Program Reviews

This trip was one of the best experiences of my life and I wish I could relive it. I made life long friends and had unforgettable experiences that I wouldn't give up for anything. I improved my surfing tremendously and had so much fun doing it with great people. The trip is designed to be such a wonderful experience; unique and priceless.

My stay in Nicaragua was my first experience away from home alone, and it was definitely an experience of a lifetime. The Global Works leaders were accommodating and approachable, and I was ecstatic to discover the similarities I shared with many of the other people on the trip. To this day, I am still in touch with the wonderful people in my group; we still share memories from this life-changing trip that brought us together. It was a thrill to be immersed in the rich, colorful Nicaraguan culture filled with amiable, welcoming Nicaraguans. Although there was often a language barrier, we had laughs about the misconceptions that resulted, and our leaders were helpful in clearing the misunderstandings.
During the clinical rotations, I found myself comparing the Nicaraguan practices with the procedures in the U.S., and I was amazed by the marginal differences. For example, while gauze is manually folded and sterilized in Nicaragua, it is crafted by machines in the U.S. Furthermore, before this trip, I had only heard about the poverty and resource shortages in developing countries--living in these conditions made them a reality. I truly learned to appreciate the luxuries in the U.S. that I had taken for granted my entire life such as hot showers, excellent drainage, clean water, air conditioning, technology, wifi, and our seemingly endless supply of medicine (pharmacies in Nicaragua frequently ran out of medicine, as they often received merely one shipment each month). Moreover, it was rewarding to see the community's appreciation for our service projects. I cannot express how rewarding it felt to see the community's gratitude for our contributions. The mere knowledge that I had made a difference in the community was comforting.
Witnessing these critical conditions firsthand has raised my awareness of developing countries' conditions; overall, this experience has motivated me to take action, because it is truly rewarding to make a difference in peoples' lives.

Costa Rica, its waterfalls, food, coffee, and its people were lovely. Every little thing was lovely. I can say that this was and will stay one of the best experiences in my life. In so little time, we did so much! Adventures were rafting in Rio Pacuare, Ziplining in Rinconcito, and Surfing in Playa Grande. It was my first time to try all of those things and I loved every single one. Aside from the adventures, we were able to serve the community. We helped the locals clean and level trails as well as build a bridge in the Monteverde cloudforest. We also did a lot of digging and mixing cement for the communal kitchen in Pueblo Nuevo during our homestay as part of our service. The homestay was amazing. It enabled us to help the people out as well as learn more about their culture and practice our spanish in a different but wonderful way! Our Costa Rican families were very hospitable and took good care of us. The trip helped me gain new views and aspects of life and struggle; made me understand and appreciate more of life.

I loved the trip I went on. Overall, the group and counselors I went with were awesome. It was a pretty good balance between community service, fun, and surf at the end. The unique homestay opportunity was definitely one of the best parts. It definitely improved my Spanish and I still keep in touch with the wonderful family I stayed with.

We stayed at Nicaragua for two weeks. The first week was devoted to refurbishing a park while the second week was spent building a womens and childrens center on an island. The first week was especially rewarding. We saw children flood the park when it was done, and they often came up to us to help us or play with us.

I really enjoyed myself on this trip. Having been to China the past 3 summers I can happily say that this as my favorite trip. The staff was great and I made friends that will last a lifetime. Everything was a new adventure. I felt as if I was given a new perspective on life. I loved this trip.

My 15 year old daughter had the time of her young life in Nicaragua! She spent 3 weeks getting to know and helping the locals forge a better life for themselves as they built water wells and a school. She met teens who shared her values, passions, and the need to do more in life than self-indulging. Five months later, she has cemented what will likely become a group of life-long friends. Bravo, Global Works!

My Global Works Costa Rica experience was the best trip of my life. During this experience, I was able to try so many new things, like surfing, zip lining, rafting, living with a family and communicating in Spanish! At first I was a little anxious, but the group and leaders were so welcoming. For most, the thought of a home stay is scary. I was nervous at first, but my roommate and I became so close and our family was also so gracious and welcoming. They were so generous in opening their home to us, and we enjoyed each other's company and interacting with the kids. Upon arrival to the airport, we were immediately welcomed and introduced to our new acquaintances. They soon become great friends. The Global Works leaders already knew all of our names and we had talked already multiple times via Facebook and phone calls. I could easily identify the group members and leaders by our matching shirts. I could already tell the trip was well organized and planned, and I felt very safe traveling with Global Works. Prior to our arrival in the community of Santa Cruz, our leaders informed us on what to expect, and gave us tips for conquering the language barrier. We also received letters from our family prior to arriving in the community. After arriving, we were introduced to our family and then went home with them. While interacting with our families, we all shared so many laughs, smiles and memories. I felt very comfortable and never felt unsafe. Each day we had "weather checks" one on one with the guides, to check on us physically, mentally and emotionally and see how were adjusting. The leaders were very approachable with questions or problems. The community was well selected, and the "ticos" were very friendly and welcoming. It was a pleasure to work in the schools with local kids, who were very gracious and enthusiastic. Overall, this trip was an eye opener. It allowed me to experience an entirely different culture and language. I was able to meet life-long friends, as well as my "second family" who I still keep in contact with. I would highly recommend Global Works and this particular trip to a friend, or anyone interested in broadening their horizons and trying something new. This trip creates memories to last a lifetime.

This trip was not all I expected it to be.

Although the group of students on my trip was great, the staff and how the trip was run overall was somewhat disappointing. Mostly everyone on the trip was very responsible and wasn't trying to get in any trouble, yet the staff was incredibly overbearing and ridiculous at times. One particular staff member was over involved and tried to constantly hang out with the students when we were trying to have time with our friends. She meddled into our business and asked us questions that were sometimes strange. She even provoked students and ended up yelling at them in public locations such as calling one girl out at a pizza place. The other staff were also somewhat of a let down as they tried way too hard to control everything we did. I understand Fiji may not be the safest in certain locations, yet I felt as my hand was being held the entire time, instead of letting me enjoy the experience.

As for the safety, there were many times throughout the trip where i felt as if we were not in the safest of locations. One particular "hotel" we stayed at was located directly behind a village we did not know. This was a bit scary as we were living basically within this village and didn't have locked doors on our room or any safety measures.

As for the food and drink, this was also a large disappointment. We were insured that we would have clean water to drink from and were deceived by our trip leaders once again with this. After giving us clean water for the first few days, after we arrived at the home stay things changed. We began getting rain water that had been treated with certain chemicals like bleach. On several occasions we found parasites and other live bugs swimming in our water bottles. There was so much bleach and other chemicals in our water at some points where i couldn't even drink it anymore because it tasted completely like pool water and was making me sick. We begged the leaders to get us bottled water and finally after several days of begging and pleading our wishes were granted, but that didn't take away the several days of being sick because of the bleach water. As for the food, this was not the trips fault as we ate traditional fijian food at most places, but it was pretty awful. During the village stay i found myself eating nothing but white rice for ten days because it was the only thing i could actually stomach.

The hostels that we stayed at were pretty gross and rooms were often overcrowded.

Finally, the trip outline that is provided online did not correlate with the actually trip in the slightest. There were many activities promised on the website such as "swimming with dolphins" that were not even on the agenda at all. They were simply used as promotional devices to get people to sign up and this was something that really upset me.

During the homestay, i found that my family was very welcoming and kind the whole time. However, i didn't always feel safe in the village and some villagers made me very uncomfortable.

Although the trip itself was a great learning experience that i took a lot away from. If i had the chance, i don't know i would do it over again. Being sick 17 out of the 28 days was very unenjoyable and the trip was definitely not all i hoped it would be.

I had a wonderful time on the trip. I loved the activities we did, my host family, and it was overall a really great balance of learning, having fun, and meeting new people. I did get more comfortable speaking Spanish, though the levels of everyone's Spanish were very spread out, which meant not everyone improved quite as much as they could have had they all been equal. Overall, I had a ton of fun, met some really wonderful people, and learned about a new culture and worked on the language.