Pull up a chair - this is a comedy of errors !

I found the i-to-i website whilst looking for a TEFL course. I was thinking of returning to Greece and thought a TEFL qualification would be useful. I booked for the weekend course, which I took in Leeds in March 2004.

The group was made up mostly of students, though there were a couple of other 'mature' students like myself. The 20 hour practical course is followed up by a 20 hour grammar module, which you do on your own at home - which was pretty hard work - even for someone with a grammar school education! A 20hour certificate is issued, and is followed up by a 40hour certifcate once the grammar module is successfully completed.

With the TEFL course completed, I decided to take on one of the volunteer placements before heading back to Greece. After months of deliberation, I eventually chose a project in Peru - The Eco-friendly Garden & School project in Lima. The blurb described mornings of teaching English and afternoons "harvesting in the orchard or mixing organic fertilisers". This project seemed ideal as it covered my gardening interests as well as giving me experience in teaching.

As I had pretty much committed myself to doing the project (I was selling my house and putting all my stuff into storage) I signed on the dotted line and paid the appropriate fee - a cool 1,395 quid - for a 3 month project. This fee did NOT include air fare or accommodation in Peru (payable locally). It DID include travel insurance, placement in the school and with a family, one week of Spanish lessons and orientation (during which accommodation was free) and the services of their rep in Lima.

TWO WEEKS before I was due to leave, i-to-i phoned to say that they had just discovered that despite the fact that they had put me on a 3 month project Nov -Feb, the school would be closing at Xmas for the summer holidays! They asked if I wanted to cut my project short or move onto something else for the remainder of my stay. I decided to move on to the Lima orphanage project. They also said that I 'might be disappointed' in the eco-garden! Oner of their staff had eventually visited the project and came back saying the garden wasn't up to much. They suggested I may enjoy gettin it into shape!

On my first day at the school, despite my co-ordinator saying the school was 'thrilled' to have a volunteer, they didn't know what to do with me and at one stage I was left sitting in the school yard for over an hour! They had not worked out any kind of programme for me and I eventually had to go round knocking on classroom doors to make myself a timetable with the various English classes. Having said that, I loved the teaching side of things. I taught 6 groups of 10 year olds (with 50 girls in each class!) and 6 groups of senior girls aged 11 - 14 years. The teachers were supposed to stay in class with me, but most sneaked off for coffee and left me to it - but the girls and I had lots of fun!

As Xmas was approaching, I was looking forward to my move on to the orphanage. There were 6 other volunteers already working on this project and I had visited a couple of times. What i-to-i had not told anyone was the fact that 80% of the kids are NOT actually orphans, but live there because their families could not support them. This 80% of kids were returning to their families for the Xmas holidays and beyond! By the week before the holiday there were sometimes only 4 kids to 6 volunteers in the classes! There seemed little point in me going on to this project, where volunteers outnumbered the kids!

If you're thinking of doing a volunteer project - research well (I DID but still suffered!) and insist that you speak to people who have actually BEEN to the places they are selling!

The co-ordinators in Peru did the best they could and were very committed to the projects - my complaint was with the UK side of the organisation, although staff were pleasant enough, though un-informed.