ICS blog

Family is a word with a variety of different meanings. Defined it is ‘a group consisting of parents and children living together in a household’, however this is not always the case. Families differ greatly in terms of economic, cultural, social and many other facets. Family members are often close and feel they can depend on each other for caring guidance and support but what’s most important is the love or common interests that bind them together.

As it is International Day of Families, we at MASO thought it would be a good opportunity to reflect on the past six weeks with our host families. We didn’t know what to expect before meeting our new parents and siblings. We were leaving the familiarity of our own families in the UK and were apprehensive about adapting to new dynamics. Immediately upon meeting our parents we were greeted with smiles and the nerves eased. We were welcomed as daughters, and one of our fathers even joked he had to invest in some guard dogs to protect his new girls.

At my host home there is only my host mum, me and another UK volunteer. Our host mum is a paramedic, so is in work a lot. We have three sisters who all live in South Africa. Jamie and I are the only boys our host mum has and she really treats us like her own children. Out of all our host mum’s children I am the youngest, which is the same with my UK family. Joe

On Sunday, the world will celebrate International Day of the Families. We wanted to commemorate this by talking a bit about our host families - an integral and exciting part of the ICS experience. For anyone hoping to head overseas on placement, we hope this will help with expectations and settle any apprehensions you might have. Let’s look at Cycle 4’s three different host homes from three different perspectives…

A volunteer’s point of view…

International Day of Families, a day we celebrate the greatest gift of life and thus being part of a family. What is a family one may ask? A wise man once told me that family is not only defined by blood but also by association. What best way can we ever describe a family other than asking each person to share their views, experiences and values of their families. Here is what each volunteer had to say about his or her family.

Before coming to Zimbabwe, one of our biggest fears was whether we would be just more Westerners going to Africa as part of some voyeuristic voluntourism trip. We didn’t want to contribute to the already prolific “white-saviour” complex, which has contributed significantly to painting countries in Africa as backward and in need of saving from us ‘enlightened’ people in the Global North, a narrative which has existed for centuries. However, having now reached the half-way point in the placement, these concerns have lifted.

You are in a new country, you are fully aware that you will be here for the next three months, you’ve even absorbed all the vital information from orientation, but when does it truly register that you are here in Honduras? For me, it was the weekend after the first week in my host community.  

La semana del 3 al 6 de mayo de 2016 recibimos clases de inglés y español como parte de las sesiones de aprendizaje del grupo.

Los voluntarios nicas y británicos elaboramos carteles para promover la charla con las beneficiarias de los filtros de agua y eco-fogones. La actividad fue bien recibida por las participantes, valió la pena el tiempo de preparación!

This week was largely spent bringing together all our preparations for Friday’s Mother’s Day celebrations. Here in Honduras and a number of other countries across the globe, Mother’s Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May (not in the UK though, so don’t worry if you’re reading this thinking that you forgot to buy a card!). 

There is an old adage that says, “it is times of pressure that the true nature of one is revealed”. This in short describes the previous two weeks of working together as national and UK volunteers. This has been quite a period and one elder upon complaining said these wise words to me, “welcome to the world of grown-ups”. It has been a tough time trying to settle into our various roles and ultimately being able to deliver the required results bearing in mind the factor of time that is always not on our side.