Why did you decide to volunteer with ISV in Costa Rica?
Lisanne: It was simple enough - I was bored. I’m from a small place, for those of you who don’t know where Prince Edward Island is, it’s a tiny island in Canada (yes, Canada has islands), with a population of about 150,000 (and that’s being generous). I love it here, but I had just started university, and wanted to go somewhere while doing something worthwhile. ISV was perfect.
Describe your day to day activities as a volunteer.
Lisanne: Our days were awesome. We woke up in the morning to breakfast. We’d make our way to the kitchen area where the lovely ladies of the place had breakfast cooked up and ready to eat. A typical breakfast was beans & rice, warm milk + cinnamon (which was delicious), some bread-type things, and peanut butter. Oh, and plantains. Lunches & suppers were sort of the same - beans & rice, meat, some bread. And more plantains. Although on a few special occasions we got special Costa Rican dishes - those were amazing. And sometimes on hot days we got ICE COLD pop, those were good days. The people over there are truly amazing, so nice, so humble.
Our mornings usually consisted of helping out around the place, either cleaning up the property, painting, etc. Or sometimes we had ISV meetings, where our leader, along with the project coordinator, would teach us more about what we were actually doing out there - sea turtle conservation.
Afternoons was kind of the same deal - either helping around the place, or ISV stuff. When it rained though, well, we sort of got the morning/afternoon off... Those are the days you REALLY get to know your fellow ISV’ers (no electricity, no TV, no internet). It’s strange, they become your little family. I got to know those people better in 4 weeks than some people that I’ve known for years.
Then there were the night shifts. These shifts would typically last 4 hours each, and go from dusk till dawn. There was about 8 km of beach to be patrolled, watching out for momma sea turtles coming to shore to lay their eggs. If you were lucky enough to spot one, you got to watch her amazing ritual. She goes into a type of trance when she lays her eggs - your responsibility is to catch the eggs and bring them back to the conservation where they’ll be protected from poachers and other wildlife egg-snatchers.
So there’s a pretty typical day. There was so much variation though, sometimes we’d go to the manatee observation deck (so cool), sometimes we’d take the boat into town (that’s right, *boat*), or to another ISV site to help with whatever they needed over there. It was truly an amazing experience, and I’d do it all over again if I could.
How has this experience impacted your future?
Lisanne: I did ISV Costa Rica about 3 years ago, and I still ramble on about it. So, obviously it had a HUGE impact on my life. It allowed me to grow as an individual (corny I know, but true). It also implanted the traveler's bug in my system. I don’t know if you know about this little guy - he tends to surface around spring time every year, making you unable to think or concentrate on anything but traveling. Ecuador, Brazil, France, Germany, Wales, Ireland, Italy, Mali.. The world is a big place, a very big place.
On the professional side, I strongly recommend doing something like ISV if you’re interested in any kind of professional school. I’m a vet student (I did ISV during my pre-vet program), and this will set you apart from the others. This experience helped me so much during my interview, it allowed me to give a different spin on answers to typical questions, making myself memorable to my interviewers. And I got in.
Besides, who wants to be like everyone else? Boring.