All of these experiences include people. People are what kept and keep me going. The energy of the Ecuadorian Amazon was like no other, and I struggle with the fact that I had to leave a place that brought me so much joy. It doesn’t take money, a big house, a busy schedule, or a fit body to be happy there. All you need is an open heart, a wide smile, and a willingness to laugh at yourself to feel like you belong in the local culture which is full of life. After four months of being in Ecuador, I became part of an extensive family that I know I will return to and I gained a plethora of new skills to use. Having already traveled to four continents and over 20 countries, where I grew up in Chicago, Illinois, and where I spent my time in San Pablo/Tena, Ecuador are two places I can genuinely consider I have family.

I got a lot out of this experience – both personally and professionally. Professionally, an internship in economic development will help me because I want to work in public international law, for an organization like the United Nations. This internship shows that I am dedicated to community service, willing and able to travel, and that I can work in other cultures. Additionally, my increased Spanish skills (I went from very basic to comfortably conversational in 7 weeks thanks to this experience) will be a huge benefit to me. Personally, I was nervous to go to a developing country with a lot of crime. But, I did it. I didn’t feel unsafe once the whole time I was there, and I traveled alone almost every weekend and walked alone at night a lot. I developed close relationships with amazing people and learned a lot about myself. I even helped a few kids learn how to ride a bike.

I went into this, hoping to gain some real-life field experience in either a Marine Biology or Conservation Biology context- and I feel like I really did. It is by no means the most glamorous of placements or experiences, but it is totally authentic. There was a lot of waiting, a lot of looking at open ocean and listening to what at times felt like a completely empty sea, but when we finally did make a sighting or when good quality whistles and clicks were picked up on the hydro-phone, it was beyond satisfying. Even in those moments when you’re not finding anything and you may feel like you’re not making an impact to Cetacean conservation in that area, you realise that the sightings you don’t make or sounds you don’t hear, give as much information as when you do pick up something.

Whale and Dolphin Marine Conservation in Italy

Meditation is a good way for us to improve our mind and stay peaceful. Through several times meditation, I get knowledge about how to do the meditation correctly and help some people finish their meditation and Buddhism manners impression.

I spent my time chatting with different monks in English for up to 6 hours per day, that let me know more about Buddhism. There are many foreign monks studying in Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya University, Chiang Mai Campus, for example, come from Lao and Myanmar. All of monks have different majors in the university, have to learn many things, such as English, to communicate with foreign visitors frequently. Some little monks are very shy to speak English and have been studying to become a Buddhist monk for more than 10 years.

My name is Kat and I had been planning a trip around Latin America. I originally was only researching Spanish lessons to help me with my trip but then came across this project and saw they offered opportunities to learn Spanish and volunteer as a teacher in Guatemala. After a lot of research and conversations with the team, I decided this looked like a great experience.

I was placed with the charity which focuses on education for disadvantaged families in rural communities, and my time there was short and packed. I was helping their co-ordinator, Carlos, develop after-school activities, which included two sports days. The charity has a lot of space and a little basketball/football pitch which made it easy to set this up. I was also able to use my financial background to set up a math’s homework-workshop which encouraged critical thinking skills through educational games and activities. There were around 20 children between the ages of 5 and 14 and it was an amazing experience working with such an energetic, enthusiastic and positive group of kids.

The people at the project and Lobitos touched my heart and I felt like the entire house was a big family. I didn’t feel lonely at all in Lobitos, the people were very warm and everyone waved at each other on the street. Even though I came only knowing a few Spanish phrases, people taught me Spanish words along the way and were very patient about it. The language barrier didn’t stop us from finding things to laugh about, and google translate was a great help.

After my first week I told Ellie that I felt I could be doing more work and she was responsive and gave me more responsibility at the next weekly meeting. This gave Daniella more time to create a report on Ecobricks for the next volunteers as well. I felt honored to be trusted with irrigating and looking after the dry forest by myself. I did more transplanting on my second week as well. Something that upset me was seeing the young algarrobo trees being affecting by a plague and not being able to really help them. We made homemade neem pesticide for better understood pests and started some trials on it.

I feel that the project is doing impactful and altruistic environmental work that Lobitos is proud of. I wish I could have stayed longer and done more to help the project, but I know the plants I looked after and transplanted will have grown one day if I come back and that I made a small but real difference. The project exceeded all of my expectations and I highly recommend volunteering for them. On the weekends we went out to Talara, explored, went on a boat to see the oil rigs covered in seals and I even tried surfing. Naiana, the VP coordinator, held Yoga classes in the evenings during sunset which were very peaceful.

Overall, volunteering here was one of the most rewarding and memorable experiences of my life. Thank you to the Global Nomadic team for leading me to this opportunity.

Day 6

The kichwa host family and I were out the door and trekking up to the chakra-farm at seven in the morning to prepare for a traditional amazon dinner booked at the restaurant. We all carried a load of cooking equipment or fresh local amazon produce in large baskets slung over our back and secured with a rope handle resting on our heads. Dona Elena and I started food prep and equipment cleaning. While food prep was going Don Clemente started two open fires under a bamboo shelter and had water boiling straight away. By noon the kitchen was running like a well-oiled machine with more family members coming in to assist with food harvest from the chakra, food prep of over twenty different foods, tending the fires, and dining room preparation. The thirty restaurant customers arrived at sunset and started with a tour of the farm before digging into a magnificent amazon feast.

As a biochemical engineering major, I learn a lot about western medicine and how to modify things on the DNA level. Traditional medicine and this field are not always combined as they could be. I can see there being some potential with bringing the knowledge I have learned from the Amazonian plants to the world of the laboratories. Additionally being introduced to plants in the Amazon has opened up a new field of study for me that I may pursue.

Putting into words how this experience benefitted me educationally and for my potential career is extremely difficult, because this experience definitely has changed my life. Tangibly, this experience taught me so much about traditional medicine and medicinal plants. As a biochemical engineering major, I mainly see how medicine is made in labs, and it was awesome to see how medicine is directly taken from nature and used. I could see the collaboration of the traditional and western medicine being a potential project for my future.

For 9 weeks I participated in an agroforestry internship through Global Nomadic. This opened me up to a company that produces and sells an energy drink made from guayusa, a ‘tea’ like leaf native to the Ecuadorian Amazon. I worked for the Fundacion, the non-profit initially attached before total separation in the Summertime. The vision of the Fundacion is to improve local livelihoods and conserve tropical biodiversity by creating sustainable value for rainforest products.

Throughout my agroforestry placement I undertook a variety of different roles and had the potential to participate in a number more, those of which I did participate in are listed below.

• Creation and editing of monitoring guides.
• Research into the health properties of Amazonian plants.
• Creation and editing of communication products such as posters, handouts and product packaging.
• Organisation of intern work.
• Creation of a guide for future interns.
• Creation and updating of vivero (plant nursery) inventory.
• Reforestation project: rotating agroforestry fund.

One of my best experiences abroad! Peru has definitely left a mark on me.

As a volunteer for the NGO I participated in many projects in such a short time! Time flew! These are some of the projects that my team and I were involved in:

• Planting day🌱! Although we had to wake up every week at 6:00 it was very fun!
• Reforestation to protect the Peruvian “Cortarramas” bird and restore its habitat
• Website translation (Spanish and English)
• Facebook and Steemit marketing
• Buying groceries, etc in Talara for all the ecoFamily
• Writing a letter to the Mayor to obtain permission to install our sign
• Designing and building a solar distiller to produce drinking water from seawater
• Trialling different materials in the dry toilet to reduce water and form compost
• Designing a renewable energy system for the rural health clinic to avoid disposing the vaccines after a blackout
• Checking the performance of a PV system

Apart from this, Lobitos is a great place to learn to surf, go fishing, eat ceviche, watch the sunset, learn spanish, see wild animals in front of your house, and even swim with turtles!

It was sad to say goodbye so soon, I would’ve loved to see my major project finished. Thanks for everything! I wish you the best and that you are very successful with your future endeavours. I will recommend this experience to everyone who asks me!

Wildlife Documentary Making in South Africa

My time at the project in Mossel Bay was very special to me. This project really focuses on wildlife filmmaking and everything that comes with it. There hasn’t been a day where I was bored or felt out of place. Every single day was pure work, laughs and overall an amazing experience. I don’t know if I personally made a difference to the project but people like me who are willing to learn and meet new people in this field are the ones that make this project a success and a joy for everyone.

One of my biggest challenges was the fact that I’ve never edited before and we spend a good amount of time editing our films. I was often stuck and had to figure it out by myself but that’s how you learn the most, it’s by doing it yourself. I am very proud of myself that I learned so many useful things during my time there and extremely grateful for all the staff who helped me overcome my challenges. I am extremely satisfied with my short film and looking forward to doing another experience like that in the future. This project did meet my expectations and I would definitely recommend this to a friend who has experience in filmmaking.