Volunteer in Guatemala | Education, Medical, Environmental & more

My stay in Santo Tomas, Milpas Altas was an experience I will never forget. My host family were very kind and couldn´t do enough for me, and the food was excellent.

The school where I was placed was a pleasure to work at and I was allocated a teacher, Ms Edlin, who guided me through the first few days. Gradually she loosened the reins so that I became more and more immersed in the day to day activities and was able to take classes on my own, which was sometimes slightly alarming but always good fun. The students were nearly always kean to learn and were very interested in my accent, where I came from, and the girls were especially interested in my blonde blue eyed son lol.

For 6 afternoons during my stay I spent time at the local EDUSI project which was attended by local children and their parents and was even more relaxed, and very enjoyable.

Altogether it was a great experience and I look forward to the next placement!

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.

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.