Ecuador with UBELONG: An Extraordinary Experience

My trip to Ecuador, arranged through this wonderful volunteer organization, was my very first major excursion of this sort, and so I was pretty nervous to begin with. But with the extraordinary service and personal guidance given to me by my UBELONG mentor, I arrived at my placement - I'm convinced - more prepared than I ever would have been had I gone through a more expensive organization. And the perks of volunteering through UBELONG didn't end there: while I was in school teaching English or helping to clean up Ecuador's beautiful beaches (thus unable, at times, to get to the phone), my mentor was personally taking calls from my worried mother and reassuring her that yes, I was safe and doing fine. Plus, our conversations that took place both during and subsequent to my placement really helped me make sense of this complex, wonderful experience and place it in context both globally and personally. On the whole, I would say that my experience working with UBELONG was completely, totally, overwhelmingly positive; I sincerely recommend them to the prospective volunteer, and I hope that their success continues to allow them to offer amazing experiences to new generations of volunteers and world-changers.