João Ferreira | LOCALS volunteer

I discovered the Locals when I saw the volunteers walking around the village and the posts, but I only decided to actually participate after a friend of mine, who had already participated, to recommend me. I ended up participating for the first time in Easter 2018, and from the first day I really enjoyed it. I soon felt that despite the relaxed atmosphere, if you work hard, there are days when there is almost no time to rest. In addition, I felt that we needed, that the tourists needed us, and that the village took advantage of our presence.

Now that I'm in the summer, I feel that if you work even harder, it's a totally different program: more tourists, more stations and more colleagues. It's also longer, going from two weeks to four, which is fantastic for me, since it gives us more time to get to know the people we work with, and make more friends. Of the various things we did this turn, the most fun were the night of the eclipse, the night of the cinema and the day of Surf, which I tried for the first time.

As I repeat, I still feel that I have more responsibilities, I have to set an example for the new ones, and there is less space to make easy mistakes. On the other hand, I feel that I am more confident, I also developed my English and teamwork.

I really like the program, and if I can, I want to return to participate, since, in addition to feeling useful and able to help, in Locals, friendships are created for life.