In The Life Of A VISIONS Volunteer

If you’re considering participating in VISIONS Service Adventures, you may wonder what a typical day would be like for you, the volunteer. Our teen volunteer service programs are demanding from a service perspective on some days, carefree and adventure-focused on others. Below is what a service-focused day in your program might look like. Keep in mind that each VISIONS program is unique, every location different from another. For example, in Caribbean locations and in Vietnam where the climate heats up mid-day, our groups break earlier from work. In Alaska or Montana, we tend to work later into the afternoon. The schedule below is a general one, meant to give you an ideal.

6:45– 7:30am: Wake up. Eat breakfast. Clean-up after breakfast. Prepare for the worksite.

8:00 or 9:00am – 12:00pm: Go to construction site where we are renovating a community hall or building a home for an elder or excavating an irrigation canal ditch. Spend the remainder of the morning working side by side with fellow volunteers and members of the community. You spend time nailing boards, measuring, digging, sawing. Together, you and your team may manage to erect the roof frame on the hall before lunch. You might be in another non-construction group that is volunteering at the day camp for local children, creating and painting a public mural or helping to install a better-burning stove in a villager’s home.

12:00pm – 1:30-2:00pm: Eat lunch with your fellow volunteers and perhaps members of the community, you and older. After lunch you have the option to rest, hang, listen to music or play soccer in an impromptu game. Angelica, your cook, brings fresh juice that she has made from fruit trees in her yard for everyone.

2:00 – 4:30pm: Resume working on the construction site. A local man stops by to give us freshly caught fish for something extra at dinner, and local kids are helping to hammer nails.

4:30 – 7:00pm: Relax, take a shower, set-up, prepare, eat, then clean-up after dinner, enjoy time your fellow participants, call or email home, play a game of soccer or pick-up basketball.

7:00 – 9:45pm: If there isn’t a circle meeting scheduled, hang out with local teenagers in the village, play card games, go get ice cream or freshly made sorbet in the town square, pack for your day trip to see some waterfalls nearby as you are leaving early in the morning. Or you might visit someone’s home, take in a movie or a steel drums music group.

10:00pm: Get ready for bed and then hit the sack. Fall asleep dreaming about the amazing adventures tomorrow will bring.