Volunteer opportunities are abundant around the world.
They are an amazing way to connect with locals in a meaningful way, gain various life skills, make good friends, give back to the world, and most of the time, save money!
When I was traveling through Turkey, I worked on an organic farm for a couple weeks to do just that.
Every morning we would clean and refill water bowls and release the animals from their pens. In the evening, we rallied them up, cleaned and filled water bowls, and fed the chickens, geese, and sheep.
During the day, we would work on the farm tilling soil for strawberries, weeding fields of vegetables, picking ripe pumpkins, sorting and cutting plums— you name it.
By our sides the whole day were middle to later-aged women who wore long skirts and worked all day long with perfect posture. These women worked at double my speed and didn’t seem to barely break a sweat. They cooked meals throughout the day to fuel their many working hours, and they always smiled and made jokes when you spoke to them.
It was such a fulfilling experience for me to take care of those farm animals, to learn about organic farming and the hard work it takes to keep it up, and to learn simple Turkish words which I could use to interact with the local peasants.
(Btw, the term peasant and noble, etc were used in European settlement history to describe social classes. In much the rest of the world, the term is still used today to describe someone as a farm worker. No negative connotation attached!)
In exchange for the daily work, we were housed for free and fed as many vegetables and simple ingredients as we wanted to eat.
This kind of experience truly enriched my travels and now I’m always looking forward to the next opportunity.
Some great resources to use to find volunteer opportunities around the world are
– workaway.info (my personal favorite — https://www.workaway.info/invite/99583D54)
– wwoof.net (my boyfriend’s favorite)
You can find opportunities like
– teaching children in underprivileged schools
– permaculture and organic farming
– building schools, yoga studios, eco hotels, or other manual labor support
– volunteer in hotels, hostels, ecolodges, and other hospitality jobs
– working with families to teach children English (or other languages)
– so much more!
