The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 4

Eleven-day trips cost $2,950 and include shared lodging at the research center and three meals per day. Trips of the same length with similar activities for 16-and 17-year-olds are $3,350.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Earthwatch, 3 Clock Tower Place, Suite 100, Box 75, Maynard, MA 01754, 800-776-0188 or 978-461-0081, www.earthwatch.org.

CANADIAN ALLIANCE FOR DEVELOPMENT INITIATIVES AND PROJECTS (CADIP).

join a dirt cheap work camp.

CANADA AND BEYOND.

We're all waiting for the government, someone or something, to save the planet for us. And it's not going to happen unless we do something about it.

-Marcelo da Luz, inventor of a solar car who recruited CADIP volunteers to help him set a world distance record 14 Not all of CADIP's work camps are as unique and adventurous as the 2008 Power of One project that recruited volunteers to drive the support vehicle for Marcelo da Luz's record-breaking, 10,000-mile journey in a solar car.

The former Brazilian flight attendant who built the futuristic vehicle calls it the Power of One (Xof1, for short) to show people that sustainable energy and clean technology is possible and to inspire them to come up with their own ideas for saving the planet.

Most of CADIP's work camps stay in one place and use teams of between ten and twenty international volunteers, unlike the Xof1 project that only needed two volunteers to support da Luz's historic journey from Buffalo, New York, to Inuvik, Northern Territories.

The idea for volunteer work camps originated in 1920 near Verdun, France. Former military personnel from France and Germany came together to build homes on the same battlefield where some 700,000 soldiers lost their lives in one of the longest and bloodiest battles of World War I. This gesture of reconciliation caught on quickly: Today there are hundreds of volunteer work camps in nearly every country on the planet.

CADIP projects extend around the world from building hiking trails in a historic herring village in remote Djupavik, Iceland, to playing with kids at a children's center in Jerusalem. The Canadian projects range from downtown Vancouver-near museums, art galleries, trendy shopping, and Stanley Park-to Great Bear Rainforest overlooking the Pacific.

MORE POWERFUL THAN A TOASTER.

Marcelo da Luz was minding his own business, watching the 1987 World Solar Challenge from his home in So Paulo, Brazil, when suddenly it became impossible to sit there and do nothing about the imploding energy crisis.

"I saw those cars and what they were doing and I got so inspired.... so I decided I had to build a solar car," says the former Air Canada flight attendant. Even though he had no experience, nothing even close to an engineering background, he pulled together a half million dollars and a team of friends and experts to build the Power of One, a car that runs entirely on the energy of the sun. Other facts about this car: It looks like a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p and, in fact, is so unusual-looking that da Luz was stopped by the police a half dozen times on his record-setting journey from Buffalo to Inuvik.

The Xof1, as it's nicknamed, runs on less energy than a toaster.

The car's average speed is about 30 miles an hour. Yet with abundant suns.h.i.+ne, it can reach a maximum speed of 75 miles an hour and accelerate from zero to 50 miles an hour in six seconds.

It has three wheels.

The Xof1 was chosen to represent the car of the future in the Centennial Anniversary of the 1908 Great Race. Though the race was postponed due to a recall of permits by China, it's rescheduled for April 25, 2009.

The interior temperature of the car can reach 93 degrees Fahrenheit.

As da Luz is quick to point out, the car is not ready for ma.s.s production, but he hopes it will inspire others to imagine and dream about what is possible. He eagerly shares all information he has compiled about the car's solar technology with anyone interested. As he says, "Individuals alone cannot change the world, but can inspire others to come together to make change happen."

Volunteer tasks vary from project to project. Volunteers who accompanied da Luz on his record-breaking journey set up the solar arrays that charged the car's batteries, took photos, carried spare tires, and interacted with the media. Volunteers at the work camp in the Great Bear Rainforest are rebuilding a ceremonial big house for the Heiltsuk First Nations while volunteers on the Vancouver detail garden with senior citizens.

Volunteers work six hours a day, five days a week, so there's plenty of time for extracurricular activities and bonding with your fellow workers off-site. Work camp sponsors (that is, members of the community who have requested CADIP's help) often plan activities for the visitors. The Djupavik work camp, for example, takes its volunteers kayaking in the fjords and swimming in a famous geothermally heated pool in Krossnes.

As one CADIP volunteer, Rowan, said, "Work camps are a brilliant idea. You get to really experience the culture of the country you are in and there are many young people who are willing to do voluntary work for good causes. It's great being part of an international group of volunteers as well. It makes for a good time when you're not at work."

There's nothing fancy about CADIP's accommodations. You'll share a school or a cabin, or maybe even a tent, with members of your team. While food is provided, you will split cooking duties and other household ch.o.r.es. But it's hard to quibble with the price: $340 Canadian (U.S.$290) for a two-to three-week volunteer vacation that includes lodging and meals.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

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

AIRLINE AMBa.s.sADORS INTERNATIONAL.

deliver food and supplies to haiti.

HAITI.

Things must change here.

-Pope John Paul II, after a visit to Haiti in 1983.

15 This is not a gig for the faint of heart or the weak of will. Plagued for decades by poverty, corruption, military coups, dictators.h.i.+ps, and foreign military intervention, Haiti is a place that foreigners scramble to leave...not to visit. It's the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with 45 percent illiteracy and 70 percent unemployment. Those lucky enough to find jobs make an average $150 per year. Some homes here are so small that family members take turns sleeping.

It's easy to shrug and think, "Well, it's a good thing the UN sent a 9,000-member peacekeeping force, because I'm not getting involved."

That sentiment, the sentiment that most of us have, isn't good enough for Airline Amba.s.sadors International (AAI), a nonprofit that personally carries supplies and a.s.sistance to children in 52 needy countries. Since 1992, when flight attendant Nancy Rivard started the group of flight attendants who use their pa.s.s privileges to do good, AAI has sent $50 million worth of aid to help people in more than 50 countries.

One beneficiary of Rivard's good works? The children of Haiti, where AAI has organized regular humanitarian missions. Unlike other development and relief organizations that beg for monetary donations, but shun hands-on help, AAI believes everyday Joes can make a difference. And you don't have to be a flight attendant or have any specialized skills. AAI operates on the a.s.sumption that all of us have the ability-and the responsibility-to make communities whole again. And even when the State Department issues travel warnings, as they did after Haiti's 2008 violent demonstrations, AAI continues to send volunteers with vital supplies into the country.

They can't just turn their backs on the children in Haiti (75 percent of the country's population of eight million) who endure illiteracy, malnutrition, and child slavery. Ten percent of them don't make it to four years old. As if all these problems weren't enough, Haiti's children, like the rest of the island's population, bore the devastating effects of Hurricane Gustav (August 26, 2008), tropical storm Hanna (September 1, 2008), and Hurricane Ike (September 7, 2008). When the back-to-back storms. .h.i.t they killed hundreds of people and further reduced food supplies at a time when some people here had already been reduced to eating mud cookies due to high prices and shortages. In December 2008, AAI delivered one million dollars in aid, stuffed into every overhead bin and cargo area of an A-300 American Airlines lent the group.

THAT'S KING GHOST, TO YOU The people of Haiti believe the ghost of mad King Henri Cristophe still prowls the Citadelle Laferriere, the ma.s.sive fortress he built atop a 3,000-foot mountain called Bonnet a l'eveque. As Haiti's most revered national symbol (and probably best candidate for drawing tourists), this engineering marvel is featured on postage stamps and currency. Harry Belafonte even wrote a song about it.

From the beginning the Citadelle, the largest fortress in the Western Hemisphere, was shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Christophe, a former slave who led the rebellion against France, started building the fortress soon after Haiti became the world's first free black nation.

It took 20,000 men 15 years to build the structure, and more than 10,000 of them lost their lives during construction. It has 15-foot-wide walls and 365 cannon, each of which took three months to move from the coast to the fortress. As for Cristophe himself? Eight years after he declared himself the first king of Haiti, he shot himself through the heart with a silver bullet.

Dr. Luc Pierre, a minister working with AAI, leads volunteers to Haiti two or three times a year. Volunteers take food, drinking water, and books. He also plans to use volunteers to rebuild a school demolished by the hurricanes of 2008.

Recent volunteer trips to Haiti have cost $1,000, including lodging and meals. Yet Pierre, the organizer, is so desperate for help that he's willing to negotiate.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Airline Amba.s.sadors International, 418 California Avenue, P.O. Box 459, Moss Beach, CA 94038, 866-264-3586, www.airlineamb.org. Rev. Dr. Luc R. Pierre can be reached at 917-969-1084 or

LOS MeDICOS VOLADORES.

a.s.sist with free health clinics.

REMOTE NORTHERN MEXICO.

If you think you're too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

-Anita Rodd.i.c.k, activist and founder of the Body Shop.

16 Until 1974, Milt Camp was a flight instructor and engineer for Hewlett-Packard. Then one of his students, a doctor who felt a little edgy about tackling the dirt runways in rural Mexico, talked him into coming along on a onetime medical mission. He needed moral support, he told Camp.

Providing that moral support changed Camp's life forever. He was so moved by the villagers treated by the doctor and their dire need for medical care that he returned to Hewlett-Packard, put up posters, and began raising money and gathering supplies for a second trip.

That trip was followed by another and soon Camp, who quickly became certified as a medical and dental technician, launched Los Medicos Voladores (LMVThe Flying Doctors), a group of volunteer pilots and doctors who regularly fly into remote areas of Mexico and Central America to set up weekend medical clinics. And it's not just doctors, dentists, pilots, and translators who are needed. The improvised clinics that are set up in schools, churches, and, once, in the village mayor's back bedroom, also use what LMV calls general volunteers.

Each LMV team has a doctor or nurse, a translator, and a pilot. When there's s.p.a.ce on a trip, general volunteers are invited along to help with everything from equipment sterilization to keeping records to writing reports.

Your job could be anything from s.h.i.+ning a flashlight into dental patients' mouths to renting a taxi and driving around with loudspeakers to inform villagers that the docs have arrived. Needless to say, it doesn't take long for lines to start forming.

Unlike Cancun, Acapulco, and other Mexican resort towns, where you're just as likely to run into American tourists as you are Mexican citizens, the LMV trips will take you to remote villages rarely seen by most Americans. Take Huasabas, for example, a tiny 17th-century town of 900 in the Bavispe Valley. Its airstrip, a dirt patch outside of town that also serves as a playground and racetrack, is used only for emergencies. And sometimes LMV pilots have to fly into the town down the road. Or Isla Cedros, an island that's inaccessible except by small plane or boat. Or Villa Hidalgo, a small village in the Mexican Sierra Madre that is a remote ranching community.

Although days are busy, with lines of patients stretching down dusty streets, volunteers usually find time to fish, watch whales, see cave paintings, and sample tequila.

Weekend trips to northern Mexico are scheduled the first weekend of each month. Your team will split the jet fuel-$350 for the Mexico trips. Lodging, usually arranged by LMV, will either be in family's homes or in a small hotel. Average price for a four-day mission, including accommodations, some food, medical supplies, and your share of fuel is around $1,000.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Los Medicos Voladores, P.O. Box 5172, Fair Oaks, CA 95628, 800-585-4568, www.flyingdocs.org.

SEEKING REAL MEXICAN FOOD.

Many folks in the United States tend to think of larded refried beans and mounds of processed cheese when you bring up Mexican food. That is a shame, since the real cuisine of Mexico sings with fresh ingredients and complex flavors.

Strides toward culinary understanding have been made, however, by such amba.s.sadors as Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless. Kennedy was born in the United Kingdom but lived in Mexico from 1957 to 1966 with her husband, New York Times correspondent Paul Kennedy. The Kennedys moved to New York, where Paul died in 1967. Legendary Times food editor Craig Claiborne then urged Kennedy to teach Mexican cooking, so she spent a few years traveling and doing research. The Cuisines of Mexico, her first of seven cookbooks, was published in 1972. She became a fierce advocate of cla.s.sical Mexican cuisine.

Rick Bayless lived in Mexico from 1980 to 1986 with his wife Deann and penned the cla.s.sic Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking From the Heart of Mexico in 1987. That same year, they opened Chicago's Frontera Grill; its upscale sister restaurant, Tobolobampo, followed in 1989. More recently, Bayless wrote Mexico: One Plate at a Time and is hosting the PBS series of the same name.

central & south.

america.

We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men.

-Herman Melville, author of Moby-d.i.c.k.

Latin America is wilder than its North American cousin, with the world's largest rain forest and a rainbow of indigenous cultures and ruins-both well known and yet to be discovered-of ancient civilizations.

Unfortunately, the economic gap between the haves and the have-nots is wide in this developing realm, where makes.h.i.+ft shacks and slums sit next to skysc.r.a.pers and luxury apartments. The region's extraordinary biodiversity is under constant threat as its wild places are impacted by its burgeoning economy. Needless to say, Latin America has lots of endangered animals and cultures that could use your help.

In this chapter, look for opportunities to track jaguars, collect b.u.t.terflies, work in a soup kitchen, harvest coffee, help at-risk preschoolers, and fight AIDS.

Can one person really make a difference? The truth is that most of the problems addressed by volunteers here are complex and caused by years of social and political upheaval. Your stint as a volunteer is perhaps best served by devoting yourself to learning about the myriad forces that keep people impoverished and focusing on the unbridled development that wreaks havoc on habitats. Enhancing your appreciation of other cultures and other landscapes will hopefully inspire a lifelong commitment to creating the just and equitable world that we all really want.

AMBa.s.sADORS FOR CHILDREN.

give hope to at-risk preschoolers.

CARTAGENA DE INDIAS, COLOMBIA.

The key to ending poverty is to create a global network of connections that reach from impoverished communities to the very centers of world power and wealth and back again.

-Jeffrey Sachs, author of The End of Poverty and director of the Earth Inst.i.tute at Columbia University 17 Tourists flock to Cartagena, Colombia, for its quaint plazas, cobblestone streets, colonial churches, and art museums. But just beyond the thick-walled colonial city that UNESCO designated a World Heritage site in 1984 are tens of thousands of children who live in poverty.

Amba.s.sadors for Children (AFC), an Indianapolis nonprofit that sends volunteers to serve children around the world, recently added Cartagena, Colombia, to its a.r.s.enal of good works. AFC founder Sally Brown noticed that, like many overseas tourist destinations, this Caribbean treasure was divided into two worlds-a bustling city of four-star hotels for the wealthy on one side and makes.h.i.+ft, flimsily constructed homes for many of the local families on the other. Brown and her team quickly stepped in to help, sending volunteers to work in two preschools and at a children's hospital.