Teach, Coach, or Volunteer Abroad – Gap Year Programs with Impact

Last year I was fortunate enough to travel to Nepal and spend four months teaching kids in a village in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal. This was my first time travelling alone and Oyster made my trip amazing with their unwavering support from day one. Not only did I receive a highly detailed pre-departure briefing in the Oyster office but also received advice and support whenever I needed throughout my travel. Oyster also organised a representative in Nepal to aid me with any issues I may have had in the country. Not only was this representative, Basant, highly helpful he was also extremely friendly and made me feel at home straight away. This was the best trip of my life as a result of the fantastic personal support and planning I received from Oyster Worldwide. I highly recommend doing any of the Oyster Worldwide programmes as the level of care and interest they invest into each volunteer/ participant is fantastic!

My time in South Africa was absolutely incredible!! I went in my gap year to explore the world before University and I am so glad that I did! South Africa is a beautiful country, the other volunteers were amazing, the children I was teaching were amazing (although it was hard at times) and I found it hard to leave them as I had created such a bond with them in the 3 months that I was there! The project is very flexible so I did a bit of sports coaching and childcare as well which was awesome. And on the weekend we did activities like Skydiving, Safariing, Bungee Jumping, Shark Cage Diving etc. Overall, a phenomenal 3 months of my life with no regrets whatsoever. If you want an amazing experience in another country which is worth every penny then go for this one!

I spent 6 months living in Arusha through Oyster Worldwide, working as an English teacher in a local primary school in the mornings and with disabled children undergoing and recovering from life changing surgeries in the afternoon.

The work was very hard. This was no extended holiday. Taking on a class of 50 ten year olds with minimal English skills and attempting to control them without the use of a stick (the standard punishment there) was very daunting. But after a few days both the children and I settled into it. They respected the effort I was putting in to help them and loved the change in teaching style. I fell in love with them and yearned to see their faces light up when they got something right. Go armed with lots of sparkly stickers! The standard method of teaching involved the children learning sentences by rote, without necessarily understanding any meaning. By the time I left, just being exposed to somebody speaking to them in fluent English had improved their confidence and competence in holding an English conversation ten fold. Half the class (including me) wept at our goodbye party.

The problems children had at the home I worked in were very distressing and ranged from cleft palates to burns over the entire body, club feet to knocked knees so bad the child had never walked. Essentially, my role was to provide them with entertainment and some basic education. The staff there were hard working and loving but their time was taken up with cooking, cleaning and finances. For the first few days I was a climbing frame and could only get through to the youngest children. However, after a while my Swahili improved and I started building true relationships with the older children and teaching them to read, write and do basic arithmetic. I feel that on both placements I made a real difference to the children's lives.

Throughout the experience, an Oyster representative was there to support us. Tracy became a true friend, having three of us over for a sleepover while our housemates climbed Kilimanjaro, taking us to dinner, showing us around Arusha and welcoming us into her lovely family. Her Tanzanian partner gave us Swahili lessons and many contacts around the town so that we always felt we had somebody we could trust.

Oyster provided five of us with a clean and nicely furnished little house just outside of the centre of town. The school was a 3 minute walk away and the children's home was a 300TSh (12p) bus journey away. A man was hired to keep the premises clean and safe and we had a large locked gate, which made it feel very secure.

Plantain, mangoes and papaya grew in the garden and we could see Mount Meru from the track outside.

Arusha is a fast paced, exciting and interesting town. Once people are familiar with you they go out of their way to make you feel welcome and comfortable. After a couple of weeks of always walking as a group (5 of us) two of the boys went to the post office alone to cries from the usual punters ("come buy beautiful paintings!" "You need taxi?") of "Where are your sisters!".

Arusha is the main stop off point for tourists who go to Tanzania to go on Safari (which simply means journey in Swahili), and so the locals are used to bewildered people in khaki trousers, throwing money around and shouting 'Jambo!'. They therefore really respect any visitors who make a real effort with the language and culture. The support Oyster provided meant we felt comfortable going into local cafes and ordering slightly scary looking dishes.

Overall I feel that Oyster Worldwide provide a very secure safety net for travellers which enabled us to independently go through the experience and discover Arusha. They tailored the experience to each of us and I cannot imagine how it could have been any more rewarding or worthwhile. Thank you Oyster!

My time in Tanzania was probably the best experience I have ever undertaken!

Oyster organised everything perfectly and prepared you fully for the trip through the pre-departure course (where they told you everything from facts about the Tanzanian culture to what to pack in your bag), the Swahili lessons and the orientation days in Arusha. It was very comforting to know that everything had been taken care of so thoroughly and that there were people waiting for you to get you settled in Arusha and to sort any problems you had during your stay. This was particularly reassuring for my parents!

I spent my mornings teaching English to 2 classes of 70 children. Although, it was very difficult to control the children at times, I had a fantastic time and really felt that I made a difference to their English. In the afternoon, we travelled to a local rehabilitation centre for children who had just undergone different forms of surgery. This was the most amazing place that I have ever worked and truly cemented my love for Africa! Here I really felt that we made a difference and I have since returned and continue to support the development of this amazing place!

I would thoroughly recommend doing a placement in Tanzania and the only thing that I regret is the fact that I only stayed for 3 months and not for 6!

I participated in this programme from January-May 2014. Oyster did an amazing job selecting the group for the programme and I knew we would all become a tight-knit group from the outset (even the surprise addition of another volunteer before the mid-month break did nothing to break up the dynamic!). The first few days orientation were very welcome and well set out, especially the Neapli lessons! The local rep, Basant, was incredible and was always there to answer any questions along with the rest of his team. His offer to keep all of our valuables (passports, extra cash etc) in his safe deposit box was a very helpful weight off our shoulders.

The first few days at our village placement were difficult but luckily our host families were very welcoming and friendly as were the teachers and kids at the school (having my fellow volunteer Rebecca just down the hill was a great help aswell). Living in the village with a local family was an incredible experience. We got fully involved with the family and they treated us as part of their family. I got invited to a number of parties throughout my time and one evening I even had dinner with the local chief of police! On public holidays in the village I'd often head down to Rebecca's house and play cards although we'd mostly end up making Momos with her host family!

Conditions in my house were basic (I lived in a traditional house with a seperate shower and toilet "hut" outside) and this was difficult at times (especially when you I got up in the morning having only a cold shower to look forward to) but I got used to it after a few weeks.

For the first week at the school Rebecca and I taught our lessons together to get used to it as we'd both never taught before. After this we got assigned seperate classes to teach on our own. Our coordinator teacher helped us set out our timetables and would regularly check to make sure we were coping and the kids were behaving. I loved teaching at the school and trying out new things with the kids. The younger ones loved being read to whilst the older ones enjoyed toned down versions of TV quiz shows from back home. It was difficult at times to come up with new ideas for teaching but it was all part of the challenge. We had plenty of fun with the kids aswell, a particularly memorable moment was when a goat decided to walk into my class in the middle of a lesson and me and the class had to chase it out the building!

I can definately say that if you want a complete cultural immersion then this is the programme for you. Living for a long period with a local family in a different culture was the perfect way to get to know the "real" Nepal. From going to local weddings through to experiencing Holi (the festival of colour) in our village with our students and friends, I can truly say I got a truly unique cultural experience.

Life in the village did get boring sometimes, especially in the evenings when lessons were planned and books are read. Luckily we were allowed to head back to Kathmandu on the weekends to have a break from the village and teaching. We'd meet up with the rest of the Oyster group and share our weeks stories. Some weekends we'd head out of Kathmandu to see some sights. The medieval city of Bhaktapur was a favourite (especially the yoghurt the city is famous for!).

After the first two months were over we had a month of travel and activities lined up for us as part of the programme. Firstly was a 7 day trek along the Langtang Valley. The bus journey to the start was scary but the trek and scenery was amazingly something most breathtaking I've ever seen. And to share it with my amazing friends was something I'll never forget. After a day's rest in Kathmandu we took the bus to start two days white water rafting. This was an amazing trip and the rapids were awesome! Our overnight camp was comfortable and we had a great evening dancing and relaxing as a group. Straight after the rafting we headed to Chitwan National Park for a few days seeing the amazing wildlife. On our elephant back safari we saw a rhino whilst our river trip got us close to some crocodiles and another rhino!

After Chitwan we had a few days to kill before our next organised trip. So we organised to spend a few days in the lakeside town of Pokhara in Western Nepal. We had a great few days relaxing and seeing the sights, including a visit to the Gurkha museum and an afternoon's kayaking on the lake. Back in Kathmandu a few days later we headed off for an eight day cultural tour of Tibet. This was a truly once in a lifetime trip that included a visit to Everest Base Camp. We learnt so much about Tibetan culture and I'll admit the scenery was simply spectacular!

At the end of the whole four month placement we were all sad to leave our host families, schools and the country we had all come to love so much. But it is an experience I will never forget and would recommend in a heartbeat to anyone. The Oyster Worldwide programme was incredible, from the interviews and pre-departure preparation through to the support of the rep in Nepal and the truly incredible programme and placements. This is a programme were you can truly make a difference and truly immerse yourself in a beutiful country and it's culture. I made friends I'll keep for the rest of my life and had the best four months of my life!

Living and working in Tanzania for 3 months is something that will never leave my memory. It took me a while to settle in the first week and i was convinved that i was going home, however i am SO glad i decided to stick it out as 7 months later and i am back in Tanzania for the second time this year! The actual voluntary aspect is both fun and rewarding, and the social life in Arusha is amazing! I met some great people here who I am back in Tanzania with now.

I had the most amazing time ever in Nepal. Staying with a local host family really gave me an insight into Nepalese culture and way of life. It's incredible how quickly you adapt to living with just a few hours of electricity a day, no shower and a simple diet of dal bhat (rice and lentils) for breakfast and dinner. The trips were fantastic - trekking through the Himalayas is something I'll never forget, and visiting Tibet was the most awe-inspiring and humbling experience of my life. But I have to say, the highlight for me was teaching. Where else would you get a roomful of children literally cheering as you enter the classroom, and kids running up to talk to you at break time? It was really moving to realise that many of these children had never been praised by a teacher before, and were completely bewildered by things we take for granted, like drama, games and storywriting. Even now, more than three years since my trip, I still think about my pupils and the smiles they gave me every single day. I would recommend this trip to anyone.

I couldn't have asked for a better gap year experience. One of the great things about choosing Oyster as a smaller company for my gap year meant that I personally knew the individual staff organising my trip and who were responsible for my well-being in Tanzania. They were extremely helpful, both pre-departure and whilst I was based in Tanzania (especially when I decided to extend my stay by another month because I was having such a great time.)

I chose to undertake a teaching placement, which I think does make you feel like you are being thrown in the deep-end a bit in a foreign country, but because I was sharing a house with other people having similar experiences we were always able to support each other when we had difficult lessons or children constantly misbehaving. By the end of my placement my classes were much more attentive, and it had become both rewarding and a joy to teach them (well most of them at least!) We also had the chance to set up after school clubs, which we created in music and drama, and the kids really enjoyed learning songs with actions like 'London's burning' with us. One of the great things about the placement was that we had the opportunity to do extra things like this, which were always gratefully received. My housemates and I bonded with the teachers at our school, who invited us for meals, and we really felt like part of the school community. So much so that two of us climbed Kilimanjaro to raise money to buy textbooks and start a small library in the school.

As well as teaching and volunteering at a local orphanage and an amazing place called 'Plaster House' which provides a home for Tanzanian children undergoing corrective orthopaedic surgery, we found time to explore the country. We visited Moshi and the amazing waterfalls, Zanzibar and the beautiful beaches, and went on Safari to the Serengeti and Ngorongoro Crater. We had to organise these trips ourselves but it was fairly easy to do in-country, and the previous volunteers gave us tips on what bus/tour companies they had used. We were also lucky that our in-country contact worked in the safari business so Oyster helped organise our safari trip at a great price for us.

There's a great sense of community with the other volunteers. I met some fantastic people, and being split up in a few houses around Arusha meant that we explored the city and met regularly for social events, both going-out and meals, which you could take part in as little or as often as you liked.

The experience I had with Oyster in Tanzania has been pretty formative in my career choice - I've been working for international development and human rights charities for the past year, and am undertaking a law conversion course in September with the aim of becoming a human rights lawyer. I'm not sure I would have ended up on this pathway without my incredible Tanzanian experience, and I'm so grateful to Oyster for making it possible!