Want a deeper insight into what an ICS placement looks like? Read the amazing blogs written by our past and present volunteers. Enjoy the journey!
Del 13 al 17 de junio del 2016 cumplimos la semana número 11 de nuestro voluntariado. Continuamos recibiendo nuestras clases de inglés y español, ¡ya casi hablamos dos idiomas!
Hemos trabajado en equipo ambos grupos de voluntarios pintando el mural de la escuela, en relación al cuido del medio ambiente. Nuestra obra de arte no solamente adornará la escuela, si no invitará a la gente a cuidar la tierra y la comunidad.
A night like any other night in El Bramadero waiting with my host family before Birmania (our translator) and I headed up to Casa de Doña Dolores to spend some time with the other volunteers. The strange smell of burning taints the air and invades the nostrils. Unlike the sweet scent of the pine burning in the stove, it was akin more to the aroma of burning hair. The sudden presence of this smell brakes the calm and comfy atmosphere and a more serious feeling takes over all of us.
In October last year I flew out with a bunch of people I had just met at the airport, to Malawi. A small landlocked country in South-eastern Africa. This was at the same time as most of the people I knew were recovering from Fresher’s Week and experiencing University for the first time. I had never been so unsure about what I was doing.
When you imagine Latin America, what comes to mind? Heat, beautiful scenery and great music and dancing in colourful parades definitely paint the perfect Honduran images and, being here at just the right time, we’re lucky enough to experience an integral part of culture in this part of the world. This is ‘feria’ week and is far detached from the regular hot, sticky, sleepy afternoons in La Villa with which we have become familiar and while hot and sticky it remains, this small town is given new life with dazzling and flamboyant events over several days.
When I finished Spanish A’Level last year, I would never have imagined that just eight months later I would be acting as a translator, teacher and languages specialist in a rural village in El Salvador, Central America. Yet, somehow, here I am!
This surreal turn of events all began one evening in August, when I had felt particularly productive and decided to Google opportunities for young people in international development. Armed with free time, internet and a cup of coffee, I stumbled upon ICS and the rest is history.
This week we helped our school celebrate an all-day open event filled with various fun activities for our own students, as well as those attending nearby schools. The recreovias is a government-led initiative to reclaim public spaces for children, as part of a larger violence prevention scheme. Its stated aim is to 'provide families, children, and youth with safe and free access to public spaces, where they can share with each other' in order to 'promote values, discipline, and a healthy lifestyle for citizens through culture, art, and sport'.
This Sunday, 19 June, is the International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Across the world, the issue of violence against women is prevalent in a lot of countries, and women are constantly fighting for their rights to equality. Due to a history of conflict in El Salvador, violence against women unfortunately regularly goes alongside gang crime and the prominence of a male dominated society.
This week we all experienced our first earthquake. Out of all of the things I thought I’d experience here, an earthquake wasn’t one of them. It happened late at night when most of the group were in bed. A few of us were up talking on the porch when the conversation was interrupted by the earthquake’s tremors. It’s not like anything I’ve experienced before but the instant it happened we knew it was an earthquake, so we stood up as if to move together to safety but then found ourselves at a loss of what to do. What do you do during an earthquake?
It’s the end of week eight and in the space of two weeks of construction we have more or less finished building the eco-stoves. Construction came after a frustrating six weeks of waiting for materials, but because of the wait we have achieved most of our project objectives in this time. It’s a nice day to sit back and reflect upon the past eight to nine weeks of being in Nicaragua, and with only the water filters left to construct, our dreaded flights home seem to be looming ever closer.
En el marco de la celebración del día Mundial del Medio Ambiente, promovimos una campaña de reforestación en Parcila, acompañada por una charla sobre los efectos causados en el medio ambiente y las condiciones de vida de la población por la deforestación. En total plantamos alrededor de 400 árboles en la zona de Santa Cruz.
