The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 23

To find out more, contact Amchi Tsew.a.n.g Smanla, P.O. Box #101, Leh 194 101, Ladakh, India, 91 19 8225 2708.

WORLDWIDE IMPACT NOW.

provide humanitarian aid to burmese cyclone victims.

IRRAWADDY RIVER DELTA, BURMA.

Today, no walls can separate humanitarian or human rights crises in one part of the world from national security crises in another.

What begins with the failure to uphold the dignity of one life all too often ends with a calamity for entire nations.

-Kofi Annan, seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, co-recipient of the 2001 n.o.bel Peace Prize.

82 In the movie Blood Diamond, an old man standing amid the rubble of his village, which was just destroyed by greedy diamond hunters, says, "Well, at least we don't have oil. G.o.d help us if we did."

According to Tim Heinemann, a retired Army Special Forces officer who runs the humanitarian agency Worldwide Impact Now (WIN), it's that avarice for pricey resources that prevented the million people displaced by Cyclone Nargis from getting aid.

The hill-tribe people along Myanmar's (Burma) Irrawaddy River Delta sit on land that's incredibly rich in natural resources: gas, oil, precious gems, and teak, not to mention riverine hydropower potential.

The government dictators.h.i.+p, Heinemann says, has been waging a calculated strategy to evict or eradicate the non-Myanmar ethnic population from ancestral lands they've held for more than 2,000 years. (Myanmar, in fact, is a racist term that means Burman ethnic, excluding all non-Burman ethnic groups.) The cyclone simply played into their hand. In the mountainous region of eastern Myanmar, more than 3,000 villages have been burned or mined and tens of thousands of internally displaced persons are uprooted on any given day.

Heinemann's nonprofit has been working with the country's displaced people since 2004 and was able to sneak supplies, food, and medicine to the cyclone victims. Running an ethnic leaders.h.i.+p training program largely funded out of his own pocket, Heinemann started WIN with the objective to "free oppressed peoples worldwide through human development and empowerment."

ADDITIONAL VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES.

Mae Sot, a frontier town on the Thai/Burma border, has dozens of ethnic groups, including Hmong, Yao, Lahu, Karen, Buddhist, and Muslim Burmese. When they can, people from Burma float across the shallow, muddy water on black inner tubes to sell cigarettes, whiskey, and other cheap Burmese goods. Mae Sot also has hundreds of international volunteers who are working desperately to get aid to the people of Burma. If you want the skinny on volunteer opportunities, visit Mae Sot's KCB Snack Shop. Owner Samsok not only serves a mean krabawng (Burmese for "fried crispy," a sort of vegetable tempura), but he speaks fluent English and knows all the volunteer organizations in the area. Some he'll probably tell you about: Mary's Meals, the well-known campaign of Scottish International Relief, is rebuilding schools destroyed by Cyclone Nargis. They've set up feeding shelters in the border refugee camps and are successfully feeding several thousand children and families a day.

Dr. Cynthia. Everyone knows Dr. Cynthia, who started the Mae Tao Clinic to provide free health care for refugees, migrant workers, and others who cross the border from Burma to Thailand.

"I hope to eventually work myself out of a job," says Heinemann, whose nonprofit is set up in Thailand with volunteers crossing the border into Burma by day.

Heinemann's volunteers work with "rainmakers," inspiring village leaders who can become catalysts for building strong communities, security, and prosperity from the ground up. But it's not easy fighting an oppressive military regime that receives an estimated billion dollars a year from Chevron-operated oil fields and pipelines.

Heinemann will be the first to tell you this isn't a volunteer position for lightweights, as it entails certain risks. After four years and many successes with the ethnic people he champions, he is wanted by the government and his phone is tapped.

But for anyone wanting to help displaced people in their fight for freedom, Heinemann has lots of volunteer work. There's no charge to work on a WIN team.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Worldwide Impact Now, 30802 Coast Highway, SPC F20, Laguna Beach, CA 92651, 913-240-1627, www.worldwide-impact-now.org.

SANAN VILLAGE.

pitch in with farm ch.o.r.es at an egalitarian commune.

GYEONGGI-DO, SOUTH KOREA.

The miracle is this-the more we share, the more we have.

-Leonard Nimoy, actor, director, musician, and photographer 83 Probably the first thing you'll notice when you drive up to this volunteer work project at Sanan Village, South Korea, is a large sign that makes this rather outrageous claim: "A village where money is of no use and everybody is on good terms and happy."

Is this really possible? There's one way to find out. Every summer since 2004, the Canadian Alliance for Development Initiatives and Projects (CADIP), a Vancouver-based nonprofit, sends volunteers to a work camp at this alternative community that's based on the principles of Miyozo Yamagis.h.i.+, a j.a.panese rice farmer who believed "society should be financed by one wallet."

In the 1950s, Yamagis.h.i.+ and a group of friends pooled their resources to start a commune that renounced personal possessions and espoused pacifism, oneness with nature, and a simple lifestyle. In postwar j.a.pan, the idea struck a chord and at one time, there were more than 40 Yamagis.h.i.+ communes throughout j.a.pan, Australia, Asia, and even Europe.

Sanan Village, located in a farming region near Palan about 60 miles south of Seoul, has managed to make this experiment in rural utopia work for more than 25 years. At last count, about 40 members farm together, live together, prepare meals together, and share what, by all reports, is a happy and harmonious simple life. Among other things, they raise chickens whose eggs are legendary throughout the country.

CADIP volunteers come for two months to work on and learn about this environmentally friendly farm that believes in sharing all its resources.

TRY YOUR HAND AT POTTERY.

Do-it-yourself pottery studios are all the rage these days. Neophyte artists take brush in hand to paint everything from cups and dishes to statues of fire-breathing dragons. In Korea, known for its elegant pottery traditions dating back to 6000 B.C., would-be potters can take it one step further. Instead of just painting someone else's pot, you can actually shape, design, and fire your own.

In the Incheon Ceramics village, you can visit dozens of pottery studios, learn the history of traditional Korean ceramics, visit several famous ceramics museums, and create your own pottery-either with a potter's wheel or without. Find out more at http://english.visitkorea.or.kr. The area is also home to the World Ceramics Center (www.worldceramic.or.kr).

Don't miss the Haegang Ceramics Museum started by Yoo Kun-Hyung, a famous potter who spent his life researching ancient ceramic production centers, collecting ceramics, and perfecting and innovating on the style from the Goryeo dynasty. The museum opened in 1990.

Every year in May, there's a big Icheon Ceramics Festival, complete with cla.s.ses from Korea's many pottery masters.

Volunteers gather eggs, build poultry houses, work in the organic vegetable fields and, if they want, help out in the kitchen. There are also opportunities to teach English or other languages, partic.i.p.ate in sports, and take trips to the local village, including attending festivals held there. In the evenings, volunteers can learn about Korean culture and work with a Korean tutor to master Korean and j.a.panese language skills.

Previous volunteer experience is desirable and you must be willing to get your hands dirty. If you're a strict vegetarian, this is not the gig for you.

Cost for the two-month gig, including healthful organic meals and accommodations in the Sanan Village guesthouse, runs $590 Canadian ($470).

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Canadian Alliance for Development Initiatives and Projects, 907950 Drake Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2B9, Canada, 604-628-7400, www.cadip.org.

WORLD WIDE FUND FOR NATURE HONG KONG.

save an important wetland.

MAI PO MARSHES, HONG KONG.

The ultimate test of man's conscience may be his willingness to sacrifice something today for future generations whose words of thanks will not be heard.

-g.a.y.l.o.r.d Nelson, founder of Earth Day.

84 Knock on wood. The Mai Po Nature Reserve, just outside the legendary financial capital of Hong Kong, has been saved. But a natural s.p.a.ce does not exist outside a growing city of giant skysc.r.a.pers and 6.6 million people without being keenly aware that the battle between nature and man is never really over.

When Hong Kong's stunning new airport opened in 1998, it won all sorts of international design awards. In the process, however, it blasted the island of Chek Lap Kok flat, destroying habitats for all sorts of life-forms who could care less about boarding pa.s.ses and runways. And when you're a wetland-not a towering mountain or a vast ocean that anyone can easily appreciate-the argument is sometimes harder to defend. It's a boggy marsh, for heaven's sake.

Who needs all that mud, you ask? The birds do. Many of the 68,000 birds that stop here to fatten up during their migrations between Asia and Australia every April and May are rare and endangered species. The marshes and tidal flats of the Mai Po Nature Reserve host more than 350 species of birds, including Chinese egrets, Saunders' gulls, and spotted greenshanks. The area is also home to a quarter of the world's black-faced spoonbills-a gangly, long-beaked sh.o.r.ebird that everyone a.s.sumed remained plentiful until Peter Kennerley, a Briton then living in Hong Kong and an avid bird-watcher, happened to notice that spoonbill sightings were becoming few and far between.

Kennerley decided to do some research. After collecting records of sightings ranging from Vietnam to j.a.pan, he came to the startling conclusion there were a mere 288 black-faced spoonbills left, 90 percent of which wintered at just three sites. One of them was Hong Kong's Deep Bay, home of that boggy mud called Mai Po; the others were Vietnam's Red River Delta and Taiwan's Chiku wetlands.

In 1995, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Hong Kong, along with other like-minded organizations, used Kennerley's findings about the birds' scarcity to get the bay added to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of International Importance, a treaty geared toward conservation.

Thankfully, the government is now on board in protecting both the black-faced spoonbill and the Mai Po Nature Reserve, but pollution (including pig waste from Shenzhen), rising mudflats, and lack of large wildlife (Hong Kong's tigers, elephants, and crocodiles were driven north decades ago) are continuing problems in this concrete jungle. Yet the presence of black-faced spoonbills in the wetlands has thwarted plans to build a golf course, a housing project, and a railway line.

WWF uses volunteers at its Mai Po Marshes Wildlife Education Centre and Nature Reserve, as well as in other projects around the country. There's a volunteer skill form you can fill out on the website. There's no charge to volunteer here.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong, Suite 1002, Asian House, 1 Hennessy Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong, 852 2526 1011, www.wwf.org.hk.

FIND YOUR FORTUNE.

Unlike Chinese fortune cookies that glibly predict amour, tall, dark strangers, and monstrous sums of cash in tomorrow's mail, Hong Kong's fortune-tellers don't mince words. One psychic told traveler Chelsea O'Shea straight out that her love life stunk, her career was heading down the tubes, and her perfect health was drawing to a close.

Of course, it's always easy in Hong Kong to seek a second opinion. At the Wong Tai Sin Temple, Hong Kong's busiest Buddhist temple, there are 150 or more fortune-telling booths lined up like dominos in a winding concrete alley. Consulting everything from empty turtle sh.e.l.ls with coins outside to palmistry charts to skinny bamboo fortune sticks called chim, these fortune-tellers are nearly as famous as film stars and as well-respected as scholars.

Temple Street Market, a colorful open-air market that springs to action at dusk, also has several blocks of fortune-tellers, along with dentists wrenching abscessed molars, acupuncturists poking away backaches, loquacious salesmen hawking everything from $20 ski suits to half-price Louis Vuitton luggage, and two blocks of Chinese opera singers-complete with two-and three-piece Chinese orchestras.

RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT INTERNATIONALCAMBODIA

take karaoke and educational puppets to rural villages.

PHNOM PENH, CAMBODIA.

It's a matter of taking the side of the weak against the strong, something the best people have always done.

-Harriet Beecher Stowe, abolitionist and author 85 Resource Development International (RDI) issues a warning to all its volunteers. Unfortunately, they claim, we "cannot guarantee that visitors will not fall in love with the country and the people and commit to giving large portions of their lives to work here. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause for family and friends."

Ninety percent of the RDI team, in fact, originally traveled to Cambodia just "to visit." But now, they are permanently living in Phnom Penh and working diligently to raise up this war-stricken country, one of the poorest in the world, by its tattered sandals.

During the Khmer Rouge period (197579), approximately 1.5 million Cambodians, mainly intellectuals and skilled workers, were executed or died from hunger or forced labor. Today, more than half of the population of Cambodia is under 18, leaving a Grand Canyon of an educational gap. RDI has developed several programs to bridge the chasm and welcomes volunteers of all stripes.

Since karoake is one of the most popular forms of entertainment in Cambodia, RDI developed a mobile karaoke studio that goes into villages with microphones and a huge songbook of socially uplifting selections. Villagers, who clamor for the microphone, quickly memorize surprisingly catchy tunes about clean water, AIDS awareness, child protection, and other vital issues. The backup music for RDI's karaoke songs is all professionally done, performed by nationally recognized musicians and singers.

YOUR BIG TV BREAK, CAMBODIA STYLE.

Breaking into the television business is next to impossible in the United States-just ask the tens of thousands of script writers working on spec. In Cambodia, however, if you happen to have a spare $1,300, you can finance a half-hour episode of one of RDI's popular educational TV shows. Because original TV programming in Cambodia is practically unheard of (most shows broadcast on Cambodian television are poorly dubbed Thai shows), RDI has managed to find a welcome audience for their educational programming.

So what if they have a social or health agenda? They're fun. They're original. And they're produced by RDI using professional Khmer actors. In a manner similar to Heifer International "selling" cows, sheep. and flocks of hens, RDI offers the following opportunities for breaking into the entertainment business: 1,000 educational karaoke CDs: $1,000 One episode of children's television programming: $1,300 "Edutainment" video on HIV/AIDS or other health topics: $1,500 *

The puppet program has performed for more than 20,000 students since 1998 and can't keep up with demand. The government of Cambodia officially requested that RDI, its staff, and volunteer puppeteers make educational presentations in all 16,000 of the country's schools.

Working with a translator, volunteers tell stories, perform magic tricks, and use their puppets to present valuable curricula. During Cambodia's recent flooding, a frog puppet named Mr. Op Op-an amphibian water specialist-staged a press conference with other puppets in the community to discuss the proper procedures for treating contaminated wells. Mr. Op Op (also known as Loc Op Op) became a national celebrity when his public service announcements (PSAs) were shown regularly on Cambodian TV.

Mr. Op Op's PSAs on water showcase another of RDI's important volunteer programs-building and installing clay pot water filters. Like many developing countries, Cambodia and its villages have little or no access to clean water. Many of the village wells are laced with a.r.s.enic. One out of five children do not survive to their fifth birthday, and water-borne diseases cause an overwhelming number of the country's deaths among children each year.

To combat this terrible toll, RDI manufactures highly effective, low-cost clay filters from local clay, rice husks, and laterite. They also install them, monitor them, and teach the communities how to use them. The porous mixture of clay and rice lets water through, while keeping parasites, amoebas, and large bacteria out-with an a.s.sist from a collodial silver coating. The clay pot system eliminates 98 percent of the diseases present in surface water, making safe drinking water attainable through an inexpensive, easily maintained means.

RDI's clean water initiative was its first program. In 1998, Mickey Sampson, a United States chemistry professor who had fallen in love with the country on his own volunteer vacation, talked his wife, Wendi, into moving their growing family to Cambodia for one year. One night during that sabbatical year, Wendi beckoned him into the bathroom, where she was giving their young children a bath in murky water. "Look," she said. "You're a chemist. Can't you do something?" Indeed he did, eventually starting the nonprofit that also organizes teams to build homes and work on farms.

Volunteers stay in team leaders' homes for approximately $15 per day, including meals, and there's a $30 weekly charge for each team, which covers vehicle fuel and maintenance, water for your team each day, translators, and additional staff and their expenses.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Resource Development International-Cambodia, P.O. Box 494, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 855 17 778 533, www.rdic.org; U.S. Contact: P.O. Box 9144, Louisville, KY 40209.

CORAL CAY CONSERVATION.