|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jo Hunter-Smart's Visit to Central America
At the end of January this year I set off, along with 112 other volunteers, to Belize in Central America to take part in a 5 month long project with Trekforce Expeditions. As soon as we had touched down in the country, that was to be our new home, we were plunged straight into the depths of the Belizean jungle for a week long ‘jungle training’. This was the most un-ordinary week ever; however by the end of it I was sleeping in a hammock, washing in a river and eating corned beef and spam with ease!
We were then divided into 6 project groups for the conservation phase of the trip. I was based at Cockscomb wildlife sanctuary, which is the largest jaguar sanctuary in the world; however we did fail to ever see one in the whole 6 weeks we were there for! Our task was to cut a 10km boundary line around the edge of the sanctuary to monitor and reduce the amount of illegal poaching going on within the sanctuary. I feel the best way to tell you about my experience is describe a typical day, which started with a wake up call at 6am. After putting on the smelly, damp and muddy clothes we had been wearing from day 1, we munched down a bowl of porridge and headed straight out to work. We did machete work all day, cutting down huge trees, following a GPS reading of the boundary, which meant if the boundary went up hills and into valleys so did we!! Lunch was some crackers, jam and cheese, on the trail and then it was back to work for the afternoon.
|
|
There were no power showers waiting for us when we got home covered in mud but instead the river, which was actually one of the funniest times of the day as there were normally about 20 of us all washing together!! Supper was the best meal of the day and ranged from rice and corned beef to pasta with tuna. We did get quite adventurous towards the end and one night we even managed to have a 3-course black tie meal!
After the jungle phase we set off across the boarder to Guatemala for our month long Spanish course. It was really disorientating being out the jungle and back in civilisation although the showers and nice food was very much appreciated. During this phase I lived with a Spanish speaking family which really helped me improve my Spanish as they spoke no English. Mealtimes were quite funny at the beginning and it looked more like we were playing charades than actually having a conversation. During the week we had 4 hour individual lessons with a native teacher and the rest of the day was spent sunbathing or swimming in the lake by our village. At weekends we managed to travel around the rest of Guatemala, climbing volcanoes, horse riding and lots of market shopping!
The final part of my trip was spent back in Belize on a teaching placement. My placement was in a small fishing village on the coast with another volunteer. I was living with a Belizean family so my newly improved Spanish came in very handy and it meant dinner times were slightly chattier than in Guatemala! The school had over 300 pupils with classes of more than 40 children with only one teacher, which is why we made such a difference to them. During my time there I had my own class of 12 kids with a wide range of standards of English. Some kids who were fully literate whereas some couldn’t even read or write. This was the most satisfying part of the 5 months as I could really see how I was helping these children improve and develop the necessary skills for life. My friend and I also painted the pre-school, which they were really grateful for as they would never have got it done without us there. They even gave us an opening ceremony and party for it!
I spent my final month travelling in Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico which included fleeing from hurricane Emily at the end! I really enjoyed my time away and it taught me a lot of life skills. The project side of it allowed me to see things and interact with the locals that I would never have been able to do if I was just a normal tourist to the area. I would like to thank the Old Girls for their contribution towards this worthwhile experience and I strongly encourage anyone else to take a year out and do something like this.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
