Program Reviews

It's hard to sum up a trip like this in a paragraph or two because the experiences were so diverse. This first month of homestay with a Chinese family and mandarin classes was a great view into the daily lives of Chinese people living in a city such as hangzhou. Homestay is the best way to make new friends, be exposed to new things and speak plenty of mandarin as the temptation of becoming lazy by speaking English with the other group members and not getting out and about just doesn't exist as your homestay will expose you to many different experiences and although they speak some level of English, will encourage you to practice what you have learned during the day.

The two following months of teaching in a rural area of china was one of the most challenging things I've done, but it's set at a level where everything is achievable so as not to become overwhelmed. I would say the best thing about the whole trip was the choice available to the group members. Participate as much or as little as you want (although participation is always warmly encouraged) and choose to do what you would like in the city during your free time and also in the rural town. All in all a great trip which leaves you with a great knowledge of Chinese life across multiple demographics, a feeling that you have helped and inspired young children though your English teaching and a set of skills (including a descent chunk of mandarin knowledge) which you did not have before.

With AV I was introduced to a new culture in a setting that facilitated personal growth and helping others. I was challenged in my living situation without running water or constant electricity but I was given the support necessary to know I was safe. Staying in one place for tree months allows you to get to know the people, place, and culture and really immerse yourself rather than taking superficial visits. I played with nursery school children and the older kids as well, teaching them my games and learning theirs. We learned some recipes from the other teachers and settled into daily life. Because we live on our own we are able to grow as people too, becoming resilient and independent and capable as you only can when you have a safety net but aren't smothered. Introducing a new culture to the students there and offering your time, care, and English knowledge was clearly also very helpful to them and I was comforted knowing that I was directly influencing some people. With AV I had fun, learned about myself, and helped others.

My experience in Mexico was unforgettable, the most amazing experience. So rewarding and so much fun! AV is a brilliant company, very supportive and there whenever you need them, and the placement schools are so welcoming. We taught lessons to enthusiastic kids (and keen teachers joining in), joined in with all the festival celebrations, and almost daily we were invited to different peoples houses from the village for food. Everyone was so friendly! We had great accommodation in a lovely village and there was a lot to do nearby in the afternoons and weekends. Mexico is a fantastic place to travel around and we went on lots of adventures in our time off. Whenever people ask about gap year advice, I always recommend AV. Best experience ever!! Thank you AV!

I had the most amazing, awe-inspiring experience in Uganda. AV were so supportive, they were like a huge safety net ready to catch us if anything went wrong. I wouldn't change it for the world. It has certainly helped me set myself up for university.

How do you sum up an experience like the one AV offered? You just can't. The experience I received was one that will stay with me for the rest of my life (which I know is cliche but it's true!). The organisation of the whole program from start to finish was brilliant; with both my parents and I not having to worry about my safety at all. The scheme ensured that I gained the most out of my experience including really involving me in the community that we were based in for the majority of the time.

The main advantage of a scheme with AV is the perfect balance between volunteer work and free travelling. Primarily you are there to really immerse yourself in the community/culture in which you are based for volunteering, and this in itself offers many advantages that you would not gain from simply free-travel alone.Visiting the schools every day and seeing their beaming faces (and hearing chanting of your names!) and seeing their real appreciation of what you were doing for them was truly amazing. And when you were not helping out in the community in various ways, there was plenty of time to take trips out to go and explore the area like visiting tigers, swimming in lakes and visiting local towns.

Having the free travel time at the end of the experience also allowed you to experience and amazing safari and a surf school before embarking on your own adventures (with help from the scheme with planning if needed!). Wherever you were, you always knew you could call on someone locally if you needed.

Overall the experience brought with it strong friendships, new experiences and a feeling of doing something worthwhile for people who really appreciated it. I wouldn't have spent my GAP year any differently. Only wish I could do it all again!

Had an amazing time volunteering. It was an incredible experience living and teaching in a school and I learned a huge amount amount the local culture, lifestyle and also a lot about myself as a person. The highlight was probably teaching and playing sport with the kids at the school and also the travelling time after the project where I traveled down through kenya and tanzania. The organisation was great and I would recommend them to anyone.

Where to start? The teacher training we received from AV on arrival was golden; we learnt tricks for teaching vocabulary from numbers to verbs/tenses to objects, and songs, and keeping their attention span high. We were also taught about how to cook ingredients most commonly found in the markets.
We were a small group of 15 volunteers and bonded straightaway.
Our village was big with a supermarket, numerous corner shops selling snacks and drinks, and a big outdoor market on Sundays. Unfortunately our house wasn't equipped with a fridge (something that the locals found inconceivable as they all had fridges, ovens, toasters, kettles. It meant that each day we had to plan our meals on the spot, and go food shopping every day. (I learned the hard way by eating one day old eggs that were left on the window sill.) There was a taxi rank, and numerous internet cafes.
I taught with another girl, who didn't speak any Spanish. We wouldn't have felt safe or confident enough to teach every day had it not been for my A-level Spanish. We taught in San Juan, a tiny village about a half hour away, walk along the main road. We got some odd looks and unwanted attention, but nothing harmful as we were sensible and kept our blond and ginger heads down. The most sound advice I can give is to simply make use of common sense regarding what could be conceived as 'dangerous' situations. The police were scary, but we were told that their weapons were rarely armed, and we didn't engage with them ever.
The children were so cute! Aged 5 to 18. The little ones marveled at the crayons and pencils we brought in to class for 'drawing days'. The students were more interested in asking about our countries than learning English. They enjoyed simply hearing us speak (English or Spanish). They loved knowing that we were interested in helping them. Sports days at the secondary school are memorable, when we joined in under the scorching mid-day sun! Food at the schools was typically Mexican (not Tex-Mex) refried beans and scrambled eggs, spicy sausage, maize tortillas. The food ladies (mothers) were adorable and kept us our respective favorite things!
We didn't drink the tap water. Do take anti-diarrhea tablets if you need them - they are the only way to get over travelers' flu! Support staff provided help if someone was down (either physically or mentally).
We managed to get away and explore a lot of Mexico which is a vast and diverse country. I would love to go back, to see how Amanalco has grown from a town into a small industrial cityn and to go back to the fantastic destinations we explored (Merida, Isla Mujeres, San Luis Potosi, Cabo San Lucas)
The way to travel is by overnight bus or plane. Travel in even numbers. Use common sense about leaving belongings unattended or flashing desirable objects (wallets, passports, ipods, cameras).
My time in Mexico made me more mature, improved my Spanish and worldliness, and gave me a thirst for teaching young Mexicans. I would recommend the experience to anyone who is looking for a rewarding, leisurely, emotional, and fun-packed time!

AV placed me and two other girls in a village on the Finlays Tea Plantation in Kericho, Kenya where we taught for a full semester at the village primary school (Kapsongoi Primary School). I taught 7 math classes a week to a group of 30 fifth graders, 3 P.E. classes a week to fourth graders, and creative arts to 6th graders. I also led a weekly music club and spent most afternoons having tea or dinner at another teachers house or jumping rope with a group of 10-14 year old girls I was close with in my village. After 3 months at Kapsongoi, I traveled with the rest of my group, a total of 12, who had been placed near Kapsongoi and were doing similar volunteer teaching jobs for AV. We climbed Kilimanjaro (or in my case, attempted), spent a week on the beaches of Zanzibar, went on Safari in the Masai Mara, and bungee jumped into the Nile River in Uganda.

It's been over four years since I travelled to South Africa with the AV programme, and whenever I look back at the photos or videos I feel a wrench in my gut. I worry that I'll never have an experience like that again. I miss it.

In total, there were nine of us; 6 girls and 3 boys. I think that was a good balance, and over the flight we got to know each other very well. Everything had been organised by AV, and they were there to meet us at the airport. True to rumour, the staff had already memorised everyone's name and details from their application photo, and so it felt like you already knew them.

I felt that the induction week was pitched just right. Although we'd just left school they didn't treat us like kids, it wasn't patronising. WE were allowed the freedom to start make the community our own, and I feel that this approach is what helped us to feel at home so quickly. Having said that, we were trained in the essentials, and I remember the teacher training being particularly helpful.

We were supported in the community by a lady called Kate Groch, but by the end of the trip most of us referred to Kate as 'mum'. Kate made introductions to our respective schools, and we arranged to start work. It was early starts, and lesson planning took longer than we expected, but we would all pile into our little living room and do our work together, which mean that it didn't feel like work at all.

To say that teaching in these school is not challenging would be untrue. It was hard. The sheer exposure of children living in such terrible conditions left us feeling pretty powerless, and that was the hardest thing. Kate was always there to support us though, and we supported each other. This helped us to get very tight very quickly.

I remember my mum being very happy when I managed to call her from a local payphone. AV had been calling her every now and then to keep her up to date with how I had fitted in to the new environment and how I was doing. I know that this was very important to her, she felt like I was being properly looked after and that she was a valued member of the experience, even though she wasn't there.

AV sent out staff every now and then. I felt that they got the balance just right. We never felt like we were being molly-coddled or 'supervised', but it was lovely to see a friendly face. They let us take the lead and explain what we had been up to, and they came along to watch us in action. We felt like this was our community now, and that we were showing our guests around.

A few months in, we got our first surprise treat from AV; a trip into the mountains of Lesotho on ponies! we were mostly novices but by now all had perfected our 'Just go for it' attitude. If something went wrong, somebody would shrug and say "TIA: This is Africa", and suddenly everything would be OK again. The trip was stunning, we even found a hidden waterful with it's own rainbow, although we had to trek upstream through a shallow river to get there!

At the end of the teaching experience, AV had organised a series of treats for us. We were on the road! We filled the long bus journeys with disney medleys, and were thrilled with our surfing lessons in what is surely the coolest hostel in the world. We felt very pampered in the luxury safari, and as this was all included in our initial price, we knew that all we had to worry about was our beer money.

Finally, we were afforded the ultimate freedom and independence in our 'free travel' phase. This was real growing up time, we travelled around and so had to book our own flights! AV had advised us on the delights of SA, and whilst one group headed east towards Durban and Mozambique, our group travelled along the south coast, South Africa's 'Garden Route'. A few of us took on the world's highest bungee jump, grabbing the DVD and earning bragging rights for years to come.

Then came an added bonus. Our flight home stopped off in Nairobi, and AV, who have representatives in Kenya as well, were able to link us up so that we could stay for a week in the capital! The three boys took full advantage of this, squeezing a quick safari to the masai mara.

This is still the best experience of my life. I look back and it feels like a blur. We were allowed to get things wrong, party hard, and make a difference.

I was on the 5 week programme which I did in the summer between doing my A levels and going to University. I wasn't doing a gap year and so the length of time this project went on for was ideal.

I felt the programme had the perfect mix of volunteering and other activities, we had travelled to Kenya and so it was great to do a wide range of activities the country had to offer. These included climbing Mount Kenya and going on Safari.

We spent the first 3 weeks working in the school building. This involved working on the efforts of many previous groups to finish of a classroom, seeing the end result was highly rewarding. My only criticism of this was that the building was hard work which a few of our group found understandably difficult and didn't enjoy. Those of us who wanted to did teaching in the afternoons, because we were there for only a short amount of time it was difficult to guage how useful the children found this and was also difficult because some of the primary school children were actually older than me (19). We went away for 2 weekends which was great fun, notably a trip to Wasini island.

The last 2 weeks were spent climing Mt Kenya and Safari. Both were great fun and I am so glad we did them.

The group was a good bunch, however there were the obvious problems of putting 10 strangers together in quite an intense environment. Some people didn't get on but it was never an issue that had significant repercussions.

Overall it was exactly what I wanted it to be and I made a great friend who I am at the same university as.