Writing a review on your volunteering project – how to be honest but fair

During or at the end of your volunteering project, you’ll probably be asked to recommend the project to friends and family, post on social media or write a blog about it and etc. Anything you’d be able and willing to do to spread the word about the company and the project itself.
If everything went smooth and great, well that’s excellent – write away. But what shall one do when they had negative experiences that over cloud their overall feeling they came out of the project with – but know that from an objective perspective they received a good and meaningful experience.Well honestly, in the two volunteering projects that I’ve recently been in – I encountered social issues. As I wrote in my other post from a few days ago (Experience at the bear sanctuary – canceled), I was informed I was being too friendly. The Oyster representative said it might have been cultural differences that were the problem. At the project I did in a nature reserve in South Africa, I found myself being misunderstood. I and the people I’ve worked with are both at fault.

Since I was young I had social issues. Being more mature from kids my own age, I was often misunderstood. As I became older, sometimes I found it hard to resist old defensive mechanism. I would like to think I have made a big change in that area of my life. Even as it may, sometimes I’m being misunderstood. Bad communication or lack of explanations have led me to miss out on good experiences. As hardworking and serious as I am about my volunteering, human connection is a big part of every aspect of life. I was always willing to sit down and resolve the misunderstanding in a way that I and the people involved could feel comfortable together and make the best out of our work. Unfortunately, even some adults don’t seem to have the same concept in mind.

So what do I do now, when I want to write a review about an amazing place, where you get to see bears every day, work your ass off chopping meet and opening boxes, but seeing wolves and bears playing around? – Well, there’s that, but they also refused to let me come and volunteer because I was too friendly and comfortable. Yes, I was extremely happy there, and apparently, they wanted me to be more shy and insecure. So I was devastated to be told that those are the reasons that I cannot return to the place that after only one week – felt like home to me.

So what to do? How do I recommend people to go and volunteer in that beautiful place, but express my hard feeling about the way I was personally treated.
Well, I hope this post will do.