My journey to the Caribbean

Hi,
my name is Henrik and I participated in the 6-months-program in 2019/2020. I had one of the best times of my life in Richmond Vale Academy (RVA)! Starting off with a group of complete strangers from around the globe, sharing similar values in terms of ecology and sustainable living was exciting. Together, with other teams and the teachers we lived at the campus, which you can see on the Youtube Channel.

The program consists of theoretical and practical pieces in the beginning. Getting to know the techniques of ecological farming and using them at the schools garden were my first steps into work. On top of gardening, we could choose an area, in which we would like to work. Maintenance, Kitchen, Garden or Promotion are just some of them. I enjoyed working in the warm climate and making the life in the school possible. As everyone had its one responsibillity in the group we all highly rely on each other, which soon created a familiar atmosphere.

Apart from all that work the freetime activities are amazing too. Hiking the volcano for an incredible view with the team, going for a dive at our own divecenter, enjoying the local beach or visiting Kingstown made me falling in love with the island.
The biggest project, "The homegardens" came soon and my team including our teacher moved into a house in the village RVA had chosen to be covered by the program. Finally we could use all our knowledge to build gardens and teach the locals about the potential right in their backyard. Within 6 weeks we had built 10 gardens and developed relations in the village, that still exist! Seeing the results after a few months and the thankfulness of the clients were a great feeling. We knew, that we did sth. right!
After that project we continued working at the campus and met the knew team. It was always great to meet new people and they welcomed us after our trip. Some evenings we played games together or the sports team organised another beach olympics.

In the end I always look back on that time as a wonderful experience, that opened my eyes for other cultures, gave me a lot of new friends and another home overseas!

Go for it guys! You´ll we love it.