When I travelled to Guatemala I had just turned 18, and was travelling in my summer before I started at university. I stayed for a month in Antigua, and worked in a crèche with children aged up to 2 years old. I found the placement very fulfilling in more ways than I could have imagined. I was able to see throughout my placement many improvements in the children, and helped many reach milestones. The most memorable of these was teaching two of the young children to walk, and seeing them improve more quickly than I realised possible. This left be feeling very proud of myself, as I felt I had been able to make a difference. Other memories that will stay with me include teaching the children to sit, crawl, stand and eat by themselves.

It is amazing to see culture differences between children from places like Guatemala, who do not have much money, compared to those in the western world. The children are much more grateful for anything they are given, and anything I was to give the children, even something as simple as a biscuit, made a difference to their day.

I found that I was a bit shocked by the ratio of children to teachers in this environment, as two women were left to look after around 15 children under 3 years old, many unable to walk or talk, and they not only played and looked after the children but also bathed them and changed their clothes regularly.

I am more than grateful for my time in Guatemala and those memories and the skills I received from my time there will continue to stay with me in the future. I will hope to continue travelling and doing different placements in the future and to try and make a difference like I felt I was able to in Antigua.

Antigua is beautiful although I must admit I feel there are one too many tourists here. But it’s not a problem. I had Friday exploring Antigua and then went to the Livingston at the weekend with some people I met, had a great time, we took a bus which took 7 hours but I didn’t mind because I got to see Guatemala through the window!  It is such a beautiful country, so green and lush and mountainous and unspoilt by modernity. I started my placement yesterday, am really enjoying it. The kids are great and so affectionate and willing to learn

Nayna Kennedy / Care - Guatemala / British

I also feel that it was good that you had said that it is very much what we make of it and that its important to have initiative and be proactive. I met many volunteers there and have to say that of them all I was the best prepared for my stay in Guatemala. I also feel that the team were in constant touch with me and answered all my concerns and queries immediately. As an older volunteer with a family, it was important that I had support, which I certainly did. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for making it so much easier. I think it would be good if you could maybe enable new volunteers to contact volunteers who have already been there to get further information. The support I needed was provided as well as encouragement and care. I was very happy with every aspect of my stay. If I hadn’t found Travellers I would never have got here or had the amazing time that I have. AND its true Travellers is by far one of the best organisations I have heard about since being here. I agree with you [Guatemala] has got into my blood and suspect I will be back here again

For more read Nayna's blog: http://naynak.blogspot.com

Mari Haughton / Teaching - Guatemala / British

Tiffany Kuo / Care & Spanish - Guatemala / American

Experiences in another country are an eye-opening chance to learn about the daily lives and culture of the country.  The day-to-day life has shown me the similarities of life of my own in my country, and the differences.  I feel I am gaining cross-cultural understanding, different perspectives, and and exchange of experiences as you learn from the people here as well as exchange information from your own background.  In addition, since I live with other students from Europe, I learn of their culture as well.  Many Guatematecos have also not visited the States so its great to learn from one another!  In addition, from my Care placement, I am learning to work with disabled kids and find it very rewarding to care for them and give them the love that is difficult from the busy nurses. The best thing is the rewarding experiences I gain from the kids who I interact with on a day to day basis.  When you see them smile, that is very gratifying.  I’m very happy with the conversational one on one classes from my Spanish professor as well! I would definitely recommend this placement for others who are interested in the Care health care field, namely as internship experiences abroad for students.  If one enjoys working in a hospital it is a good experience to see how things are run in another country, to understand the people of the country, and the history. The Travellers organization is very professional.  I was very pleased with the prompt replies and level or professionalism from the coordinators and the host family was very warm and welcoming.  All my concerns were addressed

Can you describe a typical day? I wake before 7 to get ready for 7 o’clock breakfast with the family. I then go to my placement which starts at 8 and stay there at the hospital until 12. I specifically work in the kids ward, so I would help the nurses feed, change the kids, take them out to the courtyard, play with them.  Even on Mondays, they go to the pool to get exercises for their muscles!  The volunteers play with the kids and help out with whatever is necessary. There is also a doctor who works there which was very helpful to understand the medical condition of the kids.  We also take the kids to the park in their wheelchairs for some fresh air, which they enjoy very much!I walk back home for lunch at 12:30 lunch and at 2pm I have private Spanish classes until 4pm. The teacher tailors your lessons according to what your level is and what you want to learn. At the end of my session, I may engage in activities, take a nap, run errands, tour the city, shop etc.  You can also take salsa classes if you’d like!

Nicola McCausland / Teaching - Guatemala / British

Russell Fowler / Teaching - Guatemala / British

From the moment I met the Travellers Worldwide representative in London at a travel show I was enthused with the idea of doing some volunteer work in Guatemala, teaching English. I had already booked a year long trip around the world (my second!) which was due to start a few weeks later in Central America. I was taking a break from a career as an IT manager in the public sector. Once on the road and travelling through Mexico I made a firm decision on when and where I would do the placement and to Travellers credit I was able to organise the entire thing over email. The documentation that was sent through was very helpful and did a good job of managing my expectations, I think a really key thing with this type of work is to go in with an open mind and literally be ready for anything!

My initial worry was that I spoke very little Spanish and this may make communication a little difficult! I also had no teaching experience although I had studied the nature of learning in great detail during a Psychology degree with the Open University. However, practical application of the theories I had learnt is a whole different ball-game so I was a little apprehensive about how I would fair!

I travelled independently through Mexico, Belize and parts of Guatemala before eventually arriving in Antigua ready to swap my backpack for a pile of English books (at least for the next month)! I was met by the local representative, Lilian, who was (like everyone else I had communicated with during the process) very helpful and enthusiastic. I learnt that I had been assigned to a ‘primary’ school (grades 1 to 6) in a neighbouring town, teaching kids who had little or no exposure to English. I was very pleased to be working with kids and anyone who knows me can vouch for the fact I am really just a big kid myself, so I already sensed I was going to have a great time!

I also met the family I would be staying with in Antigua, they too were very welcoming. Luckily for me the eldest son (a chap about my age) spoke good English and was a Spanish teacher, so I even got a few impromptu Spanish lessons over dinner!

The school, Proyecto Escuela La Esperanza, is funded by a charity run from the UK and is set up to provide an education to kids whose families cannot afford to send them to a public school. Many Guatemalan children go without an education but projects like this one give some of them access to education and a brighter future. I cannot speak highly enough about the staff and the other volunteers at this school, they are doing a fabulous job! The kids were fantastic, the vast majority of them had a genuine thirst to learn and were so affectionate and quick to smile and laugh! There were some real characters!

From the moment I walked in I was made to feel very welcome, I was given a tour of the school and I met some of the kids and the teachers. We talked about a schedule and when I could actually start teaching and I decided that it was best just to jump straight in! So, I ended up with 5 classes, grades 2 through to 6, for 45 minutes at a time throughout each weekday morning. I then spent the afternoons planning the following day’s lesson. Planning got easier and easier as the weeks went by, I began to understand what methods worked, how to keep the class engaged, roughly what I could fit into a lesson etc. The information that Travellers sent through was great for ideas and the challenge is to apply these to your audience and invent fun and engaging ways to get the information across. I covered subjects like family, basic greetings, colours, body parts, numbers, activities, descriptive words and food. By the end of the 4 weeks I felt I had missed my calling, the kids were learning rapidly and we were all having fun … it didn’t feel like work at all, it was an absolute pleasure!

I found that teaching was something I could commit all my energy to (I usually got home in the afternoon completely knackered with a very croaky voice!). Mornings usually consisted of literally jumping around demonstrating words like angry, sad, running, climbing, loud, quiet or playing games like Bingo (for numbers practice), testing them on colours, asking them questions like “who has?” or “how many?” or getting them to (loudly) repeat back vocabulary. It was always loud and always fun. I actually found that not being able to speak Spanish was an advantage and that it speeded up the kids' learning. By the end of the 4 weeks they all knew phrases like “sit down”, ‘What’s this?”, “I’ll be with you in a minute”, “who was first?”, “Quiet!”, “How are you getting on?” and “Daniel, please stop talking!”. Children, particularly up to the age of 7 or 8, are better off learning a new language in its pure form, i.e. not translating words and phrases back to their native language, so in many ways talking to them in English for an entire lesson was beneficial to their learning.
 
Towards the end of my month at the school I was really pleased that a new English teacher volunteer had arrived, we did classes together for my final 3 days which served as a good handover. She is going to be at the school for 4 weeks so it'll be great for the kids to keep learning English! I think she was impressed the first morning she walked into a class with me and I said loudly “Good morning class” and they replied back in perfect unison “Good morning Russell!”.

During my time in Antigua I also met up with a lot of other volunteers and Spanish students - I’m sure you’re never alone whatever type of volunteer work you chose. So the social aspect of my time in Antigua was also very memorable. Everyone loves to dance in Guatemala and there’s a ladies night at one bar or another literally every night! I met some fabulous people that I intend to keep in contact with. Weekends were also free so it was possible to visit other parts of Guatemala; I spent a couple of weekends around Lake Atitlan, which is very pleasant!

I’m going to take away some great memories from the school… Whilst I was there, the school celebrated mothers’ day, all the mothers of the kids were invited in and each class put on a show. In between the mothers had to come up to the front of the hall and part-take in all sorts of strange games - very amusing! It was a really fun day and some of the loudest kids were on their best behaviour because their Mums were there!

One other memory that sticks in mind happened on the second day when I was teaching family words like father, mother, sister, brother etc. I took in some pictures of my family with pictures of other famous people and asked the kids to guess who I related to. It was hilarious! One sweet little girl pointed to a picture of Kylie Minogue and said "Is that your girlfriend?" in Spanish obviously (it was only day 2!), she then pointed to a picture of David Beckham and said "Is that you?"! Makes me smile every time I remember it. When I told my girlfriend she said, “I hope you told her that your real girlfriend is better looking than Kylie!” … Nice try darling!

It’s been truly inspiring to work with people who have such a passion and belief in their work and who continue to push to improve and extend their reach to others in need, as the centre have been doing and clearly as the people at Travellers have been doing too. It’s been a pleasure to work at the school, if I had more time I would have happily spent another month or two teaching, I think this is something I will come back to at some point.

I would recommend this type of placement to anyone; provided you are willing to throw yourself into it and that you go with an open mind and plenty of energy you will get so much out of it. On my last day loads of the kids gave me cards and presents, I was really touched and had to fight off a tear or two. One girl in the 6th grade gave me a bracelet, “for men” she said when she gave it to me, I haven’t taken it off yet and it will always remind me of a great month in Antigua

Andrew Gatza / Teaching and Spanish Lessons - Guatemala / American

Rebecca Tilley / Teaching - Guatemala / Australian

The school is sensational - really full on but brilliant. The funny thing though is I was warned not to expect the normal when working here, as often things won't happen as they are meant to. So far it hasn't been too bad except for a couple of days when classes weren't in and the break is meant to be at 10 to 10.30 but more often it is when the principal feels like it - the bell may go at 10.30, or 11 or 10 it is often a surprise but the tricky thing is I am meant to teach 50 min lessons which finish at 12.10 but when the bell varies so do my lessons! It is quite funny

The other day all the classes were in but there were no teachers to be seen as they had all left their classes to have a staff meeting. They reappeared at 10.30 and I couldn't believe the kids actually stayed in the classes. What a strange time to have a staff meeting. You are not allowed to leave your classes ever in London or Australia so it is quite strange seeing it happen often here. I took my camera in today as it is my last week in the school. I thought the kids would be really shy but no, I was mobbed as they all flocked to the camera pushing each other out of the way, it was hilarious. I got some photos printed today and the children are gorgeous. I'm taking proof shots so you can see how big these classes really are. I wasn't joking when I said there were 40 to 50 students in each class.

The family I have been staying with are lovely too. I have been living with a grandmother, grandfather, daughter, son and grandchild. There is a dog chained up on the roof and a chook which has disappeared recently, I fear may have been eaten. Freddy is a teacher at the school and is studying English at the moment so he is a huge help, always teaching us and we are forced to speak Spanish all the time over the meal times.

Last weekend was sensational as I stayed in Antigua this time to have an hour body massage, a brunch which was written up in all the books as a "do not miss" and a visit to the local villages and farms near here. The macadamia farm was fascinating and we got a free facial and many samples using all their macadamia products. The boss was slightly crazy but very very passionate about the environment. I am still discovering new places in Antigua, it is truly an amazing place. I love the art very much. In fact my new dream is to get all of you here so I have all my friends and family here and buy one of the many stunning properties with the court yards and fountains and turn it in to an art school, gallery, coffee shop and internet place. With live music every night of course.

Last Friday I left for Coban with Sylvie, it was a 5 hour drive but all was smooth and the scenery was stunning of course. Coban is a fascinating non touristy place. You don't get harassed here, the clothing is completely different, really beautiful. The place has a strange layout, it is a lot dirtier and you have to go up and down a lot of hills to get anywhere. But I absolutely loved it. The accommodation was fine, and the food, oh my god I swear the pasta was better than Italy! How I don't know. The other amazing thing was it looked like a shanty town but from every street there were amazing views to the mountains and national parks. 

I returned to Antigua for one night then got on another bus for 2 half hours back to the lake. This time I stayed in a more expensive place and totally relaxed. I did venture to the next village for their local market on Fridays. It was totally amazing and soooo worth it!!!!! The colours were amazing not only the females but the men too in their patterned trousers, patterned shirts and patterned bags. The best thing was it was a local market filled with Mayans and not tourists!!!!! I did stand out a bit but they did nothing but stare or greet me.

I am now back in Antigua - have put my last films in to develop and that is it, I am on the plane tomorrow back to London. I cant wait to see my friends and the kids (yes that's right the kids!!) but I will miss the colours, people, music, food, volcanoes, art galleries, jungle, Mayan ruins, stunning beaches and basically all that greenery oh, and listening to Spanish every day!!!!! I cant believe it is all ending soooo soon, where has the time gone?

Kaitlyn Saia-Hicks / Teaching - Guatemala / American

Paula Irons / Teaching - Guatemala / British

Sheila Morris / Teaching - Guatemala / British

I've gained an insight into a new culture and the desperate poverty endemic in this country. But how wonderful the poor people are who live with this poverty. I think this placement would suit anyone adaptable and willing to accept that their home comforts are left behind. You have to be cheerful and good at getting on with all members of society

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West Sussex, BN12 4AP, England
Tel: +44 (0)1903 502595    Fax: +44 (0)1903 708179
Email:info@travellersworldwide.com