What led you to participate in the GapForce program in Belize?
Melissa: At the moment I am working as a Police Cadet In the Highlands of Scotland and as part of my cadetship I am required to complete the gold Duke of Edinburgh Award. This includes going on a residential trip for at least 5 days with a group of people you have never met.
So I decided that I’d be pretty ambitious as to my destination. I started doing research online for different gap year trips and I came across Gapforce. I had a look at quite a few of their trips but the Belize program really stood out to me.
What was the most memorable moment of the trip?
Melissa: When we left the jungle for the first time we were all pretty tired and craving food that wasn’t porridge or spam. While we were waiting for our bus our leader went to the local shop and bought us all a deliciously cold bottle of Coke. It was probably the best Coke I’ve ever had.
On my last night we were staying on an eco ranch in north Guatemala. The rest of the group were staying for an extra month. We spent the day reading, eating, horse riding, journal writing and just having a relaxing time after our project work in Belize. After having dinner a few of us went out to the play area and watched the stars. The deep and meaningful conversations started pretty quickly.
What did you find most challenging about the experience?
Melissa: The language barrier wasn’t really an issue in Belize because most folk speak pretty good English. However, when we went to Guatemala their main language was Spanish. My own knowledge of Spanish is limited to only 1 or 2 words which meant that the whole communication thing was a bit of a challenge.
While we were in one of the Guatemalan towns we decided that we were going to get street food because it’s much cheaper and tastier than restaurant meals. We went to a stand that served burritos, beef and chicken. None of us knew what beef was in Spanish so we ended up using strange hand gestures to order out food. For example, if we wanted a beef burrito we put 2 fingers on either side of our head and if we wanted chicken, well you can probable guess what we did for that.
Tell us about one person you met.
Melissa: Our training and project work took place in a National Park in Belize. The park ranger had worked there for several years. When he first started working there he was being paid but recently his pay has been taken away from him and his work is now voluntary so he relies on his farm to earn money. He was great at bringing fruit, tortillas and bread that his mum made him for us to share.
One day he was having nachos with Cheese Whiz for breakfast and gave us each some to go with our porridge, not something I’d normally have in the UK! He was great at getting us all singing; he particularly liked Moon River by Louis Armstrong. One morning I woke up to the ranger playing Bob Marley on his guitar, which I could get used to.
What insights/advice do you have for anyone considering a gap year?
Melissa: My biggest piece of advice is to make every moment an experience. For example, there was one day when we were doing project work in Belize and the rain started bucketing down and the thunder and lightning was right above our head. We could have all started moaning because we were getting wet and the thunder was too loud, instead we took some fun photos and splashed about it the rivers that were quickly forming at our feet.
Get involved in every opportunity that presents itself. Whether it’s eating live termites (they don’t actually taste that bad, kind of peppery) or swimming with sharks (not that I’ve ever done that).