P.A. MacLean
RedwoodAge.com
During the '60s and '70s, baby boomers wanting to "make a difference" could serve in the Peace Corps or volunteer in economically distressed parts of the US.
Now many members of that generation are turning their vacations into socially relevant cultural exchanges that may include working in a children's health clinic in Kenya, making repairs on Xi'an China's Terra Cotta warriors, building a school in Honduras or teaching English in Thailand. Closer to home, some head for New Orleans to help repair Katrina-devastated homes.
Lots of boomers are turning away from traditional vacations in favor of sojourns that include anything from foreign work projects to environmental education trips and cross-cultural home stays with foreign families. Trips can last two weeks to three months and can be arranged throughout the year, rather than the usual spring or summer school breaks.
"People who are looking to do some teaching while on vacation or sabbatical, or new retirees, look to this as a different type of vacation," said Lizzy Leahy, travel coordinator for the Chicago-based Center for Cultural Interchange.
CCI arranges international trips that focus on cultural understanding, environmental consciousness and peace.
"We have had people from 18 to 80 years old, and most recently two sisters in their 50s went to Ghana," she said.
An added bonus: such trips typically cost less than the more sedentary ship cruise or stay at a beachfront hotel. The range in cost for the trips can be $800 to $2,500, Leahy said.
"My experience was incredibly eye-opening," said Ricci (who withheld his last name) after volunteering in Kenya. "I believe everyone, no matter what age or gender, should see the things I did to be aware of other lifestyles and cultures."
Work Exchanges
In response to the growing demand of work programs among boomers,
plenty of exchange projects have sprung up. For example, volunteers for i-to-i
Meaningful Travel participate in construction, development,
conservation and language programs in their volunteering vacations.
"We send people overseas to 30 countries for volunteering from one to 12 weeks," according Maggie Bernardino of i-to-i.
People stay with local families and are provided two meals a day. "A lot of our volunteers are college age but we also had an 86-year-old and many who are in their 40s to 60s," she said.
The Escape trips include teaching soccer to kids in Tanzania with a $1,095 placement fee. Or you could spend two weeks in Thailand working on a conservation project on the tropical island Koh Tao for a $1,195 placement fee.
There are also American-based conservation projects, such as Desert Survivors, that bring together people who enjoy the wilderness and want to join in conservation in a desert setting. The Oakland, Calif.-based group conducts habitat restoration and conservation trips to desert areas in the West.
Less Work
If you're less inclined to working on vacation, programs offered by Costa
Rican Adventures may be more to your liking. They offer adventure travel geared to
environmental education, in particular the effects of
consumerism and global warming on Costa Rica. The trips in winter,
spring and summer combine hiking, rafting and kayaking, combined with
conservation and rainforest preservation education.
They include stays in local homes, which helps local businesses, according to Lisa Schachter-Brooks, who works with Costa Rican Adventures.
"The trips expose the problems of deforestation and the trouble created by a mono-crop culture," she said. "Trips can be customized. For boomers with kids still at home, there is a teenager program that allows them to live with families and learn Spanish during the summer."
The group also works with teachers who want to travel with their students on specially organized eco-tours of Costa Rica. On those trips, the teacher's travel is free, she said.
Many of the groups have focused on the college student on spring or summer break, but they are now expanding into the boomer market, where Leahy said they're finding recent retirees or mid-career boomers taking short sabbaticals who want to make a difference.
