While we were sitting there in the park, one guy threw away his cigarette butt in the lake. Obviously, it would contaminate this beautiful and shiny lake.
The colorful goldfish would continue to die because of it. I asked him, “Hey! What are you doing? Why did you do that?”

“What? How old are you?” the guy said.
“I think I am younger than you,” I said.
“Ha! Then just stay quiet. It’s none of your business. I think you are really rude!”
“What? Hey, think about the goldfish! Are you going to be happy if I throw a cigarette butt at you?”

He reviled me, and he tried to hit me. I couldn’t understand why he was angry like a mad dog. My friend persuaded him and me to clam down. I was
really angry, so I just left that place. Later, my friends asked me,

“Hey! Why did you do that?”
“What? What did I do?”
“You shouldn’t do that. He is older than you!!”
“What? He was wrong. I didn’t do anything wrong!”
“This is Korea. Even though he was wrong, you shouldn’t blame him.”

As you know Travel2Change is about travelling to foreign communities with a direct commitment to do positive change. Some of you may have thought about, or even considered doing volunteer work to somehow make a positive contribution. But where to start?

There are many companies that now facilitate volunteer travel – helping to connect volunteers with causes they are truly passionate about. Finding these would be the first step. In choosing a company, the challenge is to determine which organizations really deliver on what they promise. Often you only have a company’s website to rely on. Here are a few things you should look for:

I would suggest establishing some clear criteria when selecting your travel company. To have full confidence in them, you should clearly understand what you will be doing, why it is being done, and if it being done in a responsible way. The second step is to decide what type of volunteering you would like to do. The first type is volunteer projects, which are trips in which the volunteering is the only object of the trip, and volunteers are expected to come with the skills needed to accomplish the objective. A ‘learning experience’ is a similar volunteer project, but volunteers are not expected to know everything to get it done, and will get support to be able to contribute. Do you have any expertise or skills you would prefer to contribute? Lastly, volunteer vacations is when the project is part of the trip only as an experience in addition to a vacation.

There are several more areas that must at some point be considered, like are you looking to contribute to infrastructure, education, health or women’s rights? (and more). My advice is to pick your area of interest, even if it is not your area of expertise. It is essential that you feel you are able to contribute in something that matters to you. An extra pair of hands is always needed.

-Jesper Haugan

A sherpa once asked a mountain climber “Do you come here to see or to watch?” The sherpa was a member of a Himalayan people living on the borders of Nepal and Tibet, renowned for their skill in mountaineering. The mountain climber responded, slightly confused “What do you mean?”. He was a young man, in his twenties, who already had climbed many peaks in Pakistan and Nepal. The sherpa, who had the patience of a mountain, was quiet for a little while before he responded “Many come here to watch and reach the top, but few stay to see”.

The sherpa is right. The few of us who stay for a moment are the ones that make a difference in the lives of people belonging to local communities. We stop because we know our efforts will bear fruits. Just as the sherpa, this is all we ask of you at travel2change. Get involved and aim for the top of the mountain. But don’t forget to stop to smell the flowers along the trail.

Are you looking to Travel2change on Maui? Maui attracts thousands of tourists each month… but how can you make your time worthwhile and at the same time be a part and help the local community? You should reconsider your hotel-booked kind of trip and just backpack with the essentials. (Don’t forget: flashlight, tent, water container, knife) Hitch hiking around Maui is extremely easy… so don’t be afraid! Stick your thumb out and in no time you will be picked up. Everyone is extremely friendly and you will be surprised of how interested people are to listen to your story and into sharing theirs. Instead of a boring hotel stay, you should get in contact with the Mystic gardens (http://mysticgardenshawaii.wordpress.com/). The Mystic gardens is a magical place situated not far away from the little Haiku town on the Maui north shore or “upcountry” as the local saying goes. At the Mystic gardens they are focused in co-creating a permaculture farm & conscious community to cultivate artistic/spiritual expression and evolution. The goals of the farming community as stated on their website are: -Create a sustainable lifestyle by growing up to 100% of our food, and develop off-grid energy and water catchment systems. – Develop & offer a 1-week immersion program integrating Permaculture, Hawaiian wisdom (Huna), and Yoga. – Co-create a sacred sanctuary encouraging artistic expression by providing creative tools, space, and time to pursue the arts. You will be able to negotiate your free staying at the garden with some hours of work around the farm. During your stay you will be able to learn many aspects of farming as well as permaculture and Hawaiian traditions. The other community members will accept you as a brother\sister and you will have the opportunity to interact with different interesting individuals like John Dillon that has lived on the farm for 3 years and is currently working on his music career (http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/John-Dillon/203754333055849). Hope this blog was helpful to you; do not hesitate to ask me any questions

As someone who has not traveled outside the United States, in my 24 years of existence, I am really excited to for my study abroad trip to South Korea. I can not wait to soak in the culture in my own eyes and hands and get lost in the deep ponderings of how their culture could be implemented in other countries to promote change. *que wavy segway dream like sequence*

For example: • South Korea Robot industry is a booming business. They have robots that teach class, make toast, and conduct an orchestra and so much more. What if those same robots were placed in the hands of villagers in Mali, where little girls have to walk miles to collect water for their families daily? What if they program their robots to fetch the water for them? They would store the water inside them, and come back quickly and if someone stole their robot they couldn’t get it to it because its password protected, but luckily it has a GPS tracking system so the owners could get it back. What if??

• On May 5th, every year, Koreans celebrate Children’s Day, which is simply a day to recognize and show appreciation for children. Typically children of the family are showered with gifts, money and take trips. For countries where children labor is mandatory for family survival, think the holiday will give one day for children to act, behave and appreciate being a child, instead of as a working young boy or girl. It still does not change the awful situation but it would give these children something happy and fun to look forward to because it is all about them. What if?

• South Koreans practice with Concept of Kibin, which is a state of mind, associated with pride, saving face, and personal feelings. This concept affects every aspect of Korean life. This means maintain harmony, calm, pleasant atmosphere at all times. Kibin is a wonderful concept that should be a adopted world wide. Maybe there would be fewer wars and fewer crimes. What if?

These are some of the thoughts I hope to contemplate and share, with the hopes it inspires positive change with at least one individual.

Being that I have never traveled outside of the US, I decided to look up other countries in need of fresh drinking water. As I expected, Africa was the country most in need of this precious resource. For example, in East Africa, the number 1 disease that takes the most lives is Malaria, followed by Measles. As depressing as it is, this led me to want to look up some of the most deadly water-borne diseases out there.

First, Malaria is a parasitic disease that involves high fevers, shaking chills, flu-like symptoms, and anemia. As stated earlier, this is one of the number-one killers in Africa.

Pinworms are small, thin, white roundworms (about the length of a staple) that sometimes live in the colon and rectum of humans. Pinworms are more hygiene related, meaning that someone can contract them by using unclean water to bathe.

Lastly, Cholera outbreaks can occur in any part of the world where water supplies, sanitation, food safety and hygiene practices are inadequate. Overcrowded communities with poor sanitation and unsafe drinking-water supplies are most frequently affected. Cholera presents with intense vomiting and diarrhea.

If learning about these terrible water-borne diseases doesn’t cause you to want to help communities prone to them, I’m not sure what will! Thanks to Travel2Change and other related organizations, areas in the world with unsafe drinking and bathing water have a fighting chance to contest these scary water-borne diseases!!

Having the ability to travel has always been uncommon luxury for myself, due to the fact that I hardly have the finances in order to travel somewhere. It is probably because of this fact that I really appreciate the times that I do get to travel to some place. Throughout my lifetime I have only left Hawaii on about 5 different occasions, where each time it has affected me greatly. Having the ability to experience life outside of Hawaii, I have been able to witness different cultures/sub-cultures, which is much different than island life. Although each trip has served a different purpose, it was a refreshing experience, which i would like to continue. Being able to interact with people from different places, has been healthy for me, because I found that most people outside of Hawaii are actually really good people. This experience is refreshing for me, because before going on these trips, I could only rely on bad information and rumors about how people from the mainland are; usually being negative info. This is of course not true from my experience, which goes to show how respectful and closer society is getting. I can honestly say traveling has had a positive effect on me.