When you spend your days and nights on location, how do you distinguish between work and play? From the frontline in Romania, Beth Yorath ponders whether you even need to...

I started my time here in Romania working for Little John’s House with an idea that I would be able to keep a strict schedule of work. I told myself that I’d get up at my normal time, set to work during the day, play with the kids early evening before settling down to some leisure time in the evenings.

I lasted two days before realising that this would not be the case… 

Living and working within the grounds of the charity itself makes it virtually impossible to take time out or to keep to a strict schedule – I sleep, eat and breathe the charity every single day. The children at Little John’s House think I’m here to play with them – it is impossible for me to say no as my reason for being here is to make their lives better – if that means playing with them occasionally how can I refuse? 

Then I go out for the evening to meet up with some friends and get away from the place for a while. But I know most of them through working for the charity, and invariably we end up talking about the children, coming up with new schemes for them and so forth. Does this then become an evening out with friends or networking? 

The thought occurred to me that if I have a holiday back to the UK it will be a break and a change of life for a while. So I returned for three weeks this month. But whilst there, I ended up packing in visits to schools and other organisations to fundraise and even spent an evening Morris dancing with a group who have raised some money for Little John's. I spent my days shopping for things we can’t buy for the children in Romania and attending trustees meetings and charity events at the weekends. So the holiday I was supposed to have turned into a working holiday in the UK. 

My holidays from work for around nine years now have been to visit Little John’s House as a volunteer in the summer school campaign and for the Christmas outreach project. Yet despite these being working holidays, I have always found that a change is as good as a break - a true escape from the ‘norm’. Now, however, this has become my ‘norm’ - does that mean I no longer have holidays as I’m always working for the charity? Work should be the thing you don’t want to get up for shouldn’t it? But as a volunteer, that’s certainly not the case with me.

And I’m sure this isn't rare, that this is the case for almost everyone who has the opportunity to work for their chosen charity abroad. We're privileged to live such enriching lives. I'm certainly privileged to hopefully enrich the lives of the children I care for, so what if I have to work during my holidays, it's the perfect lifestyle for me! 

As part of the Vodafone Foundation World of Difference International Programme Beth Yorath is volunteering with Orphan Aid in Romania, a charity that finds permanent, loving homes for abandoned orphans