An unconventional vacation

But an ever-increasing number of American travelers are changing the concept of what constitutes leisure time with volunteer vacations - international travel designed to do good.

Volunteer vacations operate much like real vacations: Travelers pay their own way, perhaps going through an agency or organization that arranges their trip. But the aim is humanitarian rather than relaxation. Vacationers spend their days doing some form of labor, and usually live simply in a remote or rural community.

There are volunteer-vacation opportunities in almost every country, and travelers have a choice of how intense they want their experience to be. Want something heavy-duty? Try a mission trip. Want to commit - but not too much? Go for the freshly coined "voluntourism" experience, in which a week of luxury vacation is combined with a day or so of service. Mobility International USA even provides volunteer vacations for people with disabilities.

More opportunities are popping up as more people express an interest in volunteer vacations. A Travelocity poll found that 11 percent of travelers planned to volunteer during their annual vacations in 2007, up from 6 percent in 2006. Vision Trust, a Colorado Springs organization that organizes short-term missions, has had to add a handful of trips each year since 2005 to accommodate growing interest.

But with trips that can cost hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars, wouldn't the money be better spent on direct aid? Not necessarily, say those who have taken the trips.

"If someone feels that (giving money) is how they can best contribute, then that's great," said Melissa Mitchell,

outreach and training coordinator for Mobility International USA, a nonprofit operating out of Eugene, Ore. "But if you're really looking to understand an issue or why a place does or doesn't have things, currently the best way is to go there and to see for yourself and talk to the people."

The face-to-face approach can help build commitment to the cause, say proponents of volunteer vacations. For example, most people who work with the Colorado Springs nonprofit Adopt-a-Village International got involved after attending one of its international trips.

"We think we gain much longer-term commitments and understanding if the people get a chance to see where their money is used," said Jack Thomas, program director for Adopt-a-Village, which works in developing countries and has no paid staff. "The chance to see the changes that you can make provides a personal - even emotional - connection."

As home to at least a half-dozen nonprofits that do work abroad, Colorado Springs offers a lot of homegrown opportunities for people to go on volunteer vacations. Here are a couple of tales from locals who made a journey to help others.

Sewing machines

When Linda Todd accompanied her husband, Steven, to the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in western Tanzania in the summer of 2003, all she expected to gain was a better understanding of what her husband did on his many trips with African Ministries, a Christian-oriented program that organizes short-term leadership schools in Africa. She didn't expect to become involved.

"When he came back, he always had such a life-changing experience and I wanted to understand," she said.

After teaching a routine Bible class to the women at the camp, one of them approached Linda with a request: "Bring us sewing machines."

She didn't think much of it at first because it fell far outside her husband's duties. As executive director of special projects for the organization, Steven has traveled to Africa more than 30 times and made eight trips to the Nyarugusu Refugee Camp, which houses 65,000 refugees from the civil war in Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi. Aside from bringing basic supplies - soccer balls for the children, and whatever hygiene products or simple paper goods he could scrounge up - AFMIN outreach involves teaching, not bringing provisions.

But Linda, a fourth-grade teacher at Remington Elementary School, couldn't forget about the request. So after five years of planning and raising almost $6,000 from friends and family, the Todds returned to the Nyarugusu camp in June to deliver 11 pedal sewing machines, the only kind usable in a place without electricity.

The Todds hope the sewing machines will help the camp create a formal commerce that the refugees desperately need. Although the U.N. provides a single meal of rice and beans every day, the refugees must provide for all other food and supplies - usually through bartering. With the sewing machines, the refugees can produce cloth and garments that can be sold and traded between camps, and provide much needed income for the inhabitants.

In Linda's honor, the refugees plan to open "The Linda School," a place where the women will learn tailoring.

It's a far cry from the initial desperation that Steven felt during his first visits to the camp.

"During one of my early trips, I just felt like I'm bailing out the ocean with a thimble," he said. "I was so overwhelmed, not just by the poverty, but by the enormity of hurt in these people's lives."

Since then, Steven said, he's seen the camp improve in all respects. Malaria and infant mortality rates have decreased, and the overall spirit is one of hope.

But Steven isn't about to stop his trips, despite the $3,500 cost of the journey.

"Us being there meant so much, just walking with them and holding the filthy little hands of these refugee kids," he said. "Nobody visits them, nobody sees them and nobody in the larger world has pity. It's such a priceless experience."

Trip to Peru

In June, a group of Doherty High School students traveled to Peru to help set up medical clinics.

Through Adopt-a-Village International, the nine high school students from Mike Verderaime's Spanish class spent two weeks practicing their Spanish, sightseeing and volunteering in the impoverished Iquitos region.

The students spent their first week working as aides to a Colorado Springs anesthesiologist and setting up temporary medical clinics in villages with little access to medical care. The Doherty teens served as translators and impromptu pharmacy workers, handing out basic medications and describing doctors' instructions in sometimes hesitant but accurate Spanish.

"I did a lot more than I thought I was going to be able to do," said Kelcy Schamehorn, a soon-to-besenior who helped pay for the $2,500 trip with money from her summer pool job. "Counting pills and telling the people how to take them - it was a really important job so it kind of scared me at first, but I ended up really enjoying it."

The students raised more than $10,000 to help fund the trip and purchase supplies. In addition they stocked their "pharmacies" with supplies of medicine and vitamins from corporate donations, and toiletries from personal donations.

The students are already working on doing more for the region by raising $10,000 for a water purifier, and planning next year's trip.

"It was just heartwarming and nice to see our nation's future seeing such an adult problem and confronting it," Verderaime said.

Still, student Paige Clarke, who will be a senior when school begins, found the level of poverty difficult to bear, and it was a difficult transition back into her ordinary life.

"It's almost sad when you get home and you look at all the stuff that you really don't need - just a simple shower and clean, clear water to brush your teeth with. It was really humbling to come back home," she said.

For student Phil Winchell, entering his senior year, the chance to witness a developing nation was worth the cost of the trip. "Of course there's poverty in the United States," he said, "but poverty there is so much different, so much worse. It's pretty crazy giving kids their first toothbrush."

Despite the extreme poverty the students saw, Paige thought the trip made a difference.

"I'm a firm believer in every little thing counts, it's kind of like a butterfly effect, one little thing can change someone's life," Paige said.