What a difference a week makes  

Written by Claire Fowler

I was lucky enough to be given the chance to take a four-week sabbatical recently and I wanted to do something memorable in that time.  So, alongside looking after my kids, visiting parents and tidying years of ignored clothes and toys, I decided to volunteer for a week with a community development program in Puerto Rico.  

My logic of going in February was that it’s my least favourite month in the UK as winter drags on, and I’ve usually just got through a long list of legal directory submissions too (if you know, you know). The decision to go abroad was led by wanting some sunshine, and not being able to find anything that short term with local charities I knew.  

I discovered an organisation (IVHQ) that would allow me to select a variety of locations and project types for just a week and settled on Puerto Rico as I’d never been to the Caribbean or Latin America and it seemed a little safer than some other choices, in part due to it being a US territory.  So, whilst it’s very much Spanish speaking and a true melting pot of cultures, I knew it would be interesting, different – and IVHQ would offer support and advice if I needed it as a solo traveller.  

Having stopped off in Miami on the way for a couple of nights (Little Havana, South Beach and Wynwood Walls are all worth a visit), I arrived at a hostel as my home for the week. Although most of the people there were half my age, everyone was friendly and keen to chat.  

The community development partner I was paired with was a charity who focus on environmental projects of regeneration, protecting the coastal wildlife and urban ecosystems. That includes documenting and planting areas of coastal forest, dunes, lagoons and reefs, and I spent most days in an urban garden which acts as a plant nursery for the projects – as well as somewhere for local people and school children to enjoy the peaceful setting and learn about indigenous plants that the charity are protecting.    

I spent each morning working there, which ranged from watering plants (including mango, almond, banana and pineapples, a huge range of medicinal plants and herbs and a local root plant like a potato called malanga – see more here) to potting out new cuttings, digging holes to plant new hedges and cutting back shrubs.  

I stripped a fence covered in bindweed at a butterfly garden near the Cantera lagoon where few people spoke English, but enough to tell me to move from under a coconut tree as it could kill me if one fell, and then to warn me not to go near the water’s edge because there were alligators! Another time I helped with composting at a local coastal forest which had been rewilded after the patch of land was abandoned by property developers who started constructing a hotel and then ran out of money – leaving the foundations and rusty metal struts sticking out of the ground.  

In each case, the tasks I took on were small, but the regular volunteers explained how they rely on the “reciprocal tourism” volunteers to help them work through the long list of projects that need doing and the constant job of caring for the plants.  

I was also very lucky to meet a permanent volunteer who spent her own time showing me around other highlights of the island – from beach side shacks that sold the local speciality of crab fritters, to a hot springs and the town of Ponce by the Caribbean coast.  

Each afternoon I had time by myself to explore as well, which included the old town of capital San Juan, local art galleries, coffee shops and a trip to a local restaurant with my co-ordinator.  On my final weekend I did a day trip to see the sights of America’s only rainforest in the National Parks system – and have one night of relaxing in a hotel with a swimming pool after the hostel!  

Coming home I had time to reflect on everything (and recover from my mosquito bites) before returning to work, where my colleagues had done an amazing job of looking after everything for me. I thoroughly enjoyed not only the experience, but also the chance to completely reset and switch my brain to other things entirely.  I’m also pleased to have shown my two teenage sons that anyone can go travelling on their own (including women who are a bit older than your average back packer!) and enjoy and learn from the world around us. It’s important to me to let them see women who have a career and independence as well as a family and fun – so coming back in time for International Women’s Day seemed very fitting for a week that had been a real adventure.