By Eleanor Brow, High School Abroad Participant in Spain and Greenheart Travel Club member
Eleanor
When my parents and I chose to go with Greenheart Travel as the company I studied abroad with we chose this partly because of the volunteer options I would be able to participate in. I have volunteered many times in the past and really enjoy helping people in need. I couldn’t wait to come to Spain and volunteer in a whole new country.
After living in my town for a few weeks I started volunteering at a local play production to help build props for a play. The play is about a child who meets a vampire. My first day volunteering there, I used paper mache to cover a huge coffin. It took about three hours and I was extremely happy with my work. The next few times volunteering I helped the stage managers move props around, cleaned up the stage, and just simply made sure the director and actors had what they needed. I am so happy I chose to volunteer with the play production. All the actors are so fun and every week I have so much fun with them. As you can see in this picture we like to be goofy and fun. The thing around me is a tree I built for the play.
Other volunteering I have done while in Spain is at my school. Before coming to Spain I knew I wanted to somehow volunteer with children. I love working with children and every summer I work at a summer camp for kids. I talked to the principle at my school and we worked it out that twice I week I would go to a children’s class in my school and help teach them English. On Tuesdays I teach 10 year-olds and on Thursday I teach 13 year-olds. Every week I come up with new and exciting ways to teach them colors or animals or about random topics in English. In the 13 year-olds class, they know English pretty well and we usually work on pronunciation. I will usually read a passage about some topic in English and they will translate it into Spanish. I also tell them a lot about the USA and the differences between the USA and Spain. I am so lucky to have the opportunity to work with kids in Spain.
I will continues to volunteer in Spain. Next week I will start volunteering at the Senior Citizens center in my town. I don’t really know what to expect since I have never worked with old people before but I know it will be a fun new experience.
Filed under: Global Greenheart Initiative, High School – Spain, High School Abroad Tagged: eleanor brow, Greenheart Travel Club, Spain, volunteering abroad 
