| Diane Emerson: Global Volunteer |
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Diane has taken international volunteering to the extreme by selling most of her possessions to go around the world and help others, and has kindly agreed to write a series of articles for us in which she will tell her story. Hello. I was asked to write a bit about myself for this wonderful new website, created to help people who wish to travel and volunteer. I have been doing just that since December, 2006, when I sold or gave away most of my possessions, put the rest in a few boxes stashed away with friends and family, and hit the road. I had been looking after my father for over 2 years. He was in a good place and it was time for me to begin a new life. I wanted to travel more, but no longer wanted to travel as a tourist. My travel had to have meaning in it. I considered teaching English and traveling, or finding a job that involved travel, but neither of those options appealed to me. They left me cold. And then I realized that I had just enough money in savings that if some organization would give me a place to pitch my tent, or a roof over my head, that I could afford to just travel and volunteer. I could indulge myself in helping people with no thought of charging for my services. I could help animals. I could work in organic gardens and farms. I could do marketing and communications for small nonprofits who didn’t have the skills to do these things on their own. I could go to a monastery and serve the holy people who live there, and maybe some of their peace would make its way to me. A wonderful new world opened up to me, and I was energized to my core just thinking about it. Once I decided to do this, it took about 6 months to finish my teaching commitments and sell the apartment building I had been renovating, and then I was off. I started with a 10 day Vipassana silent meditation retreat, helped my youngest sister and her husband for a month, and went on from there. Some of the places and organizations I have volunteered for include Couchsurfing in New Zealand, Minnesota Indian Women’s Resource Centre in Minneapolis, Feed My Starving Children in Minneapolis, Hope Disability Centre in Kashmir, India, Vipassana meditation Centre in New Zealand, and Te Whangai Trust in New Zealand. I am currently finishing a year with the Hope Disability Centre, and have just applied to the Nonviolent Peaceforce for a position as an unarmed peacekeeper. I have come to realize that I have the greatest luxury of all in our modern world – the luxury of time. Time to research ideas, organizations, philosophies, places. Time to stop along the way and enjoy this amazing planet we live on, and take photos of it for others to enjoy. Time to stop whatever I am doing and help a person who needs it on my path. Time to read. Time to meditate. Time to reflect. Time to ride a bicycle from place to place instead of drive. Time to take long walks. Time to write a blog. Time to go for a 10 day silent meditation retreat once a year. And time to give to others. Here is the blog of my experiences during this adventure: www.diane-emerson.blogspot.com And here are the websites of the organizations I support the most, after nearly 4 years of research, donating, and volunteering: http://www.dhamma.org/ (vipassana meditation) http://www.nonviolentpeaceforce.org/ (unarmed peacekeepers) www.cnvc.org (Nonviolent Communication) www.emofree.com (Emotional FreedomTechnique) http://www.freetheslaves.net/ (to end slavery) www.hopecentre.webs.com (Hope Disability Centre) www.webs.com (for free websites for small nonprofit orgs to update themselves) www.tewhangai.com (keeping people out of prison in New Zealand and creating a sustainable native forest) www.fmsc.org (Feed My Starving Children) www.peta.org (animal rights) -- That's the end of Diane's first post, but she will be back again soon. |
