As a Canadian, the idea of volunteering in another part of the country, the United States or a country in another continent is particularly daunting for me. However, the experience is tremendously satisfying in other ways. As with any venture in life, there are going to be ups and downs, strikes and gutters. But if you have a core reason for wanting to volunteer, the experience will likely be overwhelmingly beneficial and positive.
Life Altering Experiences
People choose to volunteer for a variety of reasons, but there is common ground with each of them: to assist those in need. That goal is the same whether volunteering as a part of a peacekeeping, humanitarian or religious mission. Everyone takes something different away from these experiences.
One woman volunteered as a part of her Church’s missionary program, and she went to Africa. While the conditions were worse there than they are for most of the downtrodden in Canada, she came home with a better appreciation for how fortunate she is. Another man helped with the Hurricane Katrina clean up in New Orleans as part of a construction team.
While that was his job, he wound up volunteering part of his time after long days working because he couldn’t bring himself to do any less. Disaster brings people together like nothing else, and the sense of purpose involved in a relief effort of any kind creates a sense of overwhelming compassion in many. That sense compassion often stays with a person for life to the betterment of family and community.
The Logistics of Volunteering
The ideal time in life to volunteer is fresh out of high school or college. Most possessions are still in the childhood home, and parents are usually good with allowing a kid to keep things there when they head off to volunteer. When one half of a couple, married or otherwise committed, goes off to volunteer, the other stays home to keep things running.
However, those who are single have other things to consider. People who have mortgages will have to figure out how to pay them while away. What about an apartment lease? Will the landlord agree to a sublet or will the apartment have to go? When a dwelling is involved, it is often easier to consider using a storage solution like StorageMart.
Such storage companies offer long term storage options at reasonable rates that make the idea of leaving for a long period easier to deal with. They are often more affordable than rent prices and take the hassle out finding someone reliable enough to take over a lease.
A long-term volunteer program is certainly a marvelous and gratifying venture for many. Before you take on a volunteering job though you should have a clear purpose for why you are doing so. What do you hope to get out of the experience? If you can clearly answer this question, you will probably have a rewarding experience.
Those taking camera on some winter vacations (a Canon Rebel XS) and the weather will be quite cold (around -20 Centigrade). Are there any special precautions to take? How should we store the film and batteries? Batteries are at their absolute least efficient in this kind of weather and temperatures, so you must strive to keep them warm. Also, alkaline batteries will fail in a very short time, so use either lithium, or NiMh rechargeable but if it takes AA cells, make sure they are lithium or rechargeable. If it takes special camera cells, such as the CR123A or similar, they will more than likely be lithium anyway. As well as making sure you have the best type of battery, make sure they stay warm. Keep them inside your jacket, close to your skin until you’re ready to start using them. And most important of all, make sure you have PLENTY of spare ones with you.
If a car were used for special occasions, such as taking adventure trips or volunteer vacations across the country, exploring roads, or transporting multiple people and goods (and encouraging interaction between people, i.e. Carpooling) then the use of it may prove to be sustainable, and worth the financial, social, and environmental opportunity costs. And you think that the freedom given to people to go where they want when they want did not promote cultural diversity and the likes of social growth that you are so fond of?
Carolina Breezes Travel Club for singles is now forming. We’ll have a Web site, a newsletter, trips to all kinds of places, chances to make new travel buddies and friends, and maybe even find some romance! Dues are $25 per year. I have a travel agency lined up. com) that has e-mail and an 800 number. This is for all age groups, but we’ll start with a Seniors area first for sure. Expect to take cruises, adventure trips, NASCAR races, Europe, East and West Coast USA Round-Ups (and hopefully one in Canada), and other really fun volunteer vacations trips with singles. There are all kinds of possibilities out there for things for singles to do.
Sharp cheddar is a staple for our summer trips. Like peanut butter, it adds a fair amount of food weight, but it’s an excellent source of concentrated protein, and room-temperature cheese with a bit of glacial dust tastes unbelievably good after a couple of days. It goes very well melted in with those freeze-dried black beans that you can find bulk in just about every natural foods store in the US. We’ve made it last a week and it could probably go longer. However, if you bring just a single block, it tends to get coated in trail dirt, stove soot, and other nasties. In summer temperatures, the whey melts out a bit (less so with sharper cheeses), making it pretty messy stuff, and a pain in the ass to clean off of dishes and clothes. I’d recommend cutting it in advance into 1-2 inch cubic blocks, and throwing them all in a ziploc bag. That’ll make them much easier to handle.
We would only use it for general backpacking no winter, extreme weather camping out some REI tents and they seemed a bit pricey. The tents want to hold up more people and the cost would be less.It is better to use Eureka Timberline. You might also check out the Eureka Timberlite which is a lighter version on the Timberline and is designed for 3 season backpacking and suitable for most of the seasons.
We can use pro films like pro Kodachrome on 2 week backpacking volunteer vacations trips with no problems. The trick is to keep them as cool as possible, i.e., wrapping them in your sleeping bag when on the trail and keeping them in the shade when in camp. I’ve heard of people keeping their film in cool streams (in sealed bags, of course)
Fully outfitted volunteer vacations fishing trips for a onetime fee of $600! International Outdoors is the fastest growing company in the history of the outdoor industry, in just 7 months. To me this is almost worse than the rest of the “Quick Money” SCAMS/SPAMS! Here you might really think you are going to come out with something, but you probably aren’t, and a lot of sportsmen are going to get burned!!!
