Sunday, June 13, 2010

Americans Abroad as "Witnesses for Peace"

My first night at the Casona Colonial I had the entire hotel to myself, but last night more visitors moved in.  This morning I met them, a trio of Americans from Duluth, MN and Superior, WI who are on a volunteering mission for an organization called Witness for Peace.  You can check out their website linked to the right.  I've also added Wikipedia's controversial articles about the organization, which supposedly is very pro-Sandinista.

The man, who I will call M, is a retired academic, and he told me they are part of delegation that will tour various agricultural regions in Nicaragua to assess the impact of NAFTA & CAFTA on the economies here & in other countries like Colombia & Venezuela.  M is traveling with R, a woman--also an academic from University of Wisconsin.  And a third younger woman is also traveling with them for part of their journey.

I visited WfP's website and checked out the page about the Nicaragua delegation.  It appears to be another one of those deals where you pay big bucks to "volunteer."  It's not a bad thing, I don't mean that, but $1000 plus airfare for a ten day mission strikes me as a little dear, at least for me personally.

At some point in the future, I might want to do some "volunteer travel."  It seems to be not such a bad way to put in some time, somewhere, for a good cause, to try to do one's part for the bigger picture, and so forth.  But I'd prefer to sign on with some organization that doesn't require me to pony up the thousands of bucks some of them ask for.  I can see giving either my money, or giving my time (and paying for my expenses as I do so).  But I can't quite bring myself to give just a little bit of my time and a lotta bit of my money, both.

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