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travel
tales from alongside the road, where the journey is not all about traveling
topic
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overrated preparation
The Super-Ultimate Zero-Item Packing List of a 6 Year Traveler
the distilled truth about packing after 70 months on the road
...why is it that once we supposedly embark on a so-called adventure, finally crossing the tight frontiers of norms and rules, we can’t even dress ourselves anymore?
topic
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grassroots volunteering
Volunteering 101 Series:
An Orientation on Grassroots Volunteer Work
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Volunteering vs. Voluntourism
self-organized engagement vs. vacation packages – structures, results and ethics
...organizing your grassroots engagement independently, might not only help your own experience and wallet, but also the community you work with.
What You Perceive & What It Is: Volunteering Outlook vs. Actual Impact
subjective vs. objective evaluations of volunteering results
...it could be a little step on an individual level, like a kid having its first aha moment while learning simple math; or it could be the large scale implementation of a project that brings about systemic and sustainable empowerment of a community.
Reality Check: Volunteering Benefits & Pitfalls
Are volunteering programs more helpful or harmful?
If implemented right, volunteering programs employed by grassroots nonprofits can add additional value to community-empowering projects along various dimensions. However, oftentimes benefits come alongside cultural and ethical pitfalls...
Volunteering Motives: Who Helps Whom and Why?
Can volunteering be selfless and whom does it actually help?
...we can all just go on a quest for our own motives to do something social (might that be altruistic or not) and do our best to actually contribute to the empowerment of local communities and the alteration of disadvantageous global structures...
Who Is That White Savior With the Complex?
Are Westerners trying to save the world on their terms?
...development assistance can be viable; unless it feeds into an individual or systemic White Savior Complex that results in the idea of one side helping the other and distracts people from the underlying issues and inequities.
How to Find Free Volunteering Opportunities around the World
avoiding costly & ethically precarious voluntourism agencies
...rev the search engine, skip over the voluntourism industry and dig all the way down to the grassroots...
topic
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travel attitudes
Must I Really Though?
when musts outnumber wants in your wanderlust soles
...aren’t most of us out here, strapped into our backpacks, to declare guerrilla war on bleak society regimes with Mondays? Every child is more of a rebel, when Mom allots musts...
Have You Become an Arrogant Travel-Bully Yet?
when traveling corrupts the humbleness it should spark
Such an experience doesn't justify a smug smile, hinting at an allegedly unraveled world in our backpack.
