We're in disbelief that it's already time to plan for Mardi Gras, but Easter--and thus Fat Tuesday--comes early next year. And instead of simply guzzling hand grenades on Bourbon Street, maybe you could lift a finger or two to help rebuild New Orleans?
Hands Up Holidays makes it easy with a nine-day trip from January 28 to February 6 that includes an invite to the black tie ball at Mardi Gras. You'll earn it by working at Habitat for Humanity's Musicians' Village, a development in the Upper 9th Ward designed to lure artists back to the city. Even President Bush has chipped in on the project, so you should be able to hack it.
You'll also have time for fun on the trip, with plantation and swamp tours and a flight-seeing excursion. Accommodations are at the Hotel Monteleone, which is a great place right in the French Quarter. While the price tag for the trip seems steep at $2,500, booking a hotel for nine nights on the run-up to Mardi Gras will cost you close to that. Might as well have some fun and do some good while you're at it.
Everyone likes a long vacation, but in a world of 60-hour workweeks and non-stop communication it can be hard to get away. Globe Aware gets that, which is why the voluntourism organization offers week-long vacations that include work projects and side trips to about a dozen locations.
Volunteers can teach children English and computer literacy in Peru or travel to a rural Andean village to build adobe stoves for cooking. These man-made wonders use a fraction of the energy wood fires do and eliminate carcinogenic smoke, too. Plus they give volunteers an opportunity to see the fruits of their labor while they're still on site.
Globe Aware also offers voluntourism trips to Laos, where travelers build wheelchairs from recycled materials for land mine victims, and to Costa Rica to help restore national forest reserves. It's a chance for travelers to have a big impact without committing a huge amount of time.
You've gotta feel good about doing a spot of volunteering while you're jaunting around the world: if you can afford an airfare, then you can afford to give a bit, too. What we didn't know is that this now has a name: voluntourism. And there are some pretty neat projects around for voluntourists.
The latest one we've heard about is in northern Thailand, being held together by the Thai branch of an organization called voluntourists without borders. The idea works something like this: volunteer travelers will help (and financially contribute) to setting up an ecotourism project called the Pang Soong Nature Trail in northern Thailand. They'll work side-by-side with villagers to build the infrastructure, train locals and get the message out to other tourists, with the goals of both creating an environmentally friendly tourist attraction and creating local employment and sustainable wealth. What a way to make the world smile.
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by pbb
