Internships in Guatemala

A Day in the Life of Jessica Damasco, Cross-Cultural Solutions alum

Morning: The weekday mornings would consist of waking up around 8 in the morning and having breakfast which is prepared by the house cooks. It would usually be eggs, toast, or cereal. Then all the volunteers would be transported by the program's van and driver to their respective placements (community health center, orphanage, day care, etc.) The van belongs to the program, and the driver stayed in the home base, so it felt really safe.

Afternoon: Around lunch time, the van would pick each person up from their placement and drive back to the home base. At this time lunch would be waiting in the dining hall. Lunch usually consisted of Guatemalan food prepared by the cooks. My favorite were the tacos and fresh fruit. The cooks would also prepare freshly squeezed juices. After lunch was usually downtime. After an hour or two of downtime, there would be afternoon activities that you could choose to participate in. Some activities offered were Spanish lessons and dance lessons. Other afternoons, we would visit local attractions like museums and historic buildings.

Jessica hiking with fellow interns

Jessica zip-lining in Guatemala

Evening: In the evenings, after the afternoon activities would be personal time. Usually we would decide to go out to dinner or bars in the city. There would be dinner offered at the home base, but because there were many of us around the same age, we wanted to explore the city. We would take a cab into the city. There were a few cab drivers who were familiar with CCS and we would usually have them drive us. Sometimes, Virginia, the program director, would make sure we got into the cab safely and get the number of the cab driver.

Read more about interning on the Cross-Cultural Solutions Program in Guatemala.