When You Volunteer Abroad Set Expecations To Meet Reality

When you get your ducks all in a row, good things can happen.  Last Tuesday here at GeoVisions, Alexandra (she takes care of all of our social media) wrote a post entitled Volunteering and Traveling Abroad Reality Check.  It's a great piece and has had hundreds of hits in the last 6 days.

Alex wanted to help our volunteers set the proper expectations to avoid disappointment.  "If you want to have the time of your life, don’t let your fairytale imagination set you up for failure by creating unrealistic expectations."  And so Alex provided our readers with a reality checklist to keep your expectations of volunteering abroad aligned with what GeoVisions knows is the reality of what you will find when you arrive, and what you will have to leave behind.

And then today, all the ducks got lined up when Sherry Ott's Blog Post that she wrote for Briefcase to Backpack came out about Volunteering: You Will Be Disappointed.  It was too good to be true.  Sherry's post is simply the next logical step as international volunteers go about making sure their expectations are set with the best possible outcome.

Sherry writes about defining the 3 problems:

1. What is a "do'er"?
2. Efficiency or "hitting the ground running" to be more productive.
3. Impact.  How visible is it when your time abroad is over?

The biggest lesson in Sherry's post is when Sherry writes, "The easy answer is to change your definitions of ‘Do’ and ‘Efficiency’. Soften them at least 50%; make them less American."

The denouement comes here:  "By simply showing up at your volunteer placement, you are forming their opinions and ideas of your culture deep inside their psyche – and you will never know the impact you have made; but I tell you – there is an impact."

We are all very lucky to have these two extremely important posts at our disposal.  Sherry didn't write her post for us, but it comes directly on the heels of Alexandra's, and they fit nicely.

Read them here in tandem.  If you're headed abroad or even thinking about it, you'll be glad you did.  Set your expectations for the reality you will meet.  You will then exceed your goals.