GVI Mexico Community Project: Coco's Animal Welfare

This was my first time volunteering abroad, as expected I was incredibly nervous. I had traveled to Mexico before but on completely different circumstances and not to Playa del Carmen, in fact, this was my first time traveling by air alone! I had done as much research as possible on GVI and their Veterinary Project but ultimately I had no idea what was to come. Unfortunately I was only able to go for a week, but it was the most eye opening and adventure filled week I've experienced. The first night was spent in a hostel after that I stayed in the GVI house with everyone involved in the community projects. The house itself was amazing, it felt like a family. Every night we all joined together for dinner, each night we took turns cooking and all pitched in for clean up after. The veterinary project is the first up in the morning, we met a Coco's staff member at a near by gas station that drove us to the clinic, then we worked at the clinic until we were done for the day. At the clinic we would first clean the adoption rooms (which really meant we played with kittens for a couple hours) then we would help the operations. There are two stages, prep and recovery, because of my background in veterinary medicine I was mostly involved in prepping the animal for their spay/neuter. Once done for the day we would typically walk back to the GVI house, which was a long hot walk.. This experience has only fueled my love for travel, medicine and volunteering. I thank GVI for that.