Program Reviews

Im a physiotherapy professor. I work at Universidad Europea de Madrid, and 5 years ago, I have been living in Tecpan for 3 weeks, and working with spanish students (medicine, physiotherapy, and nursing). They changed a lot in this 21 days, and became adults because of the experiences lived.
We have been working empowerment women, talking about equality, doing courses about: posture good health habits, all about pregnancy and breastfeeding, disease prevention, hand washing, healthy teeth ...

It was great for all :)

I went to Guatemala with INLEXCA which turned out to be a great experience. Our group consisted of physical therapists and students from Idaho State University! Diego and Alex were our main volunteer coordinators and they could not have been more helpful or more personable. I can say that I am now friends with both of them and I invited both of them that they would be welcome in my home if they ever came to the United States! They paired us wi a great clinic in Tecpan, Guatemala, the JT children's foundation. Our trip was only 16 days long, but it proved to be a wonderful and enriching experience for all of us involved. We all stayed with host families who all proved to be the nicest people in the world! The family that I stayed with was nothing short of a good time. My host mom even went out into the market place with me to help me find deals and pick out souvenirs for my family. It was a great way to immerse ourselves in the culture!

They facilitated and coordinated well with the clinic to make sure we had a good learning experience and that we could accomplish our goals in what we wanted to achieve in our volunteer trip! They also planned activities such as hiking volcan Acatenango, visiting the iximche ruins, exploring and taking a boat ride on lake Atitlan, and seeing the old city of Antigua.

I could not have better things to say about our experience!

Everyone there was so incredibly nice to me! For example, I went to a coworkers graduation, and as I was waiting for him to grab his stuff, I was making conversation with one of his friends for maybe 3-5 minutes. After only talking for that short amount of time, he invited me to a family trip to the city. Being crazy enough to accept, he picked me up and we went to his aunt's house for the weekend where I was treated like part of the family. There was nothing scary about it; many people just open their homes up to kind strangers. Furthermore, the family I was placed with could not have been sweeter! They truly treated me as their daughter and made me feel as comfortable as humanly possible.

All in all, it was a great experience.
So I just wanna mention some facts that I likes especially or also some I did not like. To help you to improve and to write an honest review.

I especially liked:
- that the coordinator was always there to help
- that there were also other volunteers in my town, it makes the first weeks way easier
- that my boss in my work was openminded for my ideas

what could be improved:
- the job was very different than described in the brochure in Germany
- some more activities together with the coordinator and the volunteers could be organized
- the host family was more like a hotel than a family - they were lovely, but needed the money and I was treated more like in a hotel than like living together with a family.

Last summer after passing my final exams in high-school I decided to go to Costa Rica to learn Spanish and getting to know the Latin Culture.
There are various organizations which offer trips and volunteer-stays in Central America, especially in Costa Rica which is knwon as the saftiest country in this region. The reason I choose to go with Inlex was because there programmes in community developement sounded more interesting to me than caring for children or passing my days in a butterfly-farm.
I had a great time and made some great experiences, I met friendly people all over the country and i achieved an important goal by speaking spanish fluently within six month.
But overall I have to say I am kind of disappointed.Dont get me wrong, I don't want to blame anyone of the people with who I passed half a year. People who always care for you, if you need help, people do the best they can, to provide you a wonderful time. But still I have to say I was kind of bored most of the time. If you are the nature guy, I am sure you will love Costa Rica. The rainforest in the mountains, the dry and hot areas in the north, the carreaben beaches which look exactly like directly from Hollywood - all these are beatiful and impressing places. If you are the social guy who likes to meet many interesting people, who loves a good conversation and needs some cultural input there is good chance to you won't be satisfied. Sometimes I had the feeling Costa Rica lacks of these things. Of course, that is unfair to say because even in half a year I had the chance to see only a small part of Costa Rica, also it is my very subjective point of view on the other hand that is just a resume of the expierence I made. You won't find much indigenoues culture, you won't find that romatic socialist touch you may think of when you hear stories about Latin America. Instead you will feel the big influence of the U.S. (I don't want to say that's bad thing, but maybe not the reason why you take a long journey to Costa Rica), you will probably pass many hours in malls because thats how many Ticos spend their time, many nights in mostly German and American hostels because these are the nicest and cheapest all along the coast... I guess all depends on your expectations so make sure they fit. Honestly I have to admit that there were many others who had a great time and I defenitly don't regret I went to CR but after all the experiences I made would have gone to a bigger city with more social activities and more intellectual-input.

I had a great time in Costa Rica. The people and the way of living made it easy for me to feel at ease and i soon started to get closer to the culture and to other people - natives and other volunteers. I made a lot of new friends and discovered the kindness of so many people. The work as such gave me the feeling to be needed in some way, but also to find myself in working with and talking to people, so different in many ways.
I was lucky to be in contact with such nice, helpful and lovely persons and I had the chance to learn to speak and to communicate in my own way (in an other language).
All in all I can say that i don't regret having made this decision to go to Costa Rica and to work with and for INLEX.
I am grateful to all the people who made my stay there as comfortable as i could imagine. The people who were/are in charge of the costa rican program were so kind, nice, helpful and became true friends.

Overall my experience was very positive. I had a lovely 'home' with a 'mum' who was a great cook. I worked for 3 weeks on 2 different projects which gave me the opportunity to experience even more. It suited me well, although I can imagine that not everybody would be happy with it,as it takes longer to familiarise oneself with the people and the work in the projects.
In 1 project I painted a mural with 5 and 6 year old boys and girls in their classroom. The wall preparations I did alone in the afternoons when they were off; I magnified drawings they had prepared; the painting was done with all the children in a couple of mornings - these were quite mad mornings but very much fun and very satisfactory. The finishing off (where they couldn't reach) I did alone again in some afternoons. It was brilliant to see how proud they were of 'their' wall. And the nuns of the school were almost equally excited!
In the other project I assisted in a soup kitchen where twice a week a lunch was prepared for around a hundred children of a very poor area. Although it initially was a bit unclear to me what I was expected to do as the 2 cooks were perfectly able to do the work without me, it was still lovely to help and get to know the project. A typical work (half) day started with tortilla making, then, when the children were coming, play games with them. Next handing out the lunches and finally help clean and wash everything. Before going down to this 'job' I would have Spanish tuition.
I regretted that I didn't speak better Spanish. Although I didn't come totally unprepared, it wasn't enough to be able to have a bit of conversation. As a result it sometimes was a bit lonely as I didn't work with other volunteers, nor did I meet any.
I also realise that 3 weeks is a very short time to volunteer and ideally one should go for a longer time - I am convinced that everybody profits more from a longer volunteering period.

Guatemala is an awesome country with people who are even more awesome! I enjoyed every second being there and made lots of great experiences. They are based on people mostly. The culture is so different and unique that I could never stop asking questions to my mayan hostfamily. You can integrate quite fast when you are open-minded and willing to experience. Working with turtles was one of the best things I have done in my life. The turtle project is really small and in an isolated village but this is just what makes it perfect. You cannot expect luxious but you will find awesome wildlife and experience a whole different way of lifestyle. Spanishclasses at INLEX are good and helpful, so you should take advantage of it because without speaking Spanish you cannot get as close to the people. Thank you for my perfect stay in Guatemala! I will never forget it!

I really enjoyed the program.
I got to live in a Guatemalen family and participate in their daily life.
The project was also fun because I could help little kids and teach English and Math.