I'm finishing high school this year and next I would like to take a gap year in Latin America, either volenteer/aid type work or teaching english. Whilie I genuinly want to do something useful I also want to have fun, so what country would be a good choice? At the moment im thinking Costa Rica but its far from set in stone.

What countries is your program offering?
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I havnt got any one program yet, im just considering locations first...

If you're planning on doing volunteer work during your year off you should look into some programs. I had my sights set on being a camp counsellor in Spain until I realised they didn't offer that itenary in the country. Instead, the ony places I could do that was in America, Russia and England. Spain only offered community work and teaching English.
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I havnt decided on a program or country yet, im weighing my options, which would be the most enjoyable? preferably not resulting in having my head cut off by the revelutionary army or something.

That's where you have to look into what program you want to go with. They'll give you a list of countries they work with and what kinds of jobs they offer.

What country are you in currently?
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Im in Australia... if you want specifics one of the more doable options is a three month placement, whatever that entails in either Guatamala, Costa Rica, Peru or Ecuador. But from everything i have been told and looked at, it would probably be possible to go almost anywhere even if i end up picking apples. for the moment though, which of those four would be advisable? Im thinking ecuador would probalby be a bad idea looking at the situation these days

Yeah I'm in oz too. During year 12 they handed out brochures and had info sessions. The cost for each place is pretty much the same, you should go to which ever country interests you most. I don't think they'd really put you anywhere too bad, but it's a good learning experience. I had some friends who went to South Africa, they came back appreciating home alot more.
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I would like to take a gap year in Latin America, either volenteer/aid type work or teaching english.

You should give some thought on what exactly you want to get out of the experience, because those can be two very different things.

Do you want to experience a new place and have something to do while you're there? Do you want to help the poor? How much fun do you want to have? How much work do you want to do?

Only if you feel a really strong commitment to working with the poor, you should consider doing "volunteer/aid" work for anything more than ~3 months. Some people find a lot of satisfaction in doing this kind of work. Others experience burn-out or get frustrated with the seeming futility of it all. During this time, you're likely to be in a more rural environment without many comforts. Having to boil water to drink or have a hot shower or using 8 hours to travel 100 km's is novel at first, but it gets old fast.

If you find yourself tending more towards the idea of having fun and living a decent life, you're probably better off teaching English in a suburban or urban setting. It'll be more like a normal day job, you'll probably get paid more, and you'll probably have nicer living conditions.

In any of the countries you've listed, you'll find some people living in absolute poverty, people living at first world standards, and people in the middle. The relative percentages vary between the countries, but all groups are present in each.

So, I suppose what I'm saying is that there is more to consider than just where you spend your time. The first things I would be considering are "How do I want to spend my time?" and "With whom do I want to spend my time?" Only after I had a very clear idea of that would I start considering where I want to spend my time.

Well I have been doing some research and asking some questions and it looks like teaching english is the probable scenario. While I dont want to be a compleate bum I still want this to be a working holiday. I expect to work but I'd like to have fun as well. With this in mind, where should I go in Latin America.

Middle america...

Right. If I was them, I wouldn't let you in.

Guatemala. Seriously. We have a desperate need of culture here.
Just consider the fact that I am the only Guatemalan member of Totse, and this gives you the idea.

Nicaragua. Seriously. We have a desperate need of culture here.
Just consider the fact that I am the only Nicaraguan member of Totse, and this gives you the idea.

Anyways, its fun there.

If you're planning to go to central America, I would totally recommend giving Belize some thought. Such a beautiful country, the most amazing wildlife too. Also mostly English-speaking... perhaps not quite so great if you plan to TEFL, but otherwise kinda useful :) You might be able to find some interesting conservation projects out that way...

ALSO. I would seriously look out for the so-called "Organised Gap Year Projects" (aid, teaching etc) by what are essentially tourist operators (I-to-I, STA etc). This may be a gross generalisation, but so many of them are just glorified tourism, where you get the *privilege* of shelling out thousands of dollars, little of which goes back to the local communities, to take the jobs which local people actually need. I've heard a lot of bad stuff about them. However, if your aims are more to See The World, then these things may not be such a bad idea. :) Otherwise, might be best to organise stuff through your school / personally. Just a thought.

Guatemala. Seriously. We have a desperate need of culture here.
Just consider the fact that I am the only Guatemalan member of Totse, and this gives you the idea.

My mother is a very religious person, and a Catholic priest who visited our town from Guatemala City recently said to her that they would love to provide board/food etc. for someone who would like to come down there and do volunteer work with the community.

He said there is only one seminary in the city, so I assume you know where I'm talking about (assuming you live in Guatemala City, of course).

I'm not personally a religious person, but a seminary would probably be a good (safe) place to stay, I imagined. The people would most likely be very kind, as well. Disregarding anyone's personal opinions on the fact of staying with a bunch of priests, most of the work would be helping the community - granted I'm not quite sure what they mean exactly by this, but that could be figured out - how safe would you say Guatemala City is currently, especially that part of it?

Keep in mind I'd be a 6'4 white male - I wouldn't fit in with the crowd very well.

why dont you go to Chiapas

Just go to Uni and get on with your life

Middle America tends to get progressively shittier as you go down; North Mexico is basically the US with everybody's wages cut in fourth; South Mexico is a bunch of tribal lands and a few resorts. Guatemala has a thriving local marketplace and is a pretty big tourist attraction (comparatively), but sanitation is not good. Then you get down to Honduras and El Salvador where unemployment is 25% and kids forage in the trash heaps for food.

So if you want to do good work and still have a bit of fun, go to Guatemala, or possibly Nicaragua (where the streets have no names :eek:).

If anyone could help me out I'd appreciate it. I'm graduating this May from college (I'm in the USA) and I just realized, "Why the fuck didn't I ever think of working abroad for the summer before working?" So now I think I am fucked as don't work permits take a while? Also, there are so many fucking programs I don't even know where to start (my college major was IT btw). I wouldn't mind doing an internship but I know that's impossible to get at this point. So I wouldn't mind working on a cruise going around European countries or any other odd job. I'd want to go to these countries: Denmark, Australia, Japan, China, Sweden, England, Latvia or something similar. I tried looking up the teaching English for 6 weeks things but it seems like I need certification so I'm fucked on that end too.

I have found a course i can do to qualify as an english teacher which would only take a few months, so that is probably my plan, this is the course; http://www.seeklearning.com.au/tesol-college/advanced-tesol-certificate.asp

On destination, I have been reading comments and doin reaserch and im thinking either Panama or Nicuagra, although i got pleanty of time to decide. Thanks for the feedback

no. my sister did this. spent a year working to save up for it, then spent half a year building houses of elephant shit and thatch in thailand and shit like that. fuck volunteer shit.

no. my sister did this. spent a year working to save up for it, then spent half a year building houses of elephant shit and thatch in thailand and shit like that. fuck volunteer shit.

What about her; did she like it?

I know a guy at TAFE who's done this exact thing; I wish I didn't, because an arsechurning self important loser, and thus I don't & won't have much to pass along to you about it other than the shit below:

Out of those choices Costa Rica is the most stable, and although there's not a lot in the way of history or modern infrastructure there compared to it's neighbours Guatamala, Panama, and Nicaragua it's the best choice for someone in your position. Everything can be bought with US Dollars (which is nice, looking at the Aus - US exchange rates) and you should put an emphasis on haggling because if one guy refuses to sell you something for such a low price another will take his place. Costa Rica is also pretty stable.

Nicaragua & Panama are different to each other (apparently) but still similar, and one of these similarities is that they're more tourist orientated and so are the prices. Panama is pretty American focused.

I wouldn't go to Guatamala if I were you, they're about to have a revolution ;) Nah I don't know, I would avoid the place though.

All of these places can be pretty dangerous if you're an idiot.

Costa Rica doesn't have the ruins of Mayan/Incan/Aztek/Whetever civilisations either, IIRC - and those are things I'd definitely want to look at if I were in your place.

P.S. That thing in Jurassic park about the island off the coast of Costa Rica is true, by the way (not the fucken dinosaurs bit) that no-one ever goes there and it's mysterious and possibly full of bad omen-y shit. Or that's just what they feed to the exchange students.