I wanted to stay. Forever.

I’m going to be real honest. My volunteer trip to Guatemala was life-altering. Even just two weeks into my five week trip, I knew I didn’t want to go home. I volunteered through Máximo Nivel, an amazing organization that offered me the greatest advice and support while I was there. I’ll admit, I was terrified when I landed in Guatemala, never having been out of the US before in my life. However the morning after I landed I had orientation with other new volunteers and a tour of the town. Any questions we had were immediately answered. We received advice on not only how to stay as safe as possible (which was easy, Antigua was a much safer place than I anticipated; I absolutely never felt like I was in any sort of danger) but also where the best places to eat were as well as what activities we should be sure to do. I had the opportunity to volunteer in a clinic in the mornings, which meant in the afternoons I was free to explore the city and take Spanish classes at Máximo. The Spanish classes were great, I was placed in a class based on my skill level, and there are so many different levels that the classes are small, which means that you get a more personal class with your teacher. Awesome. On the weekends you could travel, and Máximo was great about suggestions for travel agencies and other tips to make traveling easy while you’re in country.

Also, we lived in home-stays with other volunteers, which I loved. It was an incredible opportunity to make friends that I know I’ll have forever. If you prefer a more traditional ‘family-style’ home stay, like one of the volunteers I knew, Máximo will accommodate you. I lived in a home stay with six or seven other volunteers, and I enjoyed the heck out of it! Living with other volunteers was great because there was always someone you could convince to go on some sort of outing you want to do. We still had traditional meals, however, and it was strongly encouraged that we speak Spanish so our house mom could understand what we were saying.

More on the volunteering: The first day, after your orientation and tour, one of the lovely field managers accompanies you to your placement. They show you exactly where you can get on your bus and where to get off. They introduce you to all the workers at your placement and briefly explain what you’ll be doing, so your first day alone isn’t overwhelming. After being showed the ropes, I was confident I would be fine on my own to get to and from my placement. Working at my placement was such a blessing. The people I worked with acted like my best friends from the moment I met them. They went out of their way to ensure that I was having a good time. There were days in the clinic when there were not a lot of patients, but if I had already triaged all the patients and administered injections and it was only 10am, they had a lot for me to do still. I had the opportunity to shadow the doctors, help with vaccinations of infants and toddlers, work in the pharmacy, and work with the nurse in the women’s health/family planning clinic. Multiple times they offered to drive me home in the Ambulance. My clinic was in San Lucas (about a half hour bus ride from Antigua), but the nearest hospital is in Antigua. So, whenever they had a patient that needed to go to the hospital around the time I was going home, they let me know so I could hop in. It was awesome. To say that Máximo chooses great placements for their volunteers is a huge understatement.

If you have any questions I would gladly answer them, my e-mail is everly07@live.missouristate.edu