend trip. So that’s exactly what I had to do a couple of weekends ago…

A friend and I decided to head to Nicaragua (I had been to Panama last time). We chose to go to San Juan del Sur since it is so close to the Nicaraguan border crossing at Peñas Blancas, and only about 5 – 6 hours by bus from San Ramon. At least that’s what we thought… ! When we arrived at the border after just 3 hours on the bus we were surprised  by an enormous queue… at least 200 people were lining up to enter Nicaragua. It was hot and we were lining up at around 30 degrees Celsius in the sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we celebrated the graduation party for the English community class. The class started in February and finished the last week of November.

The classes were held at night at the Universidad de Costa Rica, about half a mile away from the uVolunteer dorm.    These classes are a part of the teaching English program and they are a great way to get involved in the local life and to make Costa Rican friends.

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Our trip to Laos was a trip I will never forget. I wasn’t sure what to expect for just a simple Visa run but it was much more interesting then I had expected. First off, I had never been on a train before and I wasn’t sure how happy I felt about a five hour bus ride followed by a twelve hour train ride. Surprisingly it all went really well, although it could have been nice simply because I was excited to be traveling somewhere new.

The train was really interesting. There was a restaurant and a bar in one of the train cabs which I thought was very exciting. Of course we found ourselves sitting in the bar to waste time before trying to sleep on the upper bunk in the train cabin. The bar was small and had limited seating so we were sitting next to complete strangers from all around the world. By the end of the night we had found ourselves getting our palms read by a Korean documentary film maker, and telling stories with a man from Holland. It was so much fun to encounter many different people. Once we headed to our beds we tried to catch some sleep on the bumpy train ride. For me it was difficult to sleep but not impossible. I am lucky to not have motion sickness or feel nauseated easily. I am sure there were lots of people feeling quite sick, because I literally was rolling around in my top bunk all night.

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On Monday the 11th of November, our Sports and Physical Education volunteer Joanna and the Ghana uVolunteer coordinators  went to the Kingsby Girls’ Senior High School in Koforidua. The girls at the school are between the ages of 15 and 19 years, which is the “senior high level” in Ghana. The Headmistress, the administration staff and the students welcomed us upon arrival.

The volleyball team and sports teachers of the school need training on how to play volleyball properly. So the headmistress told the students during her welcome speech that Joanna was there to help the team to improve their Sports skills.

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