Finally settled in....how complicated it can be...

After two weeks in Santa Marta, we finally have our apartment and know what we are doing with the NGO. Everything here is even more unorganized and complicated than in Central America.

First of all, there is only a little amount of volunteers and hence, there are no volunteer houses. So, we had to find our own place or host family. We were fortunate that the owner of the Hotel Colonial, where we stayed before, rents a really nice apartment. So, we moved in there. The decision wasnt too easy, because there are some downsides too, e.g. the apartment is not in the centre and it gets quite hot in the kitchen because there is only a little fan. But the rest is perfect!! We even have air con in our room!!!

Second of all, the NGO...it is really small, a lot smaller than La Esperanza, and it is not as established as La Esperanza. Hence, there are lots of things you can do as a volunteer. We figured out that we dont want to work with kids, so we came up with our own project...giving English classes to adults in the barrio, every day from 4 to 5.30pm...the adults love it!
Furthermore, we help another volunteer Cameron with a Community Needs Assessment of the barrio we work in. We go from house to house, ask the people to take part in the survey. This is exhausting but fun! In the end we hope to get some good results in order to know which services are really needed, e.g. it is education for older kids, help with construction work in the barrio, medical services...

our community assessment group with Cameron and Alix

Last but not least, we found a great gym....so, it was not an easy start, but we finally have great projects to work with!

And we got in touch with a few people via Couchsurfing to get to know more locals from Santa Marta.