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To go or not to go...
Arona, Spain
So where do I start with the story of my volunteering experience? Go back 18 years in time. I am sitting on the monkey bars in a Berlin backyard and my friend aske me what I want to be when I grow up. 'A marine biologist', I answer determined. Ok, many other adventurous and some not so adventurous career plans followed but there are many ways to save the world. So I finally decided to do the whale and dolphin volunteering experience with the Atlantic Whale Foundation in Tenerife.Despite bad reviews. Fairly bad, in fact. And an encounter with the head of charity who seemed, well, not quite with it. But I was determined. I payed. And for waited and waited and waited for a confirmation. Emails were simply ignored and was starting to loose faith. A three days before my departure I finally called diretly in Tenerife and got a German volunteer on the phone who confirmed that, indeed, he doesn't reply to emails and will never confirm. But my arrival is expected. I was so relieved; I could finally make my childhood dream come true and it would only be one more week! And then I nearly cancelled the trip. Meike, the volunteer told me that the house was flooded due to heavy rain and it was so bad that she might fly home. Now, from a previous internship in Malta with eight girls I learned that a few girls in their twenties have a tendency for drama. I mean, are we talking a centimeter of flooding or is it up to the knees? Well, turned out that it was enough rain to flood the entire capital and kill five people. This was not the kind of aquatic adventure I had been looking for...
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