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Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Ocean in Mancora


When not in the volunteer house or working on a project I'm likely down at the beach when I'm in Mancora. Stretching the town on the west coast is the Pacific and the main destination for the majority of the tourists that come to Mancora. 

I had never lived on an ocean before coming to Peru. I'd visited and swam in both the Atlantic and Pacific on family trips when I was younger, but to have such access to an ocean (the PaM house is a ten minute walk from the beach) was amazing. 

I tried surfing and didn't do too badly with an instructor. Didn't do too well on my own. We got a body board down there and I had fun riding that for a while. My favorite thing to do was just swim out into the surf and body surf the waves back in.  I try to avoid the busy areas of the beach in front of the hotels on the south side of town. I swim in the usually deserted north end, where I don't have to worry about getting in anyone else's way. I usually go in the evening (the best time for random dolphin sightings) and watch the sunset as I swim. I'm not the most spiritual guy, but I feel pretty connected and at peace when I'm floating in the ocean in Mancora.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Why pay to volunteer?



The question of paying to volunteer pops up frequently, and is answered quite eloquently in this post by Le Ann Joy Adam, who worked as the Overseas Resource Coordinator at Stanford University. 

Below are the benefits she outlines for using an established organization and how Voluntraveler and PaM fit into it. The headings are hers, the points are mine.
  • Orientation - Voluntraveler and PaM staff in Peru help the volunteers adjust to their new surroundings and integrate into the community quickly
  • Language and Technical Training - Although we ask our volunteers to have intermediate Spanish, we offer additional Spanish lessons and the local professionals we work with can teach our volunteers a lot on the job.
  • Arranged Accommodation - all of our volunteers live in the Volunteer House, have their own bedroom, and enjoy living with other volunteers and our Peruvian staff. Living in the volunteer house makes organizing projects, and having meetings very easy.
  • A Safety Net - living with the other volunteers and our Peruvian staff means you have a shoulder to cry on when you are homesick, and other people who are sharing your experience. The staff provide logistical support as well.
  • Clear Expectations - volunteers can run with projects started by others, or define their own. Having experienced PaM staff and established projects gives direction to our volunteers.
  • Affordability - our program prices are less than what you would pay for a similar all-inclusive vacation elsewhere in the world, and probably less than what you would spend to live for a month in Canada or the USA. 
Voluntraveler is a social enterprise, and the fees we collect from our volunteers cover our overhead costs and offset the administration costs for Para el Mundo. We pay our Peruvian staff a handsome living wage and health insurance (rare in Peru) and this frees up money donated to PaM for their programs. It's a model similar to the one adopted by Free the Children (charity) and Me to We (social enterprise). Their trips are more than $1000 USD/week - twice what Voluntraveler fees are!