Volunteer Abroad Blog

My last 90 minutes in the uVolunteer office have now officially started. Although I’m happy to go back to Holland again, I’m also sad to leave my life here behind. How is it that you only learn to appreciate what you have in the last minute?

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every single minute of this abroad experience, all the way from Bolivia to Costa Rica! But it’s only at the moment that you don’t have time left, that your feelings get multiplied by a 100! All the things you took for granted suddenly don’t become so normal anymore. Even writing this blog suddenly seems a big deal…

So what have I really learned so far? A small list from all the things I hope not to forget in the next couple years:

• I learned how to speak Spanish
• I learned that in Bolivia, the value of the coin material is worth more than the actual coin itself!
• I learned that Bolivians themselves also get confused with fake money and that I can be as big of an impostor as they can be
• I learned never to wear anything valuable in the markets of Santa Cruz
• I learned that Art and museums  can actually be fun
• I learned that the Cruceños replace the ´s´ on the end of the word into a ´j´which changes the whole pronunciation!
• I learned that in Costa Rica, they eat rice and beans in almost EVERY meal
• I learned that ´Pura Vida´and ´Por Dicha´are the words most used by the Ticos (Costa Ricans)
• I learned that all the fruits have different names in almost every Latin American country
• I leaned how to work on a computer for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, 6 months long.
• I learned how to set up campaigns, organize events and edit videos
• I learned how much organization is needed to run even a small company like uVolunteer
• I learned that I can (barely) survive a year without my friends and family
• And I still didn´t learn to get over my fear of singing in public (Karaoke)

A Fantastic year with some valuable life lessons. Most importantly though, I learned that there is still so much poverty and inequality in the world and that we are the ones that can actually make changes! I don´t think I was ever that aware of that fact until now and I truly hope I will never forget that!

And for those of you that wonder about my future, well, I still need to check off that singing from the list!

Fei An Tjan.

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Author: Fei An Tjan

Starring in this article, Emily Gjerlaug. Emily is one of our volunteers that signed up for a combination program. For six months, Emily has been traveling and volunteering on different projects and in different places around Costa Rica.  
    
She started her adventure on the Caribbean coast of Buenavista, where she worked on  a turtle conservation project for almost three months. And whoever thinks that this means lying on the beach all day is wrong; Emily helped constructing houses, what it’s like to live with limited resources like electricity and water, doing thorough beach cleanups and walk night shifts watching turtle eggs. But, she says, you get so much more back from doing all of this hard work!   

After a little week’s holiday she moved her way up to a National Park where she worked closely together with the rangers on the park’s conservation, watching animals and cleaning up the park. Her experience here wasn’t as fulfilling as the turtle project, but the park definitely needs a lot of help still.       

For her last project she wanted something completely different and she came over to our home base in San Ramon to work with kids in a Day Care Center After that she must have certainly seen and experienced all the aspects Costa Rican life has to offer but, she says, wished she could have seen more!

 In my interview with Emily it became quite clear how much effect the different programs had on her, as she repeatedly said that the programs changed her a lot. Even though her first days in Costa Rica were really hard, missing her family, familiar environment and experiencing an earthquake from up close, she wouldn’t have wanted to miss this experience. Emily comments that the projects caused a true paradigm shift regarding her view upon life. Her motives to volunteer were in the first place mainly to escape from her normal life and were more self-centred, but with the progression of the projects and after meeting so many different people, she says her main goal became helping the community and wanting to make a difference.

‘My eyes really opened when I heard other people’s stories. I think I met over a hundred different volunteers, all with different stories and backgrounds. Before coming to Costa Rica, I only went to Spain once, but that was with a big group of Canadians and that’s really different.  Going on this trip alone was at first really hard for me, and the first night I really wanted to go home. After that first period I found out I could do a lot of things on my own and that’s the point where I started to change my point of view. I really wanted to help!’

And after half a year working and living in Central America, I was of course curious about the language. Emily came here with almost no Spanish knowledge. She could introduce herself, and ask for something, but understanding the answer would already cause problems. Now, after 6 months Costa Rican immergence, she can get around easily.  

“Especially in Marina Ballena I learned a lot of Spanish as none of the rangers spoke English. Once you have to speak a language, you learn fast. At the turtle conservation project, there were a lot of international volunteers so English was unavoidable.”

I asked Emily about the people and Costa Rican Culture: ‘living in Costa Rica only makes me realize that we need to be more relaxed about things. The little things where we are often so worried about often don’t really matter. Who cares if the bus doesn’t show up on time? There will be a next one. The laid back attitude and look upon things here really lets you slow down from your hectic western life, and that’s only a good thing´. Doing a combined project also made her experience very different aspects of Costa Rican life. The food in every town is just a little bit different, for one thing, and also living on a beach or in San Ramon are two complete different worlds. 

“At the turtle conservation, when we were´off duty´, we would go swimming and play card games. Basically, we wouldn´t leave the beach. In San Ramon, everything is different. There are so much more activities here; in the evenings we go out to bars and discos with the other volunteers and there is an internet cafe on every corner.”

A combination program is a perfect way to explore all the different aspects of a country. If you want to know more about Emily´s experiences with Costa Rican life and Culture, click here. 

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Author: Fiorella Duran Montoya - Volunteer Coordinator

This past Monday I took some new volunteers to their projects for the first time. Like always, when you arrive as a volunteer I will accompany you on your first day so you won’t be completely lost.

Early morning I arrived at the dorm and met Sam who was having breakfast. At 6:40 we started walking towards the school where he would be assisting the teacher during 6 weeks. When we entered the school we were greeted by the principal and right away she took us to Sam’s class. Once introduced to the teacher Mariela and the students, we sat and observed the normal routine of the class. I stayed in the class for a while observing and talking with the teacher, but once I felt Sam would be comfortable with the teacher I said bye to the class and headed back to the dorm.

At the dorm Emilie was all set up and waiting for me to take her to the Daycare Centre in San Ramon. After a short walk to the bus station where we waited for a while, the bus was a little late, something not very unusual in Costa Rica. Once we were seated in the bus it only took us 15 minutes to arrive. After that it was only a short walk down the hill to the Daycare’s little Spanish style house.

We were welcomed by the tias and some of the kids. I spent the whole morning with Emilie carrying the little cute babies, playing and running around with the bigger children and laughing a lot. Emilie was a total hit with the kids! They would scream her name every 5 minutes asking her to play with them and push them on the swings.

Another wonderful Monday full of fun and joy.

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The Southern Americas have one thing in common: Soccer!No matter where you are, whenthe country is playing, the country walks out. In Costa Rica, workers were even given a free day of work because of the match!

On Saturday October 10^th, Costa Rica played Trinidad Y Tobago in order to climb its way to the world cup, volunteers and members of staff got together and went to the Capital San Jose to watch the game.

The weather forecast wasn’t very positive for Saturday evening, rain would be the protagonist that night, moreover, early afternoon we packed our raincoats and umbrellas and headed to the stadium.  When we arrived there it was raining really bad so we had to get some extra plastic raincoats that they were selling outside, we also got some hats and Costa Rican scarf, just to get warmed up.

Soon the game started and it was really exiting to see that entire crowd singing, jumping and screaming. By the second half of the game the rain stopped and the night turned out beautiful. We screamed a lot when Costa Rica scored, the volunteers learned some new words from the crowd and cheered Costa Rica like the real Ticos.

All in all an experience you shouldn’t miss while visiting the Americas del Sur! This is a true cultural experience and nice additionally, tickets are affordable!

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One of the most important staff staff members is the dorm mom, Doña Isabel in our case. She is responsible for a good ambiance in the dorm and will be the first to notice if something is wrong. This week, you can read a small testimonial of one of our favorite staffmembers:

‘I am Doña Isabel and I am working in the uVolunteer dormitory, attending young volunteers who come to serve my country. I’m always in the dorm at 6:00 AM to prepare breakfast and make sure everyone is well and that they will leave to work full of energy. Part of the work I do is cleaning the house, bathrooms and furniture and create a pleasant, comfortable and very clean atmosphere where everyone feels right at home and don´t have to miss their families.

During the day I like to talk with the volunteers because I know that way they will practice more Spanish. I feel very happy to work for uVolunteer because this way I can serve to those who so generously came to give their time and love to the children and people who are crossing their paths.
For me, being here is a godsend and a way of saying thanks to the universe for giving me the opportunity to meet them.’

Doña Isabel.

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Author: Fei An Tjan

Tranquility has returned again to the uVolunteer office a little bit. The Eat So They Can event went smooth as butter and we over exceeded our own goals thanks to all our guests!

The dinner took place in the volunteer dorm on the 17th of October. We invited students from the English evening classes,  our volunteers of course and all the uVolunteer staff members. Not only was this a great group to fund raise money for the children in Africa, it was also a good way to get to know each other better.

My planning schedule was tight and after a year living in the Southern Americas, I should have known that schedules don’t work like that. I calculated half an hour for all the guests to arrive to the dinner, but… Tico Time means more something like 2,5 hours. Stressed as I was that nobody would show up at my so carefully planned event I called some of the guests to make sure they were still coming. But as I expected, nobody seemed to be aware that it was already 19.00 and took their time to arrive. In the end I really had nothing to worry about as we had a nice group sitting at the tables to start the Trivia Christina set up. Slowly but surely, more guests started to arrive and also our acts for the evening were ready to steal the spotlights!

Ticomex, with our own coordinator Suri was the first group to present itself. With a traditional dance called ‘Veracruz’ they left all the guests mesmerized at the table. In the meantime, doña Isabel and me had time to prepare the main course: Ughandian curry with bananas.

After a successful second, we showed the Eat So They Can video on big screen, which was a little tear drawing, but possibly very effective for our aim, raising funds!During the crepes, ice cream and mango syrup dessert our guests had the chance to enjoy a performance of Tambor, a Costa Rican group that mastered the arts of African music playing. That definitely spiced up the energy at the event and got our very own staff to hit the dancefloor!

The surprise of the evening was Eduardo, one of the students of the evening class who was so nice to bring his guitar and play us some oldies which brought out the karaoke spirit in many!

I still can´t believe how great everyone reacted to all our requests for this event. That is, the beamer was given to us by one of the schools, tables were borrowed to us by our San Ramon Spanish teacher and Ticomex, Tambor and Eduardo performed that night for free! And of course I can´t forget to thank everybody that worked so hard at the event itself. serving, moving, cleaning and grinding kilos of peanuts (Sam, you truly ARE my hero!).

If I haven´t done it already, then hereby a big thank you to all!!

I almost forgot the most important part of it, how much did we fundraise?? Well, together with the Eat So They Can event that we did in Holland, we raised about 977 US Dollar, which I think, is phenomenal!

I think we did a pretty good job for our first year as an Eat So They Can host. Nevertheless, we WILL aim for a bigger goal next year!

If you want to help us reach 1000 dollar, please click here.

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Author: Fiorella Duran Montoya - Volunteer Coordinator

On Friday October 9^th uVolunteer organized a picnic for the 9 volunteers currently living in San Ramon. The initial plan was to go to a rural area called Santiago and have a picnic on a hill while enjoying the magnificent view. However this is Costa Rica and here you never now what is going to happen. What we planned as a nice smooth trip turned out into an exciting and full of surprises experience.

We departed San Ramon a little later than scheduled, but in Costa Rica this is normal, something the Costa Ricans call Tico time. We were taken to Santiago by friends in two big trucks, the ride was fun but it got better when we went walked to take a path that would lead us to the top of the hill.

Once there we set up the picnic, ate a lot and admired the view which was beautiful. After sharing food, drinks and some talking we had a little tour around, during the walk we discovered a beautiful creek and were surrounded by nature and peace.

It was almost time to go back to San Ramon centre when we got an offer that was very difficult to reject. We were invited to a friend’s ranch to look at the animals and ride horses. After a 5 minute ride to Palmares we arrived at a wonderful place full of barn animals: chickens, ducks, dogs, cows and of course plenty of gorgeous ‘black beauty’ horses.

We were offered a tour around, some of the volunteers showed their courage and rode one of the bulls, which was so fat and docile, it wouldn’t move. Later, the volunteers had the opportunity to ride one of the most precious horses in the barn and also got the opportunity to have a ride in a carriage.

How much fun! When we got back to the uVolunteer dorm it was nearly dark. We didn’t even realize how time flew.

On a normal Friday volunteers got to know a very nice part of Costa Rican culture: always friendly, adventurous and full of surprises.

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Author: Fiorella Duran Montoya – Volunteer Coordinator

Earlier this week, you have been able to read how uVolunteer runs the donation process. In this blog you can read what actually happens when we pass by the schools with our donations. uVolunteer donation period continues. On September 3^rd uVolunteer  donated a desk to the first grade teacher of a rural, low income school.

After a 20 minute drive from San Ramon center we arrived at the school, one of many rural schools in the area. We were greeted by the school board, the teachers and the principal. After a brief introduction and chat we preceded to hand the brand new desk to the fist grade teacher. She was very thankful for her new work desk and I understood that when she showed me her actual desk, it was more than necessary. She invited us inside her classroom and the kids said thank you to us all out loud, it was super sweet.

A very Costa Rican tradition: the school prepared coffee and pastries for us, the mothers baked some of their delicacies the day before and brought them to the school to show their appreciation. During the coffee and the chat we had the opportunity to get to know the people at the school, the little town and the future projects for the school. I must say, I felt really proud to be able to reach all these small communities through the work of all the volunteers!

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Author: Fei An Tjan

Only one more day to go untill our big event: Eat So They Can. An event organized every year by the GVN Foundation, to raise money, but also awareness for needy children in Africa.

uVolunteer will go Africa tomorrow! The plan is to serve an African three course dinner to all the volunteers, the students from the evening class and the members of staff. There will be a bar and hopefully lots of international talking and more important, lots of donations.

With some networking here and there, I also convinced some of my friends and family members in the Netherlands to partake in this global event and we very much hope to raise at least $500 minimum! The counting started now and for all of you that believe in this cause too: It´s never too late to donate! (well, for this event you actually have only 30 days left…)

Click on the link below if you want to help us out!

http://www.eatsotheycan.org/2009hosts/uVolunteer

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In one of our previous blogs, you have been able to read how our volunteer coordinators Fiorella and Suri went to one of the projects to give a donation. In this blog I’d like to tell you a little bit more about the way uVolunteers handles the donations as this is a crucial and important part of our concept.

First of all, I think what needs to be clear is that the majority of your fees does not go to the project you signed up for, but instead they are used for expenses for managing your program, accommodation, in country support and administration. Nevertheless, as I said before, donations are still one of the key elements to keep our quality for our volunteers high! For a more detailed explanation of our expenses, I recommend you to read the blog on ‘How uVolunteer spends the program fee’.

I will explain first how our donation concept and period works.
uVolunteer has two donation periods a year, in January and in July. All of our projects that we are working with have a mini bank account with uVolunteer that saves up their funds until the donation season. When the donation period arrives, we ask all the projects to make a list of materials they need to help achieve the goals of the project. What happens next is that uVolunteer purchases the requested material and donates these, instead of money. In that way, we can monitor what the money is being used for make sure that it is not misused.

If possible, we also like to get our volunteers involved in the donation process. We did this for example by letting our volunteers help while painting the wall in one of the orphanages, painting a whole school, and building animal cages for a wildlife refuge on Playa Carillo.

Managing our donations like this has proven very effective for us in the sense that we built up mutual trust between the projects and uVolunteer which resulted in great long term relationships. This way, we are assured to have a committed local project for our volunteers and at the same time, the projects have the security of working through an agency that helps them improve. Most of the projects we work with prefer working this way instead of taking in individual volunteers. Because our volunteers go through a screening process first before we actually assign them to a project, the projects are assured of a person that is reliable and fits the profile they requested.

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