Going for a tour of Güiráoga

I spent a busy week traveling around Argentina with my friend Kristine, partly because I had just gotten a new job with a travel agency and they were happy that I wanted to get to know the country, partly because Kristine was visiting. It was a bit of a whirlwind tour of Argentina, traveling from Mendoza to Córdoba to Iguazú Falls in seven days, spending 65 hours on buses. Along the route I kept my eyes open for any hints of volunteering throughout the country.

Argentina is a vast country and most of the citizens reside in the larger cities. As a result, you’ll find that most of the volunteering to be found is in those areas, unless of course you wind up working at a national park. In Mendoza, the scene was a bit ritzier, and I couldn’t see many opportunities to volunteer between winery olive oil factory tours. Then again, the deeper you delve into a city, the more opportunities you will find and make for yourself.

In Córdoba, I was pleased to run smack dab into a benefit gathering for Un Techo Para Mi País (UTPMP), the organization I’ve worked with and written about in previous posts. Córdoba is a big college town, with so many universities that it seems like there are more people between the ages of 18-25 than anyone else. For that reason you’ll probably be able to find a lot of volunteer opportunities, either with UTPMP or with another group. On that day, UTPMP was sponsoring a competition to design the best model house. The artwork was impressive and a lot of information about the organization was being passed out.

Our last big stop brought us to Iguazú Falls, on the border of Brazil and Paraguay. The falls themselves remain in the Igazú National Park, and if you were looking for any volunteer opportunities there, you’d probably do better to investigate with the national park system. But just outside of the park we went to Güiráoga, a refuge and hospital for injured animals. Entirely privately funded, the refuge mostly houses birds, but other species as well. For 30 pesos you can get a tour of the facilities and see the injured animals being nursed back to health before being returned to the wild.

The refuge also takes volunteers, and at the moment has four from around the world who are helping out. We got to meet two of them as they were making the rounds and checking on the animals. You don’t have to pay to volunteer there, though you won’t get a stipend either. However, it puts you in an interesting geography as a volunteer, and you can continue to explore the different trails and areas around the falls in your off time.

So even if you’re not hanging out in Buenos Aires, there are other opportunities out there, and whether it’s for a month or an afternoon, you can do something.

Upon inquiring about a couple of opportunities that sounded quite similar, we learned that they were actually the same opportunity offered though different agencies. Both are pay-to-volunteer projects – which, in general, we have some reservations about – that are significantly different in price. Not a surprise. Last time around, in Ecuador, we met people participating in a variety of projects.  Many were doing the exact same work with the exact same set-up, etc. Having gone through different agencies, though, they were paying dramatically different prices. It made for some serious tension.

If you’re in the process of exploring any kind of international volunteer opportunity, be certain that you closely examine the projects you uncover. It pays to do all that you can to ensure that it’ll be a good fit. If you can’t find a free opportunity, or if you’re looking for something with a bit more structure, don’t despair.  You can find something that meets your parameters. Idealist is a great place to start.

For those of you that have started poking around, looking for possible opportunities, what are you finding?  Have you come across anything of interest?

North Bogota

Since 2007, I have been running a small business over the internet. It has enabled me freedom of time and freedom of location, for which I am very grateful.  Recently I got the itch to travel to Colombia and pursue a volunteer opportunity.

Colombia because of the great things I have heard from other travelers and the inaccurate perception of the country in American media. Volunteering because I need a change of pace from internet work and to expand my resume to include social work.

Not sure what type of social work. I have worked in the past tutoring elementary school students and with autistic adults, so they could be places to start. I am keeping things open-ended here on purpose because I am aware of how little I know; about Colombia and about what organizations/causes will appeal to me.

I am not part of the Peace Corps nor am I going as part of a graduate school program. When it comes to the non-profit/volunteer sector, I don’t have any connections. When looking for volunteer opportunities online, I found them to be:

A) Expensive: “Cost for the 6 week trip is $3000″
or
B) The organizations are looking for volunteers with a ton of experience.

I don’t have a lot of money and have even less experience. The trip to Bogota is an exploration of option C: a free volunteer opportunity for someone with minimal experience. This  will be the focus of my blog entries: from finding and working with organizations, to negotiating housing, to visiting the dentist, to extending my passport stamp. I aim to be very accessible to readers. Contact me whenever about whatever.

In my first week in Bogota, here are some things that I have thought about:

1. What is the best way to contact organizations? By email, phone, or should I just show up?

2. I have the perception in my mind that many non-profits will be in poorer, more dangerous sections of Bogota. How will I distinguish between places where I need to be cautious versus places where I need to stay away from?

Today, I will begin to contact a list of three organizations I compiled through the owner of my guesthouse.

So it begins now, I have been in Bogota since last Monday. I’m at square zero – aware that I know very little, but full of excitement about learning a little bit more.

(Editor’s note: this post is from Monday July 27th, published late due to technical difficulties with the blog)