Volunteer Voices

My trip to Scotland through Volunteers for Peace lasted two weeks, and I\\\'m happy to say it was AWESOME and totally worth the anxiety of getting a visa! This particular project involved helping with environmental and manual labor at the Clyde Muirsheil Regional Park outside of Lochwinnoch. Our host organization, XChange Scotland, got together a group from all over: France, Catalonia, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Spain, the US, and of course, Scotland, and we all got along great. The organizer, Jonathan Robertson was very friendly and made everyone feel at home, and in my opinion he and his staff did a terrific job organizing the experience. It was hard work, pushing wheelbarrows up massive hills to help build and maintain trails. We also spent a lot of time hacking and trimming the \\\"evil rhododendron\\\" which is not a native species, and has been taking over indigenous growth. Our efforts went towards helping the park rangers make Clyde Miursheil an inviting place to learn about and enjoy nature and the environment. By the end of the day, we were tired, but it was a good tired. When we weren\\\'t working, we hung out at the park\\\'s Barnbrock campsite, sleeping in wooden tents called sheighlings (forgive any bad spelling). I brought something a little American for everyone - bandanas (I guess they\\\'re American), played guitar, and tried to learn some German words - not always easy to pronouce. We took turns helping each other cook and tasted international dishes (I couldn\\\'t find any hot dogs for people to try out, oh well), played frisbee, and went kayaking in the loch. We even took a field trip to Glasgow, danced at a Scottish dance party called a ceileigh (again, sorry for the spelling), and joined residents at the local pubs, so they definitely encouraged us to learn about the local culture. It was an eye-opening experience for me, and truly memorable and wonderful . I would highly recommend volunteering through VFP. Many thanks to Jonathan, and to Amy at VFP for hanging in there and supporting me while I got my visa and paperwork in order. I would do it over again in a heartbeat.”

Terence Gardner ~ Scotland 2009