Tanzanian Weather

Just a short post for today to answer a question I’ve gotten a lot lately, which is about the weather in Tanzania. I can’t completely answer that question because, like the U.S., Tanzania is a geographically diverse country with many different climates, albeit on a much smaller scale. For instance, the south as a whole tends to be cooler since it’s further from the equator, while the coastal line tends to be much more hot and humid. The northern part of the country also tends to be warmer, except for the northwestern highlands, which are cooler due to their elevation.

So while I can’t answer this question in detail for the whole of Tanzania, I can answer it for Arusha specifically. Here’s the gist: From a temperature perspective it’s hot, although not overly-so, since it borders on the northwestern highlands. Being in the southern hemisphere, the seasons are reversed here, although the northern part of Tanzania is so close to the equator that it doesn’t matter all that much. December, January, and February are the summer months here, with the latter two being the hottest of the year. During the day right now it’s not uncommon for the temperature to reach 90-95 degrees Fahrenheit, and at night it cools down to 70-75 degrees; a tad different than the weather back home right now, from what I’m told (which is the primary reason I chose to come to Tanzania from November – April). During the winter months, however, I’m told that it doesn’t get too much cooler. Typical highs during the daytime are around 70-75 degrees, while in the nighttime it gets down into the 50s.

One aspect in which Tanzania is distinctly different than anywhere in the U.S. is that it is subject to dry and rainy seasons. During the dry season, it’s not uncommon to go weeks – even months – without rain, while in the wet season it may rain everyday, sometimes at torrential levels. Tanzania has two rainy seasons each year: the mvuli (the short rainy season) and the masika (long rainy season). As you might expect, the only difference is that the long rainy season lasts longer and brings with it more rain. The small rainy season takes place for about a month from early November to mid-December, while the main rainy season takes place throughout the whole of March and April and into May.

Of course, all of this is assuming the weather behaves normally. However, much like back in the States, the weather has been far from normal lately. The temperature has acted as expected but it doesn’t vary all that much to begin with, so that’s not saying much. The rainy seasons, however, have been a little screwy. Most of November was actually dry, and the rains didn’t actually arrive until almost early December. However, they made up for their tardiness by sticking around until halfway through January. Additionally, the main rainy season seems to have arrived early, as we have had rain most days over the past week.

Despite the abundance of rain lately though, I can’t really complain. The weather is still warm, and even on the days that it does rain, the sun still manages to make it out for a fair portion of the day - much like Florida weather, actually. I’m only hoping that it doesn’t ruin my time on the beaches of Zanzibar or make the roads down to southern Tanzania more difficult than they already are.

General Update, 2/25

Hello everyone,

Sorry for the delay in getting the blog restarted. It took me a little bit longer to get back into the blogging routine than I thought. At any rate, I just posted a new post on my trip to Nairobi today, and will have several more to post in the upcoming days.

I just wanted to give you all an update that I have finally confirmed in the last two weeks that I will be heading down to southern Tanzania to work with Global Family Rescue. It turns out there was some miscommunication with my contact over the last few months about which email address I should be using to get a hold of him. Everything is sorted now though, and I will be packing up to leave Arusha next weekend. It will be sad to leave the hostel and The Umoja Centre, but I have to admit that I'm looking forward to a change of pace and to see more of Tanzania.

As I said, the plan is to leave sometime next weekend - either Saturday or Sunday; I haven't decided yet - and then head to the island of Zanzibar for a couple days of rest and relaxation on the beach. On March 12th I will then take a ferry back to Dar es Salaam, the biggest city in Tanzania, and will stay that night with a Tanzanian contact I have met from GFR, Nestor. David, my GFR contact whom I met in Chicago before leaving, will then be arriving the following day, and the three of us will be heading down to Njombe (check Google maps to get a precise location if you're interested), where I will spend at least three of my final four weeks in Tanzania. I'm still finalizing the exact scope of my work, but I will let you all know as soon as I find out more details. Sometime in my last week I will be heading back up to Arusha to spend my last few days saying goodbye to friends before flying out of Kilimanjaro airport, which is only about 45 minutes outside Arusha.

In the meantime before I take off, I will be finishing my work up at the Umoja Centre and enjoying my last week in Arusha. I will also continue to update my blog, both with some retroactive posts from my dad's visit, as well as some new posts about Tanzania culture. Look for more updates soon.

Visa Issues and Swords of Meat

On January 27^th, a few days before my dad arrived for his two week visit, I made my first journey of any distance outside Arusha by spending a night in Nairobi, the capital city of Kenya.

My only real purpose for visiting Kenya was to renew my Tanzanian visa. To explain, I was issued a one year, multiple entry tourist visa through the Tanzanian embassy in the U.S. before arriving. However, the visa came with one rather annoying condition, which was that while I’m free to enter and exit the country as many times as I wish for the one year period, I’m never allowed to stay for a duration greater than 90 days at any one time. While I haven’t bothered to find the exact reasoning for this requirement, assuming that reason exists (which isn’t a safe assumption), I would venture a guess that it’s to keep people from “living” in Tanzania on a tourist visa by simply renewing the visa once each year. That makes sense in theory, but a popular way to circumvent this requirement, which I used, was to simply travel out of the country for one night, and then re-enter the country the following day, making me legal for another 90 days – and in my case, for the duration of my trip.

To be honest, I had no real interest in traveling to Nairobi. It has a reputation for being one of the most dangerous cities in Africa – as evidenced by its nickname, ‘Nairobbery’ – and many of the tourist attractions there are more expensive, which still would have been fine except I didn’t plan for any of them in my original travel budget. However, one attraction that was too tempting to pass up, regardless of cost, was an all you can eat “nyama choma” (steakhouse) named Carnivore. As someone who self proclaims he could eat steak every night for the rest of his life and never tire of it, I welcomed the thought of an all you can eat smorgasbord of grilled animal carcass induced euphoria. Making the restaurant even more appealing was the fact that I have been on a severe meat deficiency for most of my time in Tanzania. The hostel serves almost an entirely vegetarian menu, only occasionally interrupting its various takes on bread and vegetable medleys to serve fish or hamburgers. And while I’ve made an effort to find lunch venues that serve meat, the beef in general that I’ve found in Tanzania is of less than ideal quality. Combine these facts, and you can understand why I was so keen to visit a place whose name literally means ‘meat-eater’.

With only one objective in mind upon arriving to Nairobi, my trip was pretty simple and straightforward. I hopped on the 2:00 pm bus leaving from Arusha, traveled the seven and a half hour journey to Nairobi, got dropped off at the hotel, threw my bags in my room, and caught a taxi to take me straight to Carnivore. Being 10:00pm at the time of my arrival, I had plenty of time to enjoy dinner and make it back to the hotel to get some sleep before catching my 7:30 am bus back to Arusha.

Before I describe the dining experience, let me give a short background of the restaurant. Twice it has been voted among the 50 best restaurants of the world, although to be fair, this was before they had to stop serving some of their more exotic meats such as zebra, hardebeest, and camel (some lame reason about conserving the African wildlife or something…whatever). Nonetheless, it is still one of the most popular dinner destinations for tourists, and I had high expectations.

When I walked in, I was immediately confronted by a large circular barbeque pit room with see-through wire caging for walls. On the inside of the room were huge grills operating at full force, and on the cage walls themselves hung huge portions of cooked meat waiting to be served to customers. Not a bad first impression. Being transfixed by the barbeque pit, it wasn’t until I was finally on my way to be seated that I fully took in the size of this place. Not only could the restaurant itself easily seat about 300-400 people, but it was also connected to one of the biggest nightclubs I’ve ever been in (which sadly, I was only able to take a quick lap around after dinner before departing back to the hotel).

After being seated, my waiter for the evening came by to explain how things worked: there was a set menu, he would bring out soup first, then salad, and then when I was ready I could put up a flag to signal the other servers to start bringing me meat. Then, when I could eat no more, I would take down the flag; kind of like raising a white flag in surrender, only the exact opposite.

While waiting for my soup, I had the time to survey my surroundings a little further. As I mentioned, the waiter said that once I raised the flag, servers would start coming over to offer me various cuts of meat. Well, it turns out these servers are all over the place, and are easily identified by the fact that they are decked out in zebra-patterned aprons and a hat that looked like a cross between that of a Venetian gondolier and something Greg Norman would wear while he was choking away a Masters’ Championship to Nick Faldo. Most importantly, they were all carrying swords and spears of meat, most of which had to be two and a half feet long. I couldn’t wait.

So while I was admiring the biggest shish kabobs I had ever seen, my soup finally came out. At this point I was starving from spending the last 10 minutes staring at meat, so I think I inhaled the soup in about 90 seconds flat. Turned out it was some sort of broth based from animal meat. Imagine that. Needless to say, I was happy about how things were starting.

Next came the salad. Actually, I should say that next came five different salads on one of those rotating food serves. This wasn’t so I could pick my favorite, mind you; every salad was for me. To be honest, the salads all looked great and I’m sure I would have enjoyed them, but I was at an all you can eat steakhouse. Further, I had been on a healthy overdose of vegetables for the past three months, so there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of sense in wasting any space on lettuce leaves. Therefore, I did the only sensible thing and proceeded to ignore the salads entirely. And with that, it was time to put up the flag.

Within about three minutes server number one came over. “May I offer you some crocodile, sir?” Yes sir, yes you may. After taking my first bite, I immediately had flashbacks to one of my childhood (teenhood, I guess, to be more precise) trips to Florida where I tried alligator. At the time, I didn’t care for it much. But hey, this was crocodile; it could be different. Then again, maybe not. It still sucked. Similar to alligator, it’s just a little too chewy, and I’m not sure how to better describe the taste than by saying that even when it’s cooked properly, you’re left wondering if maybe it didn’t go a little bit bad before making it onto the grill.

The rest of the meal, however, was superb. Over the course of the next hour I demolished my way through multiple portions of sausages, two different cuts of beef, chicken, pork, three different cuts of lamb, and some surprisingly good ostrich meatballs. After thinking I couldn’t take one more bite, I reached for the flag. Time to surrender, or so I thought.

Just as I was reaching out, the guy serving the baby lamb chops – which were crazy good and the unexpected winner for my favorite cut of the night – came over. “Would you like another lambchop, sir?” Twist my arm; sure I’ll have another. But then he followed up with, “Actually sir, I only have three left in this batch. Would you just like to finish them off?” Ugh… Trust me, at this point I really wanted to say no. But considering how much I had ranted over the past weeks and months to anyone and everyone about how much I was craving meat since arriving, it just seemed like it would be a slap in the face to all of those who had to suffer through listening to me if I would have said no. So, silently thanking myself for having the sense to ignore the five salads, I went to work. Granted, they were baby lamb chops, but still, if you’ve ever been to that point where you absolutely don’t want to take another bite, then you can understand what a Herculean task chowing through three baby lambchops could be. Nonetheless, I endured through it and finished them off. By the end of the meal, over half my plate was full of only bones, gristle, and fat.

Overall, I’d have to say the meal was pretty solid, although not ‘top 50 restaurant in the world’ solid. Nonetheless, for someone craving meat since he arrived three months earlier, it definitely hit the spot. If you ever find yourself traveling through Nairobi, I would recommend taking the time to stop in.

General Update, 2/14

So I think it's very obvious to anyone who has been checking the blog lately that my posting frequency has dropped immensely since the turn of the New Year. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it was around the beginning of the New Year that a lot of the novelty of living in Arusha began to wear off. I had developed a fairly routine schedule - much of it spent at work - and the number of experiences I felt were worth writing has drastically reduced. Additionally, as I have become much more accustomed to the culture, I'm having more trouble distinguishing which experiences are interesting to read about back home and which would instead be considered mundane. Therefore, I've had to supplement the lack of experience posts with more informational and / or personal opinion posts (such as the post on independent volunteering) , which take much more thought, effort, revision, and therefore, time.

While lack of interesting subject material is partly to blame for the drop in posts, the bigger reason is that my access to a computer has been greatly reduced. I actually had access to a laptop about every other weekend for my first month and a half here, which allowed me to write posts in the evenings when I was back at the hostel. However, this has not been the case in the past month and a half and, combined with the fact that I spend most of the day working, I have not had ample opportunity to sit down and write posts.

A third and lesser reason for my lack of posting is that my dad has been visiting me these past two weeks, and I have spent much of the time traveling with him. While this has given me quite a bit of new material to write about, it again means that I have had neither the time nor the acess to a computer to blog.

Despite these reasons, I have good news to report. First, I kept written notes on a number of blogs which I wished to write before my dad came to visit, so that I would be able to come back later and turn them into proper posts. Second, my dad's visit and our corresponding travels has given me quite a bit of new and interesting material worth blogging about. Finally, in the last few days I have once again gained access to a laptop, which I will have for the next three weeks until I depart for southern Tanzania. Therefore, I will be spending the next three weeks trying to catch up on events from the past month and a half, as well as hopefully writing about a few new experiences as well. So be on the look out for much more frequent posting through the beginning of March.

Independent Volunteering, Part III: How to Find an Organization upon Arrival

It was 10:30PM. I had just walked off the plane at Kilimanjaro airport and was waiting at immigration to get my visa stamped. I was trying to keep a positive attitude, but one thought kept creeping back into my head, “What the hell am I doing here?” I had traveled halfway across the world in the past 24 hours, and despite planning this trip for the better part of a year, I was beginning to realize that I had surprisingly little knowledge of what life would be like here or how I was going to go about finding a volunteer opportunity. I spoke exactly one word of Swahili – “Jambo” (“hello”) - and wasn’t even sure how to go about doing something as simple as finding food to eat. The only thing I had was one contact – a friend of a friend with whom I had only previously communicated via email– who had promised to pick me up from the airport and arrange my first night’s accommodation. It was something, but considering how much uncertainty I was facing, it was hardly comforting.

Three months later, I’m writing this post having established a stable life in Tanzania. I’ve found two great organizations to volunteer with, a comfortable and enjoyable place to stay, and a network of friends made up of local Tanzanians, volunteers, and expatriates. So how did I go about getting from that first day, where performing even the smallest tasks were intimidating, to the point of creating this an established life? That’s a story for another day. However, I will discuss how you can go about not only replicating my experience, but hopefully doing it more easily, quickly, and with fewer mistakes.

The process of acclimating yourself to a new country and building a stable life during your independent volunteering experience can be challenging, starting from the moment you arrive. Without a doubt, the most daunting part of your trip will be those first few days. No matter how much Internet research you do, or how many current or former volunteers, residents, or travelers you talk to, nothing will quite prepare you for when you first step off the plane and realize you’re about to spend the next several months in a completely foreign environment. Further, you will be almost entirely alone, your only local contacts being friends-of-friends, most of whom you have probably exchanged no more than a handful of emails with, if that. However, despite these difficult days, you will be amazed at how quickly and easily you will be able to adapt when forced to. Of course, it’s also helpful to have some ideas beforehand as to where you can begin searching for opportunities, and this is where I will start.

If I could offer one word of advice for your first days upon arrival, it is not to worry about overspending your daily budget, especially if you don’t have any local contacts. Learning to live in a new city is like learning to do anything else; it takes time and effort, and you won’t necessarily be good at it right away. Therefore you may need to stay in nicer accommodations, eat at more touristy restaurants, and buy from more expensive shops while you are getting to know the city. Of course, you can certainly ease this process by doing some research beforehand, but you won’t truly gain an understanding of a city until you experience it for yourself (imagine trying to get a sense of the Sistine Chapel from reading about it in a book).

If you have local contacts in your destination city, they can be especially useful during your time immediately after arrival. Ask them to help you arrange your first few nights of accommodation, as well as transportation from the airport or bus station, and be sure to offer to compensate them in some way, be it cash, a meal, or a small present. If you don’t have a local contact, then book one of the popular tourist hotels in the area. Likely, they will offer some mode of transportation from the airport or bus station, although it may come at additional cost. Again though, it’s worth reiterating: Don’t worry about overspending your budget during your first few days. The peace of mind you attain from knowing you have a safe, reliable transport and a comfortable bed awaiting you upon arrival is well worth the extra money.

Your first order of business after settling into your hotel - other than getting a good night’s sleep if arriving late in the day - should be to find the bare essentials, which in this case means an ATM and a cell phone (or SIM card, if you have a phone with an unlocked SIM). The importance of cash is pretty self-explanatory, especially if you’re in an area that does not widely accept credit card. A phone will be important because it will serve as your primary means of following up with the contacts you will be making in the upcoming days, specifically in reference to leads on permanent accommodations and volunteer opportunities. You may also find it helpful to locate an internet café to aid you in any additional research and contact friends and family back home to let them know you arrived safely.

Once you have your cash and cell phone / SIM card, it’s time to start looking for permanent accommodation and volunteer opportunities. This is easiest done by talking with expatriates and other long-term volunteers, rather than native residents. While this may sound discriminatory, it is not, and there is good reason as to why foreign-born residents are a better source for this information. First, they will be aware of any additional challenges and hardships you may face as a foreign citizen living in the country, be it passport / visa issues or dietary restrictions. Also, as someone who was once new to the country themselves, they will be far more attune to any concerns or hesitations you may have about your new host country, and will be able to advise you as to how best to adjust to your new lifestyle conditions. This is a perspective that a native resident will simply be unable to provide. Finally, they will be much more likely to be a part of, or know, members of the volunteer community, given this is one of the most popular reasons westerners relocate to developing countries.

The best way to find ex-patriates or other volunteers is to utilize any existing contacts you made before your arrival. In the absence of any existing contacts, you’ll have to go out and search for them on your own. Most cities – especially those with a large presence of NGOs – will have at least a few popular ex-patriate hangouts. An easy way to identify these locations is through the use of a guidebook such as Lonely Planet or Rough Guide. If you don’t happen to have a guidebook handy, another option is to inquire about them at any popular tourist hotel. The receptionists should be knowledgeable about the popular restaurants and bars frequented by ex-patriates and western visitors, and will usually be happy to help, regardless of whether you are actually staying at the hotel (although a tip is probably appropriate).

Once you have the names of a few places, it’s up to you to go out and network. For those who aren’t natural networkers, this process may seem uncomfortable. Fortunately when traveling, you should never be at a shortage for easy topics of conversation. All you need to do is ask questions: “What brought you here?” “How long have you been here?” “How long are you staying?” Once the conversation turns to you, it will be completely natural and fitting to mention that you just arrived in town and are looking for a volunteer opportunity. I’ve found that most ex-patriates / volunteers / travelers are usually eager to help out in whatever way they can. And even if they can’t help, at the very least you will come out of the conversation with a new friend.

So you know how to find information about accommodation and volunteer opportunities; now how exactly do you go about choosing which opportunities to pursue? I’ll discuss how to go about choosing you accommodations first, as the criteria are fairly straightforward and familiar to anyone who has ever searched for a place to live before:

Cost: Does the price fit within your budget? Are there any extras included, which would reduce other areas of expenses (e.g., a hostel which provides breakfast / dinner)?

Safety: Is it in a safe neighborhood? Do the locks on all windows and doors work? Are additional safety precautions taken, if required in the area where you are staying (e.g., burglar bars, security walls, guards, etc.)?

Location: Is it in a convenient location? Is it close to public transportation, stores, and restaurants?

Comfort: Will you be able to easily perform basic tasks (e.g., cooking, laundry, etc.)? Is it equipped to deal with any infrastructure challenges (e.g., generator for power outages)? In general, do you think you can feel at home there?

You should explore multiple locations and price ranges to get an accurate picture of housing costs in different areas of town. Also, if possible, you may want to look into a variety of living arrangements (e.g., single apartment, hostel, etc.), and determine which is most appealing to you. Once you have explored several options, you should choose your favorite and arrange a short trial period (preferably no more than a couple days, although depending where you are at, it may not be possible to arrange for anything less than a month). This is to ensure there are no problems which are not immediately obvious during a showing, such as excessive noise during the night, a leaky roof when it rains, and so forth.

The process for choosing a volunteer experience is very similar to that of finding accommodations, albeit with different factors of consideration. In this case, they should include:

Personal Interest: Are you passionate about the cause? Is it a demographic you are interested in helping? Does the work sound appealing? Will you be excited and motivated to come in each day?

Opportunity for Impact: Will the opportunity fully utilize your talents and past experience? Will there be an opportunity to expand your role over the duration of your commitment? Will you be given the autonomy to shape your role according to your skills and interests?

Organizational Ethics: Is it clear the funding is being used appropriately? Are the benefactors of the organization treated will? Do clear guidelines / policies exist to govern the organization?

Organizational Culture: Do you like the culture / feel of the organization? Do you enjoy the people with whom you will be working? Can you have a healthy working relationship with them?

Convenience: Is the organization an easy commute from your place of accommodation? Is lunch provided or easily accessible? Are work hours flexible when needed (e.g., can you take a day off if you need to take care of visa issues or other important matters)?

Once you have chosen an organization, you should once again arrange a short trial period, somewhere between 3-5 days, to get as accurate a picture as possible of what your volunteer experience would be like. If you’re having trouble narrowing the list, it’s possible to do a trial period with more than one organization at a time, although I recommend limiting yourself to no more than three at once. If the trial period is a success, then you can make a commitment. However, if it doesn’t live up to expectations for whatever reason, feel free to move onto the next organization on your list and try again. Once you have made a commitment, be sure to contact the other organizations you have been in communication with to inform them of your decision and thank them for their time and any opportunity they extended to you.

From this point, it’s up to you to make the most of your opportunity. If you have any additional questions, feel free to post them as comments or send me an email.

Independent Volunteering, Part II: How to Choose Your Destination

Note: For simplicity, I will limit this discussion to only relief work in developing countries, although in reality NGOs and relief organizations exist nearly everywhere in the world

So, you’re sold on taking the independent volunteer route, but haven’t a clue as to how to go about doing it? Where do you begin?

First you need to choose a destination for your trip. Important factors to consider when deciding include:

Personal Interest: Where have you always wanted to travel? Which cultures seem especially interesting or appealing to you? Which cultures have you always wanted to learn more about?

Cost: In general, what is the cost of living of your potential destination? What is the range in the cost of living, depending on various levels of comfort (i.e., low budget vs. high budget living)? How do these costs compare to your allotted budget for volunteering?

Challenges: Is there a significant language barrier? Will the trip require special vaccinations? Are there any difficult climate conditions? Are there safety concerns? If any of these challenges do exist in one of your destinations, it doesn’t mean you should refrain from going there. However, it is important to be aware of their existence and honest with yourself in your ability to handle them.

Need: What do you know about the social and economic problems of your potential destination? Intuitively, does it seem that your skill set (e.g., language skills, teaching, business, carpentry, etc.) could be used to address some of these problems?

With the exception of need, these are the same factors which need to be considered when you do any long term traveling. This is a subject that has been written about extensively (including my favorite book on the subject, found here), and therefore I won’t go into any further detail on them in this post.

Once you've narrowed down a list of potential countries, the next step is to research NGOs, not-for-profits, and relief agencies that exist in each area. The goal here is to ensure volunteer organizations exist in your potential destination. It's advisable to search at both the country and city level, which may help you refine your decision on a final destination. If you are having trouble locating NGOs in a specific country or city, you should be wary of pursuing volunteer opportunities there (Read: There's a reason they aren’t there). While a general Google search can suffice, you may also find it helpful to visit websites specifically dedicated to connecting volunteers with opportunities, such as www.idealist.org. Search specifically for volunteer opportunities posted in English. Again, the goal is not to find the specific organization with whom you will volunteer; rather, it is only to ensure that an active volunteer network exists within your destination. Remaining non-committed can be easier said than done, as you may find numerous volunteer opportunities or project descriptions which sound interesting and exciting. Just remember, description and reality can often be vastly different, and the only true way to get a sense for a project is to actually experience it for yourself. That being said, you may find useful leads worth pursuing once you do physically arrive at your destination.

A second resource, which is often times the most valuable, is other individuals who have travel or volunteer experience in your potential destination. Once you have narrowed your list of potential destinations to two or three options, don’t hesitate to let anyone and everyone know about it. Be sure to let them know your areas of interest, and tell them you’re interested in talking with anyone they might know with experience in the area. You’ll be amazed at the number of names you receive in response. You should follow up with as many of these contacts as possible, no matter how distant (your sister’s boss’s wife’s niece who spent two months in Cambodia is a perfectly legitimate contact, assuming your interest is in Southeast Asia). Also, don’t be afraid to talk with people who have travel / volunteer experience in destinations other than those on your short list. You may find new areas of interest which you hadn’t previously considered.

There are two reasons why I find individuals with first-hand experience to be of more value than any other form of research. First, these connections may have local contacts who still reside in your destination, be it native residents, ex-patriots, or long term volunteers. Further, they will most likely be willing to connect you with these people, thereby making your life infinitely easier from the moment you arrive. Second, they are the most reliable source of information, period. Oftentimes, there are many different sources of conflicting information about travel destinations. How much of the local population actually speaks English in your potential destination? Is the area safe, as the country’s tourism website claims, or are incidents like the one you read about in a national newspaper - where a traveler had to escape from a gang of machete wielding thieves - commonplace? Sometimes it’s difficult to tell. But anyone who has spent a couple months living there will be able to answer these types of questions in a level of detail with which you won’t find in any book or on any website. As long as you trust the individual and are planning on a similar experience (i.e., you aren't talking to someone who toured the country by staying in five start hotels while you are planning a budget volunteer trip), you should take their word over any other source of information.

Once you’ve thoroughly conducted all your research, it’s time to make your decision. While most people find choosing a country fairly easy, they are often not nearly as picky about cities, and therefore can have a harder time deciding on their specific destination. If this is the case, use the following three criteria to help you make your decision:

Local Contacts: Which cities do you have friends, or friends-of-friends, who are willing to help you settle and find organizations? Once again, having local contacts will make your life infinitely easier upon arrival, and therefore is a factor that should be given signification weight in your final decision, especially if it is your first time volunteering in a developing country.

Expatriate / Foreign National Population: If you don’t have any local contacts, it may be necessary to base yourself out of a city with a large expatriate community, specifically when traveling to a country with a significant language barrier. This will make the process of developing local contacts, and therefore finding volunteer opportunities, easier. While exact numbers may not be readily available, you should be able to form a general idea based on information found on the Internet.

Presence of NGOs: Again, this is where you should rely on your Internet research. Were you able to find a significant number of NGOs in the area? How many opportunities were posted in English on volunteer websites such as idealist.org?

After making a decision, you simply need to book your flight, apply for a visa, get your immunizations, and arrange accommodations for the first couple of nights and transportation from the airport or bus station upon arrival. Again, detailed information on how to go about doing this can be found in long-term travel publications such as Vagabonding. Check in soon for part III, which details what to do upon arrival.

Independent Volunteering, Part I: What is Independent Volunteering?

Having now gone through the process of planning my own independent volunteering experience, I wanted to write about how others can go about doing it for themselves. Therefore, the next three posts will be dedicated to the independent volunteering process. The first post will define what independent volunteering is, and talk about the pros and cons of taking the independent volunteer route. The second will explain how to choose a location for your independent volunteering experience, and the final installment will describe how to go about finding an organization with which to volunteer once you arrive. If anyone else feels inspired to volunteer independently, then hopefully, by the end of these posts, they will feel confident in how to go about doing so.

First, it’s important to define exactly what independent volunteering is. The best definition I found using an online Google search was ‘making all volunteer travel and living arrangements without the help of a third party organization’. (In contrast to the more common option of volunteering through all-inclusive programs which arrange all travel and accommodation, in addition to providing the volunteer experience). However, while this definition is technically accurate, I feel it fails to address one key aspect of the independent volunteering process. I would therefore add the criterion that true independent volunteering involves explicitly waiting until after arriving at your destination to find and commit to an organization. While this may seem like a technical detail, it’s actually an important aspect to helping you achieve all the benefits of independent volunteering.

So, now that you know what independent volunteering is, why do it? When making my own decision, two specific factors stuck out: flexibility and cost. First, volunteering independently gives you much more flexibility in almost all aspects of your experience. To begin, you are not confined to the time frame of a program. You can plan your start and end dates around important aspects of your life back home, such as your job, an apartment lease, the holidays, important family events, friend’s weddings, or even the ski season – whatever’s important to you. You’re also free to volunteer in whatever capacity you like, and can even split time between multiple organizations if you desire. Finally, you have the freedom to mix your volunteering with as much or as little travel as you’d like.

In addition to being more flexible, independent volunteering will usually be cheaper as well, provided you aren’t trying to live a life of luxury. One explanation for this is because volunteer program expenses will always include administrative fees to cover the costs of arranging the logistics of your trip for you. A second reason is that, oftentimes, a large portion of program fees go directly to support the projects themselves (e.g., buying raw materials, covering on-going operational costs, etc.). While this provides projects with necessary and, oftentimes, much needed funds, I can think of two reasons why it is also unfavorable. First, from a program perspective, it prevents would-be volunteers who are unable to afford the prohibitive costs of these programs from donating their time and efforts. Second, from a volunteer standpoint, it gives you very little control over how the program coordinators use those funds. Independent volunteering, on the other hand, not only allows you to choose the amount you want to give to your organization, but also puts you in a much better position to direct where and how those funds will be spent.

One other possible explanation for high program fees is corruption. Many organizations masquerade as NGOs - which are not legally allowed to make profit - but keep a large portion of the money they charge volunteers as personal income. Sadly, I have heard a number of stories of volunteers who paid large program fees, only to find they were housed in sub-par accommodations on projects that suffered greatly from lack of proper funding. While these corrupt organizations are certainly the exceptions rather than the rule, it can often be difficult to separate the honest organizations from the dishonest ones before actually arriving on site. Independent volunteering can help minimize the risk of inadvertently aiding these corrupt impersonators by giving you the opportunity to visit an organization before committing to it. Getting the chance to inspect the conditions of the organization, chat with other volunteers, and interact with beneficiaries (e.g., students, the local community, etc.) should enable you to accurately access the honesty of an organization, and therefore provide reasonable assurance that both your time and money are going toward an honest cause.

While independent volunteering offers many advantages, it’s also not without its challenges and disadvantages. First, it involves significantly more research upfront than traditional volunteering. It also lacks the structure and security of a volunteer program, and therefore independent volunteers must have a willingness to spend at least the first part of their trip in a state of limbo (I adamantly insist finding an independent opportunity is not as difficult as most people think, but nonetheless concede that anyone wanting to take the independent volunteer route must be willing to deal with a little bit of uncertainty). Third, the time it takes to set up a volunteer experience makes the independent volunteering option ill suited for short durations of time. Therefore, those who are unable to take extended absences from work or other commitments (at least two months, although three to six months is preferable) may find it a difficult option to pursue. Finally, it’s worth noting that volunteering independently can sometimes limit the places in which you can offer your services. Specifically, it is unlikely you will be able to volunteer in remote areas or villages, which can usually only be accessed by Western travelers with the support of an organization that has access to translators and specialized knowledge concerning how to survive in more exposed conditions.

A final difficulty of independent volunteering that deserves special mention is the issue of obtaining a volunteer visa. Most, if not all, countries will require you to apply for a volunteer, rather than a tourist, visa if you want to partake in relief work. However, volunteer visas can be difficult to obtain on your own. For example, Tanzania requires you to submit evidence that you are affiliated with a specific organization before they’ll issue you a volunteer visa. If you wait until after your arrival to choose an organization, you’ll obviously be unable to submit this required paperwork. Finding an organization like Ujamaa Hostel, who will submit your volunteer visa on your behalf by using themselves as an umbrella volunteer organization, is one solution to this problem. However, these types of organizations are few and far between, and therefore might not exist in the community in which you wish to volunteer. Nonetheless, their convenience means you should at least do a quick Internet search for them before pursuing other options. A less cost effective, but more practical, approach is to enter the country on a tourist visa, and then apply for a volunteer visa once you have found and committed to an organization. However, this will involve arranging and paying for two visas, which can be expensive (in the case of Tanzania, about $100 per visa). Additionally, you may have to volunteer without a proper visa for a certain period of time while the visa is being processed. This is technically illegal, although rarely enforced in most places. Nonetheless, it is a risk both you and the organization need to be aware of and mutually agree to take on. While the process of obtaining a volunteer visa can be nebulous and somewhat difficult, you simply need to be patient and persistent and it will eventually work itself out. (Note: I am working on finding better strategies for dealing with this obstacle, and will post them if and when I find them)

In summary, independent volunteering offers a wealth of benefits to anyone willing to fore go the certainty of a pre-arranged, structured program and do a little extra upfront research. Although the task of arranging an independent volunteer experience can be daunting for first timers, the process is infinitely less complex when you know what to look for in a destination and which resources to utilize to go about finding relevant information. Check back in tomorrow for part II, which will explain this process in greater detail.