During my time at the internship, I gained lots of valuable information that I otherwise would not have had to opportunity to acquire. Definitely worth it and would recommend to others that may be thinking about doing this program! Cesar, Reyna, and their entire family welcomed me with open arms. They cooked amazing meals, played games with the entire family after lunch, and ensured I had no concerns or worries. I was only about a 20 minute walk away from the Centro de Salud, which is where the internship was held, and I felt very safe both on my walk to work and back home from the Centro. I got involved at the local gym and really enjoyed the atmosphere of Patzun. After my four weeks there’s it truly began to feel like home. I hope I am able to return in the near future!

I interned in a small Guatemalan town for five weeks teaching English at a private school. During my intenship, I developed my abilities to communicate information and build relationships with others in a different language, actively listen to others, reflect on my perspective and privilege, and adapt to new environments and circumstances.
I also took five weeks of Spanish lessons. Doing so improved my teaching a lot because I needed to teach the students English in their language. Additonally, it improved my ability to connect with others, ask them questions, and comprehend their answers. I highly reccommend that interns take several weeks of lessons in-country. Being able to communicate with my host family and students at the school improved my experience exponentially.
Sometimes my days were very long between my internship, Spanish lessons, and prepping for the next day's classes, but I feel like it was totally worth it. I also highly encourage volunteers to make the most out of their time in-country. Being immersed in a new culture can be disorienting, and it can be easy to fall into negative thinking and staying in your bedroom all day. But, in my experience, you will have an unforgettable experience if you try your hardest to stay positive, flexible, and learn as much as you can.
Additionally, the in-country support team was very friendly, helpful and caring. I always felt comfortable with asking them questions or advice. They really care about their interns!
There are also many tourism opportunities in Guatemala. I recommend visiting the city of Antigua, Lake Atitlan, and the Mayan pyramids of Tikal!
Overall, my trip developed me in countless ways. I now feel more confident, experienced, and have a drive positively affect the lives of others.

This experience exceeded my expectations! I came with the goal to help others with their English and to improve my Spanish and I feel I have done both of those.

At weekends, I had loads of free time to travel, going to different parts of Guatemela and even visiting other countries! The programme is well organised in that it gives you a lot of rewarding work to do but also a lot of time to relax and do your own thing.

Being placed near the city of Antigua (only 20-30 minutes away) was fantastic. You can't get bored of that place! There is so much to do there, and you can easily book trips from the travel agencies there.

The staff at the organisation are incredibly helpful. The doors of their office are always open and they are willing to help in any way! I would 100% recommend this learning experience to others.

I had an awesome time in the day care center for children from 0 to 6 years in Zaragoza. On my first day everyone was welcoming me very warmhearted. Even though I was obviously nervous I felt very well right from the beginning. Everyone was interested in where I come from and why I want to spend 10 weeks here.
In the beginning obviously it was a little bit difficult. Mainly because of the communication, because my spanish still wasn't as good and I wasn't as confident to speak freely. Still every single woman of the staff supported me a lot.
After about two weeks I really got into it and could finally start enjoying my time with the children. Of course sometimes you also need to enforce consequences due to the children's bad behaviour but all of that was kept within bounds.
What I really enjoyed was that I could also share the mostly traditional and very nutritive meals with the children and the staff. I also got to know how everything works, for example with the money for the food and so on.
The project helped me a lot to improve my spanish skills and also my social skills. I have never had contact with that many children (30 in total) that young before. It helped me grow a lot and taught me to be a lot more patient.
Now that my time in te day care center is over I am really sad. I will miss the children and the staff a lot. They had a great farewell party for me on my last day and really showed me how big the impact was that I had on the children and there lives.

My fondest memory was the surprise party that my students threw on my last day of the programme. My most beautiful memory was when I saw the blood red full moon rise at the Mirador de San Lucas Milpas Altas.

I was in a programme that involved teaching English and Maths alongside a Guatemalan Teacher. I was based in small town in the mountains - and lived with a lovely family, who, from day 1, made me feel part of the family.

We got on so well, that we often did outings together at the weekend. Some weekends I would meet up with other volunteers - we went on to visit Antigua, Guatemala City (go with a local!) as well as the towns dotted around Lake Atitlan, which you get to by boat.

INLEX coordinated my stay - they did everything from helping me to get organised pre-departure, to finding the school and the host family. On arrival they provided me with a thorough induction - the advantage of going with an organisation is that someone is there to support you and advise you.

Advice for future Guatemala volunteers: Bring with you a decent supply of hand sanitiser, toilet paper, napkins, wetwipes and, if you can, more than one debit/credit card. Where I stayed, running water would be a bit on and off, and although not amazingly glamorous, those wetwipe camping-style showers are a godsend! This depends on the region, obviously.

Finally: Absolutely do go to Guatemala! It's an amazingly colourful place - not just the clothes and the buildings, but it's got everything from volcanoes to jungles to Mayan pyramids etc etc. You're going to love it.

Overall I really enjoyed my time in Guatemala. I started with 2 weeks of Spanish lessons which were extremely helpful in my travels, here I also got to meet the INLEXCA team who were all very friendly and welcoming, offering lots of advice of what to do in free time and weekends. The micro finance part was good, however as I was only there for a month there was understandably not much I could help with. I still found it very interesting visiting clients and gaining insight to the world of Guatemalan micro finance. Additionally all staff at ADIGUA went out of their way to make me feel welcome and the whole office was a pleasure to work in. The host families I stayed with were both fairly typical Guatemalan households, both very pleasant and helpful in my transition. I also learnt a lot about their culture from spending time with them, one much different to the English culture. I would recommend the programme especially if you’re able to work for several months, the staff of both organisations certainly played a role in how much I enjoyed my time in Guatemala.

I feel as if I have gained a huge connection to Guatemala. Although I did come to Guatemala as a volunteer and the project was amazing, it was only one part of my experience. I don't feel as if I have visited Guatemala, I feel as if I have lived in Guatemala. I now have a family here who's doors are open to me at any time. I think that I can now call Guatemala my home and get a little rush of excitement if I hear somebody mention the country, similar to when you hear somebody mention your home country while you're abroad. This experience has definitely eye opening and I have noticed that people truly are all the same, despite growing up thousands of miles away; we are not strangers to each other. I would recommend volunteering in a country because you truly get to know the country instead of just ticking a place off a map.

For two weeks I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to visit the town of Novillero in Guatemala and volunteer in the ecological park "Corazón del Bosque". My sister is currently in Guatemala with the program for the second time, so my trip was organized through her and because I could only come for two weeks I did not have an orientation or the Spanish course. The program made it posible for me to stay with her and her host family, which allowed me to communicate and have an amazing experience despite barely speaking Spanish! Everyone I met in Guatemala, whether they were locals, other volunteers or members of the program, were incredibly welcoming and accomodating and made many efforts to make me feel comfortable.

In the park we mainly helped the staff with the opening of a new cafetería and snack store by painting its outside and inside. Other tasks included cleaning up the forest and working in a tree nursery or greenhouse. The atmosphere among the workers and volunteers was almost like a family. As a tip I would encourage future volunteers, no matter how long they are staying or how much of a language barrier there is, to try their best to communicate with everyone and really become a part of whatever project they are working in.

Doing this trip while I am still in high school was an excellent way to prepare me for my own future gap year. I now have a much greater knowledge of what to expect from a volunteering program and living with a host family and am itching to do many more trips like these in the future!