Volunteer Programs in Las Terrenas, Dominican Republic

I spent a total of 6 months in the Dominican Republic and can generally say that I love the country. I went to two different hospitals and then to the dentist. I hoped that I would get a real insight into medicine there and that this would help me decide what to study, but I have to say that this was unfortunately not the case. There was really absolutely nothing to do in the first hospital and we sat there for four hours a day just reading. On average, we had maybe two patients a day, nobody came when it was raining, wie weren‘t allowed to do anything and the hospital was still under construction. After 6 weeks, I was allowed to change hospitals, and Nacho, the local coordinator, made every effort to make the change possible! There were significantly more patients in this hospital. Over time, I was also allowed to carry out tasks on my own and was allowed to watch a surgery twice which was really interesting. Nevertheless, I have to say that a lot is promised on the website, with various medical areas in which you get an insight and that you can help in the ambulance, in the pharmacy or in the laboratory. None of this was the case and even though I enjoyed the work, it was relatively monotonous and not what was promised. The staff at the hospitals have become friendlier over time, but especially at the beginning they didn't really pay attention to you and as soon as you didn't understand something in Spanish, they rolled their eyes and turned away. Working at the dentist, on the other hand, totally surprised me. The two dentists were super friendly and tried to explain everything. I also got to know a lot of different types of treatment, was allowed to see everything up close and was able to assist with everything after just a few days, such as a wisdom tooth operation. I enjoyed working at the dentist's the most by far! Overall, I really liked the accommodation we stayed in, as we lived in the same building with all the volunteers and were therefore able to get to know lots of great people. However, the photos on the rgv website don't match the actual accommodation at all; the accommodation shown is completely different. Nevertheless, casa regular is a nice place and the locals who live in the same building are really friendly. Overall, it has to be said that the communication between rgv and Aldeas de Paz is not really good and rgv never tells you that they are working with Aldeas de Paz so you are really confused at first. In addition, rgv gives you contact details of people who are supposed to be the local coordinators, but these people don't even exist there, only the employees of Aldeas de Paz. The coordinators of Aldeas de Paz, on the other hand, are very nice and especially the coordinator of the marine program, always organizes excursions for all volunteers and takes care of everyone. Spanish lessons hardly ever took place at the beginning, but our coordinator arranged for a replacement and since then we have had a very nice Spanish teacher who gave good lessons. All in all, it was an absolutely unforgettable time in the Caribbean, where I made new friends, improved my Spanish and learned a lot about a new culture and myself but honestly not because of the projects

The staff team was great and always offered support, Nacho the coordinator was very nice and was always ready to help. The volunteering work was great but could be improved by adding consistent tasks for volunteers to complete, the hours for the work were very good since we only worked around the morning and the rest of the day we were free to do as we pleased. The living conditions were very simple but i liked that at Las terrenas all volunteers lived together so it was very easy to socialize and make friends with the others. Las terrenas as a town was incredible the beaches and the people were amazing. I loved that everything was not very far from the accommodation so it was very easy to get to the beach or to restaurants.