volunteer

Our reviews of the top family vacation destinations and trip ideas organized by keywords (Italy, Caribbean, teens, etc) and topic (snowsports, spa, etc) to make your research easier.

Our group of volunteers, sent to serve

Night and Day

They’re as different as night and day”. I’ve heard those words throughout my life, but they never seemed truer than when I worked on a service project on the island of Oahu, Hawaii. I know it sounds strange to say you are serving others in a place like Honolulu. From the tourist...

Category: volunteer
A picture of the younger children.

What we don't realize

Guyana is someplace that can definitely be considered a third-world country full of poverty and corruption. Filled with humidity and humungous bugs, I considered it to be the serene place on Earth. It is also the place where my parents and grandparents were born and raised after being brought over...

Category: volunteer
This is a photo of Yafreisy, Alany, and I. They are two girls I am close to.

Regalos Pequeños (Small Gifts)

This last summer I had the privilege to serve in the impoverished areas of the Dominican Republic with many of my fellow youth group members. We touched them with the material gifts and services we brought, but I’m not sure they knew just how greatly their actions touched our hearts. I was...

Category: volunteer
Laurel Eastman kiteboarding

Windsurf And Kite Board Family Vacations In Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic

I am on my way to Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, land of travel fantasies, windsuring and kite boarding vacations for hundreds of thousands of Americans each year.  It's 38ºF and raining but on the JetBlue jetway in front of me a guy is joking, "70 and cloudy, why are we going...

Category: volunteer
Measuring frogs for research

"Co' qui?"

Rather than waking up to the drone, hackneyed roar of snow plows in Maine, we were carried out of bed by the soothing lullabies of the restless co’ qui frogs and the pungent aroma of juicy, apple-filled empanadas. “Can I extend my trip?” I remember inquiring to myself that morning...

Category: volunteer

Small Voices, Big Hopes

Outstretched as far as the eye could see, stood a sea of colorful little shanties dotting the hillside like confetti.  Each one represented a family much like my own; one with hopes and dreams of a brighter tomorrow.  This was the outskirts of Tegucigalpa, Honduras and the impoverished...

Category: volunteer

One Precious Moment

One Precious Moment Rachael Kepko                              The brilliant sun almost blinded me that first day. Walking out of the airport in Johannesburg,...

Category: volunteer

Sawdust

  “Hola chico/chiquita! Como te llama?” I say the words hesitantly, and my tongue feels like it is covered with sawdust as I speak the few Spanish words I know. To say that I am loud would be an understatement. I am the sound of the freight train that passes by your window at...

Category: volunteer

Vietnam and Cambodia

  Our first stop in Phenom Pehn was Tol Slong, a former prison during the Cambodian genocide.  Before the genocide it was a high school, but the Khmer Rouge converted it into a prison and place of torture.  Little was done to convert the prison into a museum, and there were times...

Category: volunteer
Iguacu Falls

The Bugs and the Beauties of Brazil

     I have stood on the precipice of one of the most fantastic natural wonders of the world. The magnificent roaring waters of Iguacu Falls cascaded down cliffs all around us. The cool mist provided temporary relief from the burdening heat of Brazil’s autumn. Sometimes...

Category: volunteer