Travel to Teach: Mexico Volunteer Story

Dancing salsa with Pablo

Caroline

You know the feeling when you're about to decide if you should go on the rollercoaster you've always wanted to try, you are so excited, but at the same time you've never been more afraid? You really want to try it, but you also have feelings like" What if something goes wrong? What if I don't like it?"

A rollercoaster-ride can be horrible and terrifying but also absolutely wonderful and exciting. Imagine yourself standing there trying to decide what to do. What do you do? Walk away from the rollercoaster and possibly one of the most wonderful things in the world or do you go for it? Now imagine that you decide to go on the rollercoaster after all, and you find it to be the most incredible ride of your life, even tough sometimes during the ride you pray to God to "please make it stop", but when you've done it you're ready to go one more time instantly. This is a situation, I think most people experience sometimes during life, in many different circumstances. Whether you're starting on a new job or you decide to try bung jumping. It's all about taking risks and to follow your heart and intentions.

And this is what I think volunteering is about. Before you decide to go, you go back and forward between going and not going. And when you've finally decided to go, you are nervous and I can guarantee that you'll regret your decision more then one time.:)

But once you arrived and you've meet all the wonderful people there you forget all about those feelings you had before.

I went to Tijuana and Mexico in the beginning of October for 6 weeks, and do you think I was nervous?? Oh, yes! "How is it going to be? What if it's horrible? What if they are not nice to me?" These were only a few questions going through my head on the plane over the Atlantic Ocean.

But once I got there and meet everybody I liked it! I meet so many wonderful people, friendly and open people that are more then happy to welcome you to their homes.

The city, Tijuana (TJ) is a big city, just next to the border to San Diego and the US. The city is very poor and there are a lot of people living there, and even more people coming from the US every weekend to spend money (it's so much cheaper in Mexico then in the US). But there are a lot of things you can do in Tijuana, and you can also travel down south or to the US, everything is near, so you'll never be bored!

So what about the volunteer-work? I worked at the kindergarten with the Mister -children, and I loved it. The children are so friendly and they are really excited to be with you and they are also very anxious to learn English. We also had classes for the older children in the evenings, and it was really nice to see how they also were anxious to be learning English and to be with us. It means so much for the children that people come to teach them, and I really hope that the projects will continue! Because after all, at the same time as you help others, you learn so much about yourself and others, and that is amazing. Even tough you feel that you contribute with so little, this work can change the children's life and that is invaluable.

And I know that you probably want to hear about things to do when you don't have classes, but don't worry, you have plenty of things to do. You can take belly-, guitar- or salsa lessons (I have to mention that I tried the salsa-lessons and it was really fun!), Spanish lessons, you can go to the cinema, to Zona Rio (a huge mall), go to El Lugar del Nopal, a restaurant next door and listen to music or just to hang out, and on weekends you can travel to the south of Mexico or to the US as I mentioned before.

I think that everyone should try volunteering because it's a wonderful experience that change your way of seeing things and you learn so much about yourself and how life is in other countries. And I definitely think that you should go to Tijuana and Mexico with Travel-to-Teach, because there are a lot of work to be done with the children and the women, there are so many wonderful people you'll meet and because Travel-to-Teach is a reliable organization that will help you in every way throughout your stay.

I'm so glad that I chose to follow my heart and my intentions and went to Tijuana, because it's a wonderful experience, even tough there are ups and downs( just as in the roller-coasters), and I'll never forget all the people I meet and that I still have contact with. I experienced so many things during my stay that I will remember for the rest of my life.

This was an incredible rollercoaster-ride for me, and I definitely recommend everybody to buy a ticket to it!!