FAQs Archive

Q: How often will I see my group outside of teaching?

You’ll see them every day — one of the most important parts of your semester abroad is the friends you’ll make with your ILP group. If you’ll be living with a host family, you’ll be getting together with your ILP group to explore your city or check out a new restaurant together (when you're not spending time with your host family). If you’ll be living with your ILP group, you’ll be spending most of your free time together.

Q: Can I go to church services?

On the whole, yes. As a reminder, ILP is not affiliated with any religion, however, many of our volunteers are religious and would like to attend services. Church services of many faiths are available in all ILP countries and cities. There are often many opportunities for members of various faiths to worship in local services — if finding a meetinghouse or service to attend regularly is important to you (ie: volunteering in a city that has easier access, versus a city that is a 2+ hour bus ride), feel free to talk to your ILP representative about finding a location that would be best. In general, there are a number of ILP volunteers who are interested in attending services for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There is an option for members to attend church in every location, whether that be a local branch or ward. Just to clarify, this is a common question because many of our participants are religious, but it is not a requirement to attend church or to be religious to volunteer with ILP.

Q: What are weekends like?

On the weekends, you’ll have even more free time — there is no volunteering hours scheduled on Saturday and Sunday. Some groups leave to explore a nearby city (or even a new country, depending on where you’re located). You can also spend the full day adventuring in your home city, like a little stay-cation. Take a train out to the edge of town, spend all morning at a museum, or take a full-day hike to a nearby volcano, beach, or castle.

Q: What can I do in my free time?

We leave this up to you. We are not scheduling out your entire day, which gives you the opportunity to really take charge of your experience and decide what it will be. We can’t encourage volunteers enough to just get out and explore — you may have the chance to attend some language and culture classes provided by your school, but you’re also welcome to work on the language yourself, go out with your ILP group to grab a treat downtown, head to the theater to see a ballet or concert, plan a picnic in the nearby park, visit the local pop-up market, do some shopping, take a hike to the mountains behind your school, etc. Each location will be unique, but in every city you’ll find there’s plenty to be explored. You’ll also need to spend your free time planning vacations and other adventures. We recommend brainstorming and making a big long list of things you want to see, do, experience and eat during your semester abroad with your group (get help on the ILP blog!); that way, you’ll always have a list of ways to really get to know your country.

Q: What is a typical day like?

You’ll spend about a half day volunteering (up to 4 hours of direct interaction with the kids, plus preparation time, transportation, and clean up), Monday through Friday. You may be volunteering in the morning and afternoon, or the afternoon and evening; the times are determined by your Local Coordinator so that they work best with the program there, but either way, you’ll have quite a bit of time outside of your volunteering hours. How you spend your free time has a big impact on your semester — living abroad should be spent out exploring, not spending hours watching Netflix, (even if that means waking up early to fit in some fun before you start teaching)! Here’s one example of what your day could look like, if you want to make the most of things: Wake up to FaceTime or video call with your family (you may be 2 hours ahead of them, or 12!) then you could go for a quick jog with your ILP group before eating breakfast at your apartment. Next, you’ll have some time to plan lessons before visiting a nearby cathedral or maybe try a new snack at the nearby market. Have lunch with your group and finalize some details that you’re planning for your upcoming vacation. Next it’s a commute to school … you may walk, or take a bus, ride the metro or take a taxi. You’ll spend a few hours with your class — you’re teaching kitchen today and the kids loved the idea of celery, peanut butter, and raisins as “ants on a log”, but not every lesson goes perfectly! After class, time to tidy up before commuting back to your apartment for dinner, prepping tomorrow's lesson, and playing a few games with your ILP group before bed. There will also be days where you want to stay inside instead of exploring, lessons don’t go according to plan, or you are homesick. Through it all, we highly encourage all volunteers to get out and make the most of your ILP experience each day because the experience really does go by quickly.

Q: If I've already paid my entire program fee, can I still do fundraising?

Yes. We have quite a few volunteers who opt to receive the $100 discount for paying in full within 3 weeks of acceptance and then fundraise to “get paid back”. Once you’ve paid in full, we will refund you the money received from donations (up to the full program fee amount). This refund process typically happens just before your semester begins.

Q: What is the best way to purchase things in a foreign country?

Cash always works, but credit or debit cards work very well too, especially Visa and MasterCard. Some countries accept cards at most restaurants, shopping stalls and eateries, while other countries operate better on cash — either way, you'll want cash as well as a credit or debit card to pay for things directly and/or to get local currency out of an ATM. It’s often best to carry both cash and a card so you have options. There is often a minimal foreign conversion fee each time you use your card. You may want to contact your financial institution to be aware of how much that fee is. There will probably also be an ATM fee associated every time you take out cash; comparing those fees may help you decide whether to pay for most things in cash or pay for more things with your card. You may want to consider opening up an account that offers no fees on foreign transactions to save a bit of cash.

Q: Is traveling on vacation expensive?

Travel is a big part of your experience — every ILP volunteer has Saturday and Sunday off from teaching, plus scheduled vacation days. While you’ll need to budget some money for things like museum tickets and ice cream, travel is where volunteers spend the bulk of their spending budget. How much you spend on vacation will vary. Flying is going to be more expensive than taking trains or buses, certain countries are going to be more expensive than others, etc. Volunteers who have managed their money well on other things (like eating out and buying souvenirs) were able to attend all trips during vacation time with a $1,500ish budget, particularly in countries like Mexico, Thailand, and the Caribbean. How much you spend abroad is completely up to you; we have had volunteers get by on less, and have had volunteers who have spent double that recommended amount. You and your ILP group will decide your travel plans including things like where you’ll go, how you’ll get there, where you’ll stay, and which excursions you do throughout the vacation … which means you have a lot of control on how much you spend. If you cannot afford to travel, you are welcome to stay in your city during vacation times. Certain ILP countries do require that you leave the country at some point to abide by visa rules, so if you’re planning to not travel, please let your representative know so that you can be placed in the right country for you.