8/8/2019 James Watson 2007 – My experience of volunteering and its value

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My experience of volunteering and its value

By James Watson

October 2007

Our trip to Nicaragua was a fascinating experience, and one which I personally, and Ithink all of us, enjoyed immensely, at the same time as learning a great deal. I feellike my horizons were expanded dramatically by being able to witness and be a partof supporting the people that we met over there. We were able to travel around quite alot in Nicaragua and have introductions to numerous different struggles of differentcommunities and groups. From the population of the tiny, isolated village of LosPositos trying to find resources to provide schooling to their children, to the Bananaworkers camped in Managua struggling for government recognition of their problemswith carcinogenic agricultural chemicals. Meeting these people as part of the SantaRosa Fund (and ENCA) and being able to offer real support gave a powerful feelingof connectedness to their struggles.

In addition to these introductions, what we were really there to do was get directlyinvolved teaching computation to the teachers of the school. Apart from letting usreally get to know the fantastic people at Colegio Santa Rosa, this was when we wereable to put in our own efforts to help, and solidified our sense of connection, a senseof our ability to exchange with the people of Nicaragua. After this teaching, I had amonth free in Central America, and so travelled to Costa Rica, to the village of LongoMai, and started teaching English classes in conjunction with some other volunteersthat I met there. There were that many more challenges teaching English in Longo

Mai, we had to find our own students for a start, and also found that English is a muchmore complicated thing than computers to structure classes for. So these experiencesgave me a clear idea of the different sorts of difficulties that can crop up in differentcontexts when trying to find use for ones skills in a foreign country.

Volunteering in Central America was a learning experience. Ultimately what strikesyou most clearly when working with organisations like the Santa Rosa Fund is howtangible a difference the money that they bring can make to the projects that receiveit. Even small amounts of support can make a huge difference to small scale projectsand the communities they help, which often have specific material needs that arecheap to us, but are beyond their investment abilities. The gratitude that they express

is at times overwhelming, and the sense of solidarity and friendship that develops soeasily (Central Americans really are the nicest, friendliest people you could hope tomeet) really grabs you and makes you realise that just because they are on the otherside of the world, it doesn’t make their needs any less important than ours. And asi defrom the awakening that my experiences provided me, just the chance to get out of England, see some beautiful places, and avoid being swamped in the summer floodswas a good enough reason for me to take part in something like this!