Friday, December 14, 2012

Feel Good Friday - Journeys For Good

It's Friday, the weekend is almost here and many people will soon be taking time off work to travel and spend time with their families. What a perfect (okay average) segue as traveling is the subject for this week's Feel Good Friday blog!

Posing in the window
is much easier than
painting the wall...
Over the last 14 years, I have participated in six volunteer trips with Habitat for Humanity's Global Village program, co-leading the last two.  You spend two weeks in a foreign country building houses with other volunteers and the soon-to-be homeowners and having a fabulous, oftentimes transforming, experience.  Those of you who know me, know I love it and would encourage any of you who are curious to give it a try.

What do you do if you like the idea of voluntourism, as volunteer vacations are now being called, but house building just ain't your thang?  That's where Journeys For Good comes in.

Steve and Joanie Wynn are a Bay Area couple who have traveled the world together producing stories for Travel Channel and other major stations.  After a trip to Tanzania to film a group of volunteers, they were inspired to spread the message of volunteer travel and created a website to do just that.

The goal of their site - and upcoming TV series - is to "celebrate volunteer travel experiences around the world."  Steve, Joanie and their son Ryan are about to go on a volunteer trip to Cambodia to film the pilot for their show.  They'll be blogging while there and putting films on their YouTube channel when they come home so we can all follow along!

As a person with aspirations to create and host a TV series highlighting the positive impact people around the world are making in their communities, I'm cheering them on and can't wait to see what discoveries they make.

I know from experience that volunteering to help others can make you feel great and doing it in another country opens you up to people you wouldn't normally meet visiting only as a tourist.  Have I mentioned that if you're thinking about something like this you should do it?  Just do it!

Tracy and I really were shoveling these rocks into a
 wheelbarrow when we weren't resting and posing for photos.

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