I was fortunate to be a member of the pilot YCA project in Guatemala which took place in January and February 2006. I know it might sound like a cliché which has been overused by returned volunteers, but it was honestly the most amazing experience of my life to date. There were so many emotions and experiences in our 5-week project that it?s almost an impossible task to neatly categorise this experience.

Our group was placed in a community-run ecotourist reserve, Corazon del Bosque, in the middle of the southern highlands in Guatemala. The Bosque, as it is fondly referred to, is a large financial support to the families within the community of El Novillero. Our project was to assist the eco-tourist centre for non-local tourism, which was to involve English teaching, environmental conservation, a bit of manual labour, marketing and a lot of creativity.

Not only did it involve learning how to building a septic tank, but the process of digging a hole 3m×3m×3m with a shovel, a pick and a hoe by any standards was not an easy task. The sense of what we had achieved bought a smile to everyone involved.

There were moments when I questioned myself and doubted my ability (usually occurring in the pre-daily-chocolate-fix moment), but then there were also moments where I felt so alive and more content then I've ever felt before. If I could take one lesson from the whole experience it would be that you can never prepare yourself for everything in life. Sometimes the greatest lessons come from the times when we least expect to learn anything  you often just have to run with what you've been given and do the best you can.