Portugal Volunteer 2018

Portugal is an incredible country and I had a great experience with cultural immersion with my host family, but everything else in the program was disorganized and the constant lack of communication was frustrating. You pay $900 to CIEE (none of it goes towards the host family or the schools) and they are minimally involved in making sure your placement and experience is going well. If you speak Portuguese the communication issues at school may be less of a problem, but if you don't then working with teachers and trying to plan lessons will be a major issue. My assigned "supervisor" at the school was condescending and rude and made almost no effort to meet with me during my volunteer experience. I would recommend looking at teaching programs through other organizations before pursuing this program through CIEE.