Want a deeper insight into what an ICS placement looks like? Read the amazing blogs written by our past and present volunteers. Enjoy the journey!
This week was one of the shortest since the beginning of the cycle but we progressed in our work owing to forming small groups and working really hard on the new vegetable patches. We could say that despite the small amount of time we have had, this has made us work even harder to achieve our goals. One of the family’s vegetable patches was created with a screen of coconut palm leaves to form a barrier against animals.
It’s been over four weeks since I completed my placement as a volunteer with local organisation ADES (Asociación de Desarrollo Económico Social Santa Marta) and Progressio ICS.
I learnt a lot in 10 weeks alongside my fellow national and UK volunteers. It is an experience that I will never forget, where the language barriers between the group of national and UK volunteers was not an impediment for us to succeed in our project, one which will greatly benefit the community of Santa Marta, and I would say, for future generations.
Three weeks living and working alongside national volunteers in beautiful Malawi has given us some of the most rewarding, hilarious and often bizarre experiences you could imagine, as well as providing a few challenges and cultural differences to deal with along the way! Here are some of the things we’ve learned so far….
1. How delighted people will be if you speak even half a sentence of the local language
2. That admitting to not liking football is possibly worse than murder!
Our team of 10 UK volunteers arrived in Rumphi, Northern Malawi, on the 10 July, ready and excited to start work with the local environmental and agricultural organisation, SPRODETA (Small Producers, Development and Transporters Association). After the first few days of settling into our host homes, we began work with our lovely national volunteers. Together, we decided to name our team ‘Mapiri’, which translates into Chitumbuka as ‘mountain’, inspired by the fact that Rumphi is situated in a small, green valley surrounded by the most majestic mountains.
After a week of much travelling from England to Lilongwe then on to Mzuzu, our project work with our partner organisation, Tovwirane, is starting to take shape. The team is growing in confidence and getting to know each other. We are taking each day one step at a time and hoping to play a major part in making a difference by educating target groups and changing perceptions about HIV & AIDS in Mzuzu.
The UK and Nicaraguan volunteers and members of the Aguirre community have begun constructing the steps that link the Masaya Volcano National Park with the viewpoint, which has the same name. This can be found 5km away from the Masaya Volcano’s crater.
This week in La Esperanza we’ve been renovating the library and workshop room, the amount of work we have needed to do is testament to how badly the centre needs us, and needs our work.
This week, we met the beneficiary families who received a vegetable patch during the previous cycle (11). Within the weekly programme, there are built-in activities to ascertain more about the community of La Sabanita, for example, we asked the families some questions in order to know more about how the vegetable patches were functioning, so that we could continue improving the project during this cycle.
We woke up in Santa Marta abruptly, sets of three loud explosions starting at 4am and finishing almost two hours later. Shaken and bewildered we emerged from our simple but comfortable room, only to discover the explosions had been a religious celebration. I feel this was the perfect introduction to life in Santa Marta. Truly thrown in the deep end with very little Spanish between me and my house mate, first introductions to our host family were a nerve wracking but eye opening experience.
After the great induction week and getting to know the Nicaraguans in our group we drove to Masaya. While joking with the Nicas on the bus on the way there, they pointed out the huge Masaya volcano and national park that we were driving past. The size of the volcano was so unexpected that all of the UK volunteers thought that they were looking at a large ridge, when in fact it was just one side of the crater. After passing the national park we arrived in Masaya, which is different to Managua in so many ways.
