The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 26

It must be a pretty good idea. More than 230,000 volunteers have been matched with nonprofits and 450,000 donors have contributed more than $200 million dollars using Network for Good since its launch in 2001. Network for Good, 7920 Norfolk Avenue, Suite 520, Bethesda, MD 20814, 866-650-4636, www.networkforgood.org.

With results like that, it's no wonder GVN is one of two volunteer organizations singled out by Microsoft co-founder and philanthropist Bill Gates as good starting points for volunteering-the other is Network for Good (see sidebar).

Be the Change is held yearly in Lake Taupo, New Zealand, and has just added two more weeklong workshops in Runaway Bay, Jamaica, and Breckenridge, Colorado.

Cost for the New Zealand program, including housing, meals, day trips, and all workshops, is $1,500, with a $350 application fee due upon acceptance.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Global Volunteer Network Ltd., Box 30968, Lower Hutt, New Zealand, www.volunteer.org.nz; U.S. contact: 800-963-1198.

GLOBAL VOLUNTEERS.

help out at a vital whale research center.

COOK ISLANDS.

Courage is being scared to death-but saddling up anyway.

-John Wayne, actor.

94 In the Cook Islands, they have a greeting, "Kia orana!" It means "May you live long." Making a difference in the lives of others may be the only insurance that any of us will live long.

Global Volunteers (GV), a Minnesota-based nonprofit that organizes volunteer vacations to 21 countries, has been recruiting folks to live long in the Cook Islands since 1998. GV works with a hundred community organizations in this idyllic place that depend on the international volunteers' help to do everything from catalog and mend books at the National Library to introduce cruise ship pa.s.sengers to the rare kakerori bird whose numbers plummeted to 30 breeding pairs in the 1990s.

From July through November, when the humpback whales are in the area, Nan Daeschler Hauser, president and director of the Center for Cetacean Research and Conservation, uses GV volunteers at her education center in the Cook Islands. Volunteers build and rebuild exhibits, organize cla.s.s visits at local schools, and, if they're up to it, catalog data, organize DNA samples, and track recordings of whale songs at her Whale Education Centre. Hauser, who's often out on the water tagging the giant animals that migrate here from their Antarctic feeding grounds to mate and give birth, appreciates volunteers who help her spread the word: The humpbacks need help.

TO MARKET, TO MARKET.

Everybody on Rarotonga, Rarotongans and visitors alike, comes to Avarua's Sat.u.r.day market, where you can find everything from tourist souvenirs (sarongs, sh.e.l.l necklaces, and little wooden tikis of Tangaroa, the Cook Islands' fertility G.o.d) to mackerel, parrotfish, and yellowfin tuna caught early that morning. Bands play, kids wander around sipping coconut milk straight from the sh.e.l.l, and their parents sell mounds of bananas, mangoes, and limes. The giant stacks of oranges, like all oranges on Rarotonga, are said to be direct genetic descendants of the ones Fletcher Christian left behind just days after mutiny against the ill-starred William Bligh, captain of the H.M.S. Bounty.

As a world-renowned whale researcher, Hauser was both pleased and chagrined to discover that one of her female ancestors was a petticoat whaler who is buried on Rarotonga. As recently as 25 years ago, commercial and pilot whalers still hunted humpbacks in the South Pacific. Research data collected from Hauser's tags-migration, speed of travel, and interchange between nations and islands-bolsters this poor South Pacific island nation's resolve to resist financial incentives from countries who ignore the international hunting moratorium. After Hauser showed her data to the prime minister of the Cook Islands, a whale sanctuary was established, protecting the behemoths at least while they are migrating through the 1.2-million-square-mile waters of this chain of 15 islands.

The variety of tasks at this important whale research center are endless. There are photos to organize, Web pages to update, and a library of books and CDs to maintain. Mechanics have been asked to keep the boats in good running order, and volunteers, who are on the island when Hauser is (she's in the Bahamas studying beaked whales and dolphins for part of the year), sometimes get the chance to a.s.sist with ocean research.

With spiky green mountains and miles of turquoise lagoons, Rarotonga, the largest of the Cook Islands, is cla.s.sic South Pacific. The ancestral home of New Zealand's Maori (it's rumored that each can trace his or her lineage to one of seven canoes that left Rarotonga in the 14th century), Rarotonga is the lat.i.tudinal opposite of Oahu. It's compact enough that you can circ.u.mnavigate it on the public bus (it's clean, cheap, and on time) in less than an hour.

Three-week trips, the recommended length, run $2,795 and include housing, meals, and all the basics. You'll stay at the KiiKii Motel, a beachside hotel with a pool, a garden, and a small kitchenette, right outside Avarua, the central business district and capital city.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Global Volunteers, 375 East Little Canada Road, St. Paul, MN 55117, 800-487-1074 or 651-407-6100, www.globalvolunteers.org.

FIJI AID INTERNATIONAL.

staff a free health clinic in the fiji islands.

NADI AND BA, FIJI.

As soon as man does not take his existence for granted, but beholds it as something unfathomably mysterious, thought begins.

-Albert Schweitzer, musician, philosopher, physician, theologian, and winner of the 1952 n.o.bel Peace Prize.

95 Most of us take health screenings for granted. Sure, we groan about them, but we have them because we know they could save our lives.

In Fiji, where approximately 60 percent of the population lives in poverty, there are very few health screenings to groan about. In remote villages, they're practically unheard of. Further complicating the problem is that even when medical screenings are offered, many Fijians are superst.i.tious. They feel madua, which means "shy" or "unworthy," especially about discussing such things as cervical or breast cancer. Many of them would rather die than open themselves to talks about such embarra.s.sing topics as reproduction. Unfortunately, as much as 50 percent of the population do die from completely preventable diseases.

That's why Damyenti Chandra, a registered nurse from Rocklin, California, decided to return to her native homeland and open a free health clinic. Not long after retiring from Kaiser Permanente Hospitals in Sacramento in 2000, Chandra opened Patan Memorial Clinic in Nadi, home of Fiji's international airport. The clinic was built on land donated by her late parents, the Patans, and though the foundation had been laid, the family lacked the funds to bring the project to fruition by completing the building. With donations from the Patans' children and grandchildren, Chandra made their dream a reality.

Today, the free health clinic provides ongoing preventive health care to people all over Fiji. Through Chandra's nonprofit, Fiji Aid International, medical teams are sent to highland villages to educate people about the importance of taking responsibility for their health, madua be d.a.m.ned.

THE ULTIMATE COMMUNE.

Vorovoro, a 200-acre Fijian island that until a couple years ago was the tribal home of a Fijian chief, Ap.e.n.i.sa Uate Bogiso (or Tui Mali), is now the home to an Internet-based tribe. In 2006, Mark James and Ben Keene, a couple of Brits who wanted to use the Internet for more than blogging and sharing music, leased the island (the chief still lives there) for about $80,000 for three years and began offering memberships to this new eco-friendly paradise, Tribewanted. In return for $240, visiting tribespeople get seven days of meals and accommodations on the mostly deserted volcanic speck and the chance to partic.i.p.ate in lively online town hall meetings.

At www.tribewanted.com, the group describes how the local team and the online community-now 10,000 strong-are working together to create a cross-cultural community that melds "traditional Fijian customs and ways of living with international ideas for sustainability and innovation." In accepting Tribewanted on the island, Tui Mali was seeking a balance between traditional life and what's often called progress, and the experiment seems to be working.

So far, the accommodations on the island are a couple of shacks covered with palm fronds, but the Tribewanted team hopes Vorovoro will eventually have a beach bar, zip slide, jungle sports arena, and "secret beach chill-out area."

Chandra, who still lives in Rocklin, travels to Fiji several times a year. The rest of the time she raises money for the clinic, collects much-needed medical supplies, and organizes able-bodied volunteers.

For years, Fiji was mainly visited by Americans and Brits stopping over on their way to New Zealand and Australia. Today, thanks to some pricey resorts that cater to the jet set, Fiji and its 333 islands are destinations in their own right. Fiji Aid's clinic is located in Nadi (rhymes with "candy"), on the western edge of the island. It's only 15 minutes from the airport and most local activities are easily accessed from it.

There's no charge to volunteer with Fiji Aid International. Medical personnel are most needed, but other volunteers are welcomed, as well.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Fiji Aid International, 5764 Terrace Drive, Rocklin, CA 95765, 916-663-6578, www.fijiaidinternational.com.

ESTHER HONEY FOUNDATION.

be a hero to a pacific island mutt.

COOK ISLANDS.

Life in any form is our perpetual responsibility.

-S. Parkes Cadman, prominent U.S. clergyman of the 1920s and 1930s.

96 In 1993, while vacationing in the Cook Islands, Cathy Sue Ragan-Anunsen was befriended by a short-legged, ginger mutt. The loyal canine, appropriately named Honey, guarded her hotel door each night and followed her to the beach each day. Smitten by the friendly dog, Ragan-Anunsen contacted a Cook Islands animal rights activist before heading back to Oregon. She wanted to make a donation in Honey's honor.

Tom Wichman, the activist, informed Ragan-Anunsen that not only was there nary an animal charity to donate to, but there wasn't even a vet. Furthermore, Wichman explained, the islands' wild, free-roaming dogs had recently caused a traffic accident and were being systematically gunned down and bludgeoned by local police.

Ragan-Anunsen went home, found a vet willing to volunteer spaying and neutering services, and immediately commenced raising funds to open a permanent veterinary clinic in Rarotonga. She named her nonprofit the Esther Honey Foundation (EHF), after her pet-loving grandmother Esther and the charming dog she believes came to her for help.

Since 1995, Ragan-Anunsen has sent thousands of volunteers on EHF Vet Treks to Rarotonga and the surrounding islands-Aitutaki, Atiu, Bora-Bora, Mangaia, Mauke, and Mitiaro-treating between 1,200 and 2,500 animals every year. Local governments have welcomed the services provided by EHF and airlines, foundations, and humane societies have all pitched in. Honey, we're sorry to report, died in 2001 at the ripe old age of 15. But her successor, Honey Deux, is alive and well and serving as the enthusiastic mascot to the volunteer veterinary clinic.

Although veterinarians and veterinarian's a.s.sistants are most needed by EHF, the organization takes any volunteer with a heart for animals and a willingness to pitch in and work hard. If you're up for this a.s.signment, you'll spend lots of time working with the islands' ever growing population of dogs and cats that live, for the most part, in a state of friendly anarchy among the island's other residents. You might also be asked to lend a hand with goats, birds, fruit bats, and horses. (On at least one occasion, EHF even helped a seal.) You also will share responsibility for maintaining the EHF clinic and residence.

The biggest hurdle is that spaying and neutering programs are often looked upon with suspicion in places like the Cook Islands, where dogs are still occasionally added to the family stew. A female stray dog that doesn't get eaten or meet another sad fate generally lives for eight to ten years, which means that she can easily produce 120 puppies in her lifetime. That's a big boost to the local population, unless EHF steps in, embodying their slogan, "Changing the world for animals, one island at a time."

Although volunteers work five days a week and are on call around the clock, the hospitable islanders, happy to have visitors to their mythical South Pacific home, offer numerous invitations for luaus, parties, and other island happenings. On an Esther Honey Vet Trek to Bora-Bora, volunteers were even given gifts of black pearls and sh.e.l.l jewelry.

DANCE, DANCE, DANCE.

Dance is a major form of cultural expression in the Cook Islands. Like Hawaii with its hula, Rarotonga, too, has a famous hip-twitching dance. Only this dance (it's called the hura) is so fierce and erotically charged that its easy to understand why b.u.t.toned-up Victorian missionaries got so fl.u.s.tered by it. Performed in honor of Tangaroa, the islanders' well-endowed fertility G.o.d, the Cook Islanders' dancing was described by missionary William Wyatt Gill as "obscene indeed."

Accompanied by rhythmic drumming on the pate (traditional wooden drum), hura dancers of all ages gyrate in rapid-fire rhythms that win medals at the major Pacific dance festivals. As Gill, the missionary who lived in the Cook Islands from 1845 to 1860, added to his a.s.sessment of the local dance, "In this singular performance the joints seem to be loose. I do not believe it possible for Europeans to move the limbs as a Polynesian loves to do."

As Sarah Lovett, a veterinary nurse from New Zealand who volunteered with EHF in 2005, explained, she worked hard, then spent her free time quite richly: "We went swimming, snorkeling, hiking, shopping, learned how to make sarongs and coconut bras, had bonfires on the beach at night, played a lot of darts and cards, and entered the local dance contest. The advantage of being a volunteer with the Esther Honey Foundation is that you get to know the locals and see and learn a lot more than the average tourist."

Depending on where you volunteer, you might end up in dorm-style lodging (provided on a first-come, first-serve basis at the EHF residence in Rarotonga) or you might bunk in a four-star hotel, as volunteers to Bora-Bora did on the 2004 EHF Vet Trek. There's a $150 program fee. Full-time volunteers with Vet Trek get a minimum of one meal per day; for other programs, such as working at the Rarotonga animal clinic, volunteers are responsible for all personal and living expenses. Air New Zealand, Air Tahiti Nui, Air Rarotonga, and Tahiti Air often offer discount fares to volunteers.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Esther Honey Foundation, 2010 Ash Lane SE, Jefferson, OR 97352, 541-327-1914, www.estherhoney.org.

WORLDTEACH.

open educational doors to a developing nation.

MARSHALL ISLANDS.

I have the laughter of the students in my head and the tentative smiles of the adults wrapped deep within, and now when I'm frustrated or saddened, I have all that power to draw upon.

-Anna DuVent, WorldTeach volunteer on the Marshall Islands.

97 You've seen the developing world on TV. But like much of the blather reported on the b.o.o.b tube, you can't help but wonder, "Is that really an accurate picture?" WorldTeach, a nonprofit, nongovernmental agency affiliated with the Harvard Center for International Development, gives volunteers a rare front row seat to a developing country in all its glory, shame, and possibilities.

WorldTeach volunteers spend an entire year (or in some countries, a six-month semester or two-month summer session) teaching in one of 17 developing countries, many of which are still in their infancy, still unblemished by the unbridled commercialism of the Western world.

WorldTeach was founded in 1986 by a group of Harvard students after Michael Kremer, a social studies grad living in rural Kenya, was summoned by the head of a small village to start a school. A year later, when Kremer was seeking a replacement, he teamed with fellow Harvard students to launch WorldTeach. Since then, the prolific agency has placed thousands of volunteers in communities throughout Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific.

In the Marshall Islands, an independent nation since 1979, the government is trying desperately to figure out how to gain financial independence from the United States. Imports dramatically outweigh exports (dried coconut, a few handicrafts, and fishing rights), unemployment is high, and most of the islanders live by subsistence farming.

Learning English is increasingly important for access to jobs, higher education, and the international community. According to UNICEF, educational levels in the Marshall Islands are the lowest of the 14 Pacific nations. Since WorldTeach came on board in 2002, significant gains have been made in high school entrance tests.

KA-BOOM.

A popular topic of conversation in the Marshall Islands, a 74-square-mile country consisting of 29 coral atolls, will inevitably be the United States' responsibility for the nuclear bombs they tested there between 1946 and 1958.

All totaled, the U.S. dropped 66 atomic and nuclear bombs on two atolls in the northern Marshall Islands, Bikini and Enewetak, selected because the winds there generally blow toward open Pacific waters. Unfortunately, in March 1954, the winds changed and the scientists miscalculated the bomb's size: Fallout from a 15-megaton hydrogen bomb, more than a thousand times more powerful than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, contaminated 23 j.a.panese fishermen (their boat, Daigo f.u.kuryu Maru, or roughly Lucky Dragon No. 5, was obviously misnamed), 28 Americans at a weather-monitoring station, and 82 locals on Rongelap Atoll. All of the fishermen and many of the local Marshallese became ill with radation sickness; some of them died as a result of it.

Although the U.S. has made an attempt to clean up the islands, there is still a radioactive isotope in the soil on a couple of the islands. The Marshallese, for whom health problems related to radiation exposure persist, remain less than convinced that the U.S. was not using them as human "guinea pigs."

If you choose to join WorldTeach in the Marshall Islands, you'll find coconut trees, miles of unspoiled beaches, brilliant turquoise water, and tropical weather 365 days a year. But since this new island country is 2,000 miles from Hawaii, New Zealand, and the Philippines (and those are your closest neighbors), your post might be a bit remote-especially if you're a.s.signed to teach on one of the outer islands, some of which are barely a block or two wide and less than a mile long.

On the outer islands, if electricity exists at all, it is produced by finicky generators. The upside is that the outer islands offer a rare chance to live among people whose way of life has not changed dramatically from that of their ancestors.