General Impression
Overall Rating: / 10
Overall, the entire volunteer experience ran smoothly thanks to the highly organized process Love Volunteers has in place from start to end. I highly recommend Love Volunteers to anybody who is looking to volunteer their time internationally and I will defiantly be volunteering again through Love Volunteers.Country
I loved Tanzania! This was my second time to Africa (first time to Tanzania), so I did go knowing that there would be many culture differences. The Tanzanians are so kind, and I learned that all they want is for you to be happy and to have a good time. The culture was amazing, learning some of the language was so much fun, and eating and living like a local really gave me that Tanzanian experiences I was looking for. I highly recommend Tanzania to any first time traveler to Africa.
Project & Staff
The project I was assigned to was a Women's Rescue Foundation and the women I volunteered for were so kind and open minded. They made me smile every day (and in return I helped them find a smile every day too). They loved interacting with my sister and I, they loved teaching us their way of life as we assisted them with day to day tasks (cooking, cleaning, schooling, etc...) They loved learning English from us, and in returned they loved teaching us some Swahili. The staff at Pipi House was not what I was expecting. There appeared to be a lack of presence from the only to known staff members to me. The case manager seemed to spend more time doing her hair then being present with the women. I was not impressed with the staff, but I found the silver lining in that and discovered that I full liberty to be present with the women with out being micromanaged.
Tips
I would recommend volunteering as long as possible. I was only able to volunteer for two weeks and it did not feel like enough time to fully complete my personal volunteer mission. The project I was assigned to (Pipi House Foundation) was a complex project in the sense that it requires a lot of open mindedness from volunteers, a lot of imagination, and a lot of initiate. If you don't have an open mind or initiative this project may not be the best fit for you as it was not as structured as I heard other projects were. In one sense, the lack of structure was nice for my sister and I because we had full liberty to just dive in where we saw we were needed, and with every passing day, we had the liberty to use our imaginations to created ways to help and give back the women and children at Pipi House.