Rebekah Clark

Rebekah loves to travel and experience new cultures, while serving!

Why did you choose this program?

I wanted to interact with the people one on one in their homes, not just in a structured environment. I had heard from a friend how amazing their experience was with Village Book and I thought I would give them a try, I am so glad I did as it was a life-changing experience for me. Did I mention I love books!?

What did your program provider (or university) assist you with, and what did you have to organize on your own?

They spent a lot of time helping us prepare not only with the projects we were assigned to but also helping us understand the culture of the people we were able to visit. This was so helpful as many times these cultural differences could have been offensive, but helping us understand where they were coming from helped us have positive experiences.

What is one piece of advice you'd give to someone going on your program?

Try to bring as many books as possible in your suitcase!! Every book is so precious to these kids and I wish I would have brought more books for them! Also, spend time before you come to prepare your classes and projects. I wish I would have spent more time preparing and I ended up doing most of it the evening before at our lodge.

What does an average day/week look like as a participant of this program?

Every morning we wake up to have an amazing breakfast at the lodge and then head out to the village by 9 am we are teaching classes for the next three hours. We take turns teaching so, while we are not teaching, we are painting and preparing the library.

We have lunch there in the village and then we head out with the kids throughout the village to talk with their parents about the importance of literacy.

Going into your experience abroad, what was your biggest fear, and how did you overcome it? How did your views on the issue change?

The biggest fear I had was safety.

You hear a lot about things happening in Africa in the news, so I was nervous. However, Village Book had safety producers in place and had planned for every contingency, which after arriving there, I thought was overkill because I felt so safe in the village and the village treated us like family the entire time

Any other tips for future prospective travelers?

Make sure you do your research on humanitarian trips; many do more harm than good.

Ask this question: "A year from now, will anything I did matter?". If you are unsure about this question, then that is not the right trip for you. It is sad, but there are so many organizations out there that have made charity work into a money-making machine.

Also, ask the organization if they can tell you the impact they have made and what numbers do they have! Village Book was able to provide me all of those.