eco-conscious

Go Voluntouring!

Aaron Smith Founder of GoVoluntouring

Image source: Yourtravelchoice.org

You may not know it to look at me but I’m a pretty disorganized person. I manage to keep track of bills and work but when it comes to the less immediately critical things like where my clothes are, what I’m making for dinner, getting cat food, or remembering birthdays, I’m hopeless. I do my best—I keep lists, have about eighteen date books, and try desperately to integrate electronic calendars into my routine—but at the end of the day I always find myself sorting through random papers wondering why life is so darn complicated! This is why I love it so much when other people do the organizing for me. One day, when I’m rich, I’ll hire a devilishly organized personal assistant to ferry me from place to place, put the ingredients for chicken vindaloo in my hands at dinner time, and color code my closets. Until then, I’ll savor the free organizational services of projects like Go Voluntouring.

Empowering Tibet with the Tibetan Village Project and Conscious Journeys

Employees of Conscious Journeys in Tibet

Image source: Consciousjourneys.org

A few years ago my husband traveled to Tibet with his grandfather. The high elevation was difficult for his grandfather, so they ended up spending a lot of time sitting with people, talking about the history of the Tibetan Plateau. Tibet is a unique place on this planet, the highest region on earth (at 4,900 meters), isolated from the rest of the world. Subsistence agriculture has traditionally been Tibet’s economic engine but tourism is becoming an increasingly important source of economic support. But the region has seen more than its share of unrest. Over the past thirty years, Tibetan separatists have been engaged in a power struggle with China, working to gain Tibet’s independence, and China has waged war in response. Human rights organizations have been working to help Tibet for years, though today Chinese influence in Tibet is commonplace.