Hey everyone, my name is Kaho from the Netherlands and I am doing my graduation internship for Green Life Volunteers for 7 months to complete my university’s requirements during my Bachelor degree in “Vitality and Tourism Management”. I’ve been here now for a week and already getting used to the environment. The people are friendly, the temperature is perfect, one minute away from the beach, the work office is nice and the general manager Janina is also very friendly. At home I was already imagining to experience new adventures and immerse myself in a new culture. The winter in the Netherlands really wants to make you travel to a warmer country. The only problem for me is to speak Spanish but fortunately I already met some locals whereas they taught me some words every now and then. Maybe I will take a Spanish course on the Costa Rican way, a bit slow haha!
This is my third long trip to another country, my first trip was to Portugal and I worked here as a volunteer. Eventually I was quite proud that I decorated the whole swimming pool with mosaic by my own and chilling with the donkeys and other volunteers was also quite fun! I liked the idea of travelling to another country for a longer period very much and therefore immediately anticipated when I had the chance to go for my second trip which was studying abroad in Austria. This trip was more focused on doing fun things rather than studying. I’ve learned that people from all over the world are actually quite similar but also interesting because they have their own cultural background in which they perceive it is normal. In addition, I had applied for an internship at Green Life Volunteers because I just did not want to work in a boring for-profit hotel like most of my classmates do.
Furthermore, I liked the idea of Green Life Volunteers to give something back to the community and providing volunteers of a meaningful experience. There enough things to improve to the company and I would really make a contribution to help out some problems. An example of work what I will be doing is promoting the company to high schools and universities in order to receive more student volunteers. Some other examples are interviewing volunteers, updating the website and finding collaboration with tour operators. I hope to learn as much as possible in this company and of course also of the Costa Rican way of life.
Additionally, my friends will also come to Costa Rica and then we will go to Corcovado National Park, surfing, drinking coconuts from the trees and just exploring Costa Rica a bit more. I am very excited what is coming in the upcoming months.
Pura Vida
Kaho
