Volunteers Abroad Reviews and Feedbacks

My Favorite Memory:
My favorite memory of my trip was going on safari, and seeing all the national parks around the area.

I was surprised that…. things moved so slowly, I know a lot of what I had read told me that time was not as important as in western culture, but until I actually experienced “African time” I didn’t really understand.

The most difficult thing I experienced was…. the lack of knowledge and education for health professionals, and feeling like there was nothing I could so to change it.

My best received lesson… PATIENCE!

Tip for future volunteers… (Clothing, travel, personal items, donations, sightseeing etc)
One tip I have for future medical volunteers going to Arusha is to understand that nurses do not have the same role as nurses do here in the US. Nursing did not seem to be considered a respected profession. For example I am a pediatric nurse and when I was in Arusha I worked in the operating room and then in a maternal child clinic, non of what I know anything about! I was able to eventually to scrub in on surgery and actually help assess patients in clinic. Especially if you are a trained medical professional you really have to advocate for yourself in order to be able to help. Otherwise they just assumed I was there to learn. I was definitely open to learning, but that is not the reason I went, I went to try to help and be useful to them. I just had to continually ask them for something to do, and to remind them that I was there to help them!

As far as donations, it is best to bring BASIC supplies, such as gloves and gauze, etc. Also be prepared to have locals expect you to pay for things, most do assume that you are rich and have endless money. It is very easy to be taken advantage of, so it is important to be careful and to remember that giving people a little money really doesn’t help them. It is more important to put money and supplies towards projects such as gardens for orphanage or another example while I was there we helped two little girls get surgery to repair hernias which would have otherwise would have been ignored.

For clothing really do wear just simple clothing that covers as much as possible and follow the advisement of Abroaderview for what is culturally acceptable. Trust me, you will stand out enough, without having clothing that is too revealling. We wore capris and tee shirts most of the time, and it worked out great. We did bring a swim suit and wore those when we went to Zanzibar and some of the other volunteers went to pools at local hotels on the weekends and it was acceptable to wear it there.

For sight seeing I would definitely recommend bringing enough money to go sight seeing on the weekends. Going on safari was one of the coolest things I have ever done, but it was expensive (ended up costing $750 for a five day safari). Also we went to Zanzibar, and it was definitely best to be able to fly there from Arusha, even though it was more expensive then taking a bus and then a ferry.

Lastly one thing no one really prepared me for was what I would experience when I returned back home. When I initially returned home I had a lot of feelings of guilt and frustration with how we live here in America and how much we take for granted. It is hard to come home and have people complaining about little things that don’t really seem to matter, when you just came from a place where so many people don’t even have the basics. When a friend is talking about how upset they are that they can’t find a pair of jeans that fits good, you just want to lecture them on how lucky they are to even be able to afford clothing. But I can promise you that it won’t go over very well, and it is best to try to talk to someone who has done mission work abroad before. After awhile I have finally come to the reality that I can’t fix the world, and that even if all I can do is send a box of donations to a school in Arusha, it is something. And as I said before, little things put together will add up to something big for someone.

Personal Paragraph (Testimonial)
This trip was by far one of the coolest experiences in my life and I think my life will forever be changed. I see the world differently now, and can’t wait for my next opportunity to go and volunteer, hopefully again in Africa. When I came home I felt like I didn’t really make a huge difference.but then as I have worked through my “mission trip withdrawl”  I have realized that in a country where there is overwhelming poverty it is the little things that will slowly make a big difference, and I can only hope that I made a little bit of a difference in a few peoples lives.