Job Discussion Forums

[pak]

I am starting to research summer jobs in Latin America, although I wouldn't be able to go until 2007 or 2008. Can anyone recommend any reputable programs for summer jobs? They could be paying jobs or volunteer, even "pay-to-volunteer" if the cost is not too outrageous. I am open to any country. I do speak some Spanish, but would like this as an opportunity to improve my command of the language. I am an experienced teacher; I teach ESOL at a public high school in South Carolina.

Thanks for your help!

pak

[naturegirl321]

try www.teachabroad.com
or www.volunteerabroad.com

There are certainly tons of pay to volunteer jobs.

[sonia12]

I am writing in response to the search for summer jobs in Latin America. Although OptimalEnglish requires an 8-12 month stay, it is a great program for recent graduates looking to explore options abroad. Check out the recruitment website at www.coachenglish.com, and the home webpage at www.optimalenglish.com.

[sonia12]

I am writing in response to the search for summer jobs in Latin America. Although OptimalEnglish requires an 8-12 month stay, it is a great program for recent graduates looking to explore options abroad. Check out the recruitment website at www.coachenglish.com, and the home webpage at www.optimalenglish.com.

[Justin Trullinger]

Would you all think I'm shameless if I recommend the Experiment in International Living, Ecuador? It's a nice place, and has a really wide variety of programs, both paying jobs and volunteer options. (Or frequently, some combination of the two.)

The only drawback is that I've heard that the director of English is a little weird...

Anyway, check it out on www.eilecuador.org.

And good luck,
Justin

[RyanS]

And that it is insanely expensive is another drawback.

[Justin Trullinger]

[MELEE]

Justin,

I want to congratulate you on your very reasonable response. Most people on this board have always belittled the pay to volunteer programs, but I feel that for many people they are a great option. You get a lot of support and services that you wouldn't get if you just came and got some bottom rung teaching job.

Way back in 1995, I worked in Cuenca, fresh out of university with no formal training and no previous experience. I was there for 6 months and even though I was getting paid, I spent 2000 dollars that I had saved before the trip. The pay I recieved ofset my expenses a little. I travelled all over the whole country, ate out a lot, drank a lot, and learned a lot. When I took the job, I didn't think I'd still be teaching English ten years later. I just wanted to improve my Spanish and get more international experience under my belt. I managed to arrange it all myself, and I took my boyfriend along with me. There's no way he would have been able to arrange everything by himself, if it weren't for me, he would never have gone, unless he went on a pay to volunteer type program. These programs are not for everyone, but they definately are good for a lot of people out there. If they didn't have their place they wouldn't exsist. I don't think its fair for anyone to insinuate that they are a scam.

Justin, Keep up the good work.

[Justin Trullinger]

Thank you very much MELEE.

I agree that the "pay to volunteer" orgs have their place. And to young people "back home," who are thinking of having "the experience of a lifetime" in a foreign, exotic land, before going home to join the rat race, I say "Why not spend some money on it, and see if we can do some good with it down here?" I do not feel that there's anything wrong with first worlders paying first world prices for their third world experiences. And if that provides some people, here where I live, with some much needed economic opportunities, GREAT!

But I do feel that it's important that the other options exist, too. I didn't pay, and couldn't have paid, a big program fee to be here. I still think that what I do here is worthwhile. It's important to keep all the options available.

To be fair and even handed, I do feel I need to point out that there are scams out there. Lots of them! And the volunteer placement "business" in a place as unregulated as Latin America is an obvious place to attract them.

I haven't been around LA that long, only a few years, but I have seen a lot of scams. I have seen a lot of non-profit organisations where the "founders" (Read "owners") receive first world managerial salaries, have luxury cars, and treat employees and volunteers alike as their personal serfs. I have seen places where the inflated fees first world volunteers pay get skimmed off into various pockets, with virtually nothing (and sometimes actually nothing) left to go towards the lofty goals purported on websites. I've seen "volunteer exchange" organisations that act merely as agencies, offering no services but "placement," and keeping the big fee to "place" people with genuine charitable organisations, where they could easily volunteer for free. (These organisations, often run by people who have taken vows of poverty, could use the money, and would use it well. But often, they don't see it.)

Even in legitimate organisations, it's hard. Hard to know where all the lines are. I believe strongly that the organisation I work for is a good one. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. But it's a constant struggle to many of us here to know what is reasonable, in terms of how program fees are spent. I receive a good local salary for my work. More or less. Maybe in a perfect world, I'd donate my time so that all our income could go to good causes. But I couldn't stay here, doing a good job, for very long if that were the case. Running costs are a reality. So is the fact that many of our Ecuadorian staff, paid out of program fees and other income, in addition to being necessary, would probably otherwise be out of work, low income, in poverty, or working for the multinationals who are destroying this country.

The other day, a volunteer commented to me that he thought I was an exploiter, because my employment here is taking a job from an Ecuadorian. I didn't, and don't, know exactly how to respond. It's true, there are many Ecuadorians who would be happy to have my job and salary.

It's also true, that the general level of language education here makes an Ecuadorian who could do my job a rarity. (They exist, but they tend to be over in the for profit sector, earning more money than me.) I'm not saying this will always be the case. In fact, much of my work is dedicated to training local teachers so that it won't be. But at the moment, it is the case.

It's also true that I am probably paid a bit more than Ecuadorians in similar positions. I feel uncomfortable with this. But here's a bit of reality: Ecuadorians frequently live in multiple income extended family groups. I have moved far from my extended family, and for me to stay, I need to earn enough to live alone.

The same volunteer told me how immoral it was for me to be earning ANYTHING here, because that meant I was taking money out of the economy. Hmmm. Anybody who's ever tried an Ecuadorian salary will have a good laugh over that one. When/if I ever leave, I will have my many, lovely memories, the permanent wealth of what I have learned, and the clothes on my back. Which is a helluva a lot more than I came with. But the idea that I'll be taking a fat roll of cash with me... Yeah right.

I've just realized that I'm thread jacking, so I'll stop. But the topic of how to go about doing a good, responsible thing in a bad, irresponsible world, gets me going.

Happy weekend everybody,
Justin

[lozwich]

Thread jacking or not, I admire you Justin.

Have a good weekend yourself!
Lozwich.

[MELEE]

[MO39]

[Guy Courchesne]

It's a simple misspell...try www.eilecuador.org The sentence period was included in the link.

[RyanS]

Well from my income range it is very expensive not everyone in the first world can afford first world prices. Having not looked at many Pay-to-volunteer prices myself I have not really a balanced opinion. For me it looked very expensive considering my Income here is quite small. There seemed to be a number of costs and very little promised, including the visa and other costs. I don't know if the volunteers will be getting paid because I couldn't find any mention of it on the website. The costs themselves seem to be possibly more than I make in Canada a year not including expenses but thank the McJob ecomony for our politicians tell us in newspeak that our ecomony has never been more healthy.

However, to that volunteer you should tell him what exploitation is, though you are a manager(I don't know how the organization runs either) I doubt you can be considered an exploiter. In the read sense of the word an exploiter takes away from its employees the surplus of their labour. What the workers bring to the company in terms of profits is extracted by this person to be brought into his own pocket books. As a manager I think you earn a wage or salary.

Your volunteer has the same backwards opinion as many of the right-wing in the United States do that, "All these immigrants are taking away our jobs!". No many infact create jobs, from them being there, in terms of the services they use, such as buying from grocery stores, using the bank, eating at restraunts, taking a taxi, and so on.

In Canada through we in the process of getting rid of all cashiers by having self-serve cashiers. At the "Home Depot" in my city theres only 2 cashiers the rest of the lanes people use computers and scan out things themselves. Capitalists who are no longer satisified with paying workers a crappy wage are no longer even employing them! But thank our strong ecomony! We no longer need to eat!

[MO39]