Volunteer Spotlight: Cat

By Candice ConradesExperiences, Volunteer Abroad

"I had a fantastic 3 months working with the staff and children at the orphanage..."

I arrived in Medellin, Colombia in January with the intention of spending three months working with Globalteer on the project. When I first arrived, I had all these thoughts in my head, "Was the country safe?" being the main one and of course my family were quite concerned also. As soon as I arrived in New York airport, in transit, I met the most welcoming Colombian family who were catching the same flight as me on to Medellin.

They were so happy that a tourist was coming to their country and they insisted that I get a lift with them from the airport to the black sheep hostel where I was to be staying. They very nearly gave me Colombian pesos because they were concerned that I only had $US dollars on me. I ended up hanging out with one of the sons of the family and he took me all around the city and out to the country to coffee region and that is the real Colombia, fantastic, warm and welcoming people.
 
The city of Medellin is fantastic. It's a great place for young people and outside of the project hours, there are plenty of fun things to do and great places to visit which you would have time for.

I was lucky enough to meet Jim on arrival at the hostel. He was staying in Medellin sorting things out at the Colombia Kids project. He gave me my orientation and the next day, I headed down to the project, which is an orphanage which houses 69 children, between the ages of 2/17, boys and girls. I only spoke very basic Spanish at this point but the kids were just great.
 
We spent the first few days, hanging out with the kids and shopping for materials, games, paper, stationery, with the view of starting up English classes for the children. We then sorted the children out into groups and started the classes which were great. All of the kids were really keen to learn unlike they would be here in England. The couple who started up the orphanage have got a dream of the children having the opportunity to go to University some day and as the city of Medellin is turning around and becoming bilingual, it is us that are giving the opportunity to do that.
 
I had a fantastic 3 months working with the staff and children at the orphanage and will miss them all a lot but I hope to visit them all again next year, when maybe they will be able to converse with me in English??

I spent my last few weeks in Colombia on the Caribbean coast which was just beautiful. You would be totally surprised by the amount of backpackers travelling in the country and yes, it is safe to travel by night buses overland.