“During our coastal clean-up in San Vicente Village, I can’t imagine how dirty is my home town. I really appreciate the foreign volunteers to do the first move so that people in our village will be aware of the problem. It was indeed surprising to see lots of plastic in our coastal area, very memorable in my part” (Bryan, Philippines, February 2004)


“During the meeting time, some of campers have a good idea that so creative. At that time I was really surprised and I learned what to do. Every hard situation, most of campers want to try overcome. I felt that moving heart. Nobody complain, just they try to be adaptable.” (Korean participant in Philippine camp 2004)


“I learned how to dance spaghetti and ucho-ucho from children. Sometimes when I dance spaghetti and ucho-ucho and I say Cebuano, they are laughing. Most of Filipino really like dance and play and sing a song. They look satisfy about their life eventhough they are poor and don’t have job. It’s really impact to me.” (Korean workcamper in December 2003, Philippines)


“Don’t be shocked if you are told: ‘you must give…’ this is not more of an order than if you had been told: “if you don’t mind, I would like you to give me…’ You shouldn’t feel offended by this kind of discourse even if it sounds surprising at first.” Cristian, (European participant in a workcamp in Togo 1997)


“In Latin America, aboriginal populations consider the term Indian as a real insult to them it is better to say “native.” Anne, ( European participant in a workcamp in Ecuador in 1995)


“When I arrived in Europe, I saw young people wearing differently designed dresses and having multicolored hairstyle. I thought most of them might be mad or half-mad. Honestly saying at the beginning, I was afraid of those people and also tried to avoid them but after a few days, I learned that those dresses and hairstyles were the latest fashion in Europe.” Ferdous (Asian volunteer participant in a workcamp in Germany and Belgium 1999)


Sometimes the different style in communication has also some funny aspects:

“The first time I came to Europe, Germany, I was hosted with a local SCI person. He took me to his house. It was around 7 p.m. He asked me if I wanted to eat something. Even though I was very hungry, I said “no” because in Sri Lanka it is not polite to immediately accept an offer of food and drink. One first has to refuse a few times and give the host the opportunity to ask you again and again. So that is why I said “no”, although I was really hungry. But the host didn’t ask me again for the rest of the evening, and I certainly didn’t dare to ask for food, so I went to bed with an empty stomach. Only after several visits to Europe, I learn that in European culture, people take a “no” for a “no” and this is very different from the Indian Subcontinent culture where it is not polite to be so direct.” Muza, (Asian staff member in SCI)


“5 girls among 20 boys, it’s quite few! And no local girl apart from the campleader!” Cecile, European participant in a workcamp in Ghana 1999


“Being the only girl of the camp, I had a sort of honor treatment. Everybody was kind to me and they made everything to let me feel easy; even, when we went to visit the groups of women, when I was invited to a marriage party, when we went out of the village for excursions.” Roberta, European participant in a workcamp in Bangladesh 1998


“We were a group of 23 volunteers and there were no local female volunteers, only male. There were only 3 girls, me and a French and a Swiss girl. Between the Swiss girl and the Moroccan volunteers there was a heavy atmosphere; this was because her behaviour and her attitude to dress. It was nothing “special” for us (western volunteers) but for the locals it was a misunderstanding behaviour…” Anna, European participant in a workcamp in Morocco 1999


“Girls must pay attention, when they are alone after the sunset. Generally even during the day, in the more tourist places they are followed by local men… it’s always better to dress with long skirt or trousers, and never with a top that shows too much…” Marzia, European participant in a workcamp in Sri Lanka 1999


“it can often happen that Western volunteers, unused to hand washing, may wear clothes that appear unacceptably dirty to the local people to whom cleanliness is essential. I traveled to the next town and queued for ages at the bank. When I got to the counter, the teller looked in disgust at my dusty apparel and said “Come back when you wash your clothes.” This was really awkward, as I couldn’t then get back for two days. She refused to serve me in filthy clothes.” Leif, (Norwegian volunteer, Ghana 1998)


“The living conditions of the native populations don’t exactly match the ones volunteers are used to… However, careless dressing habits on the part of the volunteers (dirty or torn clothes) really offend the local people who are always carefully and properly dressed.” Anne (Ecuador 1995)


“I had never before heard the wonderful stories of Ganesh and Shiva and the many Hindu gods. Seeing how they are such an integral part of Indian life, how my workmates accepted their existence unquestioningly was a revelation.” Anne, (India 1999)