In this interview, we hear from Ally Robertson, a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL) currently serving her third year as an Education volunteer in Colombia. Ally shares insights that give us a deeper understanding of the work volunteers do. We learn about the challenges, rewards, and personal growth that come with volunteering in a new place. Ally talks about living in a different country, working with local people, and handling surprise situations. Join us as we explore Ally’s journey and see how volunteering with Peace Corps can change lives.
Table of Contents
- Volunteer Experience and Motivation
- Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
- Surprises and Challenges
- Advice and Support
- Practical Tips and Language Learning
- Peace Corps Volunteer Leader
- Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
Volunteer Experience and Motivation
1. Can you tell us more about serving as an Education volunteer in Colombia?
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) volunteers spend the majority of their time working in the colegio with students from 6th to 11th grade. Within the schools, we work with Colombian counterparts and co-plan and co-teach classes together. Our goal within the schools is to promote English in conversation and practice amongst our counterparts and students, while also promoting gender equity in the classrooms. Outside of the school, TEFL volunteers are encouraged to lead classes for community members. In order to achieve this, many volunteers work with the alcaldía to find a communal space such as the library to host these classes.
A busy day in my life might look like this:
- 6:30 am – 12:30 pm: school
- 2 pm – 3 pm: kids community class
- 6 pm – 7 pm: adult community class
2. What motivated you to join the Peace Corps and choose Colombia?
I joined the Peace Corps for an adventure that I could go on while also bettering myself professionally. I majored in Spanish and Education at Ohio University, so becoming a TEFL volunteer in a Spanish-speaking country seemed like the logical next step. I knew that by living and teaching in a Latin American country I would be able to learn more about the culture and better my language skills so that upon return to the United States, I would be able to provide my students in the U.S. with a better education in the Spanish classroom.
[R] Twin Day during Spirit Week for English Day with the English Team
Living Arrangements and Cultural Integration
3. Tell us more about your home situation:
I live in the Caribbean region of Colombia in a semi-urban town with a population of nearly 20,000 people. My house is located just outside the center where I live with a couple in their late 50s. My
host parents have 3 children, 2 of them my age who frequent the home with their spouses and children. Upon arrival, they had no pets but about a year into service they brought home a puppy and he has been the best addition to the home. My host family was a good fit for me, they had an AC unit and respected my privacy while also being more than happy to be my guides for local festivities.
Food: My town has no grocery store, so it was difficult to adapt my life and diet to this new norm. In order to limit my grocery needs, my sitemate and I visit a “corrientes” restaurant every day for lunch. “Corrientes” lunches are very typical in Colombia and include soup as a starter, an entree of meat, rice, salad, beans or lentils and plantains, and a juice of some variety. There is a small tienda at the end of my street where I am able to get my dinner necessities which typically consist of noodles and vegetables.
Staying active: I have never been a big fan of going to the gym or working out and that certainly didn’t change when I came here. Upon initial arrival to my town, there was no gym so my main source of activity was walking to and from school which is a 15-minute walk, and casual walks around the community with my sitemate and students. After a year at site, a new gym opened up and I started going there. It is very cheap (just 2,000 COP a day) and the trainer at the gym helps with giving exercises, which is great for me as I am no expert when it comes to fitness.
4. Any memorable experiences or interactions you’ve had with community members?
In Colombia, a very big culture shock I faced was the relationship between teachers and students being much more familial/friendly versus in the U.S. where our relationships are much more professional. This change, although shocking, ended up benefiting me in terms of the relationships I was able to build throughout service.
One student, who I now view as a little sister, invited me on a trip to the beach with her family and while hesitant at first because of what I was used to I ended up going and it was one of my best decisions in service. By attending this beach trip, I was able to get to know her family and my student on a much more personal level. After this trip, I ended up going to a waterpark with them and was invited over multiple times to bake cookies and cakes. I am very grateful for this experience with her family because I felt like I was loved and wanted and having that far away from home makes service more enjoyable.
Surprises and Challenges
5. What has surprised you most about Education challenges in Colombia?
The biggest surprise I faced was the amount of holidays there are in Colombia. These holidays are taken very seriously and it is almost impossible to get any work done on these days/weeks. There were many times I would have activities planned for school and at the last minute, my counterpart would inform me it’s a half day tomorrow or that tomorrow is a holiday so there’s no school. At the beginning, I was incredibly frustrated by this considering I was so accustomed to the American work-life balance. However, as time went on I have a newfound appreciation for these days and understand the need to decompress and relax away from work.
6. What challenges did you face while working on Education projects with community members?
My site is very rural, attracts little to no tourism, and is not the home of any university branch. Due to these factors, English was not viewed very seriously by many people in the community, and I struggled to find interest in English outside of the school. I spent the first half of my service focusing on working with anyone and everyone and ensuring people knew who “Miss Ally” was and how fun her English classes were. To accomplish this, I worked with the library in a kids group and led songs, read books, and taught basic English skills to them and the library would share my activities on Facebook after my classes. Facebook is the most popular social media outlet in Colombia, so many of my community members were online and able to view these posts.
As time went on, I received more and more people coming up to me and asking about classes for adults or older kids, which told me it was time to start these classes and spread the word. My classes started out small with only 15 students aged 13 and older, but in my most recent session, I had multiple classes totaling 60+ students. It was amazing to see my community interest triple in size and really motivated me to keep working hard. It is hard at first when immediate results aren’t visible, but over time you will see the change and I am so glad I stuck it out.
7. Could you share some of the secondary projects you have been involved?
The most exciting secondary project I worked with is called GLOW (Girls Leading Our World) and this project focuses on empowering young women by teaching them leadership skills and personal, professional, and academic self-development. I was lucky and a GLOW group had already been established in my town prior to the pandemic so some of the girls already knew about the group. I worked with an 11th-grade student as a co-leader in order to teach the workshops to the girls in my town. I also had the opportunity to attend GLOW Camp in 2024 as a member of staff as the Camp photographer. It was an amazing experience to see these young girls break out of their shells in just 1 week. I would recommend participating in GLOW to all volunteers (female or male) as it is something young people really enjoy and is also a very fun project for us as volunteers.
Advice and Support
8. What advice would you give to someone considering serving as an Education volunteer in Colombia?
DO IT! The TEFL program in Colombia has amazing staff and support systems built into it that make service easier for most volunteers. In terms of advice, I would say don’t put too much pressure on yourself or your students. English levels vary by site and by student, so if you find yourself speaking more Spanish with students to build relationships, don’t be discouraged! In my experience I got excited hearing students finally being confident when responding to “how are you?”. Just like you won’t learn Spanish overnight they need time to feel comfortable with English.
9. What skills or qualities do you think are most important for a Education volunteer?
Resilience – to keep going when no one shows up to a class. Optimism – to know that things will get better with time. Creativity, to share fun and new activities and ideas with students and counterparts. Patience, to give students and yourself grace when learning new topics. Curiosity, to want to know more about your host community and school. Be open-minded and adaptable, to get to know, love, and accept this new life and culture you will be experiencing. The sooner you learn to go with the flow and let go of any control issues you might have (assuming you’re anything like me), the better your service will go.
10. How has the Peace Corps training helped you during your service?
Peace Corps conferences are best for connecting with fellow volunteers, establishing connections, and venting. I attribute PST (Pre-Service Training) to being the foundation of my cohort, without PST I don’t
believe I would have as strong of a support system as I do within the country. It gave us the time to get to know each other and staff, before being sent off hours away from the next volunteer. If you majored in or studied education in college, I found PST to be a quick summary of pedagogical practices, strategies, and skills shoved into a month and a half, which was nice to review and learn from more experienced teachers before being sent to the field. As for people from non-education backgrounds, take in as much as you can but focus on finding the skills that will work best for your style of teaching. It can be a lot at first, but no one needs you to be an expert overnight, relax!
IST (In-Service Training), MST (Mid-Service Training), and COS (Close of Service training) were more of a check-in experience to ensure my service was on track with others. While many always say “Do not compare your service to others”, it is nice to hear that others are having the same issues as you and compare strategies to make situations better. It is also so nice to get together with people experiencing the same thing as you and just blowing off steam and relaxing with people who understand. No one understands your frustrations better than other volunteers.
Practical Tips and Language Learning
11. Anything that you packed or didn’t pack that you’d like to tell future Colombia volunteers?
I came into service expecting to be placed in the Caribbean region, therefore I only packed summer, tropical-style clothing. I regret not bringing a sweatshirt or sweatpants SO much. There are so many instances where I am in a hotel with super strong AC and I don’t have my comfortable clothes to wear and enjoy that break from the heat.
On top of that, I wish I would have brought more non-business clothes. Such as workout clothes, casual clothes, and going-out clothes. Colombia is very open when it comes to clothing so bring whatever will help you feel the most like yourself.
Lastly, bring pictures, decorations, a pillow… ANYTHING that will help you feel more at home in a room SO far away from your loved ones.
12. How has learning the language been?
I have been studying Spanish since 9th grade, majored in Spanish in college, and even studied abroad in Spain for 2 months, but I was so unprepared for the amount of Spanish I would actually be speaking and how little Spanish I would be able to understand. The costeño accent in Colombia is not like any Spanish I had ever heard studying in college. The speed, the cutting off of words, the slang. I was very underprepared. It took some time to get used to the new accent, but now I feel comfortable understanding costeños and I like to think if I can understand “Costeñol” as they say, I can understand any Spanish accent.
I also had very little experience speaking, but after PST where I was speaking in Spanish all day almost every day, I quickly became accustomed to it and as time went on, it became natural to switch from English to Spanish or vice versa. I am so grateful for this experience when it comes to language learning, as I planned to be a Spanish teacher upon return to the U.S., and now I feel much more qualified to do so.
Peace Corps Volunteer Leader
13. Can you tell us more about serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader?
As the close of service (COS) approaches, Peace Corps staff begins supporting volunteers in their plans for after-service. For some of the volunteers, this means going back to the United States, whereas others may decide to stay in the country for a third year at their site or as a Peace Corps Volunteer Leader (PCVL).
In Colombia, volunteers submit applications to be PCVL and are selected by Peace Corps staff for the position. There is a PCVL from each region, Caribbean and Andean, and for each project, CED and TEFL.
As PCVL, I live in Barranquilla and am expected to be in the office 3 days a week and support staff in their day-to-day duties. We are also working as the bridge between staff and volunteers, so we help volunteers with any needs they may have at site and support them in any way we can.
As a PCV, you should understand that staff and PCVLs only want the best for you in your service. Anytime you need help, don’t be afraid to reach out to anyone on staff or a PCVL. If you have a question and think it’s not that serious, ask a PCVL, if you aren’t sure who in staff to talk to about a certain issue, ask a PCVL, if you need to vent and just want someone who understands what you’re going through, talk to a PCVL. We are here for you, we were you a very short time ago and we know the rollercoaster that is Peace Corps service.
Impact of Media and Final Thoughts
14. How do you think your TikTok contributes to your overall mission as a Peace Corps volunteer?
The Peace Corps has 3 main goals and 2 of them are about helping the people of the host country better understand the American people and the American people better understand the people of the host country. I have been making TikTok videos about days in my life and other events related to my service. Through these videos, my following in the United States is able to better understand life in Colombia and its culture.
I have also had many people considering the Peace Corps or future trainees of Peace Corps Colombia contact me after seeing my TikToks and asking for advice as they prepare for service. Personally, I have loved making TikTok to remember my Peace Corps service and I am so happy I will have these videos to look back on after service. That being said, follow my Peace Corps journey on TikTok: @senorita_ally
15. Any last comments or observations you’d like to pass on to future Colombia volunteers?
Looking back, something I wish I would have done is establish a routine and stop viewing my service as temporary. At first, it was easy when I encountered something difficult to access like
no gym to work out in or diet changes due to limited availability. I would tell myself “It’s only 2 years you can go without it for 2 years”. When in reality 2 years is a LONG time. Find ways to work out, find a way to get a decent diet, and most importantly practice healthy coping mechanisms like journaling. If you ensure access to basic things that make you happy it will be so much easier to be successful and maintain your health.
What are you waiting for? Opportunities like this don’t come often. If you have a passion for service and an adventurous spirit like Ally’s, apply to the Peace Corps today. Expand your horizons, push your limits, and create positive impact as a volunteer. You never know how serving as a Peace Corps volunteer could change your life.
The content of this post does not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Government, the Peace Corps, or Colombia Government.
