(disclaimer: I won this trip on a The Discoverer lottery, this is not a sponsored post however)
At the end of May, after picking up my boyfriend from an artist-in-residency program in France, we embarked on a 15 hours train ride from Paris to Lisbon, to start my program this time – a mix of remote work and volunteering sponsored by Venture with Impact, in the Portuguese capital. The way the program works is, you get to volunteer your skills for a local non-profit in one of 4 locations across the globe (Lisbon, Chiang-Mai, Medellin, or San Miguel de Allende), while working remotely on your current job. VWI will find an accommodation and workspace for its participants, will match them with a local non-profit based on individual skills and interests, and will organize local, community-oriented activities, as well as making sure they are generally comfortable while a part of the program. Numerous recent studies (check out the VWI blog here for stats and details) have shown increased productivity and employee happiness, followed by low turn-over, in companies that offer diverse opportunities, career development and skill growth through remote work.
When I won this trip, I was amazingly surprised - first time winning a ‘lottery’, not to mention it was to a place I’ve been wanting to visit since the first time I saw some photos of Algarve and Lisbon a few years ago in a travel blog. I was also enormously grateful that I get to try this work setup that I’ve been wanting to try for a while – working from a different country. And I was a bit scared, because I felt I wanted to volunteer in a way that made a difference. In the past, I have been volunteering for tasks like serving Christmas meals to disadvantaged communities, or packaging vegetables at the local Food Bank, so the whole skill-based volunteering opportunity was new to me.
While I’m sure we have all gotten to know that my company is doing a great job at offering career growth opportunities and listens to our individual needs when it comes to a career path, in addition to my job being mostly a work from home arrangement for the past 6 months, I had some (potentially relatable) fears:
I have been sent on work assignments abroad for a month-long engagement before, but this time, it would be my initiative – how do I convince and assure my manager that I will be doing my job within the same parameters, just from a different location? And that I will keep my usual availability?
How do I organize my schedule such that I keep my work responsibilities and deadlines, while still exploring the sites and culture of this amazing country I am visiting for the first time?
Other considerations like accommodation, food, safety, entertainment, etc. didn’t play a big role in my decision to take on this work and travel opportunity. That could be because I was raised in Eastern Europe - I am familiar with the “European climate” - or maybe because I am used to going on long van road trips across the country and scout for Wi-Fi in the most remote and unthinkable locations (see Ghost Town Terlingua, Texas). Generic rule: if it is something that goes on your “musts” list, it’s worth investigating all the details before jumping in. I did a bit of research on what others said about VWI after their trips, checked out some photos and voiced my expectations and questions to Ann, the CEO and founder of VWI. What I encountered when I got to Portugal surpassed my expectations in comfortability and support from the organizers.
When we got out of the train at 7am on a Sunday morning, the Lisbon air, crisp and sunshiny, confusion stroke as we couldn’t find Tai, our program coordinator. VWI was nice enough to pick us up early-early from the new train station which is a bit on the outskirts of the city, when all the other participants were coming from the airport. I decided to keep my phone and use a daily international plan, so I texted Tai quickly and gave a meeting point at one of the station’s many levels and terminals. She’s energetic and fresh already, and excited to walk a lot – true European style, I already felt at ease.
The first day we tried to get our senses accustomed with Lisbon, checked our Internet connection, decided on rooms with my program colleague who would be my roommate in the following month, took a stroll with Ann to the metro station and got to meet one other program participant living down the street from us. Now it was time to experience and utilize all that we had read about in the program prep materials that we got a few weeks ago: reviewing the schedule for the following week, ordering coffee the Portuguese way, picking our favorite café out of the hundreds in each neighborhood, trying to say ‘hi’ and ‘thank you’ the local way. It helped that we lived in a neighborhood which kept its local flavor very much alive, neighboring the more touristy areas of the city – this way we could fully immerse in the Portuguese world.
I found that the arrangement of our apartments was carefully thought out: Sarah and I were the only participants who had to keep their US working schedules, so we shared the living room as a workspace. We also had a proper shared workspace that we could utilize, about a 20 minutes walking distance from the apartment. We never stepped on our toes with meetings and work calls, so we worked from the apartment most of the time. But the options are there…If any of you are familiar with the ‘digital nomad lifestyle’, you probably know that the part that can be most uncomfortable at times, is constantly finding a relatively quiet place with good Wi-Fi, to work from. Well, this is already covered for you, and whether you choose to try other locations, like I did (visited Selina on their free Wednesdays, and found a couple more café’s when in Porto or Lagos), or not, you already have a place to ‘run to’ when you need to get work done.
Because VWI already had a lot of local community events planned for us, I didn’t feel like I had to struggle with planning things on my own, on top of having to keep up with my work schedule. During my first week as a ‘Venturer’, I was still on vacation from work, an arrangement that my manager and I agreed upon so I could get to settle into my schedule and the new location. I took the time to meet with the organization I was going to volunteer with – CheckIn - and take a few day trips in and around Lisbon.
Working with CheckIn to help them revamp and develop their website and their project management database spoke to my soul. Back when I was setting off to do my Masters, I moved from Romania to Austria for a year long program, called Erasmus. This is a large international student program sponsored by the European Union, to promote cultural exchange between member countries. I immediately connected with CheckIn, because their mission is to bring short and long term educational and career development programs, through European programs, like Erasmus, to the Portuguese people. I felt it was my way of giving back for the great education system I was a part of years back. The trainings offered by CheckIn are open to all age ranges and allow for travel to a European Country for continued education, as well as cultural immersion. Program lengths vary from a few days or weeks, to 6 months or a year, and topics vary from technical to arts, to social and psychology related. I was excited to help CheckIn, whose difficulties in reaching out and retaining members had been caused by the fact that in lack of other options, they had been managing the entire registration, payments, travel, and feedback processes through mostly email and Google Drive.
I was slightly in shock at how many programs they cover within a year (avg. up to 75), given the rudimentary methods they were forced to employ. After years of working with major companies and the government here in the US, I took for granted the convenience of our customers paying for comprehensive software solutions to solve their issues and forgot that is a different story for non-profits. But I was happy to use the privilege of my knowledge to build something for CheckIn that would automate their processes, ease their workload, and increase their retention, within their financial means – they would only cover for the price of cloud storage and security management they wanted to get.
Venture with Impact was there for my initial meeting with CheckIn, as well as keep an eye on our progress through weekly dinner or lunch meetings, where we would discuss our goals for the week, our observations, and concerns. These meetings had a structured template for us to fill out on a paper or online, which made it easy to evaluate our milestone reach based on the intentions set at the beginning of the month. I must mention however that each of us was the master of our own experience and schedule – VWI merely provided some guidance without stifling our personal expression.
These dinners also served for experiencing local cuisine (like the small family owned but very chic restaurant that we went to for the first ‘milestone dinner”, the picnic at the Science Museum, or the digital nomad meetup in a cool-by-any-millennial standards Lisbon park).
Other events included a walking tour through Lisbon’s most visited neighborhoods, Portuguese lesson, an eco electric-bike ride tour in Costa do Caparica’s local fishermen villages, tile painting class, Fado night…and several other events that we organized on our own, as good traveling Venturers: visiting Belem, checking out a Banksy exhibition, going to Porto, Lagos and the western most point in Europe…It was all beautiful, and while I’m sure I would’ve taken the self-planned trips anyway – as a self-proclaimed wanderluster – those experiences that VWI planned for us were so unique and I am sure I wouldn’t have been even close to them without their ‘intervention’. The bike tour guide was a friend of our program director’s, a wonderful young female entrepreneur that served us the local flavors of these ‘100 or less inhabitant’ villages, literally - we had freshly caught fish and local dishes that reminded me of ancient European traditions. The same with our tile painting class – Maria, our teacher, is a local legend and has amazing ceramic creations, that she described the making of in detail, adorned with some pieces of history about this old-timey practice, that even the Tile Museum of Lisbon lacks. Fado was just a heart grabbing experience that sent a bunch of us to tears, and the fact that we were all together as a group felt so right and comforting, in the middle of a long stay away from home. That is the other thing about venturing with VWI – you already have your tribe as soon as you land at your remote location.
My month in Portugal was the perfect mix of work and exploration. And I couldn’t have done it so well without VWI. It’s difficult to cover in a post all that I have experienced, but I wouldn’t have gotten to feel this connected with the local community if it wasn’t for all the events, and stories from people who have made Portugal their home and wanted to share it with us, because we were there to give our time and expertise as well. I didn’t go to Lisbon for a life altering quest, but I did take all the energy from their joy for life, food, and traditions, and brought it back to my daily life and work in the US. For me personally, it works well to have a change of environment every now and then for enhanced stamina and oomph, for generating new ideas.
I also got to visit our company’s offices in Lisbon – a beautiful new sky scraper in Lisbon’s business district. The setup was almost identic to our US offices – the atmosphere very collaborative – it was like a bee hum of typing, idea exchanging, and laughter, and it made me very happy to see their spirit. It reinforced my desire to connect with teammates on a much closer level upon my return to the US – my team is spread across the US. We are currently working on setting up a virtual water cooler/happy hour environment on Yammer, for getting to know each other better.
I want to thank my manager, who received my proposal for this experience with so much openness. Beyond my work ethics and proven performance over the years, Venture with Impact did a great job in covering all the bases on my workspace, connectivity, and skill development opportunities that helped ease his mind, I’m sure. They are much more than just the company who finds volunteer opportunities – they are a personalized travel guide company, an advocate for the local culture, a mind-opening close-knit tribe, and I hope to experience other locations with them in the future. Maybe even a yoga/career guidance/team building retreat in the US soon :) !
