Alumni Interview with Fabian Rudolf

What inspired you to go abroad?

I already started managing a small TV channel called HGO TV in my home city Oldenburg. The NGO management program was really just the next step to prepare myself for a career in Business Administration. I asked myself how I can combine useful work with my interest for hospitality and tourism, sailing boats, windsurfing, and water sports in general.

Why did you choose Aldeas de Paz?

I did my research on the internet and wrote my application for many different NGOs to pick out the one that I like most.

Aldeas de Paz is located in a city with a lot of missing structures, poverty, and a low education level. The university graduation education level of doctors and lawyers is worse than the graduation in other countries. That’s why doctors and lawyers don’t even have the chance to do their work as well, even if they all want to. The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) ranking of the Dominican Republic is one of the lowest among all evaluated countries.

What was your favorite part about the Dominican Republic?

As soon as I understood most of the Dominican Spanish and the diverse aspects of the Dominican culture, I realized how warm-hearted and gentle Dominicans are. I really like food and neighbors brought us Mangos, students at my computer class brought me Limoncillos, and the women at the food stall gave me free beans on top of my rice.

Harmony, respect, the freedom of the individual, and well-being plays a big role for Dominicans. I didn’t know how important the daily smalltalk with the people on the street and greeting your neighbors everyday is and what kind of a big difference it makes.

All these little somethings truly changed me here. I will never forget that. 

What made your experience abroad unique?

I had the chance to try out living on the countryside in a small village called Jamey for a couple of days with limited access to water, electricity, and other resources that I was used to having. It was in this community that I realized how difficult it is to change the unjust world we live in. My host brother was working all day on a farm and earned less than 200 Euros per month. He was trying to save up all his money to pay 130 Euros only to have access to higher education, which then wouldn’t even be as good as education in OECD countries.

In the morning, we always collected Platanos, a very typical vegetable, from the garden in front of our house. Every night, it rained a lot. The water was leaking through my roof. I could only bathe myself with everyone else in the nearby river and a shared piece of soap. The people I met in this community weren’t reserved. They tried to make the best out of their situation and their village was beautiful. I was so grateful that I could have this experience and I was so grateful that I was born in a richer country afterwards.

How did local staff support you throughout your program?

The local staff assured me with any doubts I had about the apartments or sickness.

I was the personal assistant of the coordinator of all the activities in Samaná. He always made sure that everyone has all the information he needs. He creates a working environment where everyone feels comfortable working.

What's one thing you wish you would have done differently?

A lot of mistakes happened to me. I sent wrong information to new volunteers, I flooded our roof trying to fix a broken tube of water, I was bitten by our street dog Nacho when I played with him and then didn’t immediately follow the procedure we have set in place for dog bites. But, really, there is nothing that I would have done differently. I learned how important it is to take risks for success, challenge yourself, try to catch your dreams and see what happens. I would have made exactly the same mistakes or even more, if I had the opportunity to do it again.

Describe a typical day in the life of your program.

I would wake up at 8:00 a.m. and eat breakfast—the tastiest mango in the world with oatmeal. If there are no mangos, I opted in for the tastiest pineapples in the world.

Afterwards, I would look at my calendar and see what scheduled meetings I had throughout the day. Together with my coordinator and the foundations motorcycle we would start our tour. I met with a host family to prepare the arrival of a volunteer, the secretary at a local hospital to place a new volunteers, my coordinator to plan future activities and the volunteers, and my own work.

Then, a big part of my work happened in front of the computer. I looked out for future volunteers in our foundation, planned future activities for the foundation, or tried to improve a structure that is not yet set in place. Our foundation has worked in Samaná for only three years. Every connection we have is completely new. It takes a lot of meetings and calls to reach the right people. 50 % of our efforts fail, because the idea we had couldn’t be implemented.

What was your accommodation like? What did you like best about it?

The best thing about my apartment was the ocean view from the balcony, the comfortable sofa, and the blender for green smoothies to wake up to in the morning. We had everything we needed in our apartment, and I even had a single room with my own bathroom.

What is one thing every participant should know before participating in your program?

There are many cultural mistakes you can make in your communication: What I would say as a German may be way too rude for a Dominican and what a Dominican may say to all of his Dominican friends may make me feel completely offended and bad.

A Dominican offended me because he showed up two hours late to a scheduled meeting. I’m afraid that I will never be able to be punctual in Germany anymore.

I once offended my host mother a lot because I told her that there is a cockroach in my apartment. Nobody likes cockroaches, but she just wouldn’t want to admit that there have ever been cockroaches before, because she was so embarrassed about it.

You can try to learn all the theory about cultural sensitivity and the iceberg model in advance, but it won’t help you much. Culturally biased communication happens to all of us. Just try to stay calm all the time and don’t freak out because people treat you differently than what you are used to.

Now that you're home, how has your time abroad impacted your life?

I am more spontaneous, relaxed, confident and positive about the future. Some evenings, I find myself sitting in a plastic chair and just enjoying life at the side of the road, like many locals do all the time in Samaná.

Would you recommend Aldeas de Paz to others? Why?

I would recommend my program provider to everyone with a high self-motivation and persistence, frustration tolerance, an intermediate Spanish level, work experience, and clear goals in mind for their stay.