The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 13

You might find yourself rounding up sheep on horseback in Molise in southwest Italy, tending deer in Tuscany, cultivating bamboo in the Umbrian hills, helping butcher a pig to make salami and sausage near Rome, or tying up grape vines or picking olives near Florence.

GET PERMISSION.

Italian immigration law requires that every person entering the country apply for a permesso di soggiorno (permit to stay) within eight days of arriving in the country. If your visit will last longer than eight days, you have to present yourself at the local police station with your pa.s.sport and request permission to stay in Italy.

Most tourists skip this formality, but if you're coming to WWOOF it is wise to take care of it immediately after you arrive in Italy to avoid any problems with your status during your stay.

The best times to volunteer are in the spring (March to June), for the preparation of the vegetable garden, pruning, and spreading manure, and in the autumn (September to early December), for the grape and olive harvests. But any time of year is fine, as there is always work to be done on an organic farm.

Once you submit the WWOOF membership fee, the only charge for a WWOOF vacation, you'll get the list of farms and contact information. You're in charge of making contact with a farm and setting up all the details. Most host farms welcome volunteers for two weeks or longer. Some farms will welcome families with older children, but you must confirm this with your hosts.

Work hours will vary greatly, depending on time of year and the project you're working on. If you don't speak at least rudimentary Italian, you should choose a farm where your hosts speak English.

Accommodations will also vary from farm to farm, though most have a room for WWOOFers. On some farms, you will stay in tents (you may need to bring your own sleeping bag and tent).

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

WWOOF Italia, c/o Bridget Matthews, Coordinator, 109 via Casavecchia, 57022 Castagneto Carducci, LI, Italy, 32 90 806 234, www.wwoof.it.

middle east.

Rain does not fall on one roof alone.

-Middle Eastern proverb.

Saadi Shirazi, a 12th-century Middle Eastern poet, said that human beings are all members of one body, created from one essence. He said that when one member is in pain, the others cannot rest.

That's why volunteering in this part of the world is so important. None of us can afford to rest as long as the Middle East continues to bleed.

Violence only begets more violence. And while volunteers cannot change long-held animosity overnight, they can lay down a stone or two in a path that leads to reconciliation. By starting a dialogue, by holding out a hand, by saying "I'm interested in learning more about you and about your culture," volunteers can put a toe in a door that desperately needs to be wrenched opened.

The problems in the Middle East are hard to look at, marked as they are by terrible violence and mistrust. But somebody has to try. That somebody might as well be you.

In this chapter, you'll find lots of opportunities for healing the Middle East-from picking olives with disenfranchised Palestinians to turning abandoned army bases into schools and gardens, from protecting endangered monk seals to painting a mural on a wall.

And one of these days, if we all continue to believe in, and to strive for, a new reality, those walls-the real ones, the figurative ones, even the ones with the beautiful paint-might just come down for good.

MIDDLE EAST FELLOWSHIP.

a.s.sist iraqi refugees.

DAMASCUS, SYRIA.

I came to Syria to bridge a gap between me and someone not like me.

-Sally Tawfik, volunteer from Middle East Fellowship's 2008 Damascus Summer Encounter 46 The American invasion of Iraq and the ongoing war drove five million Iraqis to flee their homes, the largest Muslim exodus since the creation of Israel in 1948. Scattered now throughout Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, and Turkey, displaced Iraqis-one out of every five citizens-struggle daily to survive.

Middle East Fellowship (MEF), a U.S.-based nonprofit supporting indigenous organizations and churches throughout the Middle East, sends volunteers to work with Iraqi refugees. They organize Refugee Response Teams to meet with refugees and humanitarian groups working on their behalf in Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon, and host summer trips to Damascus, Syria, where many displaced Iraqis live.

The goal is to provide person-to-person encounters that MEF hopes "will build lifelong relationships and break down false stereotypes" that run rampant among most Americans. Anna Mazhirov, a Duke University English major who traveled to Damascus in 2008 says, "Americans have no idea...how rich Syrian history is, how well-formed Syrian character is, how open the people are.... They have no idea how far [the reality] is from what they've built up in their minds from the media."

ONE SIZE FITS ALL.

According to Guinness World Records, a Damascus suburb claims the world's largest restaurant. Bawabet Dimashq (Damascus Gate in Arabic), a 6,014-seat eatery with waterfalls, searchlights, an in-house mosque, and reproductions of archaeological ruins, dethroned Bangkok's Mang Gorn Luang restaurant (a mere 5,000 seats) in 2008. The family-owned Damascus Gate employs 1,800 people in the busy summer season-including more than 500 chefs, who can prepare 25 to 30 helpings of hummus in one minute flat.

The $120-million restaurant opened in 2005, and its 26,000-square-foot kitchen prepares Indian, Chinese, Gulf-Arab, Iranian, Middle Eastern, and Syrian food. One item not on the menu? Alcohol, of course. Perhaps you can settle for an apple tobacco hookah.

Another MEF volunteer, activist Kelly Hayes-Raitt, wanted to put a human face on the so-called enemy through the 2008 journey that she describes on her blog, Violating Sanctions: An American Woman's Listening Tour through the Axis of Evil (www.peacepathfoundation.org). Hayes-Raitt describes children whose parents were shot, whose cars and houses were burned, and who tell their stories matter-of-factly.

The yearly summer volunteer excursions, called Damascus Summer Encounter (DSE), are one-to two-month trips divided between volunteer work, study of the Arabic language, meeting with local leaders, and side trips to Aleppo, Hama, the Krak des Chevaliers Crusader Castle, Palmyra, and other cities and sites of historical and cultural significance.

Each summer, 30 to 60 DSE volunteers work at youth summer camps, a.s.sist orphans (especially by providing English instruction) or senior citizens (by offering basic care), or help local gra.s.sroots agencies find funding and update their websites.

At the summer youth camp, held on a hill outside Damascus at St. Paul's Church, 300 children-whose families are Sunni refugees who have congregated in Jeramana, a rapidly deteriorating section of the city-dance, draw, sculpt, play, and get tutored in English, math, and Arabic.

Tasks at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate's Iraqi refugee program range from delivering food and school kits to families to composing letters and updating the refugee website. Partic.i.p.ants in the Middle East Fellowship film interviews, conduct evaluations, and write articles, take photos, and update blogs for Middle East Window, MEF's online magazine.

Cost for Damascus Summer Encounter, including lodging at St. Elias Monastery (the Greek Orthodox monastery within walking distance of Bab Sharki, one of the seven gates to the Old City of Damascus), two meals a day, and Arabic language courses, is $1,950 for one month and $3,365 for two months.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Middle East Fellowship, Box 1252, Brea, CA 92822, 714-529-1926, www.middleeastfellowship.org.

CHANGING WORLDS.

take school groups rock climbing, camping, and snorkeling.

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES.

You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement...and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand.

-Woodrow Wilson, former U.S. President 47 When filming the geopolitical thriller Syriana, actors George Clooney and Matt Damon expected to stay in the Emirate of Dubai for four days. Instead, they ended up staying for four weeks, enjoying the dramatic desert landscape that conjures up more outdoor adventures than an L. L. Bean catalog. In the enormous sandbox that is Dubai, tourists can do everything from speed down huge dunes on a sandboard to kite surf to barrel over dry riverbeds in a 4x4-an activity locally known as wadi bashing.

Changing Worlds, a U.K.-based travel company, recruits volunteers to teach outdoor adventure to the students in Dubai's many international schools, more than 30 at last count. It's a tough job, but, as the old saying goes, somebody has to take the wealthy private school students camel trekking, canoeing, rock climbing, ballooning, deep-sea fishing, and speeding around the desert in dune buggies.

They call it outdoor education and any school in Dubai worth its pedigree offers it as part of the curriculum. It develops character, fosters a spirit of discovery, and builds self-reliance. Not to mention, it's a lot more fun than dodgeball.

Volunteers, who stay for six months, design and implement outdoor adventure packages and take students out in "the field." In this case, the field is represented by the Hajar mountains, the beach town of Fujairah, and the endless miles of golden sand dunes and wadis that surround the city with its dramatic, high-tech skyline. Among other things, you'll plan educational forays to the Dubai Desert Conservation Reserve, a 55,600-acre refuge that protects the Arabian oryx, a rare species of antelope, and snorkeling expeditions to the Gulf of Oman.

BECAUSE WE CAN.

The city of Dubai, capital of the emirate of the same name, has been described as the Middle East's Disneyland. It has the world's largest theme park, Dubailand (www.dubailand.ae), and, among other things, it has a hundred motorized dinosaurs, a plane that flies over a simulated Antarctic, and an indoor ski resort. And Falconcity of Wonders (www.falconcity.com) is building reproductions of the Seven Wonders of the World.

The emirate's visionary Al Maktoum ruling dynasty, currently headed by Sheikh Mohammed, plans to make Dubai-once a pearldiving settlement-the number one tourist resort in the world. They figure that when the oil loot runs out someday, they'll have real estate and tourism to fall back on. Already, 95 percent of its GDP comes from sources other than oil.

So far, this city has built the world's tallest man-made structure (Burj Dubai) and is cornering the market on artificial island chains, with the Palm Islands, the World, and the Universe finished or under construction. Also under way is Dubai Sports City (www.dubaisportscity.ae), with residences, shopping, a 60,000-seat outdoor stadium, a 25,000-seat cricket stadium, a 10,000-seat indoor stadium, a 5,000-seat hockey field, a golf course designed by Ernie Els (already open), a Manchester United soccer school, a Butch Harmon School of Golf, and the ICC Global Cricket Academy. Dubai also hosts both the richest horse race (Dubai World Cup) and golf tournament (Dubai Desert Cla.s.sic) in the world.

Volunteers work five days a week, helping out at torch-lit dinners in Bedouin-style camps in the evenings. As a glitzy cosmopolitan city, Dubai offers lots of possibilities for your free time, from scoring bargains at traditional souks or flashy malls to indoor skiing.

Cost for the six-month post that usually starts in the fall (it's way too hot in the summer) runs 1,995 ($2,955) and includes lodging in a simple apartment and a 2,000-dirham (140 or $205) per month food allowance.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Changing Worlds, 11 Doctors Lane, Chaldon, Surrey CR3 5AE England, 44 1883 340 960, www.changingworlds.co.uk.

UNITED PLANET.

teach english or give swimming lessons to children.

AMMAN, JORDAN.

When the story of these times gets written, we want it to say that we did all we could, and it was more than anyone could have imagined.

-Bono, lead singer of U2 and activist.

48 Forget the Foreign Service! If Dave Santulli, founder of United Planet, has anything to do with it, each of us will become our own diplomat. We need to develop personal relationships with people from all over the planet, people who may not look like us or follow the same customs, but who love their families, want happiness, and share more commonalities than might be apparent at first glance.

After working in j.a.pan for many years and traveling to more than a hundred countries, Santulli came to the conclusion that world peace would only be possible once each of us walks in the shoes of our foreign brothers and sisters.

He started the nonprofit United Planet (UP), which offers Volunteer Quests, both short-term (one to twelve weeks) and long-term (three months to a year), to nearly 30 countries to facilitate what the organization calls "Relational Diplomacy-recognizing that the relationship between people of diverse backgrounds is the basic building block for uniting the world."

Like most of the volunteer nonprofits, UP offers a wide variety of volunteer options, from working in an orphanage to empowering women to saving the environment. The Jordan Quest, a two-to twelve-week opportunity to work with children, is offered in Amman, a capital city of two million in the country's northwest hills. Volunteers can teach English through a local nongovernmental organization, or work at a school for children with special needs, teaching English or arts and crafts, or helping physical therapists with such tasks as swimming lessons.

In addition to the Jordan program, United Planet offers short-term volunteer opportunities in 14 countries and long-term ones in 29 countries, and it doesn't stop there. The Cultural Awareness Project brings the shoes we're trying to walk in to America, letting fifth graders meet a j.a.panese koto (zither) player or the Lions Club hear about suicide bombers from a Palestinian who lived through an attack by one. It harnesses the Internet to get people from 150 countries talking to each other about everything from table manners to superst.i.tions. On the autumnal equinox, a day on which the sun shines equally on all the Earth's people, Santulli and company host United Planet Day, a day for everyone to share their history, arts, and culture.

Jordan volunteers live with host families, and take Arabic and cooking lessons and excursions (included in the price) to Petra, the Dead Sea, and Mount Nebo.

Four-week volunteer posts in Jordan start the first and third Sat.u.r.day of every month and cost $2,395, including a room with a host family and breakfast and dinner.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

United Planet, 11 Arlington Street, Boston, MA 02116, 800-292-2316 or 617-267-7763, www.unitedplanet.org.

PAY IT FORWARD.

Volunteer vacations don't come cheap. Even on free ones, volunteers still have to get from their homes to the place where they will provide their elbow grease. Because the elbow grease is going to a good cause, volunteer vacations are often tax-deductible, and friends, colleagues, and other supporters who can't volunteer themselves often get vicarious pleasure from chipping in on expenses. Here, compliments of United Planet, are six fund-raising schemes.

Create an online fund-raising page. Not only does this spread the word about your quest, but it allows sponsors to donate on the website.

Contact your local media. Let your community know all the details about your project; it might entice sponsors to chip in.

Create a letter-writing campaign. Craft a letter explaining why you've embarked on this life-changing mission, why the project is important, and how they can help support it.

Send e-mail updates. Create a list and keep people posted on how your fund-raising efforts are going.

Host a fund-raising event. Offer to babysit, wash cars, or do yard work in return for a donation. You could also host an event, like a dinner.

Apply for scholarships and grants. Check with your school or local foundations to see if they can offer support for your journey.