Showing posts with label international volunteering. Show all posts
Showing posts with label international volunteering. Show all posts

Go and Grow - opportunities to travel for cheap

Posted by Gaurav On Tuesday, November 1, 2011 0 comments

WARNING: Before we get into the meat of today's post (which begins 3 paragraphs down for those who want to skip ahead), I thought my return to blogging after a long hiatus needs some explanation, so I wrote the following intro.


When I was younger I used to be a big fan of the WWF. Yes, I loved baby pandas and still do, but the other WWF(E), was where the real entertainment was. The storylines, the personalities, and the struggle they all went through to try to stay on top. To me, the blogosphere is kinda like the world of the WWE. Bloggers come and go, each with their own goals, trying to catch the attention of the readers out there. Everyone’s got an opinion, everyone tries to stand out, and everyone wants to win over the readers (or for wrestlers, the fans). 

So where does this analogy put No Prereqs? Well, let’s just say I see myself as one of those new wrestlers (a scrawny one?), trying to develop a fanbase, only to leave the ring for a 3 month hiatus. First, life took over. Shortly after my last post, I backpacked through France and Italy for two and a half weeks. Then, within hours of stepping on Canadian soil for the first time in almost 4 months, I got swept up with family and friends. I got back to school, and didn’t have the motivation to get back into this. I tried a couple times, but it was like firing blanks – getting started is the tough part, especially when you’re not even sure what to write about. But now I’ve made my return, firm with a goal in mind, knowing that I’ve gotta re-develop the whole readership thing.

 I started this blog as a leadership blog focused on high school students, but most of my recent posts have been about my travels in Benin. I decided that it would be a good idea to use this post to bridge the two ideas now that my bank account has told me it’s not interested in traveling again for a while, and since I’d like to move my content back in the direction of how this relates to you, the readers. I also wanna throw in some cost effective ways for those of you who are interested in travel to do some of it without cracking open your piggy banks (mine is still intact and thank god, breaking it would be a shame). 

How Travel Helped Me Do Me

A completely relevant question to this conversation has to be – why even travel to begin with? What is so beneficial about spending money on plane tickets, having to eat out all the time, and maybe getting lost, just to “go see places”. I did not come from a family where we took frequent vacations when I was growing up. Before this year I had been to a total of 3 countries: Canada, US, and India (trips to which I can’t even remember because I was so young). So to be honest, the benefits of travel have never really been apparent to me, until this year.

For me, travelling this summer was a big deal primarily because I left everyone familiar and almost everything familiar to my life behind. Being isolated from the usual environment forced me to adapt to the changes around me by changing my behaviour. I gained respect for the little things, by doing what some consider mundane tasks like arranging my mosquito net everyday and hand washing my clothes. Doing things like this humbled myself. I grew because I was put in situations where I was in danger: arriving at the airport at 3 am without someone to pick me up. Haggling, conversing, interacting with the people from whom you buy things. It gave me perspective on my society back home. Even when I was in Europe, it was not the sites I visited that made me grow so much as the interactions with people, the situations I found myself in. Travelling is about living experiences moreso than seeing sights, and that’s what helped me grow.  

Travel experiences are more than just the sights, but I won't lie, sometimes the sight creates the experience. Seeing the leaning Tower of Pisa in Italy was one of those times.


How You Can Travel Cheap

So, travelling is about experiences that help you grow. But up till now, all I’ve been doing is talking about my own experiences. Maybe you want to travel for yourself but you’re not sure what is right for you and you don’t know if you want to spend a lot of money. First you have to decide what you want to do. There are many different types of travel: weekend trips or even day trips to somewhere close by can have just as much of an impact on you as can a trip to Benin. Vacations to a resort can also help you grow just by giving you time away to relax.

But, this is a personal blog and I’m definitely going to push my bias – I think the best trip is one you do without family or friends. A trip where you aren’t just visiting something – but going to accomplish something, because that poses a true challenge to yourself to grow. I guess the government has the same mentality, because there are huge ways to cut travel costs for trips where you set challenges like learning a new language or doing community development work. As a result, a trip like that can cost little or next to nothing, so finances don’t tie you down.

Here are some examples of things I wish I knew about earlier :

Katimavik

Ages: 17-21
Duration: 6 months
Student status: Not necessary
Location: Canada-wide
Cost: about $225

Having just been recently introduced to this program, I have to say that I don’t know the ins and outs of it. However, I can say from what I know that it is extremely affordable in comparison to other programs similar to it, since it is funded directly by the government. The application process takes into account diversity and full representation of the reality of Canada’s youth. The program that one of my friends did is the 6 month program with 3 month in an Anglophone community and 3 months in a Francophone community (you get to learn French!). Travelling across Canada doing community projects in a group of people you don’t know for 6 months is just the type of crazy shit that might just be the best experience of your life. There is also some valuable stuff on the website that discusses taking a gap year – you might even get course credit. Oh, and the program fee for this program is about $225 for 6 months. That’s $1.25 a day.

My Explore

Ages: Grade 11+
Duration: 5 weeks
Student Status: Yes, at least 1 semester during school year
Location: Francophone community
Cost: $200 + travel

My Explore is a good option for those who aren’t comfortable with taking a gap year but still want to learn French in Quebec. It is a little more expensive than the Katimavik program but most of the costs are still subsidized by a $2000 dollar bursary. Based on what school you go to, you may even be eligible to get course credit for this program.   

Canada World Youth 

Canada world youth is a large organization with lots of various opportunities for travel. Some of the programs are 2 weeks long, while others are up to 6 months. Since there is so much variability, I don’t want to put a summary type thing up, you can just check out the website and see if there’s something that interests you. Most programs have low costs but you must fundraise a lot of money (with their help), so that Canada World Youth can continue to run on its own. Fundraising might seem like a lot of work but honestly I had to fundraise for my summer as well, and it is a small sacrifice for something that can potentially be life changing.
 
What Else is Out There??

These are just a few resources that I listed off the top of my head and by no means constitute a complete list. There are many programs out there that you just have to spend a little time looking for that might be the perfect fit. It is possible to find more programs that might be cheaper than these or even free, it just takes a little bit of initiative and access to the internet. Google searches like “Canadian student travel programs” or “international student travel bursaries” might get you started. Don’t forget that administrative offices at your school are also great resources because they can help you narrow down your search to things more relevant to you. They might even offer you financial support if you need it to cover the costs of a trip. Finally, the 3 programs I listed are all associated with the Government of Canada. The Canada website, government offices or even the hotline 1 800 OCANADA are good places to start your search.

Anyways, I hope this post has done something to get you excited about travel. There are tons of opportunities out there, just step up and take them! Bon voyage :)


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Let's Be Franc

Posted by Gaurav On Thursday, June 23, 2011 1 comments

A common theme throughout all of my posts has been perspective. Money is no different. In this post, I want to talk a bit about how I value the same amount of money so differently here than I would at home. This might be a common thing for those of you who had made trips to a country with a currency valued significantly less than your home currency. For me, this is a new occurrence.


The smallest coin of currency in Benin is the 5 FCFA coin (the equivalent of roughly 1 cent CAD). The bills start at 1000 FCFA and the largest bill is 10000 FCFA (the equivalent of roughly 20 dollars CAD). The fact that the largest bill in production is equivalent to our $20 bill speaks volumes about how much cheaper the cost of living is in Benin. In general, the trend is that everything except electronics is cheaper here than you would find in Canada. To illustrate this point: 700 FCFA is how much it costs to buy about 14 fresh pineapples at the local market, or scan one page of a document at the local cyber.

What does all of this mean for me, someone used to a whole different currency? I probably hadn’t eaten 14 pineapples total in my life before coming here, and I’ve never paid anything to use a scanner. Well first and foremost, the large numbers, and to a greater extent the fixed mindset of 100 cents in a dollar has led me to be stingier with my money here. I treat the 100 FCFA coin as if it had the worth of a dollar (I think that is how the locals treat it as well, at least from what my friend Stephen and I have deduced).

Now it might seem ironic, and downright cheap that I am shying from spending money here, especially given the economic situation of Benin and its people. However, I don’t know if I would be so protective of my money if it weren’t trying to be scammed from me every second! I take the same route to the orphanage every day and I still have taxi drivers trying to charge me double the normal price. As soon as you’re recognized as white, the price for everything (especially any souvenirs, etc) is hiked up about 4-5x higher than it normally is. Even though I enjoy bargaining, knowing that you’ll never get it down to the price a local would pay gets frustrating after a while.

The concept of change here is also very foreign. I’ve waited 10 minutes for change for a 2000 FCFA bill only to be told that they don’t have any, and that was at a bar and not a street vendor. I’m thoroughly convinced that there are more 100 FCFA coins in circulation than 50, 25, and 5 FCFA coins combined. Even in the rare event that they do have change, if the amount they owe you is reasonable (less than 200 FCFA), they will just pretend they don’t have any. You can ask a driver how much it costs to go somewhere, and they will often just avoid the question and request a ridiculously high amount after they drop you off. After a while, this constantly having to be on your guard really gets to you and just becomes second nature! Sometimes I lose myself in arguments about such small amounts of money that when I take a step back and think about what I’m actually arguing over in terms of Canadian money, I feel embarrassed. Of course not everyone is always trying to cheat me out of my money, but it happens often enough.

It is kinda pleasant seeing price labels and stuff occasionally at the supermarket. I’m sure when I get back to Canada, I will appreciate knowing that I’m charged the same price for a pastry at Tim Hortons as the customer before me a lot more than I have in the past. Here in Benin, you can forget about paying tax with a purchase. I wouldn’t mind paying taxes because the government would benefit a lot from revenue like that but because of the change issue, I think that would be a nightmare. And it’s not like it could be enforced anyway, with the majority of Benin’s businesses being street side or marketplace vendors without licenses to sell anything. Finally, when the vendors aren’t trying to take your money, they are significantly nicer and more polite than the majority of cashiers you’d find in Canada. They always take out a bit of time to chat and I just find that buying stuff here is much more memorable because of that interaction. 

When all is said and done, after I put this post up at the cyber I’ll probably stop someone carrying a tray of pineapples on their head, pay them 50 FCFA (or about 10 cents Canadian) and watch as they peel the pineapple for me so I can eat it fresh, holding it like corn on the cob.  Now that’s customer service you can’t get at Tim Hortons.   


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French

Posted by Gaurav On Sunday, May 22, 2011 3 comments

                Mr. Agbo is a very animated speaker. I watched his hands move about rapidly: sometimes pointing a finger in the direction of a place, then rotating slowly about each other at chest level to signify progress, only to slow down momentarily before being extended far apart to express the magnitude of what he was saying.

                What he was saying. I snapped back to attention. “Le dernière exemple...” he was saying. I nodded to show him that he should proceed. He would continue on, and after a few moments of listening intently to pick up on a few words that I might recognize, my mind began to wander again.

                Mr. Agbo is the director of the orphanage I am working with, Espoir D’Enfant Bénin. It means (not a direct translation) Hope of Benin’s Children. I was visiting the orphanage to ask Mr. Agbo some questions about himself and the orphanage, to collect information for the website I will be designing for them. Now let’s get this straight. It’s not that I wasn’t interested in what he was saying. It was the seemingly insurmountable language barrier that held me back.

                Learning a language is not my field of expertise. I learn best when the rules are logical, exceptions are minimal and the applications are many. I hate memorization and it shows, because I am always flipping through my notebook to find the French word I am looking for in the middle of my sentences.

                It sucks not being able to convey what I am feeling or fully understand what someone is saying, and there’s no way to shorten this learning curve except practice. This is why I am considering writing a post every now and then in French. Don’t worry! You can just cut and paste these posts into Google Translate if you don’t know French. I will be using Google Translate to check my grammar and sentence structure anyways.

                Please let me know what you think of this idea in the comments, and let me know if you’d still read the blog posts in French!


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Judgment Day

Posted by Gaurav On Wednesday, May 18, 2011 6 comments


                So, Monday was my first day of work at the orphanage. It was one of the most difficult days of my life.

I began the day waking up early in the morning, getting showered and ready by 7 am. Jules told me that we would be going to the Cotonou to visit the Consulate and pick up my phone in the morning, and I would visit the orphanage in the evening to set a schedule for the work I was going to do with them. However, when he arrived he said the plans had changed and I would stop by the orphanage in the morning instead. He was busy and had to go to Cotonou during the night anyways to pick up another volunteer, so we could get my phone then. (I don’t know if this has been made explicit yet, but Cotonou is the main city in Benin, and it’s about 40 km from the small town Ouidah where I am staying, so you have to go there to do pretty much everything).

So we headed off to the orphanage. When we got there, the director was not in sight. He had to take one of the young children to the hospital and was gone all day. However, his assistant Raphael (another volunteer, although he is a native of Benin), was there. Raphael lives with the children at the orphanage and hopes to be a pastor in a Methodist church one day.

Jules left me with Raphael and said he had to go prepare things at the volunteer house for the other volunteer who was arriving tonight. He said I should go over my duties at the orphanage with Raphael, and head home for lunch, and return to the orphanage later in the day.

Raphael spoke no English, so it took my toddler French about an hour to learn what the daily activities were. Without further instruction on what to do during the day, we proceeded to go through them.

This was a big mistake for me. Why? One word: heat. The heat in Benin is not like the heat in Canada. In Canada I have survived temperatures as hot as 38 degrees centigrade. It was only 29-30 degrees on Monday. However, since Benin is so close to the equator, and Ouidah is so close to the coast, it fits right in as a humid tropical climate.  Equally as unfortunate, one of my many Achilles heels just so happens to be humidity, and I can even go so far as to say it is my greatest physical weakness (please, any arch enemies who are reading this, don’t use this against me). Here’s an example of how even the slightest humidity can literally destroy my will to live: when I take a shower here, during the time it takes me to dry myself off, walk a distance of one foot to my bed, and get under the bug net, I am sweating so much that it feels like I’m still in the shower. I know, it’s disgusting (please, arch enemies, respect the same message). However, it’s just how I am, and I can’t change it.

And it’s just how Benin is and that won’t change either. Walking home for lunch, my clothes stuck to my body with sweat and eyes watering from all the dust and salty sweat obscuring them, I had one thought: I want to get out of this place as soon as possible. In my mind, I was already deciding whether it would be worth the wait to change my flight the slower but cheaper way by email, or if I should pay up and do it by phone. Another factor that played into my mood besides the ever brutal air thick with moisture, was how unrewarding my day at the orphanage had been.

We had spent the day mostly lounging around, and when the kids needed to be dropped off or picked up from school, I superfluously accompanied Raphael on the dreadful walk. We tilled the ground at the vegetable patch with some spades, and although Raphael was encouraging, I know I sucked at it. Otherwise I watched as he collected eggs from the chicken coup in the orphanage. I felt useless and only showed signs of life in the shade. It was terrible.

The plot was bad, but the setting was downright depressing. I have pictures of the orphanage that I have taken since (I didn’t have my camera with me that day), and they will do better justice to the truth of these children’s lives than my words can. However, let me share one story that might put this in perspective.

We returned to the orphanage after our work at the garden and I was beginning to feel dizzy from the water loss from perspiring. I asked Raphael there was some chilled water I could drink to replenish myself; he said that there was water, but it was not chilled. The orphanage did not own a fridge. Thirsty as hell, I told him that was fine and we proceeded to the kitchen. On the countertop sat a pot with what looked like charred fish. There must have been two dozen flies sitting on the fish or buzzing around it. Raphael saw this and called for one of the children, who promptly brought a filthy rag and threw it over the pot nonchalantly. I was alarmed, but Raphael did not respond, so I understood this to be normal. Then Raphael retrieved a smaller pot, which he dipped into an old yellow container full of water for washing hands, which probably held gasoline in the past. As I saw his hand touch the water, I cringed a little. He had just contaminated the whole pot – earlier he had used the washroom without washing his hands. Choosing to ignore this, I held out my hands below the pot, and this is the real reality check – Raphael shook his head, raised the pot to his lips, and drank from it – motioning for me to do the same. I hesitated for a moment, and in that moment you can imagine the sanitary concerns that ran through my head. But it was a brief moment, and I took the pot from him and gulped down half of it before handing it back.   

Around 5pm, after making my third round trip to the school, I decided it was time for me to head home. This time I wisely took a moto taxi (pictures coming next post, I promise), grudgingly accepting that I probably shouldn’t subject myself to probable harm as an excuse to head home. Although the ride was refreshing, I had made up my mind: I could not handle working at the orphanage anymore, the heat was too much.

Later that night, Jules dropped by my host family’s house to pick me up for our late night journey to Cotonou. Since he was early, we stopped at a bar for drinks before we left Ouidah. I decided that I would discuss my concerns about the day with him and tell him how I felt about sticking around.

At the bar I was more at ease because the night had settled in and a gentle breeze had started flowing through the streets. Sipping on my drink, a carbonated blend of delicious fruit juices, I explained the difficulty of my experience and my concerns about the future with great detail. When I was done, Jules laughed. “It only took one day, huh?”

I glared back. I had a feeling he wouldn’t understand, because he was accustomed to the heat. However, Jules continued. “Look,” he said. “I know it was difficult to live like that, but that is someone’s life. Raphael and the children live that every day”. He continued, explaining how important it was to live poverty rather than just see it, in order to understand it fully.

“You’re right in saying that you shouldn’t be doing manual labour, that’s not your expertise. We will look for a different way for you to help the orphanage, maybe you can start on the administrative side of things right away. You won’t spend another day like that, I’ll make sure of it. But let me ask you one question... now that it is over, now that you are sitting here with me and we are enjoying Ouidah. Was it a bad experience?”

I thought about it for a moment and a grin slowly started to spread across my face. “Jules,” I said emphatically, “No experience is bad experience”. Jules grinned back and we were soon laughing together.

The sun had set on the day that shook my personal will, right down to its foundations. And I was still standing, albeit slumping. It had passed - and in doing so, it had felt like my judgment day.

EDIT:
The pictures below were taken during my second day, when I returned to discuss my position in helping out the orphanage. It was suggested that taking photos to raise awareness would be a good start.
Raphael turning for a picture while gathering water from the well

This child is in the midst of exam period, and is using his time off to help with some cooking.

This is the kitchen that I mentioned in my post.

The boys washroom. Raphael explained that they squat close to the green pail and use the water in the containers to "flush" the toilet through the hole.

The youngest of the 45 is not old enough for school yet, so I was able to snap a couple photos of him during my visit.

Inside the chicken coupe with Raphael. This is in the middle of the orphanage. They sell the eggs and meat to fund their activities, but they don't make nearly enough in a city where 30 eggs can be bought for $1.50.
 


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The Farm

Posted by Gaurav On Saturday, May 14, 2011 2 comments

My second post from Benin. I will put up the post on multiple choice tomorrow, so stay tuned!
 
I have not yet started my volunteer program; that will begin on Monday. In the meantime, I have been running around Cotonou and Ouidah looking for a cell phone (which I still haven’t obtained) and resting for a large portion of the day. 
 
When you are in a new country and you don’t know the language or area you are in, it is difficult to do much other than rest. The heat makes this option especially attractive. This is why I cannot wait to start my volunteering at the orphanage: I didn’t just fly all this way to rest. I met the people at the orphanage yesterday, they children all swarmed me and bowed, politely welcoming me. It really was something to have forty something kids run up to you all at the same time. 
 
Jules said he will give me the details of my tasks there tomorrow, but I will be spending less time with the kids and more time looking for funding for the orphanage right off the bat, which sounds great to me. He said I would be more useful in applying for grants because I can help them access money from English speaking donors. They plan to build a school exclusively for the orphanage children so that they can avoid paying the school fees that they do now. 
 
It is difficult adjusting to the life here – we take many things for granted back home. However, I’m trying to keep an open mind about everything and live like the locals. I think this will result in the best experience, maybe not in terms of being comfortable – but in terms of being realistic, which is what I wanted anyways
 .
Today I moved in with my host family. They are very nice people and they are definitely going out of their way to make feel at home. Today we visited the farm that they own just north of Ouidah, I took many pictures! This is the first time I pulled out my camera here and I have to say I am afraid to use it! But there’s no use in allowing it to collect dust, right? Unfortunately, my computer isn’t identifying the camera, so they will be up as soon as I get it working.

Back to the farm – they own around a thousand chickens! But the father says it is not much. I will take more pictures and some of my room in the coming days to share with everyone. Once again, thanks for following, and please leave comments!

EDIT: below are some pictures of my host family and their farm. Enjoy!

Yannik and Aristot, my brothers for the next couple of months.

Cool picture!

1 of 1000 chickens in 4 different pens

Mr. Guillaume and his youngest son donning the Canada caps I brought for them


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Pink Toilet Paper

Posted by Gaurav On Friday, May 13, 2011 3 comments

This is my first post about my travels in Benin. I will be updating the blog as regularly as possible with more posts, but the internet is unreliable here, so it may not follow an exact schedule. I know there are a lot of you who are waiting for the post on my multiple choice test taking strategies - I will head home from the internet cafe today and work on that so I might have it up tomorrow or on Sunday. Thanks for following!!


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Volunteering Presentation at Chinguacousy

Posted by Gaurav On Saturday, May 7, 2011 1 comments

Hello!

For everyone who missed parts of the slideshow I presented at Chinguacousy SS the past couple of days or just wanted to take another look at it, I've posted it here. Please let me know in the comments if there are any specific subjects you want to see me blog about. I've already got a request for multiple choice strategies which I will try to put up within the week. Until then, heres the slideshow! Please feel free to leave any comments or criticism in the comments section.

Cultivating your community presentation
View more presentations from Noprereqs.


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Well it has Been a While

Posted by Gaurav On Thursday, May 5, 2011 2 comments

Here we go, after the presentations over the next couple of days I hope traffic on this blog picks up. I am going to try to become more familiar with this platform, and become more skilled at using it to put up pictures and the like. I will try to have the powerpoint slides up by tomorrow. Benin: 6 days away!


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