How can volunteering help you in the real world? There are countless reasons that I won’t go into here, but they include adding something to your resume, allowing you to give something back to the world, or giving you some important life skills. Over the long Holy Week weekend (Easter), I realized[...]
Author Archive
April 1st, 2010 - 11:26 am § in Around Town, Colombia
You, You and You
After three months of volunteering in Colombia and with one left, I’m starting to put my time here in perspective, think of what motivated me to come here and what I’ve liked most about being here. Whenever I think of this, I keep thinking of the opportunity I’ve had over the last three months[...]
Working in the Barrios
Celeste’s fantastic post about favela tourism got me thinking about the differences between visiting and working with favelas (or barrios de invasion as they’re generally known in Colombia). One of the things that I most love about volunteering for Kiva in Barranquilla is that I’m in a city [...]
Day in the Life: Times are Changing
I feel I know Barranquilla reasonably well: I’m finding my way around the city, making friends and—at last—working out how to use the bus network, without needing to get off the bus because I misread where it was going. But for all I think I know Barranquilla, there’s another side that I’v[...]
Amigos
Once you’ve arrived at your ideal volunteer placement in Latin America, there’s often an awkward moment of realization when it feels like you’re back at your first day at school because you suddenly realize that you don’t know anyone and might be doing a lot of reading. Luckily for you, [...]
Day in the Life: Barranquilla Carnival – ¡Quien lo vive, es quien lo goza!
The motto of Barranquilla’s Carnival, or Carnaval in Spanish, is ¡Quien lo vive, es quien lo goza! (literally, “Anyone who lives it, is who enjoys it”). Over the past month, life in Barranquilla has been turned upside down as people live and enjoy the start of the Carnival season. Sin[...]
February 9th, 2010 - 10:19 am § in Colombia, Tips & Resources
Weird Words and How to Learn Them
It almost goes without saying that language is one of the main reasons that people volunteer in Latin America. It could be that they may want to learn or improve their Spanish or Portuguese language skills, and if you speak the local language, you automatically have a connection with people you’re[...]
February 2nd, 2010 - 4:06 pm § in Around Town, Colombia
Living in Two Worlds at Once
One side of volunteering sometimes not spoken about is the desire to see the country you’re in—it makes you sound like a tourist and you came to Latin America to do something more. I personally think that it’s fine to see the country in your time off: you’ve chosen Latin America over another[...]
January 26th, 2010 - 11:46 am § in Around Town, Colombia
¡Por Fin, Me Quejo!
If you’re not a Spanish speaker, the title means “At last, I complain.” No, this doesn’t mean my Kiva Fellowship placement in Barranquilla, Colombia has gotten off to a sticky start. It’s from a sign we saw while on a journey around the city to get our bearings earlier in the week. The sig[...]
