The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life Part 27

WorldTeach volunteers are encouraged to spend time outside the cla.s.sroom on community service projects, so spare time can be used to paint murals on school buildings or build a children's theater, as a couple of Marshall Islands volunteers did a few years ago.

A WorldTeach volunteer in Namibia raised more than $7,000 for malaria-preventing mosquito nets. A volunteer in South Africa a.s.sembled interviews for an oral-history project on apartheid. Costa Rica volunteers have built libraries, playgrounds, even a basketball court from scratch. Others have organized musical productions, debate clubs, environmental cleanups, and women's crafts groups.

Teaching certificates come in handy to volunteer with WorldTeach, but they're certainly not required. Anyone with a basic command of English and the desire to help a community pull itself up by its bootstraps is welcome.

Most WorldTeach volunteers live with a host family, providing a vital portal to the culture of the Marshall Islands. Your one-year teaching a.s.signment will begin with an extensive training in Majuro, the biggest city where half the country lives, that covers everything from basics of the native language (Marshallese) to techniques for teaching. Because the program is fully funded by the Marshall Islands' Ministry of Education, your only cash outlay is a $1,500 deposit that will be refunded upon completion of your yearlong stay. International airfare, one month of orientation, health insurance, meals, and housing are all included. You'll also receive $100 to $300 per month to cover living and teaching expenses.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

WorldTeach, c/o Center for International Development, Harvard University, Box 122, 79 John F. Kennedy Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, 800-483-2240 or 617-495-5527, www.worldteach.org.

EARTHWATCH INSt.i.tUTE.

preserve and doc.u.ment world war II history.

TRUK LAGOON, MICRONESIA.

It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference.

-Tom Brokaw, television journalist and author.

98 Take that! In retaliation for Pearl Harbor, Americans struck back at an Imperial j.a.panese navy base in what's now known as the Federated States of Micronesia. Called Operation Hailstone, this two-day aerial bombing raid that continued in one form or another until the war's end, sank more than 50 s.h.i.+ps, including wars.h.i.+ps, destroyers, submarines, submarine chasers, and transfer s.h.i.+ps, some with trucks still lashed to the decks. Today, this lagoon that's nearly 40 miles in diameter and 300 feet deep is a veritable underwater museum, called one of the seven underwater wonders of the world by the nonprofit diving group CEDAM International.

Unfortunately, the 51 s.h.i.+ps and more than 100 aircraft left behind in Truk Lagoon (also known as Chuuk) are rusting away. Unless they're doc.u.mented soon, they could easily become just another World War II fatality.

CHUUK COURTING 101.

In the old days, suitors in Chuuk wouldn't dream of courting a girl without first carving what's known as a lovestick. Each lovestruck boy would carve his own unique design into the branch of a tangantangana bush, hoping his beloved would recognize it when he poked it through the wall late at night.

If she tugged on the stick, it meant "Come on in."

Shaking the stick meant "I'm coming out."

But if the stick got pushed back out, the message was "Sorry, Charlie. I'm not interested in a tryst. At least not with you."

Today, the main use for Chuukese love sticks is wringing money out of tourists who buy the lovesticks by the suitcase full.

Although scuba divers have been diving to explore this unique legacy for more than 50 years, a comprehensive scientific survey had never been undertaken until 2008, when maritime archaeologist Dr. Bill Jeffery began recruiting volunteers from Earthwatch, a Ma.s.sachusetts-based nonprofit that funds more than 120 scientific field projects in 40 countries.

In the warm, clear waters of this protected lagoon, Earthwatch volunteers come in to survey, map, photograph, and sample this amazing graveyard of coral-draped j.a.panese s.h.i.+ps and aircraft. Before taking to the water with waterproof slates, measuring tapes, and digital voltmeters, they learn archaeological and biological recording techniques. They observe and record information on corrosion and decay rates and secure oral histories from the locals, important information that will help the Micronesian government make plans for this naval graveyard.

Besides playing Jacques Cousteau, volunteers get a free day to explore some of the volcanic islands and coral atolls that surround Chuuk, one of Micronesia's four major island groups. Residents here live close to nature, cooking their food over open campfires, hunting for octopuses by lantern light and observing the rhythms of a simple, sea-based existence.

To volunteer for this Earthwatch expedition, you must be certified as a NAUI scuba diver or a PADI or SSI open water diver, or equivalent. A rescue diver certification is recommended, and you must have completed at least five dives within a year prior to the project, or complete a refresher course. You'll stay in studio-style hotel apartments with two other volunteers. The 13-day expedition costs $2,650 and includes most meals.

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.

ANOTHER THOUGHTFUL COMMITTED CITIZEN: ENZO REPOLA.

"You want to do what?"

When retired New York banker Enzo Repola told his wife and kids he was traveling to Kenya to build homes, they thought he'd lost his mind. "Must be his retirement's getting to him," they whispered behind his back. "He'll get over it."

Yet when he came back from that Habitat for Humanitysponsored building trip to the village of Thuita, Kenya, he was more determined than before.

"It changed my life," Repola said. "I knew what I was going to do with the rest of my life."

He wasn't kidding. Since that first trip, where he was just one member of a 12-person team, he has gone on to lead more than a dozen Global Village builds, taking volunteers to Borneo, Fiji, Vietnam, Thailand, Uganda, Botswana, and Papua New Guinea.

"One of the villagers in Papua New Guinea stood up at the closing ceremony and very earnestly asked us, 'Why did you come all this way, do all this work when you don't even know us?'" Repola said. "I realized he'd asked a very good question. In his shoes, I'd ask the same question. Why would we take this very long trip, on five planes, halfway around the world to a primitive place. I hadn't planned this answer and it surprised me when it came out. But I said to him and this came straight from my gut, 'You and I may dress differently and live in different parts of the world, but most of how we think and talk and feel, it's the same. Exactly the same. We belong to the same creator. We are brothers.'"

Repola leads two "Global Village" trips a year. He'd do more, he says, except it takes five to six months to arrange all the logistics, vet all the volunteers ("I have to make sure they know what they're getting in to," he says), and make the arrangements for 10 to 12 people to travel halfway around the world.

"I've always traveled a lot. I worked for an international bank so traveling has always been second nature to me. But these Habitat trips are completely different. You get to see the people, not the hotel. It's a chance to see the real thing," he said. "The food isn't always so good, the conditions are often primitive and the work is exhausting, but I don't know. I love this."

Repola read about Habitat for Humanity years before he retired. "I saw where Jimmy Carter was building homes and it impressed me," he said. He filed the magazine away and, after retirement, stumbled across it, prompting him to sign up for that first trip that so surprised his family. Before that, he'd never volunteered for anything.

He says his realization in Papua New Guinea, the realization that all people are his brothers has become his life's compa.s.s.

"When you think this way, everything is very simple," he says.

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY'S GLOBAL VILLAGE.

put a roof over someone's head.

PAPUA NEW GUINEA.

Do all you can with what you have, in the time you have, in the place you are.

-Nkosi Johnson, South African AIDS activist who died from AIDS when he was 12 years old.

99 The United Nations reports that the number of people living in substandard housing, already at 1.6 billion, is expected to increase to 2 billion in 30 years. That's one out of every three people living without an adequate roof over their head. Habitat for Humanity, a nonprofit located in Americus, Georgia, is doing everything it can to stem that shocking prediction. Habitat volunteers, already a well-known presence in the United States, also travel overseas, building secure, solid houses in more than a hundred countries worldwide.

The organization's Global Village program recruits volunteers for short-term homebuilding trips. In Papua New Guinea, where a stable home can be built for roughly $4,000, volunteers travel to rural villages (four out of five people in Papua New Guinea still live in tribal communities) and live alongside these traditional societies that have changed little over time. Volunteers share traditional meals, rituals, and the elbow grease it takes to build stable, weatherproof homes.

The typical home in Papua New Guinea, woven together of bamboo, gra.s.ses, and leaves, lasts an average of six to ten years thanks to cooking fires, heavy rains, and tribal skirmishes. Roofs have to be rebuilt about every three years, and even new roofs tend to leak. Having a secure, stable home short-circuits poverty. "The Habitat program kills two birds with one stone," says Samuel Rumints, chairman of the country's Western Highlands Habitat affiliate. "It provides affordable houses and prevents tribal fighting."

Papua New Guinea came late to the atlases: Its coastline was traced in 1897. In many ways, its interior is still a treacherous mountain ridge of question marks. Australianled patrols in the 1960s encountered people who had never seen a white person.

With more than 700 islands and 820 different languages, Papua New Guinea is one of the most diverse and inspiring destinations on the planet. New species of plants and animals are discovered nearly every day. Ornithologist Bruce Beehler, who led a pioneering expedition to the Foja mountains, recently discovered a tiny tree kangaroo, a bird of paradise with 6 plumes, 4 new species of b.u.t.terflies, and 20 new species of frogs.

The two-week Global Village builds in Papua New Guinea cost between $2,000 and $2,200 and include lodging, food, ground transportation, medical insurance, and a donation to Habitat Papua New Guinea. You'll share accommodations with your team, may not have access to indoor plumbing, and take baths in either a river or a bucket. Many of the Papua New Guinea builds have been led by retired banker Enzo Repola.

HOW TO GET IN TOUCH.

Global Village, Habitat for Humanity International, P.O. Box 369, Americus, GA 31709, 800-422-4828, ext. 7530, www.habitat.org/gv.

TALK PIDGIN WITH ME.

With more than 820 languages in Papua New Guinea, it's a pretty sure bet that Berlitz hasn't published cheat sheets for all of them. The good news is that most everyone in Papua New Guinea speaks some Pidgin, a b.a.s.t.a.r.dized form of the Queen's English.

The following are other words and phrases that will undoubtedly come in handy: Ania: Eat. Particularly dangerous when paired with kwarana (head), due to a reputed history of cannibalism.

Bema ai lasiin nidinaamurinai, gavamanitaunakobenadadekenai oilaohamaoroa: If we are not back here in five days, tell the government official in Konebada.

Buai: Betel nut. A popular favorite all over the South Pacific, this stimulant with turn your teeth kakakaka-red.

Kau kau: Sweet potatoes. No meal is complete without a heaping helping.

Nat nat: Mosquitoes-probably the most useful word in the entire language.

Paripari: Wet. During the rainy season, a very useful adjective to describe how you're doing.

Puk puk: Crocodiles. This word can be repeated often, especially when cruising down the Sepik or Waghi Rivers in a hollowed-out tree trunk.

GLOBAL VISION INTERNATIONAL.

tag endangered hawksbill turtles.

MOSO ISLAND, VANUATU.

Nature sure knows how to bring a tear to a girl's eye.

-Jen Whitney, Global Vision volunteer.

100 If you're traveling to the Republic of Vanuatu (van-wah-TOO), you'd better learn this word: nambawan. It's a Pidgin phrase that roughly translates to something like: "It doesn't get much better than this." People say nambawan a lot here.

Once known as the New Hebrides, Vanuatu is made up of 83 steep-sloped islands with volcanoes to climb, rain forests to explore, and unique cultures to experience. People here lead a relaxed existence.

The New Economics Foundation and Friends of the Earth, in fact, voted Vanuatu the "happiest place on Earth" in 2006. Happy though citizens here may be, a great percentage of them cannot read. That's why Wan s...o...b..g Theatre (WST), an innovative, partic.i.p.atory theater company, communicates with the island's many villagers through plays and dramatic theater productions. In 1995, during the South Pacific's "Year of the Turtle," a WST troupe traveled from village to village collecting stories about the hawksbill and green turtles that breed and nest nearby.

SEE IT HERE FIRST.

This project takes place on the island of Moso, the same island where "tribes" from the ninth season of the reality show Survivor vied for the million-dollar prize. If getting anywhere near an island chosen by Survivor is on your "to avoid at all costs" list, you can also see the hawksbill turtle (or at least its likeness) on the reserve side of either the Venezuelan bolivar or the Brazilian reals. There's also a fountain sculpture of a boy riding a hawksbill in Worcester, Ma.s.sachusetts.

The message from the play that resulted from those stories came back loud and clear. The villages didn't need pamphlets, books, or wildlife do-gooders to tell them that their turtles were in grave danger. Many Vanuatu villages immediately imposed bans on killing and eating turtles and their eggs. Most villages also appointed a monitor who could keep an eye on nesting turtles and educate others. Once a year, in fact, this network of 200 monitors from all six provinces of Vanuatu meet on the island of Efate, home of the capital city Port Vila, to share data, updates, and new ideas for saving their at-risk sea turtles. They call themselves Vanua-Tai (Of Land and Sea) Natural Resource Monitors.

TAKE A FLYING LEAP.

Jumping off 90-foot-high platforms might sound a little extreme-especially when it's done just to ensure a successful yam harvest-but to the tribesmen of Vanuatu's Pentecost Island, it's a sacred ritual that's been taking place for hundreds of years.

Each April and May, before the harvest begins, the men from the villages of Bunlap, Lano, Wali, and Wori build elaborate towers, tie vines to their ankles, and hurl themselves from platforms that are specially designed to collapse when they near the bottom. Using nothing but tree branches and vines (nails and wire are taboo), the men spend weeks building a nine-story, vegetal masterpiece.

While each diver is responsible for selecting his own vine (remember it's got to be strong enough to support the weight of a 180-pound man), a tribe elder usually selects the length. When you figure that a difference of five inches on a hundred-foot vine can mean the difference between life and death, it's incredible that the vines are hacked off without aid of a measuring tape.

While this daring ritual is done today to insure a successful yam harvest, it originated hundreds of years ago when a clever woman, desperate to escape a bad situation, lured her abusive husband into a banyan tree. According to tribal legend, she dared him to follow and then jumped. When she landed safely on the ground below, her husband declared it a miracle, took a deep breath, and leapt from the same tree. Only when the young woman was sure he was dead did she untie the vines from her ankles and walk back to the village, finally free.

Interestingly enough, women are strictly prohibited from taking part in the land dives today. In fact, females aren't allowed within 20 feet of the platforms.

For many years, this spectacular ritual was private, open only to members of the respective villages. A couple years ago, the tribal chiefs decided to open it to the public in hopes of attracting tourism dollars.

Each Sat.u.r.day in April and May at about 10 a.m., the symbolic ritual begins. It includes 16 jumps. One by one, the divers climb to their appointed places on the tower. First, the 8-and 9-year-olds jump. Even though the youngsters only leap 20 or 30 feet, they sometimes require a little push. Each jump gets progressively higher and more difficult as the age of the partic.i.p.ants increases.

Finally about 2 or 3 that afternoon, the grand finale begins. The chosen man climbs to the top, wearing nothing but a namba (that's Melanesian for "p.e.n.i.s sheath"). The women, wearing gra.s.s skirts, clap, whistle, and sing. When the diver raises his hand, the crowd falls silent. The diver begins to speak, usually giving a short monologue on a personal or family matter that's been bothering him. Then he plucks a feather from his belt and lets it drop, so it floats slowly to the ground. He claps his hands several times above his head, shouts, and makes the courageous leap.

Hawksbill turtles have been on the endangered species list since 1970. Even though most Vanuatu villages have vowed to no longer kill turtles or eat their eggs, hawksbills that feed and nest in this region face many other well-doc.u.mented obstacles to their survival. Not only must they evade such predators as mud crabs, birds, and sharks, but global climate change is killing off the island's coral reefs, which are basically the hawksbill's dinner plate.

In 2006, Global Vision International (GVI), a nonprofit that recruits volunteers for 150 projects in 30 countries, stepped in to help. Volunteers from around the world fly to Vanuatu each month to help the island's dedicated turtle monitors collect data, tag turtles, and monitor their nesting grounds.

One village that became involved in this effort, Tasiriki, is located on the sh.o.r.es of Moso Island, home to a nationally significant nesting beach and foraging grounds for hawksbill turtles. The people of Tasiriki were concerned about the turtles, but also concerned that they could not devote the necessary time to the nesting beach survey effort. So WSB contacted GVI about the possibility of setting up the survey as an international volunteer project. Today, the villagers, WSB, and GVI work together to provide keep the project running.