Volunteer Shares Story

Copyright Karen Schaler All Rights Reserved

One of the most rewarding TRAVEL THERAPY trips you can take is a volunteer trip where you give your time, energy and love to a project and if that project involves children even better! Meet one volunteer who is absolutely “Paying it Forward”!

I knew from the moment I met Erin, when she teared up telling me this was her second trip to the Mtendere Orphanage, that her passion and dedication to helping the children was genuine and heartfelt.  

She’s a mom who has left her two young daughters at home with their father to come on this trip. She told me some friends questioned how she could leave her own children and travel to Africa but Erin says it’s because she loves her family so much that she needed to make this trip and in doing her second volunteer vacation in Malawi found herself again.

Erin says she returned to the States a better mother, wife and friend. 

Here’s Erin’s Volunteer Story in her Own Words: 

“For me volunteer vacations have meant an emotional exhale from life. I have had a chance to focus only on the task at hand which is giving, loving, learning, and experiencing new people and places. I have come home with a greater appreciation for my life, my husband, and my healthy happy children.  

Leaving is always hard because as I leave I know I am leaving so many behind. I felt a strong connection to the culture and people on my first trip to Malawi and really felt as if my choice to go there was somehow ”cosmic”. Once I arrived in Malawi I knew that my heart had led me in the right direction and there was a purpose for me there.

I don’t feel as though I have any special talents other than the fact I am a Mother. I take my role as Mother very seriously (despite what some might say since I did choose to leave my own children for almost 3 weeks). 

I went to Malawi to share my gift of love and understanding. I went to hug the children who don’t always get one. I went to sit and talk to kids who don’t always have someone to listen and I went play and laugh and sit in the dirt and blow bubbles so that if only for a moment those children felt like someone was there just for them.  

The bonus for me was being able to travel with such amazing people. People I would have never met and now people I feel connected to in a way most wouldn’t understand (but we do). There was no down side to these trips I have taken and I can’t wait for my next adventure!!” 

To hear more stories from volunteers about their amazing experience visit the Pay it Forward Trips website at www.payitforwardtrips.com. You can even write in and share your own volunteer story or find out information about different volunteer trips.

Also coming up: More about Volunteer Vacation in the TRAVEL THERAPY book coming out Spring 2009!