scams

Researching Your VolunTour: Follow the Money

Volunteer with Four Children in South Africa

Image source: Blog.geovisions.org

After yesterday’s post I started to do some digging. I was looking for information about scam voluntour opportunities and unfortunately, I found a very long list. It makes a whole lot of sense. By definition, many of these opportunities are in impoverished areas. These areas are home to many desperate people who see foreign voluntourists walking through town and think, “hey, I’m starving and those people have money to burn.” A desperate person sees that as an opportunity for personal financial gain, which may truly mean the difference between life and death. It’s hard to get enraged by desperate people doing desperate things.

Being Realistic: Avoiding Scam Voluntours

A Young Girl Looking in the Mirror

Image source: Thestir.cafemom.com

Sometimes I look in the mirror and I have this existential crisis moment. I think, “that’s me in there… behind those eyes.” It’s the kind of thing you can’t think about every day or you’d go crazy—that you’re whole self, everything you are, is totally contained inside your skull. But it’s true. Everyone must think about that sometimes, and to think about it is to realize how fragile we are, how strange it is to be self aware, and how important it is to protect that delicate shell that we reside within for the entirety of our existence. For that reason I suppose we are all motivated by a certain self-interest. We are all concerned about our own survival.