Shannon offers advice on volunteering overseas

Shannon is offering potential volunteers some worthy words of advice:

How to Enhance Your Volunteering Abroad Experience
It’s not only a way to help other people, it’s also a great way to see more of the world and broaden your horizons.

In short, volunteering abroad is a two-way street that generates as many advantages for you as it does for the community you’re volunteering in. You get to learn about new cultures and experience the lives of people who belong to those cultures; you’re able to travel and visit new places and countries and meet new people who will change your life in various ways; and besides all this, you’re making a positive difference in the lives of the people you choose to live amongst.

If you’ve decided to be a volunteer abroad and are looking to make your volunteering experience more fruitful and enjoyable, here’s what you could do:
· Choose a country you’re comfortable with:
Don’t go somewhere just because your friends are going or because it’s the in thing to do. Rather, choose to volunteer at a location where you’ll be comfortable – with the weather, the way of life, the culture, the language, and the people. When you’re at ease in your environment, you find it easier to be a better volunteer and be of help to the community you’ve chosen to live amongst.
· Learn about the country and people you will be visiting:
It’s not that hard to learn about the ways and customs of any country and people today, what with the Internet throwing open to us a world of resources that were not available easily a few decades ago. So before you board that plane, take some time to know the country and people you’re going to visit and volunteer in, not just to broaden your knowledge, but also to find ways to improve your volunteering services and customize them to the needs of the locals.
· Respect their culture and customs:
You may find their culture and customs strange and even weird at times, but even if you don’t agree with their way of life or adapt to it, respect it. Don’t make fun of their ways of doing things or look down on them. And even if you cannot bring yourself to do as Romans do in Rome, be tolerant and understanding and remember that you are the stranger there, not them.
· Learn a little of their language:
You don’t have to go the whole hog and become fluent in their native tongue, but it would help if you learned a few words and phrases that are used often. This will help you bond better with the people you’re living amongst and make you a better volunteer in the long run.
· Keep an open mind:
And last, but certainly not the least, keep an open mind when it comes to new experiences and trying out something that seems strange to you. When you’re open to change, you not only adapt to it better and faster; you also become more mature and more knowledgeable because of your experiences.

Thanks Shannon.

By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Shannon Wills, she writes on the topic of Online Engineering Degree . She welcomes your comments at her email id: shannonwills23@gmail.com.