Projects Abroad India gave me the type of experience that I'll never forget. The host family was gracious, accomodating, and always willing to make my stay as enjoyable as possible. I distinctly remember the first morning I woke up in Madurai, India and saw the sunrise explode over the mountains on the horizon as the call to breakfast was made by one of the orphanage volunteers. Foreign travel is always enchanting, but Projects Abroad helped to give me a sense of purpose throughout my journey. The program structure is framed in a way that volunteers leave feeling rewarded for their time, but also blessed for having been alive through such an adventure. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to travel internationally for a noble cause.

I volunteered in Madurai through Projects Abroad. They assigned me to a hospital, where I got to shadow doctors and scrub in on surgeries. I admit the shadowing and surgeries were very cool, however I was disappointed in the sense where I did not get much patient interaction. Everyone could not speak English very well. The only people that could speak some English were the doctors and nurses. And the doctors were so busy, they would not explain what happened to the patient, what their disease what, or how to they were treating it. I was curious and wanted to know more about the patients, but I felt bad bothering the doctors, and I could not talk to the patients directly because of the language barrier.