Behind the Scenes — Volunteer Traditions

There are many traditions a volunteer submits to during their placement; baking a cake for whoever fixes the tracer you dropped, silly pranks on the newbies, the ten-question challenge at Youlbury, the photo board, the themed and after-event parties, to name a few.

Perhaps the most important — and one that marks a turning point in any volunteer’s experience — is the Bomb Hole (or, rather, a trip into it).

After a Luftwaffe bomb dropped on site during the World War II, not only was the perfect place for canoeing and raft-building activities born, but also the pond where you will definitely go if you volunteer in this place.

The original stipulations where simple:

• If you turn 18, or 21 during your placement, you go in the Bomb Hole.
• If it’s your last day at work, you go in the Bomb Hole.

However, over time, each Bomb Hole dive has became a free-for-all where you can’t trust anyone. Take your phone and radio out of your pocket and be prepared…

As an old volunteer you would never throw in someone you just met, so for the newbies, being thrown in the cold and muddy lake is a metaphor for being ‘in’; one of the gang, part of the team. You’ve been part of this amazing adventure. It is the handshake you receive not from a mentor, but from an equal.

As for the departing staff, this is a beautiful, sometimes emotional, moment that shows that the packing day is approaching and that our time immersed in a magical, too-good-to-be-true environment, where people from all over the globe become your family, is coming to an end.

by Dai Do, Chile