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Volunteer Vacations
Trips That Feed the Soul
By Teri Brown
Think Globally, Act Locally. This catch phrase of the modern environmental movement has been drilled into our heads for years and is pretty good advice. But what if you want to act globally too? What if cleaning up the railroad tracks on Volunteers Day isn't enough for you or your family? What if you're looking for both more meaningful work and a deeper experience? What sorts of options are available?
That is exactly what Kevin, an agronomist, and Lisa Kaija, a teacher, from Reading, Vt., wanted to know when they began looking for volunteer opportunities for their family of seven. For several years the family has been considering an extended stay (six months or more) in another culture, during which Kevin would assist the people with agriculture and Lisa would teach. The children would attend school and immerse themselves in the culture.
"We know that an excursion of that nature is not something a family of seven can easily undertake without extensive planning and some basic knowledge of the challenges involved," says Lisa. "A short-term volunteer vacation seemed like the perfect opportunity for us to have a trial run and determine whether our children were able to adapt as we hoped. Basically, we wanted to test our ability to handle change and whet our family's appetite for the future."
The Kaijas also wanted to shift the holiday focus for their children. The two-week program they chose encompassed both Christmas and New Year's, so it allowed the family to appreciate the holidays in a different culture and to truly focus on sharing themselves through physical labor and human interaction. They chose to go through Global Volunteers because it was one of the few organizations at the time that allowed children under 12 to participate. They spent their two weeks in Costa Rica.
"It was all that we had hoped for and more," says Lisa. "From the very start, the Global Volunteer staff was attentive to our needs and made a conscious effort to assure that we understood the intricacies of volunteering as a family."