I took a year off university, after my junior year, and worked much of it; at the end I took a trip through Europe and decided to do a pay to participate in a “work camp” in France project. Was it volunteering? Kind of, though thinking back on it now, I think so less. Similar projects probably exist though that are in fact presented as volunteer work.

I’d studied French and read about a project where international volunteers as a team would help some locals put together a “set” for an annual battle reenactment. You didn’t need any construction experience - this was ideal since I certainly had none - or French (I spoke some but not really well enough), and it offered the possibility to participate in the re-enactment itself. I also got a kick out of the warning “Volunteers should be prepared to climb on scaffolding, etc.”; that sounded exciting!

When I arrived, I met a nice group of young people from all over Europe and North America. We were camping – this I’d known about – but I hadn’t realized that the plan was for about 20 people to sleep in one “room” under one large tent. We were also about a half an hour trip – or an hour and a half walk – from the nearest village. Okay, I could deal with this.

It also turned out that as we were unskilled volunteers, we had to wait for the villagers to tell us what to do…in French. Not a surprise, or it shouldn’t have been, but given that we’d come to do work for five hours a day, it was frequently frustrating to “hurry up and wait.” Also, the battle reenactment was actually taking place over two weeks after the camp ended…meaning if you wanted to participate, you had to return later.

I tried to make the best of it and came away from it with a friend from Greece who I’m still in touch with today. What else did I gain? I think I gained perspective – realism? skepticism? Perhaps. Did I “need” French or construction skills to participate? Not really, but I would have gotten much more out of it if I’d had those things. Did my short-term, unskilled “volunteering” help or conversely hurt anyone? Again…not really on either count. Ultimately, I made some friends and learned some things about myself (I’m not a group camping type of person, I like electricity, I can’t build things) which did actually impact future decisions in, I think, a positive way. It wasn’t the experience I had expected or hoped for, but it was valuable anyway.