Kyle

United States
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Travel information
I am currently
Travelling
My next destination:
Kazakhstan
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Description
Hello, I'm Kyle. Following a short career coaching tennis in the us, I decided I wanted to see something different. So i started traveling. This was 6 years ago now, as of 2025.

Since then, I've been all over the world. I'm quite happy having the freedom to go and explore where I want.

Ive also accumulated several years now of english teaching experience, in various different countries. I really love driving scenic roads, finding places to swim, and showing locals how to throw a frisbee (ill always have one on hand as a traveler).

In general, a goal for me is to see places and meet people who dont usually meet many foreigners. I want to experience cultures completely different from where i grew up. To that end, wherever possible i try to avoid typical "tourist traps," however beautiful they are, in favor of traveling to more rural and authentic places.
Interests
Sustainability
Movies & TV
Politics / Social justice
Culture
Charity work
Languages
Hitchhiking
History
Water sports
Mountain
Hiking
Camping
Beach
Adventure sports
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Beginner
More details about my language interests
This workawayer has indicated that they would be interested in sharing their language(s) or learning a new language. You can contact them directly to discuss this.
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Skills and knowledge I'd like to share or learn
I'm interested in:
DIY and building projects
Babysitting and creative play
Animal Care
Charity Work
Languages
Teaching
Some knowledge of:
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping around the house
Helping with Computers/ Internet
More details about your skills
I graduated from sonoma state university with a business degree in 2012..which has been collecting dust as I spent the time since then putting everything I had into my coaching. I think I've picked up some much more relevant life skills though. I can relate to many different people. I am confident I can find creative ways to motivate people, and have a real world understanding of child psychology. I am used to working very long hours (sometimes 12 hour days) on my feet, which does not bother me at all if it is something I really enjoy doing. I've seen that kids will tend to copy many of my habits and personality traits, and that teaching by example is a given. So, I am conscious of that and wanting to make that always a good example. In coaching, much of what I taught was visual, and required some creativity to be able to have two way communication with different people. I am confident that this would help me to handle a language barrier.
Age
36
What else ...
I am looking forward to getting to adapt to different cultures or routines. I want to expand and sometimes escape my comfort zone.
Some more information
- Smoker
- Driver's licence
- Allergies
- Special dietary requirements

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17 Oct 2020

Left by Workawayer () for host (Volunteer for teaching and ...)

I stayed for a month in August 2020..It had some positives and some negatives for me.

First the positives.. Peter and his family were amazing. I've been traveling for a year and half now, and they have been among the most generous hosts I've stayed with. You are staying with a multigenerational family, with friends coming and going often. The… read more food was quite good, you have a private, quiet bedroom with a much needed mosquito net. Lena, Peter's granddaughter, is maybe one of the cutest 5 year olds I've ever met. Frederick, another administrator of the school lives there also and between him and Peter, you have two good english speakers who can help you with any problems. You can find basic necessities in the village a 5 minute walk away, or you can take public transport to the city, about an hour to an hour and a half. Or take a motorbike taxi if you are in a hurry.

This workaway, for me, was definitely a culture shock. You see a lot about life in one of the world's fastest growing cities. Dar Es Salaam has some problems with rapid overpopulating, which of course leads to bad or nonexistent infrastructure like roads, water, electricity, etc. But, people are resilient.

The work was not too hard. I was pretty much free to teach as much or as little as I wanted. So, if I was tired or had some errands to do in the city, etc, it was no problem for me to take a break sometimes. I felt like the work, also, was genuinely appreciated. The 20 minute walk to the school was charming, in good weather, and I made some friends among the villagers excited to meet a foreigner. One of the cultural things that really stood out to me was how this area is pretty much split between Catholics and Muslims, and they seem to coexist peacefully with no conflict, at least not anything that I could see. When I explained that I was not a religious person, people seemed surprised, but accepted it without negativity. A lot of the world could learn something from this..

At the school, you can get an inside look at education in Tanzania. To say the least, there are some challenges, but I think any workawayers looking at teaching in East Africa already expect this. I found the students to be (mostly) well motivated. I will say, that there was some fear based discipline at the school that I really did not like to see. No kindergarten teacher should ever use a cane for any reason, period. Unfortunately, I think its not so uncommon in this culture. And, the education system in place was very heavily based around memorizing information and then reciting it to pass a test later. I think this was not the fault of the school though, but rather the Tanzanian government having strict laws about the curriculum, testing, and grade progressions that did not give the local teachers much freedom in how to help the students. With this said, as a temporary foreign volunteer I was given some autonomy in how to teach, so this was good. I was happy to give the students something besides "memorize, test, repeat". I brought some books at different levels to practice reading. We played some games, and watched some videos that they had to describe. I shared with the 4th and 5th graders some American sports. Some of the girls were surprised to see female professional athletes, so naturally I pulled up videos of Simone Biles and Serena Williams, which got some fun conversations started. I had my computer with me, so we got to get google earth out in the discussion groups and talk about some of the different cultures out there. I would have liked to see the local teachers placing more emphasis on developing confidence and creativity, instead of pure memorization, but again I may have been fighting an uphill battle against the culture in this regard..

For me, in Tanzania I did not appreciate being "mzungu" and all that comes with this label. Basically, if you are white, expect almost everybody to want to get money out of you in any possible way. This is more a complaint about the culture of Tanzania overall so I won't elaborate too much in this workaway review. Peter's house was a good safehaven from this at times when it became overwhelming.

(Very good )

12 Dec 2019

Left by host (Join our community school and ...) for Workawayer ()

Kyle spent his time with us several weeks and helped us to improve our foundation a lot. He worked at our Eco farm to provide organic foods for our kids, teaching english to grade two kids and having sport class to all grades. He organized some outside trip with our kids to nearby city for activities together and brought the kids to the swimming… read more

(Very good )

8 Nov 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Join our community school and ...)

This place is amazing.

I stayed for one month in September 2019 and will certainly come back again in the future. This was my first time in Asia, so there was a lot of culture shock for me. There is something in the culture of this school (and the country of Myanmar) that made an impact on me. The children do not have a lot... maybe one or two… read more

(Excellent )

9 Dec 2019

Left by host (Join our family in Magelang, ...) for Workawayer ()

uncle kyle, so my son called out. he lives with us and many things he gives. he teaches very well in the school where I teach, our students are very happy with the way he teaches. Kyle wants to teach according to the curriculum being taught. at home, he is very close to my family. he wants to share how to make dessert. teach my child to speak… read more

(Excellent )

23 Nov 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Join our family in Magelang, ...)

This was a great host family. I was welcomed in from day one, and there were some tears shed when I left after 3 weeks. The service was way above and beyond what was expected. Laundry was taken care of, amazing food was always sitting on the table, I had the motorbike available to go explore, and Mrs. Shinta even broke away from the local customs… read more

(Excellent )

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17 Oct 2020

Left by Workawayer () for host (Volunteer for teaching and ...)

(Very good)

12 Dec 2019

Left by host (Join our community school and ...) for Workawayer ()

(Very good)

8 Nov 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Join our community school and ...)

(Excellent)

9 Dec 2019

Left by host (Join our family in Magelang, ...) for Workawayer ()

(Excellent)

23 Nov 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Join our family in Magelang, ...)

(Excellent)

23 Nov 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Help teach local children in ...)

Excellent cultural exchange. I stayed for almost a month, and made many close friends. Food was excellent, the village and surrounding rice fields were beautiful, and perhaps most importantly the work was very rewarding. These students are quite motivated to learn English, and it's obvious what doors are being opened for the successful students.… read more

(Excellent)

21 Aug 2019

Left by Workawayer () for host (Help us with babysitting in ...)

I spent a little over a month with Dalma, Maria, Pabs, Nico, Martin, and Ches this summer. This is a high energy house. The boys are always playing, always making noise, always full of energy. For me, this was great, as I enjoy environments like this. It was my first workaway experience, and first experience in a non english speaking country, and… read more

(Excellent)

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