Volunteer Abroad Blog

After almost three weeks here I am getting quite comfortable in my new environment but I can name numerous people who didn’t experience the same. One of my fellow volunteers in Bolivia for example, always got really upset about the fact that everybody seemed to be late for appointments, and that work was sometimes so unorganized. Also the whistling of Latino men might sometimes seem intimidating if you’re coming from a Western country. And the driving…well…there’s really no words for that!

With no less than 12 volunteers arriving today (!!), I have no doubt that there will be some cultural clashes. Of course, when you’re here no one expects you to be a ´Tico´ straight away, and Fiorella, our coordinator, will definitely catch you when you fall, but doing a little research before you’re getting to a new country never hurts. Luckily for you, I saved you some time by doing the research for you. In the book ´Culture shock, survival guide to Customs and Etiquete´, Wallerstein describes (surprise surprise) what to be aware of when living in Costa Rica. I copied some of my favorite do´s and don´ts:

Do:

• Learn to love eating rice and beans three times a day

• Expect lots of very upfront interest from the opposite sex if you´re single and available (and even if not)

• Really make an effort to learn Spanish. Even though most Ticos can speak English, they will greatly appreciate your efforts, and you will have a much fuller experience of the country.

• Buy your fruit and vegetables at the local weekend feria rather than in the supermarket, much more fun. Learn to relax- things in Costa Rica can take ages, and raging against ´Tico Time´is pointless - you´ll just end up with high blood pressure.

Don´ts

• Don´t expect Costa Rica to be as ´First World´ as it may appear to be on the surface.

• Don´t eat turtle egg bocas - these are nearly always illegal, and are helping to drive the countries endangered sea turtles to extinction.

• Don´t miss out on a football (soccer) match. Following a particular team is a defining feature of many Tico´s lives, regardless of sex.

• Don´t block a fan´s view at a football match - social suicide in terms of soccer etiquette.

Of course, there is still a lot more to explore in this beautiful country, and you don´t want everything to be written out for you anyway, right? Running into odd situations is, in my point of view, still half the fun of being in another country!


Wallerstein, C. (2006) ¨Culture shock, survival guide to Customs and Etiquete¨Marshal Cavendish Corporation, NY

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With all the new technology at present, volunteering can´t stay behind! uVolunteer for example, established itself as an online, paper free company (”Think before you print to save energy and paper”). I recently read an article on a new phenomenon called “micro-volunteering”. In an area where sites like Twitter take the lead, volunteering in a text message had to follow one day soon. The inventors of this idea, The extraordinaries describe micro blogging as: “Doing small bits of work for good causes in small moments of time. Micro-volunteering is differentiated from traditional volunteering (4 hours on a weekend), virtual volunteering (done from one’s computer) and mobile giving (donating with mobile phone).”

The next question you´d probably ask is how you could possibly volunteer like this; some examples: fact checking for reporters or identifying craters on the surface of Mars with NASA’s Clickworker program, pretty smart ey?

In a world where people get busier and busier, time for heroism seems to diminish. Why not make the world a little bit better while waiting for the bus?

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When I was checking out our new website to see if everything was working, I came across the FAQ section. Apparently, there is still a lot of confusion about why people should pay to volunteer. And I don´t blame you guys! To be honest, when I was still in Holland looking for some volunteer opportunities I got really upset about the amount of money some organizations dared to ask! I did find out , but still, why should I pay to work for free?

Ok, first of all, when you are still in your safe environment somewhere in the States or in Europe, you have this idea of just going away, leaving your home, family and friends, be crazy and find some ambitious volunteering job. But I assure you it is not as easy as it seems. First of all, trying to look for something while you´re still in your home country is difficult, and believe me, I really tried! Most organizations in third world countries don´t have any (updated) resources to check them out on beforehand. If they do, when you try to contact them there´s always this little detail called ´language´ which a lot of people seem to forget when they are trying to look for something. Like in my case, searching in English surely didn´t help much trying to find something in Latin America.

After being unsuccessful online, another thing to consider is just to go to the country and find something yourself. Who wouldn´t want someone to work for free right?

I didn´t do it… Why?

Part of me wanted to be all courageous and just go to a country I had never been before, see where the wind would carry me. Though my rational side (also referred to as friends and family) almost begged me not to do it. What if I would end up working for some dodgy organization which I wouldn´t enjoy and probably just end up serving coffee because of the language barrier? Latin America isn´t exactly known for its punctuality, organization and safety now is it?

Is that really worth it?

Consider this: you will probably end up spending almost the same amount of money when going by yourself than when you´d go with uVolunteer. Volunteering in a third world country often means that the place you work at needs volunteers and they have no

money to provide your housing and food. At least, most placements don´t do this unless you stay over a month. Apart from that, you´ll lose a lot of time looking for an apartment, getting to know people and finding your way in the new country.

So unless you´re an experienced traveler, speak the language and have loads of time, you might want to consider some help in your ambitious plans. Try to see your payment more as an insurance of safety, comfort and fun, rather than ´pay to work´. And last but not least, when you do decide to go with an organization, you will at least always have someone to complain to if anything does go wrong!

Read more on why pay to volunteer

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Not only do we work with animal conservation in the rain forest, our own office is starting to look like a little animal shelter as well! Rocky is his name, our three months old new office mascot! She was left at the bike shop and given to Nat when he went to pick up some broken bikes. Promotional offer! Together with Kenny and Barby she’s will be guarding our uVolunteer information from now on. Don’t look at the photo if you do not want to become weak hearted…

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A personal blog for ‘y’all’ to read, as my new colleagues Lindsey and Christina would say…

That’s right, I exchanged the weekly Bolivia blog for a more insider’s Costa Rica one. After many bus rides, boat rides and plane rides, I finally arrived in Costa Rica being a real uVolunteer officer and luckily, I quite like that! As a hardcore Internet junkie, one can only dream of making Facebooking, Twittering and MySpacing your actual job right? And believe it or not, I’m getting a little bit smarter every day! Did you for example know there was a difference between Facebook groups and Facebook pages? And that MySpace doesn’t let you create a group unless your account is over seven days old? no? Well, neither did I…

But next to that, what most shocked me in the short time that I’m here, is how motivated everybody is to make this company work! I surely didn’t expect to see that before arriving here.

In the next months I will get back to you regularly with some office news and volunteering news in general. Keep following me here, or more directly on one of the social networks I mentioned earlier.

Hope to speak soon!

Fei An
uVolunteer

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What do you do when you go on a well planned holiday and the germs get you? It happened to our Volunteer Leanne Fogarthy. Leanne only planned to go on a three day visa run from Costa Rica to Nicaragua, but ended up staying there for a week! What happened was that once in Nicaragua Leanne fell terribly ill and had to stay in the hospital.

So now what?

We have been in touch with our Nicaragua coordinator and with Leanne for the last few days and waited with great tension what the lab results would say. Swine flu or no Swine flu? To stay, or not to stay?

Luckily, all went well and all tests were negative (meaning positive news) we are happy to welcome Leanne in our country again today or tomorrow so she can enjoy the rest of her travels…

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