EIL Intercultural Learning

Brian McCafferty who volunteered in Guatemala has shared with us a letter he wrote to a fellow engineer, Padraig, who is considering volunteering too.

Hi Pagraig,

No problem at all, glad to be of help if I can.

The Spanish was my biggest concern also. I had none going out and was quite nervous about it also. I assume you will be doing the four weeks of lessons beforehand. You really can learn a lot with these. Ask for a teacher with some English.It would be best to take some lessons before you go over, just a few, the four weeks of lessons are much more beneficial if you do, but it's by no means essential. The secret is to practice in the evenings with your family, hopefully you'll be placed with a family that has some slightly older kids that you can practice with. Maybe bring a game, cards, or monopoly to help practice numbers. But, and I must stress this, you will be able to do your job regardless. You will always be able to communicate with a mixture of broken Spanish, sign language and a smile! The more Spanish you have the quicker it is that's all. At my work there was a guy who spoke excellent English so I was lucky, but this also meant that I wasn't practicing my Spanish!! So on the whole I really wouldn't worry about it, if you're forced to speak it you will learn, everyone's very nice and patient.

Regarding the work, I was lucky here in that there was a project running that involved greenhouses that were having problems with temp and humidity. I've worked in this field in Ireland so I think I was able to provide some help to them. But in general I think it is difficult to find volunteer work for engineers. The timeframes are just too short for the projects. There are peace corp guys that I was talking to that were working on projects but all peace corp volunteers are there for a minimum of 18 months. Anton will advise if there is anything available in engineering. Through talking to local people it become apparent to me just how important education is in Guatemala's future. English for example, with many of the schools being small and remote the teachers there that are supposed to be teaching English have virtually none themselves. English is necessary for many of the 'good' jobs or if the students are to progress onto higher level education. So, there are other areas that you could provide meaningful help where it is much needed. I think if I return, which I hope I will, I will go back to teach English.

Flights are the easy part, just log onto expedia.com, I got mine for about 800 Euro. I didn't fundraise at home but I think you should definitely consider it. The advantage being, if you have some money left over you can bring it over and buy some much needed equipment. One of the Irish teachers brought over 600 Euro and was able to buy loads of stuff for the school she worked in, 600 Euro buys a lot of stuff in Guatemala!

Highs and lows, hmmmm,

When I applied I said I was quite happy being posted to the back of beyond with no other volunteers anywhere near. Which would have been fine by me, but as it turned out I met up with other Irish and American volunteers and had a good laugh and made some very good friends.

The weekends were excellent. There's loads to do and see in Guatemala and every Friday I took off somewhere and did something and returned on the Sunday, usually with some of the other volunteers. The food is excellent. I'm not a fussy eater however I must admit with my work family they asked what I would like to eat at the start. I told them whatever they were eating. This turned out to be beans, with either cream or cheese, and tortillas. For breakfast and dinner!! It was grand, just a bit monotonous, I was glad of something different at the weekends!

The weather is perfect for the Irish. I was there, June to Sept so I'm not sure if this will also apply to you but it was t-shirt weather during the day and a fleece at night. Two pairs of walking trousers, one with removable legs, four or five t-shirts, a sweatshirt, a fleece and a waterproof rain jacket and your basically there. Oh and an umbrella, but you can get that here! The weather is mad. For me anyway it was fine and warm in the morning then heavy in the afternoons with sometimes unbelievably loud thunder and lightening. There were two tremors also, one small but another shook the bed, table and windows quite hard, good fun!!

The people here are lovely. Friendly and always willing to help. The host organisation I was with were unbelievably helpful and friendly.

From the moment I landed, I was met off the plane and taken to my family and introduced. The next day I was given a tour of the town and shown where everything is. I was told about everything, bus stops, money, eating, everything you can imagine. Basically I don't have to work anything out for myself at all, it was all 100% stress free! It was also made clear that I wasn't to roam about at night. Basically, like all countries there are bad elements in society and Guatemala is no exception. During the day is fine and I felt very safe my whole time here. However, it is not a place to walk around at night, I never ventured out once past 8pm where I studied or worked during the week, similarly for the other volunteers. There are small local pubs 'cantinas', but these were definitely not for 'gringos'.But if you follow the advice of your family there's never any problem. The chicken buses are mad. Brightly coloured buses where they drive way too fast, squeeze 4 people onto a seat for 2, and cost virtually nothing. Great fun, I loved them. There's lots of stuff I could write here, from the fireworks morning, noon and night, to the beautiful Maya dresses, Tikal ruins, etc., etc. you'll just have to come over and see for yourself!!!

So my general advice is to definitely do it, why the hell not! I've just spent four weeks touring central america and Guatemala was my favourite. I'm in Guata now, flying out in four hours, then back to Dublin for a day and off to Africa to climb Kilimanjaro.

If you have any questions please let me know I'd be happy to help.

Brian.