Part of expedition travelling is about taking time from our regular lives to take on the world outside. One of the things we need to consider when doing this, is how we’re going to give back to that world, the one far from home, the one where people have not and have less. This article discusses some ideas you could consider.
The other day I read Doug and Stephanie Hackney’s latest blog entry about one of their recent experiences in a Valparaiso, Chile. It was one of those stories that really gets to you. Doug wrote about a fire that overtook a small neighbourhood, completely destroying itself and re-arranging the lives of 88 households, and how they as foreign travellers took part in the aftermath of the disaster.
Like Doug and Stephanie, are you prepared to help out when you are on the road? I’m not just talking about dropping what you’re doing to help someone in an emergency; I’m talking about pro-actively organizing yourself before you leave. If you haven’t considered this, read on: here are some ideas.
Giving Pictures
Let’s start with Doug and Stephanie’s Giving Pictures program. They have a small photo printer that connects directly to their digital camera, and wherever they go they take pictures of people and give them as momentos. This may seem trivial to the first world, but there are many places where people have never seen a picture of themselves. What a simple but powerful gift to give. Read about the details of Giving Pictures here.
Trading Languages
The last time we were in Central America our Spanish was pretty green. And when we stayed with people who we would meet on the road we would spend evenings lazing about teaching each other our own languages. What a need these people had to understand and speak English. And what a need we had to know Spanish! This was a fair trade - I remember as a child having foreign guests in our house and what an impact it was on my young mind.
So learn your English, and learn it properly. Of course you can speak and read it, but can you explain it? Understand nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, past, present, future tense. Speak clearly. Do not use contractions. Separate your slang from the Queen’s English (slang is important, but it confuses someone who is learning the mechanics of a language).
Bring a grade 1 or 2 reader or language book. Maybe photocopy a series of worksheets that you can hand out.
Sharing Food
We stayed with a family in the Chiapas Highlands in Mexico. We had just travelled through a large city and stocked up on fresh produce. When it came to be dinner time we offered to cook. It was amazing to see the 7 year old girls eyes light up when she saw a fist-sized tomato and red-onion come out of the shopping bag.
Her circle of life was limited to a few square kilometres, and the throughput of outside goods was next to none. Even if the local market had large vegetables this family couldn’t afford it.
Pens and Pencils
In Guatemala we bought a stack of pens and pencils and gave them away. These went to mothers, fathers, teachers, and children. They have an education system, but supplies are limited and for many families are cost prohibitive. Sending a child to school seems important to them, at least to learn to read and write or to understand basic math to run a business and sell their wares. A 30 cent writing stick goes much farther for them than it does for us.
Aid Organizations
I belong to a growing organization called Water For People, based out of Colorado. Until recently most volunteer involvement from local chapters was to raise money to send to various clean water supply and education programs they have around the developing world. In 2007 they launched the World Water Corps which allows volunteers to actively participate in water systems scoping studies and post construction monitoring.
Why not, on an overland trip into a developing country, send aside some time to help out with one these types of programs? There are so many around, and often they require you to pay your own way for a few weeks to a number of months of volunteer work. Plan your itinerary to match up with a program, do the legwork before you leave, and put your time in. You’ll find the rewards far greater than you can imagine.
Do you have any other ideas? Know of any programs that could use volunteer help? If so, add it in the comments below.