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Want to help? Go on a trip
It cost him $1,000 for the 12 days, not including air fare. That paid for lodging, food, transportation, tools and “peace of mind,” he said.
“It’s hard work, but there’s nothing to worry about,” Wood said. “No one can get ahold of you so you’re not worrying about the stock market or worrying about family too much. There’s no communication so it’s a very nice break from the pressures of the job.”
Dr. Peggy Fuller, a dermatologist, went to Sri Lanka to build houses in 2005 after seeing the magnitude of the tsunami devastation. Taking a sabbatical from her successful practice in Charlotte, N.C., she spent several weeks making and hauling cinder blocks, carting dirt, carrying water and sweeping.
“I probably wasn’t much help at all,” said Fuller, 47. “I wasn’t there very long. But to see the people’s faces — they were so happy we were helping them. That’s something you don’t forget.”
Accountant John Witkowski used to take his wife and four children on vacation to national parks or the Caribbean or Mexico. Now the children are grown and they go instead on what is becoming an annual trip to an orphanage in Guatemala, where they and other church members stay in gender-separated quarters at the facility run by nuns in Guatemala City.
“This is more draining mentally, but it’s much more rewarding,” said Witkowski, 54, of Colts Neck, N.J.
Their task while there, he said: “Love the kids” and do maintenance projects while they’re in school. Despite the language barrier, he feels he connects with the kids through play, joking around and showering them with attention and affection.
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“I was overwhelmed that there’s so much to do and so little time and can you effectuate change. But there’s so much to do, you just can’t give up,” he said.
Alyssa Stahl, 37, a bank vice president in Chicago, went to West Virginia with Global Volunteers to help build houses in Appalachia last October after finding the group in an Internet search for groups that do volunteer vacations. She did a lot of spackling and painting, working as a mentor to disadvantaged youths.
She’s already planning another trip soon to a Native American reservation in Montana where she will do either tutoring, light construction or cleanup projects.
“You feel that you’re helping people and you’re also getting to learn about a different culture, whether it’s West Virginia or Tanzania,” she said.
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