Aldeas de Paz

The foundation is a great space. It is very homey, and to my surprise I felt at home from the first day (usually I don't accustom that easily). What I really liked about the foundation was the humble atmosphere; everyone lives together as a big family. It doesn't have a feeling of an "organisation" or hotel or anything like it. Even Manfred, the founder, lives with us, sleeps in a hammock on the grounds and participates in weekly cleaning chores (his is the cooperative bathrooms). It is a very laid back atmosphere and I felt like a family member there.

Manfred is teaching Kelvis to be the new Coordinator of the foundation. He is a Venezuelan guy (the uncle of manfreds daughter) and lives at the foundation with his brand new family; wife Betania and baby Susana. It's great to live so close to Venezuelans. Really improves language skills and culture exchange! They are wonderful people.

I signed up for ecological building (youth care and community, actually) expecting that that would be what I would be doing for two months.
This was not the case, for the better though. I got to engage in everything a bit, a lot of teaching at the community school and some eco work (for example I tried to design an ecological playground for the foundation) and was also involved with NGO work. I figured a big part of volunteering is helping wherever you can, apart from your own goals (in my case it was to gain building experience as I am studying architecture)

Working with the children is extremely rewarding. Although circumstances are poor, they make it rich and truly seem to enjoy the attention volunteers give them. And vice versa: we enjoy and benefit from their enthusiasm.

Everything was different from what I expected it to be. This constant changing of everything is something very present in Venezuelan life, and maybe even more as a volunteer in Venezuela. It's challenging and wonderful to learn to accept this rhythm and for me one of the best things of the whole trip!
It's a very cliche thing to say but "go with the flow" is the most suitable slogan for it.

Venezuela is a breathtakingly beautiful country and the Aldeas de Paz surroundings are stunning.

Basically, I can only encourage people to go to Aldeas de Paz! I feel I have learnt a lot in those two months about the culture, Spanish, and also myself (I guess this comes inevitably when you live so close to others for a while)