Volunteering Abroad

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Hello Everyone! This week's podcast topic was about volunteering. While I have lived and worked abroad (I taught English in South Korea with my husband for three years), I have never volunteered abroad. I think that it can be an enriching experience for students though. It can offer students valuable training that may serve them later on in life, skills like patient problem-solving skills, the opportunity to learn a foreign language or develop new interests in life. It could also be a good option to consider, especially after working in a dead-end job for a year.

However, I did have a chance to gain some experience with some volunteering on the off chance while vacationing for 2 weeks in Cayo Largo, Cuba with my family last June 2018. We were fortunate enough to help out in a small, yet enriching way. Let me explain. While we were enjoying some time on Mal Tiempo beach, we noticed empty, ping-pong shaped egg casings that had washed up ashore. My kids and I wondered what they could be and soon realized that they must be sea turtle eggs that had washed up on the shoreline. Sure enough, we discovered they were! We soon found out that there was a Sea Turtle Rehabilitation Center on the Island. There, with the help of the island's two biologists, a father and son team, they dug up sea turtle nests during nesting time, which happens about 2-3 times a year (depending on the species of turtle).

The most common species of turtle on the island are the Green Turtle, the Loggerhead, and the Hawksbill Turtle. Through some discussion with the biologists, whose English was pretty good, we found out that every year the tides rise higher over the island due to global warming.  This endangers the eggs and prevents the population from flourishing. By digging up the eggs, and carefully transporting them to hatcheries in the Turtle Rescue Center, In so doing, the sea turtle population has a better chance of survival. We spent an evening digging up hundreds of eggs with some new friends and bringing them back by taxi to the Sea Turtle Rescue Center.

So, next time you're on vacation, why not venture off the resort in search of some adventure and look for an opportunity to do some volunteering?

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