I decided to volunteer, in general, for two reasons. Firstly, I was (and still am) looking for a job in international development cooperation, better known as aid. Unable to find one applying from home in Portugal, I felt that I lacked field experience in a developing country and therefore decided to get some by volunteering. The second reason, more broad, was that I was tired of living and travelling in developed countries only, and wanted to know what life was like in that very different world that lies between the tropics. I also wanted to challenge myself and leave my "comfort zone".

I chose Kenya because I'd been in the country before, because it's a country where aid agencies are very active (and where many have offices) and because I wanted to learn an important African language, in this case, Swahili. I selected New Hope because it offered the most affordable international volunteering programs in Kenya.

Simple. I get to the school I'm volunteering at around 8 am and help the teacher in any way I can until lunch time. Sometimes it's teaching while she's marking, sometimes it's the other way round. Other things I've done included organizing the school library. Because it's volunteer work, you're free to help wherever and however. The afternoon is off to hang out with other volunteers, get to know the surroundings, etc.