A Day in the Life Volunteering in Jiquilillo
Written by: Chloe Cohen
5/1/2013
It’s 7:30am and you’re waking up to noise outside. You want to turn over and go back to sleep, but you’re hungry and you know there is work that needs to be done. You roll out of your mosquito net covered bed and quickly throw on a sports bra, t-shirt, shorts and your tennis shoes. The rest of your roommates are doing the same and you all smile at each other as you prepare for another day of work. You grab your sunscreen, bug spray, and water bottle as you head for the door.
You get to the outdoor eating area just as breakfast arrives. You put your stuff down on a seat and grab a plate. It’s eggs, rice, beans, and homemade tortillas. It’s good food and you’re hungry. You quickly eat your breakfast, put on your sunscreen, and divide groups to head to the work site to build the school or the beach to fill bottles for the first half of the day.
Arriving at the work site with half the other volunteers, you’re prepared to work. You choose a job: mixing cement, building the school, fetching water from the well, or digging a 2 kilometer deep hole for the bathroom’s septic tanks. For the school, you begin by filling wheel barrels with mixed cement and pushing them over to the partially built walls. You continue laying the 3-liter bottles filled with sand, which you made the day before, row-by-row on the cement you just poured. Luckily, right as you run out of bottles, it’s time to head back for lunch and a siesta.
You get back right as lunch is being served. The tables are full of the other volunteers, laughing and telling stories about their mornings. After lunch, you choose to lay in a hammock on the beach as you watch other volunteers surf or kayak in the ocean. Some are behind you at the bar listening to music while others are doing yoga on the sand as the waves sweep across their feet.
“You just lay there thinking about how authentic it feels to be in such a simple village where happiness radiates from every person you see. After an hour or two, your siesta is over and you’re eager to go back to work.”
You switch from the worksite to the beach to fill bottles with sand for the school walls. You make yourself comfortable in the sand, in the shade, with a few empty 3-liter bottles. As the afternoon sun begins it’s descent, you pack each bottle with as much sand as humanly possible. You pound the bottles into the ground, packing the sand even tighter as you add more each time. You listen to music, enjoy the scenery, and talk with the other volunteers while packing bottles. Once you all have finished a few bottles, you take a break and a dip in the ocean, rinsing all of the sand and sweat away. After your refreshing swim, you return to the shade to pack more bottles, knowing that the more you pack today, the higher the school walls will be built at the worksite tomorrow.
After a few hours, the sun starts to go down…
…and the other volunteers return from the worksite for dinner. You return to your seat with your friends and talk about how far they got at the worksite in the afternoon and want to do that night. Once you are done eating, you head off to shower. After your shower, you play cards and hang out with your new family, sip on beverages, and enjoy each other’s company. You celebrate the night for as long as you would like, but as midnight rolls around, you head to bed, knowing wake up call is at 7:30am.