2004 - Say ‘adios’ to the daily grind
Any job can seem humdrum after a while, and it can be hard to find a way out of your daily routine. When Fiona Norton and Simon Gamble, two IT workers in their mid-twenties, felt dissatisfied with their working lives, they took drastic action, proving that gap years are not just for teenagers.
The two decided to take a lengthy career break and use the time to fulfill a shared ambition to visit the archaeologically-rich lands of Central and South America, fitting in voluntary work along the way. After a trawl through the WWV database, Fiona and Simon decided to travel with Teaching & Projects Abroad. The organisation offers a range of projects, including journalism placements, conservation work and medical programmes, all over the world.
Fiona and Simon signed up for a TPA Spanish course in Guadalajara, Mexico, with a plan to find voluntary work when they got there. They arrived in the city in June and within days of starting the course, the two offered to help out with English classes at Guadalajara University. "We ran the English conversation club for a month,” Fiona explains. “This was a way for medical students to practise their English pronunciation, to learn new phrases and for us all to learn something about each other’s culture.”
Teaching and Projects Abroad arranged for Fiona and Simon to stay with a local family during their month in Mexico which, says Fiona, “really enriched” their time in the city. Outside of Spanish and English classes, the pair found plenty of time for exploring museums and taking trips to the coast as well as enjoying Guadalajara’s nightlife.
Since leaving Mexico in July, Fiona and Simon have hit the road and made the most of their time out of the daily grind, discovering the wonderful landscapes and many archaeological sights of Belize, Costa Rica, Honduras and Peru.
When they return to the UK in November, says Fiona, they plan to find volunteer work nearer home, probably on archaeology projects, and to save up for their next adventure – more teaching and traveling, this time in Asia. |
