I went to to central america with my girlfriend in january 2000. First a couple of weeks traveling in Mexico and Belize, after that a month of Spanish classes in Antigua. We took our spanish classes at APPE and that was a good experience. Nice area, good teachers and nice family with wiho we stayed. We wanted to volunteer and we started of in a little school There were already 2 volunteers there so we didn't think we were needed there. My girlfriend started volunteering in a home in Antigua and i came to UPAVIM for a month.

I had a very very good timein the 4 weks that i worked in Guate. Especialy the stimulating environment (Barbera and Richard) meant a postive stimulus for me. The other volunteers (4 to 5 people from Sweden en the USA) were all very nice people. The first weeks i stayed at the roof. The last two weeks i lived with one of the gringos in a house in the community. Living there meant living closer to the people. The personal contact with them is very interesting (this was completely different in Antigua, no contact with the naighbours and there were a lot of rich people with whom i definetely didn't have contact).

My activities in Guate were mainly helping the kids learn how to read en sometimes helping out one of the other voluteers with their classes. The little ones were very thankfull for the amount of attention en loved doing things together (to read or play with the computer). The computer was a big surprise for me. Even here this machine is available but i understood that thid was because of a donation.

With pain in my heart i think back of the moment that i left. You get attached very quickly to the kids and the other volunteers.

The starting of the montesori school was impresive although i didn't contribute a lot in this. The montesori way teaches kids resposiblity at a young age. I did help a bit during classes, very nice but very tiring.

Something different: every day a free lunch meant getting to know the local cooking. In Antigua i stayed with a family who certainly wasn't poor. The food at UPAVIM was simple but very good.

I would like to keep getting updated of the progress of UPAVIM. I believe it is difficult to find people for the regular jobs. When i was there it was the idea that a local woman should take over from Barbera. That is the idea of UPAVIM: all activities done by local woman.