The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 18

Stuart Neath, an AI volunteer from the United Kingdom, said, "The whole experience was absolutely incredible. It was uplifting, rewarding, challenging, grounding, heartbreaking, and soul-destroying in equal measure. To see the absolute joy on the faces of the children when we arrived to spend time with them, or their excitement at being given some new clothes, or the opportunity to do something creative, was incredible."

With its white-powder beaches, rugged bush interior, and pulsating Afro vibe, Mozambique has quickly become the getaway pick for such stellar somebodies as Leonardo DiCaprio and Britain's Prince Harry. Vilanculos, where the AI volunteer camp is located, is a short boat ride from Bazaruto Archipelago, a UNESCO World Heritage site where dolphins, humpback whales, and whale sharks breach. The warm, clear water and teeming reefs around the archipelago's four islands, Benguerra, Bazaruto, Magaruque, and Santa Carolina (also known as the Paradise Islands), are nirvana for divers.

AI hosts what they call cultural days, when volunteers are introduced to Mozambique's traditions of dancing, drumming, and singing. You also can learn how to cook traditional Mozambican cuisine. You'll get the chance to take triangular-sailed Arab dhows through the postcard vistas of Bazaruto while flying fish skim across the water. There are also opportunities for scuba diving and snorkeling, game-fishing (black marlin season runs from October through January), and playing beach volleyball.

A two week-stay runs $1,400 (four weeks is $2,090) and includes a shared beachfront bungalow, complete with garden, swimming pool, fire pit, kitchen, and three squares a day.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

African Impact, P.O. Box 1218, Gweru, Zimbabwe, www.africanimpact.com; U.S. contact: 877-253-2899.

ANOTHER THOUGHTFUL, COMMITTED CITIZEN: WARREN STORTROEN.

After 37 years of sitting in an office, Warren Stortroen, 77, a former insurance claims manager, is making up for lost time. Since 1996, when he volunteered for his first Earthwatch project, a survey of the long-tailed manakin's mating habits in Monteverde, Costa Rica, he has helped out on 54 scientific expeditions, averaging 4.5 a year.

"I guess you could say I'm addicted," says the St. Paul, Minnesota, native, as he gleefully lists the five Earthwatch research projects he picked for 2009-dolphins in Greece, Roman ruins in Italy, coastal ecology in Bahamas, sustainable coffee in Costa Rica, and prehistoric pueblos in New Mexico. And while he's committed to ecology, sustainability, and citizen activism, he says the real reason he volunteers on so many Earthwatch expeditions is that they're just so darned much fun.

"The biggest selling point for me is the other volunteers. I've met so many like-minded, enthusiastic people," Stortroen says. "Usually you don't know anyone before you go, but it doesn't take long before you're instant friends. I've got Earthwatch pals all over the world, from Australia to the Netherlands."

Indeed. On a recent archaeological excavation to England, Stortroen's fellow volunteers began calling themselves "Warrenites" in honor of his veteran status. Although the Warrenites don't have T-shirts or a fan site yet, they did make plans to meet up again on a dig in New Mexico after viewing photos their namesake brought from the prehistoric pueblos project he'd volunteered on-four times.

The leader of the Warrenites says he's probably most proud of the giant glyptodont, a three-million-year-old Volkswagen Beetle-size armadillo, that he found on an Earthwatch fossil hunt in an ancient arroyo outside San Miguel de Allende, Mexico.

"Not a bad find for my first project there," he says.

He also found an amber fertility amulet in Jamaica, the teeth for a wooden effigy in Turks & Caicos, and a neolithic child burial pot in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

In between Earthwatch stints, Stortroen volunteers for Friends of the Mississippi, collecting native seeds for habitat restoration on the banks of the lower Mississippi. He also spent five summers controlling forest fires and blister rust for the U.S. Forest Service.

"Before I retired, I started looking around for things I could do that were meaningful and adventurous," he says to explain his volunteer fanaticism. "I used to travel with the Science Museum of Minnesota, but now, I think those trips would seem pretty tame. Instead of listening to some guide tell me about it, I'm there with major scientists doing it myself.'"

ELGHANA.

support a ghanian doctor.

COMMUNITIES THROUGHOUT GHANA.

Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.

-Danny Thomas, actor.

63 If you were an oddsmaker picking which of Africa's 53 countries has the best shot at escaping the poverty that perpetually plagues the continent, Ghana would be a good bet. The first country in sub-Saharan Africa to gain independence, it's largely free of civil conflict, enjoys a multiparty democracy, and is well endowed with natural resources, including a new oil field discovered in 2007.

But like the rest of Africa, Ghana suffers from disease, poverty, and a not-yet-developed infrastructure. Seventy percent of Ghana's poor live in rural areas without access to medical care. And unfortunately, many Ghanaian doctors, eager for bigger rivers to fish, choose to practice outside the country. In fact, there are more Ghanaian doctors practicing in Europe and North America than in Ghana itself.

Elghana, a volunteer organization based in k.u.masi, works with 19 hospitals and clinics around the country to help those doctors who have stuck around. Elghana also sends volunteers to work at orphanages, schools, and other community projects.

COFFINS TO DIE FOR.

If you drive cabs for a living, you might as well step into the hereafter in a giant wooden taxi. Or at least that's the thinking in Ghana, where a coffin is the last word in style. Fifty years ago, a Ghanaian angler was buried in a 7-foot fish and started the trend. Preachers are buried in Bible-shaped coffins, soccer players in 7-foot black-and-white b.a.l.l.s.

Today, there's an endless variety of silly, hand-sculpted coffins on the market from Ferraris to Nokia cell phones to 7-foot Star beer (Ghana's most famous suds) bottles. Want your own? If you like, eShopAfrica (www.eshopafrica.com) will sell you a giant reminder of your mortality for $1,500.

Although the government pays for 80 percent of people's health care, the other 20 percent of the cost can be mighty hard to come by in a country where nearly half the population makes less than a dollar per day. Women, particularly, bear the brunt of inaccessible health care. Less likely than men to receive education, health benefits, or even a voice in family decisions, women in Ghana work nearly twice as many hours as men and spend three times as many hours transporting water and goods. Lack of medical care for them can be deadly.

As a volunteer on this Elghana project, you will support local doctors and nurses, often accompanying them on rounds. Depending on your level of expertise (trained medical personnel may be called upon to diagnose illnesses and perform surgery), you will offer first aid and injections, a.s.sist in deliveries, record patient histories, and provide community health education on such topics as safe water and eating balanced meals. The clinic equipment is basic and the medicines available are limited, but you'll be working alongside some of the most ingenious health-care providers in the world.

Formerly known as the Gold Coast, Ghana has stunning beaches and scenery, but it's the warmth of the people and the vibrancy of their culture that will make the biggest impression. If you're new to Africa, Ghana is a good introduction. It's safe, English is the official language, and the people are welcoming, appreciative, and eager to exchange ideas. As volunteer Lena Gilliland says about her time in Ghana, "My life has changed completely."

Elghana will gladly arrange visits to such popular destinations as Mole National Park, the Cape Coast beaches, Kak.u.m National Park, and Adidome Island. You can take a canopy walk, a cruise on Lake Volta, or a safari with elephants, antelope, monkeys, warthogs, and baboons within arm's reach.

Volunteers are invited to spend from two weeks to six months (past volunteers-who are always on hand to answer questions-recommend staying as long as you possibly can) with positions open any time of the year. You'll receive a thorough orientation upon arrival in Ghana and live with a host family, sharing three daily meals which include such Ghanaian specialties as palm-nut soup, okra stew, fufu (ca.s.sava porridge), and kenkey (maize dumplings). Two weeks runs $800, a month $1,000.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Elghana, Block H, Plot 11, W/Patasi, k.u.masi, Ghana, 233 24 4889146, www.elghana.com.

FOREST PEOPLE'S PROJECT

help marginalized batwa potters sell their wares.

KIGALI, RWANDA.

How wonderful that no one need wait a single moment to improve the world.

-Anne Frank, child writer who perished in the Holocaust.

64 When it comes to Rwanda, the complex and lethal relationship between the majority Hutu and Tutsi tribes gets all the attention. The Batwa people, the last remnants of the hunter-gatherers who for thousands of years had central Africa all to themselves, have been all but ignored. This pygmy group, sometimes known as the Twa, are being squeezed out as the forests they once lived in get chopped down due to encroaching development, logging, and agriculture. This indigenous tribe has no representation in local or national government and, after being forced off their land, no viable source of income.

In 2001, the Forest People's Project, a British nonprofit that a.s.sists indigenous tribes around the world, came up with Dancing Pots-a project to help market the Batwa's traditional handicrafts-in partnership with a Rwandan nongovernmental organization then called CAURWA (Communaute des Autochtones Rwandais). Through the NGO's current incarnation, COPORWA (Communaute des Potiers au Rwanda), Dancing Pots works with 14 pottery groups and has a pottery market in central Kigali. The group is actively looking for new ways to sell the Batwa's pottery, which were selling for a measly nickel when the project began. As the first certified fair-trade organization in Rwanda, the goal of Dancing Pots is to find a sense of respect and an income for this marginalized society.

Because they were stereotyped by other Rwandans as "morally, physically, and intellectually deficient," the Batwa suffered disproportionately during the 1994 genocide, losing some 30 percent of its population to the violence. Today, there are only about 33,000 Batwa left in the country, representing less than one percent of the population of Rwanda as a whole. As more and more forests are cut down, the Batwa find it difficult-make that impossible-to maintain their traditional way of life, which was seminomadic and completely based on the forest. Many have ended up begging on the streets. Three out of four can't read, and many Batwa children, suffering from intense prejudice, have little or no access to education. The average Batwa income is $82 per year, one-fourth the dollar a day level the UN considers poverty.

FREE (OR AT LEAST DISCOUNTED) FLIGHT.

Fly for Good, a travel company located in Burnsville, Minnesota, finds discounted international airfares for volunteers and employees working for registered nonprofits that are involved in humanitarian work. Many airlines offer so-called humanitarian fares with discounts of 10 to 50 percent off published fares for people flying overseas to work on nonprofit projects. Fly for Good compiles all the fares (from 24 airlines, at last count) to help volunteers get a good rate.

A volunteer flying from Omaha to Johannesberg, for example, would pay just $865 compared to the normal $1,482 fare. Another example given by founder Ryan Skoog was a savings of $235 on a flight traveling from Chicago to Nairobi.

In addition, the company supports a different charity (a Burmese orphanage was a recent example) with a portion of its profits each quarter. Fly for Good, 350 West Burnsville Parkway, Suite 200, Burnsville, MN 55337, 877-359-4466, www.flyforgood.com.

Volunteers are needed to help with the pottery cooperative and to help develop international marketing plans. Because Rwanda is a tiny country, surrounded by some heavy-hitting neighbors (the Congo, Uganda, and Tanzania), developing export markets is key to eradicating poverty and gaining respect. By developing a handful of reliable international customers, volunteers can radically change the Batwa's lives. Activities include training and support, increasing access to markets, and helping out in the wholesale-retail outlet.

Rwanda, with its beautiful, rolling mountainous landscapes, is best known as the home of American anthropologist Dian Fossey (19321985) and the endangered mountain gorilla, featured in the movie Gorillas in the Mist. After the tragic genocide of 1994, the country's reputation as the premier gorilla-tracking destination was taken over by Uganda. Since 1995, however, the country has been relatively stable and peaceful.

Despite their dire circ.u.mstances, the culture and soul of the Batwa people is alive and well. At dances held twice a week, the Batwa, like the Hutu and Tutsi, put on leg bells, play the ingoma drums, and, wearing caps with long white hair attached to them, dance, dance, dance. They believe dancing is the answer to most problems, claiming, "It gives us peace."

Known as the "land of a thousand hills," Rwanda has much to offer travelers who love the outdoors. Volcanoes National Park is home to about half of the remaining mountain gorilla population; be aware that you must have permission from Rwanda's Office of Tourism and National Parks to visit. Lush, hilly Nyungwe National Park offers hiking and bird-watching, plus the chance to see chimpanzees and monkeys in the wild. Marshy Akagera National Park has abundant waterbirds and is also home to big game, including crocodiles, giraffes, hippopotamuses, hyenas, leopards, and lions.

There are no formal, scheduled volunteer trips at this time. But international volunteers with creative ideas and a heart for change are actively sought by the Forest People's Project. There is no charge to show up and pitch in.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Forest People's Project, 1c Fosseway Business Centre, Stratford Road, Moreton-in-Marsh GL56 9NQ, England, 44 1608 652893, www.forestpeoples.org.

JANE GOODALL INSt.i.tUTE.

promote environmental awareness in rural schools.

KALINZU AND BUDONGO FORESTS, UGANDA.

How we humans came to be the way we are is far less important than how we should act now to get out of the mess we have made for ourselves.

-Jane Goodall, chimpanzee researcher and UN-appointed Messenger of Peace.

65 Over the last hundred years, Uganda has lost 90 percent of its chimpanzees while its human population has increased 800 percent. The Jane Goodall Inst.i.tute (JGI), a global leader in the effort to protect chimpanzees and their habitats with branches in more than a hundred countries, works in Uganda to educate and engage its growing human population about the importance of conservation.

As Goodall likes to say, "The greatest danger to our future is apathy." That's why JGI started Roots & Shoots, a program that goes in to schools to teach kids three things: 1) respect for all living things; 2) understanding for all cultures; and, most important, 3) every person can and should make a difference. The Roots & Shoots program in Uganda uses volunteers in the Entebbe office, as well as in the field offices in the Kalinzu and Budongo Forests. Each volunteer stays for six months.

The Uganda Roots & Shoots program delivers environmental education curricula to 10,000 primary students and 400,000 secondary students. That's a lot of information being dispensed, and the sooner, the better. Chimpanzees, which once lived all over the African continent, are decreasing in number, and the populations that are left are becoming fragmented and isolated. Not only is their habitat disappearing, but illegal poachers grab them for commercial meat.

As a volunteer with JGI, you'll be part of this world-renowned inst.i.tute's environmental education team, working in rural schools near chimpanzee habitats. You'll help kids gain a personal connection with the forest, inspiring them to plant trees, compost, and actively work to save the forests where chimpanzees live. You'll also a.s.sist with existing Roots & Shoots projects.

GIVE PEACE DOVES A CHANCE.

A half century after her landmark work with chimpanzees in Tanzania, "Dr. Jane," as renowned primatologist Jane Goodall is often called, spends much of her time promoting the idea that "peace is possible." Every September on the UN's Day of Peace, Goodall invites partic.i.p.ants in her Roots & Shoots program to make and fly giant peace dove puppets made of recycled materials. In fact, if you look on the Roots & Shoots website (www.rootsandshoots.org), you'll find instructions for making your own giant peace dove. Cash outlay? Less than a dollar.

First conceived by Matthew Hoffman and Robert and Kelly Cornett of the Puppet Farm (www.puppetfarm.org), the giant peace puppets were originally designed to honor Goodall's appointment as a Messenger of Peace by then United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan. The giant doves have been flown on the top of Mount Kilimanjaro, at monasteries in Mongolia and Nepal, in Venezuela, and from Gulf Air airplanes in Bahrain.

Uganda is where the East African savanna meets the central African jungle. It's the only African destination whose wide range of forest primates (chimpanzees, mountain gorillas, etc.) are as impressive as its antelope and lions. It's a lush place where you can watch lions in the morning and track chimps in the afternoon. It has ten national parks, ten wildlife reserves, and seven wildlife sanctuaries. As a volunteer with JGI, you'll travel between three areas: Entebbe, on the sh.o.r.es of Lake Victoria, where you'll learn about JGI's Uganda projects; a reserve in the Kalinzu Forest; and a second reserve in the Budongo Forest, the oldest mahogany forest in East Africa. You'll also visit the Ngamba Island Chimpanzee Sanctuary. In your free time, you can track rare mountain gorillas in Bwindi Impenetrable National Park and Mgahinga Gorilla National Park, both in the southwest of the country.

Six-month appointments begin in early February and mid-September and run $3,250, accommodations included. In Entebbe, you'll share a simple room with cooking facilities. At the field education centers, you'll stay in an even simpler room at the National Forestry Authority site with no electricity or running water.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

JGI's Uganda gig is booked by Global Vision International, 252 Newbury Street, Number 4, Boston, MA 02116, 888-653-6028, www.gvi.co.uk.

TANZANIA VOLUNTEER EXPERIENCE.

build chicken coops at mount kilimanjaro's marangu gate.

MAMBA KISAMBO, TANZANIA.

After a lifetime of spending vacations and leisure time in luxury resorts...I had finally seen for myself what I only caught a glimpse of on CCN, BBC, and a handful of doc.u.mentaries.... It's the difference between knowing something and really "getting" it.

-Michael Revius, founder of Tanzania Volunteer Experience 66 There are six routes up Kilimanjaro. The easiest route, the one 90 percent of climbers pick, starts at the Marangu Gate. It's nicknamed the Coca-Cola route and it can get crowded. Serious trekkers opt for harder routes.

Just west of the Marangu Gate is a little village named Mamba Kisambo. Like many villages in Africa, it's filled with kids who have lost their parents to AIDS. The women who take care of them work long hours in the fields. Some commute more than an hour each way.

Tanzania Volunteer Experience (TVE), a nonprofit that specializes in volunteer programs in Tanzania, offers a half dozen programs in Arusha, a prosperous town once dubbed the Geneva of Africa.

For its hard-core volunteers who want a more direct experience, TVE offers a gig-the Chicken Ranch project-spending quality time in Mamba Kisambo, a hardscrabble town that survives mainly on subsistence farming. Volunteers help build a chicken ranch to provide residents with an alternative or supplemental income. They live with families and help them create a new industry, one that will keep the village's hard-working women from having to commute, carry water, and work such long hours in the fields.