How many hours a day will I be volunteering?

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Permalink Reply by Andrew Elijah Edwards on July 8, 2008 at 4:34pm

The "Cultural Learning Activities" link above is broken.

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Permalink Reply by Cross-Cultural Solutions on July 8, 2008 at 4:56pm

Thanks Andrew - all fixed!

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Permalink Reply by Vanessa on August 1, 2008 at 4:53pm

Hi!

Check out this page of our website that describes a typical day. In general you will volunteer for 3-5 hours each day.

http://www.crossculturalsolutions.org/the_ccs_experience/a_typical_...

Vanessa

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Permalink Reply by Aletha Evans on August 9, 2008 at 4:42am

In Ghana I volunteered about 4-5 hrs/day. In Brazil it was less because it took so long to drive to the orphanage. Depends on your placement. If you get bored in the afternoon they will let you go to an afternoon placement sometimes.

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Permalink Reply by Rebecca Goodine on April 12, 2009 at 1:40am

Some people only volunteered for 2 hours in Tanzania.....

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Permalink Reply by dezidery kajuna on April 24, 2009 at 7:59am

the question of how many hours to volunteer in a day depend on the way a person feel to perform a given tasks. but aslo we needto look at the reality we as human being we need more time to think especially on these critical issues. i think three orf our hours are enough to volunteer for a day, so that you can also accomplish other tasks related to volunteered work.

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Permalink Reply by Michael on July 10, 2009 at 9:09am

I volunteered from 8:30am - 1pm in Lima and wish we had the option to stay longer. I was only there for two weeks and wanted to do as much as possible with my short stay.

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Permalink Reply by Sharon on November 4, 2009 at 7:43am

Hi everyone!

Just wanted to mention, too, that while 4-5 hours per day (usually in the morning) is the typical time frame, each program is unique and in some cases the agreement with the person in charge of the agency might be different. For example, in Morocco, there are some assignments that last for 4-5 hours, and other assignments that are more like 2 hours. If you stay more than 3 weeks in a program, there could be opportunities to work in the afternoons.

In Russia, the shift of work is usually 3 hours, and there is at least 3 hours of work daily, and some days the work is 6 hours (2 shifts). So, it really depends!

Dezidery makes a good point, which is that even though 3 hours daily may seem a short time, there may be other things required of a volunteer such as preparing for the next day at work, like lesson plans, etc. Also, depending on the potential need for cultural adjustment that will vary from country to country and person to person, some inner work may also be required!

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Permalink Reply by Kam on November 12, 2009 at 1:26am

When I volunteered in Guatemala, it was a 20/30 min drive to the daycare center, because the van also was dropping off other volunteers at their placements. So--with the commute--it was ~5-6 hours away from the Home-Base. Working and playing with younger kids is a bit physical, but also straining to understand the kids' vocabulary in Spanish would wear me out as the hours passed, so by the time I heard the horn beeping outside signaling that the van arrived, I was ready to clear my head and enjoy the ride home. We would process what the day was like at our placements, talk about what we'd learned, pick up new person and new stories would begin.

By the end of 4/5 hours at the daycare and commuting back, hunger had definitely set in and when our group in the van arrived back at the Home-Base we were all starving. We spent some afternoons or evenings brainstorming crafts/exercises for the kids/lesson plans--it was really helpful to have other volunteers share their perspectives on what worked/didn't work/might work this time around. And I spent some time at the local Internet cafe to search for children's songs in Spanish so I could understand and teach them the lyrics.

Even though it originally sounded like a short day, you don't get into your groove until a couple weeks pass by. It's partly jet lag, but mostly adjusting to a new environment and people and language. I'm fluent in Spanish, but I didn't realize it would still take a toll on me to adjust to Guatemalan phrasing. I also didn't expect to get tired from translating English to Spanish and vice versa.

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