How I decided on Puerto Escondido

Just a few thoughts for those thinking of participating in a program such as this. First, you need to decide what you want to do (study a language, work on a service project with other Americans, learn in another country, volunteer in a clinic) and where you would like to go to. Ask people you know, check with local colleges and churches for projects and programs. Word of mouth is quite helpful and the web is amazing.

I decided I wanted to spend 4-6 weeks to visit a Central American country, study Spanish, immerse myself in the community by living with a family and work in or observe in local primary care clinics.

A doctor in my hometown has a connection to a hospital project near Lake Atitlan, Guatemala. I talked with her and read the web page information and decided that, although an excellent project, they really wanted long term volunteers and going for just a month would require me to do a lot of leg work (arrange housing and food, etc.) and perhaps not leave much energy for the volunteering. Many of the patients at their hospitalito speak indigenous languages and so the local staff have to translate into Spanish for the foreign volunteers. I wasn't willing to add another language being translated into the mix. My Spanish just isn't that good.

A nurse practitioner friend goes to Nicaragua once or twice a year and volunteers for a week with work camps providing direct medical care. I wanted to go and live with people in a Spanish country, not travel with a group of Americans, so that choice wasn't for me.

I have connections to another group in Nicaragua and they suggested that I contact Mama Licha's Clinic. This clinic provides much needed reproductive health care to young women. I looked at Nicaragua, thought about traveling alone, the need to arrange housing, language tutoring and all. I haven't traveled on my own much didn't feel comfortable with that plan. This may be perfect for someone else.

On the web, I found three programs that provided homestays, Spanish instruction and clinic visits: Costa Rica, Honduras and Mexico.

I settled on the Child Family Health International program in Puerto Escondido for the following reasons: The program had a US office and when I contacted them my questions were answered quickly. They were quite clear about the program they had set up, number of hours of Spanish instruction, time in clinic, how families were chosen as homestay providers and what the homestay families did and did not provide. They gave me a budget for expenses beyond the program fee that was accurate. The program described to me is the program I found in Puerto Escondido. They were quite concerned about participant safety and had lots of advice and support worked into their program. They provided health insurance and a cell phone, details that impressed me. I received reading material and watched orientation powerpoints via web prior to going.

I liked the program in Puerto Escondido because it is a small town (30,000 to 50,000) and the program focused on public health primary care clinics, with the type of patients that I see here in the United States. The drawbacks of the program in Puerto Escondido is that it is designed for students (and thus I would not be seen as a professional but rather a student) and the clinic time focused on observation (rather than providing direct care.) Puerto Escondido also has a fairly large foreign population due to the great surfing in the area and parts of town dedicated to serving tourists. This was nice in that I could get a break from the 'real' Mexico, but eventually, I wanted to be only around Spanish speakers. When deciding, I felt the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. And I was right.

If you are looking for a immersion language program here are questions to ask:

• What size are the classes? How many students does the school usually have?
  
• How many levels of classes does the school offer weekly?
• What is the nationality and educational preparation of the teachers?
• Do the teachers use any English in class (my preference is no English)?
• Will you have the same teacher all day?
• Will the teachers change weekly?(Sometimes 4-6 hours a day of one teacher gets old.)
• Does the school provide other services (cultural, cooking, tours)?
  
• If you want to learn Medical Spanish, does the teacher have a medical background?How are they qualified to teach Medical Spanish?
  
• What countries do the students come from? If you have classmates who don't speak English, you will not be tempted to speak English. I see this as an advantage.
• How are the homestay families chosen?
• What does the homestay provide (number of meals per day, shared or private bedroom, shared or private bath)?
  
• Will there be other students in the homestay?
• What is the expectation of the homestay families: do they just provide a bed and meals or do they include the students in their day to day activities?
• And then of course, cost.
  

I will mention two other programs that are great for facilitating foreign volunteering:

• The work camps sponsored by Volunteers for Peace. Most of the camps are for those under 35, but this is a great way to extend a trip to another country as the camps themselves are quite reasonable in price. My son did Spanish intensives for a month in Spain and then spent several weeks at a work camp in Spain where he had true Spanish immersion.
• International Cultural Youth Exchange. I went to Sweden with this organization in 1974 and since then their program has changed from a secondary school foreign student exchange into a youth voluntary service organization, with longer term volunteer opportunities. The unique aspect of ICYE is that students it is not a to the US or from the US exchange, but an international exchange.

Both of theses organizations started up in Europe after World War ll with a goal to preserve world peace and intercultural understanding by encouraging youth to work and live together.