Nope, I wasn't on vacation but living there open-endedly at the time. You are also missing the point which is that when organizations become corrupted by these payments, they aren't any longer operating for the greater good, but to line their pockets. The story was more complex than I'd like to go into here, but they definitely acted outside of the best interest of their school and the kids in the way they treated me.
There are definitely 'organisations' out there that are purely in it to profit directly from volunteer 'programme fees', so your experience doesnt surprise me.
On the other hand, without saying its true of your case, it is also unreasonable to expect a school to automatically welcome some random off the street, who has been there only 2 months and does not have a definite plan to stay or leave, who may or may not be qualified in either the area they intend to teach or in teaching itself (which is a thing, teaching is not easy). Your experience sounds more hostile than that, and i dont doubt they were unwilling to work with you for dubious reasons; however, legitimate reasons do exist.
