Its a great experience and very helpful to learn how to deal with the life and yourself

We are two 20 year-old girls from Germany. Although we had different reasons to do this volunteer work in the Foundation Aldeas de Paz for half a year, we have the same aim: we want to do a useful work. Useful for the society and also for our personality. Further we want to get to know an other culture, different ways of living and working, improve our spanish knowledge and learn how to deal with problems that people have here.

At first we didn't know that the organization is really at the beginning in the Dominican Republic and everything is still in a process of development. To be part of this process has advantages and disadvantages, of course. On the one hand we had to recognize that nothing is perfect and that there is still a lot of work to do and that this won't be easy. Furthermore the life in this country is slower and in a way lazier and more relaxed than the life in europe, to which we are used to. On the other hand there are much advantages for us: its a great experience to be part of this developing process. We are learning a lot at our work, how to deal with difficult situations and always stay positive, thats the most important thing we learned here. When you solved one problem the next problem comes up. But actually that's the reason why we are here, there are a lot of challenges and problems which have to be solved. We are going in the right direction, little by little.

At the end its a great experience and very helpful to learn how to deal with the life and yourself.

A other aspect we want to speak about is the life beside the work in the organization. The organization is located in Santa Barbara de Samaná. It is the capital of the Province Samaná in the north of the Dominican Republic. It's a small city with the character of a village. The people are friendly and very helpful. What is very important for the community of this village is to say hello to the people on the street even when you don't know them. That manner is a part of their culture and will help the volunteers to get integrated. That leads to the next point; with the right attitude volunteers can have a nice time here. The "right" attitude means to be open minded, because without that you can not get along with a other cultured person. Samaná is a really peaceful place nevertheless there is always something going on and it is a good combination of young and old. The social life is very important for the people here, they are very open and interested in getting to know new people. We found a lot of good friends here. Even though we have to say that it is not a city with big clubs and shopping-malls. You have little shops and on the promenade there little bars. But Samaná is a great starting point to go to nearby cities like Las Galeras or Las Terrenas. In Las Terrenas are more options to go out in the night. There are clubs, a lot of restaurants, beach bars and shopping places. In Samaná are a lot of Activities you can do, Samaná has a beautiful landscape and there are a lot of places you can travel to. For example the national park Los Haitises, the waterfall in El Limón, the island Cayo Levantado and a lot of very beautiful beaches with a lot of options for watersports like surfing or diving. The most famous thing in Samaná is watching the whales which are coming between December and February to get there birth here. There are a lot of places and things to discover in Samaná.

The place where the Volunteers are housed is an apartment for 5 persons. There are three sleepingrooms, one single room with a bathroom and two double rooms. One living room with two couches and a dining table. An other Bathroom a big kitchen and a balcony with a beautiful view to the sea. For general living conditions in Southamerica this apartment is very good and clean. Nevertheless we had to get used to this living conditions first.

All in all we are really happy with our choice to stay here in Samaná with this organization, even though there are many problems that have to be solved. We are growing on our tasks and we are learning a lot.