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Voluntary travel adventure part 1

In 1996, I saw a flyer in the canteen of the college I was attending at that time asking interested students to work voluntarily in other parts of the world. The moment I lay eyes on that brochure, it felt like my blood started to hum. 

I took the flyer home, and started thinking of ways on how to get into this program. By then it was somewhere in October/November and even though it stated that applications were accepted for the following summer up till end of September, I was convinced that this is what I wanted to do. Why not? It combined adventure AND travel – what could be more exciting than that?

So, I wrote a letter to the organization (remember, email just became a thing so letters were still very much used). And I asked what the possibilities were to join for the coming summer. I heard nothing till end of December when I came home from a dreary day in school. A letter was waiting for me on my doorstep and in it an invitation for an interview! Oh I was ecstatic! Totally forgot how miserable the weather made me feel – the sun started shining on the inside again!

So – in January I went to the interview in Utrecht train station. It lasted maybe 15 minutes where I was to go through the entire interview in English. Afterwards it was kind of an anti-climax because how much can a person get to know about you in 15 minutes?

Then … April 1997 rolled around. I had given up hope ever hearing from them again at least for that summer. I remember as it was yesterday: we had a barbecue on the roof when one of the girls brought me a letter. My acceptance letter that is. I was SO glad that Raylian – my dear friend – cautioned me to not fall off the roof because I was bouncing around everywhere.

Now here’s the fun part, the part that seems to come back in all my stories. I had to pay 695 guilders to participate which would pay for the air travel, lodging for the first 3 days and all the guidance that was provided to go on my adventure. Remember – I was a student. Now where would I be getting that money from? And it had to be paid in a week or two…

Well. I rounded up ALL my past employers (I was a workaholic even then!) asked them for work and worked 2 weeks straight to make that money. Which I did! Perlman Camp? Here I come!

That is the start of my voluntary travel adventure part 1. Tomorrow I’ll elaborate on some of the stories in that summer, the people I met and overall what an experience that has been. So stay tuned!

* Note: as I don’t recall which of the summer camp exchange programs I used, I linked to both organizations 🙂