Time flies when you are having fun
Last spring, out of nowhere and for the first time in Local Dreamers history, we had three Norwegian volunteers in our ranks. One of them, Amanda Günther (20), did some volunteering in all of our projects during six weeks and she had a blast of a time. We asked her to write a short review.
”I was very happy to find out that one of my favorite expressions were easily translatable to Spanish; time flies – el tiempo vuela. That is in fact exactly what it did during my time as a volunteer for Local Dreamers. I began my volunteering after about a month of travelling, where I mostly spent maximum 3-4 days at one place before moving on to the next with very limited responsibilities like putting on sunscreen in the morning or not hitting people on the beach with my surfboard when learning how to surf. I remember thinking that four weeks seemed awfully long to stay in one place. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Four weeks quickly turned in to six when I one day realized I had to get moving to get to Rio de Janeiro by the end of May, that basically being the only reason to leave.
Like every volunteer ever would say; volunteering in incredibly rewarding, and I guess it is a cliché because it is so very true. An old Norwegian saying goes: “Den største gleden man kan ha, er å gjøre andre glad” which is not translatable rhyme wise to English in any way but goes something like: The greatest pleasure one can attain is to make other people happy, which is something I believe to be true. From arriving pretty nervous about the whole being an English teacher in Ecuador with a pretty limited knowledge of Spanish, thoughts like “Which language should I present myself in? What if they don’t understand anything of what I’m saying, or the other way around? What if I forget how to speak English??” you know… all the worst case scenarios. Anyways, first day as a teacher – made it through, loved it and started looking forward to every class I would have for the next four, well six weeks.
Experiences like having students staying after class already having had 2 hours of English because they are interested in learning more, or getting a shy teenager to forget about puberty for a second and just have fun with English card games, or even after-class salsa lessons on the rooftop teaching us “gringos” how to move, puts a smile on my face when thinking back. The Spanglish teamwork that was created between the students and the teachers with misunderstanding or clarifications that made everyone laugh or sigh created a very relaxed and comfortable learning environment.
To top of the whole experience were all the kind, motivated, crazy (in a good way), great, fun, weird (also in a good way) and amazing people I met at Local Dreamers- everyone contributing to an inspiring and creative environment that I looked forward to going to every morning. Playing soccer, going on weekend trips around Ecuador or just hanging out playing ping-pong and learning Dutch, Local Dreamers being a Dutch foundation and all, is absolutely something I will remember 20 years from now – alles goed.
All in all, I look back 8 months to the time I decided to sign up for volunteering at Local Dreamers and I just want to pat myself on the shoulder, because damn what a great decision that was. Thank you all.”
Amanda Günther, Norway
© Local Dreamers, volunteering Ecuador
