Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Life Changing Travel: The i-to-i story

When it comes to travel, there are different schools of thought. One is the idea of getting away from it all, and detoxifying from daily life with a mai-tai and a beach chair. Not that there's anything wrong with that; in fact I'm very much in favor.

But there's another school of thought, that the meaning of travel is not to get away from life, but to throw yourself into it with both feet. That's the philosophy behind i-to-i.com, a British organization that feeds travellers into worthy projects around the globe. Sicne 1994 they've dispatched 20,000 volunteers and taught another 50,000 to be English-as-a-second-language teachers.

Here's information on their Indonesian branch, which currently includes options like working with orphans and disabled people, or teaching English while surfing on the side, both of which take place in Bali. It requires some effort on your part - and a fee, too, which helps fund the projects - but you'll be left with more powerful memories than if you spent your whole vacation drunk in a bar in Kuta.


Today's Top Stories

The rupiah, now good for making paper airplanes
If you can't beat them, buy them: Conservationists get aggressive
Wage caps: Saving businesses, or creating more poverty?

No comments: