I’m not sure where to start. My 6 months volunteering at The Ara Project has been.. one WILD ride full of thrills and spills, shrills and hills; an exciting way to put it. To put it in less exciting (but equally important) terms it has been very educational, and eye opening. It has taught me a lot about independence and how to manage without a parent holding your hand through everything. Not that I still hold my mothers hand at the age of 18…*cough* So yeah I can easily say my time here was a life changer.
My name is Bo, or Bob, I’m 18 years old and from Vermont, that state next to New York. I’m currently in the middle of a gap year after high school and no, I don’t know what I’m doing after this. For half the year I’ve been at The Ara Project volunteering and living very close to “the life”. So far being at Ara I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing 6-foot boa constrictors, the most amazing sunset, near death after witnessing said sunset when our brakes gave out on the
way down the mountain, meeting countless of the coolest people that walk this planet, getting tattoos with said cool people, the wonderful feeling of working at 6am with a hangover in 90 degree humid weather, oh yeah and the macaws are pretty cool I guess. No, the macaws are very cool. The Scarlet Macaws are the most magnificent birds I have ever seen, coming from Vermont it probably doesn’t mean much but still anybody would agree they’re amazing. Working up close with them, feeding, showering, cleaning, talking to them (oops sorry Sam), having a feeling that you’ve made a difference, was a very cool experience, one that not many people can say they’ve had.
I would say the most memorable experiences were with the wonderful people I’ve met through Ara. The list is long. Nothing will compare to the nights sitting around a table playing games or the delicious vegetarian potlucks at Sam and Sarah’s. That being said the nightlife in Islita can get pretty crazy. Especially when you stuff 11 people into a car that does in fact have headlights, unlike the project’s own truck, and drive down to K’mbute, a nice local restaurant bar that closes at 9:30 on a Saturday. But the best nights were always at the house with magic tricks, movies, and being as loud as we wanted, only annoying our poor gecko friends. Even during work there were fun times to be had like playing a few innings of papaya/lemon baseball, and very important English lessons with Fabio discussing Bruce Willis flicks. These are the memories I’ll have with me forever from Ara.
So a big Thank You to Sam, Sarah, Angharad, Mauricio, Fabio, and everyone doing what they do keep them birdies alive and chirping and who made my experience so damn fun and memorable. Go All Blacks baby.
By Bo Linh Tran
