Stories From The Field: Volunteers Around The World Share Their Journeys

By Sarah Vandenberg

Volunteering abroad is a growing travel trend--one that changes lives worldwide, both for volunteers and the communities they serve. This book brings you 15 stories from travelers who've had the chance to volunteer throughout the Americas, Africa, and Asia.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sarah Vandenberg
• Release date: Nov 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9781301237517

Sarah Vandenberg

Editor-in-Chief at Frayed Passport. Travel writer currently based in Brooklyn, NY!

Book preview

Stories From The Field

Volunteers Around The World Share Their Journeys

Edited by Sarah Palmer

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2012 Sarah Palmer

Cover photos courtesy of Ruth Fitzpatrick, Cara Steinberg, and Patricia Vile/Volunteer Expeditions.

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this editor and all contributors.

CONTENTS

Editor’s Note

Costa Rica: Expedition Into The Jungle—A Travelogue, by Ruth Fitzpatrick

Nepal: Peace Through Youth, by Carleton Cole

United States: Lessons Learned From My AmeriCorps/VISTA Experience, by Stephanie Heiken

Thailand: A Weekend Visit To An English Language Camp, by Brittany Edwardes

Indonesia: Rebuilding A Habitat For Humans And Orangutans, by Daniel van den Berg

South Africa: Elephant Emotions—A Family Affair, by Oliver Cutter

United States: One Week With A ‘Forever Home’ Sanctuary, by Cara Steinberg

United States: Volunteer Expeditions—A Founder’s Story, by Patricia Vile

South Africa: Money Troubles, Monkey Mischief, And Mothering A Rhino, by Dionne Smith

Nepal: Welcome To The Jungle—Of Peace, by Carleton Cole

Guatemala: Volunteering Again With Children In Need, by Millie Sanchez

Cambodia: Learning To Interact With Child Beggars, by Brittany Edwardes

Mongolia: Studying Small Mammals In The Desert, by Ruth Fitzpatrick

Kenya: Medicinal Plant And Grevy’s Zebra Research Expedition, by Ruth Fitzpatrick

Peru: Amazon Riverboat Exploration, by Ruth Fitzpatrick

EDITOR’S NOTE

Volunteering abroad is, to many, a life-changing experience. A volunteer trip prompted me to quit my job and start a career in service travel—a decision made while jumping into a waterfall in Honduras.

The following stories come from volunteers throughout Africa, Asia, and Latin America. They range from travelogues, to reports, to simple notes about volunteer trips worldwide.

Thank you very much to the wonderful authors who kindly contributed to this project; I hope your stories will encourage and inspire others to take volunteer trips—whether in their own country, or all the way on the other side of the globe.

-Sarah Palmer

COSTA RICA: EXPEDITION INTO THE JUNGLE—A TRAVELOGUE

By Ruth Fitzpatrick

May 13—14

Heather picked me up at 11:00am and took me to the airport. Took off for Seattle at 2:10pm, then on to Atlanta and then to Costa Rica. All flights were full and by the time I got to Atlanta, my head was killing me.

First thing I noticed when I got off the plane in San Jose was the smell of wet. It wasn’t too hot yet, but it was 10:00 at night. I made it through immigrations and customs with no problem.

The taxi was interesting: you pay at a desk in the airport and they assign a driver to lead you through a mob of unofficial taxi drivers, all of whom are trying to get you to ride in their cab. The ride to the hotel was like Mission Impossible. I don’t know the conversion factor, but the speedometer on the dashboard said 120 kph. La Amistad Hotel is a nice place and the people are very friendly…I’m off to bed!

May 15

Parakeets in the tree outside my window woke me up this morning about 4:00am. I ate breakfast, and then took off on a tour of the city. The tour was nice: just me and two others, neither of whom spoke any English so I have no idea who they were. We drove all over town and saw lots of fancy buildings. We stopped at a church briefly. We went inside the National Theatre, built in 1897 and extremely ornate with lots of gold leaf, marble, and still displaying the original furniture. We went to the Gold Museum where we learned about Pre-Colombian history. Our last stop of the day was at an Emerald Jeweler where I got Mother a frog for her collection.

Observation: all the houses here in Costa Rica have bars at their windows & doors. All of them have it, even the businesses. They even have razor wire at their roofs! The whole place looks like a prison.

Met the group finally for dinner at a tiny little café tucked behind a cute little courtyard. Dr. Dyer hasn’t shown up yet, nor has one of the volunteers, so it was just the six of us: Tara the student helper from New Orleans, Diego the botanist and also a native, Martin from the UK, Alicia from Mexico, and Lisa from New York. We ate and then had drinks at the bar afterwards.

May 16

Two-hour bus ride took us to the La Selva (it means: The Forest) Biological Research Station. It was a five-minute hike to our cabin, were I’ll be bunking with Tara. I got lost on the way back to the cafeteria for lunch, but ran into a nice old man on the trails who helped me out. Turns out