ICS blog

We arrived in Arcatao on Thursday afternoon, sweaty from our two-hour journey down the stunning highways accompanied by huge delivery trucks and flatbeds filled with cattle. We ate lunch together before being driven to our host families. Here are some of the comments from our fellow volunteers about their first impressions and experiences with their host families:

“My family consists of four guys - one of the national volunteers, his brother, dad and nephew. The family are lovely and have made us feel very welcome (despite my poor Spanish skills!).” - Jack Appleby

(Disclaimer: cheese factor - high...)

Picture the scene; it's 4pm Sunday afternoon, our first day off on our ICS placement and we're entering the ninth hour of a power outage in Mzimba Boma (for those of you who don't know, a small rural town in northern Malawi).

We've read. We've sunbathed. We've hand-washed our knickers. We've napped. We've cooked. We've cleaned. We've declared boredom.

Not so long ago, we had the arrival of the British volunteers in Malawi. As they settled into their specific host homes in Mzimba Boma, they were most welcomed by their host families. Together with the Malawian volunteers, they started the purpose of their journey.

This was actually the first time I worked with British volunteers in communities and the interaction we had was so amazing. The way they communicated with the locals was so surprising and unexpected.

Why did I sign up for ICS?  Because out of the volunteer programmes it looked the best. 

Impacting communities around the world would be a test. Excited, anxious feelings and the rest. 

Honduras is where I would be going, I need my Spanish language to be flowing. 

Full of anticipation with my face glowing, helping the world to keep it growing. 

Who’d have known the people I’d meet, you need to be careful when in the Honduras street.

This week we were lucky enough to be able to visit one of a few farms surrounding El Bramadero that uses organic farming techniques, thanks to a last minute change of plan to our schedule. The trip to the organic farm was organised courtesy of our local partner organisation ASOMUPRO, giving us a great opportunity to learn and understand how an organic and sustainable method of farming can be adopted in our community in El Bramadero. A short bus ride away and a steep hill climb brought us to Herminio Gutierrez’s farm.

We have now been in Honduras for a week and are starting to settle into our host families and our new communities. We spent our first few days in a residential centre doing some training for our project and then headed to Villa de San Antonio where we are going to spend the next 10 weeks carrying out our project. Here is a quick summary of what we’ve been up to! 

The journey 

El día viernes 22 de julio realizamos una charla sobre la agricultura sostenible en el parque del Bramadero. Se estuvo hablando sobre la importancia de usar abonos orgánicos los cuales no afectan tanto la naturaleza como a nosotros los seres humanos. 

Hugged by mountains,
Kaleidoscope of green.
Oh tranquillity!

Misty hillside and....
a flying cockroach.
Uproar of laughter!

Winding dirt road,
Mother Earth's majesty.
Black charging bull.

Written by ICS volunteer Salma Hussain

The idea of leaving your life for three months is a strange one - before I even left, I knew I’d come back to missed memes, new songs on the radio, different adverts on the tube and plenty other more personal things having changed!

In total, I have been in Parcila for four days and in a vain attempt to process this unique, at times bizarre, but undoubtably life changing experience, I have compiled a list of random observations. In no particular order, these are the things that have struck me most:

- The journey to Parcila from Managua is truly breathtaking, with a panoramic view of lush rolling hills on all sides. I was so engrossed that I barely noticed the need for a sports bra, a fact that became increasingly obvious as the road became more and more precarious.