GeoVisions Foundation

Here is the thing: life is short, it goes quickly, and it is human nature to want to get the most out of it. You WILL if you take on this experience. In short, I spent two months in Italy. That sounds magical enough right? I also went skydiving, swam in Lake Como, visited Switzerland and Greece, took a boat tour in Venice, road a vespa all over Florence and the hills of Chianti up to a villa for pasta and wine, taught in a Italian middle school for a few days, visited Pisa, Verona, Pietrasanta, and Italian wineries all over the country, swam in the Mediterranean, went to an Italian language school and hiked between the towns of Cinque Terre. I also got to live in the most incredible place with a wonderful family. If this sounds ideal-do it!

I speak fluent spanish, but I live in a place where its almost impossible for me to practice! I've also been teaching english for 3 years so as soon as I found out about this opportunity, I paid my $1700 and got on a plane ASAP. The 31 days I spent with my host-family were incredible, the things I was able to see and do when I wasn't teaching were incredible, and of course, the support and communication between myself and the team @ Geovisions was pretty simple and fast. Also the best part about this trip was the lifelong connections I now have in San Ramon, so basically when I return to travel there, I have some sweet hookups. As far as safety goes I never felt safer! The streets here are clean, the people are extremely friendly to tourists (especially since the majority of costa rican economy comes from tourism) and the food is amazing!

I enjoyed the experience but found that the children I worked with were a bit too young for the program. One was 3 one was 6. They had no experience speaking English before I arrived, so they found it extremely difficult and no matter what I did, it was not successful. Upon leaving, the mother asked the youngest child if she would miss me, and she replied, no, because she did not understand me. That says it all for the kids. The adults, on the other hand were amazing, and they made my stay lovely. They both improved oral English speaking and they were most appreciative. My recommendation would be that in order for this placement to have been totally successful, I should have been able to speak German. I learned some German, but not enough.

I signed on with Geovisions because, being from the USA, they were one of the few programs that came up in my search and from their description they seemed to be the most appealing. They were quick to respond to my first contact, quick to register me for their "Teach English in Cuba program and quick to send invoices. That was where the quick responsiveness ended. I understand that things in Cuba change quickly and that it can be frustrating but that didn't explain everything. I often had to make several attempts and wait many days to get answers to my questions and, often, their reps seemed to be put out by my requests for information. At one point, being very frustrated, I pushed hard enough to be passed onto the director, Randy Grant. Once I had the opportunity to talk to Randy I felt that my questions were more adequately answered and that I had a better idea of the program and the situation in Cuba.
Additionally, no one from Geovisions made attempt to screen me or my traveling companion to find out if we were even qualified to teach English.
I had experienced volunteer placement in other countries through IVHQ so I know what it is to be informed and supported.
I would not use Geovisions again.

Here is the bottomline of my experiences with the GeoVisions Tutor a Family in France program.
- I wanted to spend three months in France to experience this wonderful and tutor in english for the first time to see if I enjoyed tutoring and teaching. Initially things started out fine with GeoVisions.
- It turned out I wasn't a good fit for GeoVisions and they couldn't find a suitable family for me. They did persuade a family to take me though, but it was a bad fit from the get go and it was apparent that I wasn't wanted.
- The family confessed this to me along with a local rep also telling me they couldn't find a family for me. GeoVisions did not tell me any of this though as I can only surmise they wanted to keep my fee.
- When things got to a point where a change needed to be made for several reasons, GeoVisions had very little help to offer. They did find a retired couple with no children and no english ( I also came to France to learn the language and told GeoVisions I was a beginner), in a tiny, remote and isolated village. This was not acceptable in any way but I visited the place anyway while nothing convinced me in the least to change my mind so I turned it down. GeoVisions had nothing else to offer so my choices were 1) stay where I was and where I wasn't wanted and was endangering my health (I told them at the beginning that I was allergic to cats. They told me the cats wouldn't be in or at the house but they were. This was far from the only issue). Or 2) Go to this other family which met none of a small list of things I initially wanted ( french language school nearby, a chance to tutor in english), or 3) leave the program.
I left the program after one month (of three I paid for).
You find out a lot about people and organizations when there is a issue or problem. Anyone can be nice and pleasant early on and at least until the check clears. I am a very flexible person and usually can make a situation work. I don't know if I could have culled things out of GeoVisions in the initial stages and avoided this, but I sure wish I tried harder and didn't too easily get caught up in the dreams and fantasies that often occurs in travel. GeoVisions failed in their job. Don't believe their marketing and hype.