Traveller Not Tourist: Jay's Journey pt.6

Jay’s Journey by

Jay Chavez

Part 6: Dreamweaving and the Law of Attraction

I think one of the most valuable lessons I have learned in my life is that you don't know what you can do until you try - it turns out that building a website is one of the things I can do! Luis and I decided that this was an important step in the setting up of our organisation, and one which should be completed early on in the process. I remember writing down a list of possible names and then checking if the “.com” website was available. Happily for us, www.travellernottourist.com was still up for grabs so we grabbed it!

The name works on the premise that there is a distinction between the terms "Traveller" and "Tourist". It has become a widely held belief within travelling communities that a Traveller is someone who considers the environmental and human impact of their trips and actively strives to reduce the negative, and increase the positive, influence their presence has on the place they are visiting. In contrast to this a Tourist is someone who does not consider or care about their impact, does not engage with the locals in a meaningful way and may cause a lot of harm through their thoughtlessness. Please note: We don't mean any offence by applying the above labels, we just needed a reasonable way of explaining the differences between the two groups. Obviously, terms such as Eco-tourism and Responsible Tourism kind of confuse the issue.

With the name sorted, we moved on to the next task – designing the logo. Luis did this as we’d already decided that I was going to build the website and it was important to us that we were both contributing to the set up so that the organisation didn’t feel more “mine” or more “his”. I love the logo because it's a real visual representation of our basic premise - if you look closely you can see all the "tourist" things on one side and all the "traveller" things on the other.

And then it was my turn to get to work. I had never done any website design before and there were no books in English I could get hold of (and at the time we wouldn't have been able to afford one anyway!) so we just bought a pirate copy of Dreamweaver (a web design program) from the market for the equivalent of one UK pound and got stuck in. People have since commented that the "homemade" feel of the website makes it welcoming - well, that worked out well then! I still have a website “to do” list as long as my arm (the first item basically being "start again from scratch" now that I do have a book to learn from) and I have loads of great ideas I haven't yet had time to put into action but we've had well over 50,000 hits and we have links to our site on several different volunteer websites (including this one of course!) so it has definitely been worth all the work.

One of the things I have tried to use the website for is to cut down on administration time spent answering questions - there is loads of information on there, albeit not always very well organised! We still get people sending emails asking questions which are answered on the website though, so here's a tip on how to be a good volunteer - read the website/literature of your chosen organisation carefully, because every minute someone spends answering your questions is a minute they could be spending on promotion, fundraising, improving the in-country facilities etc. Of course, we are very happy to answer questions and we want to do everything we can to ensure our volunteers are well prepared and feel confident and happy - but if the information you are looking for is already on the website you might as well get it from there - you might even find out something else interesting along the way!

So, the website was a success and almost immediately got put on www.volunteersouthamerica.net where it has stayed until today, sending many, many volunteers our way. We started getting more and more volunteers coming with us to Elohim and working with the children. One couple, John and Lauren, came to us from a horrible volunteer placement in the US where they had been overworked and unappreciated. They decided quite early on that they didn't want to stay in a hotel so we helped them to find a flat. They put the deposit down and invited Luis and I to live with them as the flat had 3 bedrooms. This was a great break for us as, not only did it give us a really nice, central place to live (much better than anything we could afford on our own) but John and Lauren left us there when they returned to the UK, leaving their deposit as a donation. This allowed us to provide accommodation for incoming volunteers which made them feel safer and gave Traveller Not Tourist more of a community vibe.

This example demonstrates “The Law of Attraction” - something which has definitely been working overtime in our organisation. What I mean by this is that, when you start to do something good, help will come. You just start to attract the right people and events and influences. From the very beginning, when we chose a name, designed the logo and made the website it has felt like Luis and I were on some crazy ride - there have been ups, and some downs of course, but so many amazing people have found us by various means and so many amazing things have happened that it is like there is some invisible force pulling the things we need towards us.

And it works the other way too - sometimes it pulled people towards us who needed us. For example, it was around this time that an old friend of Luis' got in touch with him to say that they had set up an orphanage in Arequipa and could do with some help. We went to see the building and meet the kids and discuss what we could do.

The Casa Hogar Luz Alba is run by a South American philanthropic organisation and staffed entirely by volunteers, most of whom live at the orphanage 24/7, taking care of the children as if they were their own. The children range in age from just a few days old to 7 years (and occasionally older) and there can be up to 21 of them at any one time. The children are normally referred to the casa hogar by the government (who do not supply any funding) because they are deemed to be at risk due to neglect or abuse, often as a result of alcohol or drug abuse in their families. The ideal situation is that the children will be able to return to their family when the problems are sorted out, failing that they may be placed with a member of their extended family (aunts and uncles, grandparents etc) and, as a last resort, they are put up for adoption. Whatever the journey the children take hafterwards, it is obvious that the Casa Hogar is a welcome halfway house. The local volunteers are truly wonderful and the house itself is bright and clean and cheerful.

We immediately agreed to send some of our volunteers to help with the day-to-day running of the orphanage and care of the children. Tasks include; washing clothes, cooking, taking care of the babies, taking the children to and from school, cleaning and helping with homework. It might not seem like the most glamorous work ever but the manager of the orphanage recently told me that, if our volunteers weren't there to help, the orphanage would probably have closed down by now, and that would certainly have been a disaster for all the amazing children who have found shelter, nourishment and love within its modest walls.

Soon after this, we met a lady at Elohim who had been doing some bible study groups in a poor area on the opposite side of Arequipa called Chachani. She said she thought we could really help there so we agreed to go and see it. We were welcomed into the back yard of a lady called Victoria, who proved to be one of our greatest supporters in the area. After cake and pop (I can't remember the occasion now) and talking to kids and playing with dogs and parrots, we agreed to help there too and put into motion a program of English classes.

We decided to teach English because tourism is big business in Arequipa and, as the majority of tourists speak English, it is a valuable skill to have. Our volunteers also play games with the kids as we believe it is a fundamental right of children to play and we also feel that it increases their self-esteem, teaches co-operation and is good for their physical, mental and social development.

The lessons were initially given on the "cancha" (outdoor basketball court) but it was too windy and dogs and passers by made it difficult to concentrate. After that we moved the lessons into a communal community kitchen but there was only one table which wasn't the right height for the kids and it was dark and very cramped. At this point things with Elohim weren't going so well - the teachers were putting volunteers under a lot of pressure to buy food and other items and Rosa said that their foreign investors thought that we were giving them regular donations (which we weren't) and were therefore withdrawing their help. This made things rather awkward between us and in the end we decided to go our separate ways. Of course, we were a bit sad but Rosa believed it was the best thing for the children she worked with and it meant that we could concentrate our efforts on our other projects.

As our responsibilities had increased, we were now working with the orphanage and our new English teaching project in Chachani, we decided we needed to move our office from the flat to a more central and conspicuous location so we could attract more volunteers, so we started sharing an office with a friend who had a tour agency in the centre, it was at this point we made the difficult decision to start charging an admin fee to cover our costs.

When we first started the organisation we didn't charge anything and Luis and I paid for all the costs out of our own pockets - website hosting, computers, printers, stationery, our travel costs to and from projects etc. I remember times when we barely managed to scrape enough money together for lunch and we had holes in our shoes but couldn't afford new ones. Luis also sold some of his possessions in order to keep us going. He was working as a tour guide, trekking in and out of Colca Canyon, and I worked as an English teacher, neither of which earned us much money and we just couldn't continue living like that. One of the reasons we set up TNT (as we like to call it) was that we were disgusted by the volunteer organisations we had heard of that charge their volunteers thousands of pounds, very little of which seemed to reach the actual projects. We still have a rule that 100% of donations we receive goes straight to the projects (except for any fees taken by paypal or banks along the way) but we needed some way to keep the organisation going without leaving us destitute.

We have had to raise our admin fee a couple of times since then but it is still very reasonable at $100 for 2 weeks or more ($15 for the first day and $10 per subsequent day for the volunteer-for-a-day program). For this volunteers get a comprehensive induction and support from local staff throughout their volunteer period and we get to pay our Peru staff a decent wage, have a central office with all the necessary equipment and money for in-country promotion.

I have always felt a bit funny about donating to big charities because so much of your donation gets gobbled up in admin costs, that’s another reason to have a specific admin fee – anything and everything that comes after goes straight to where it should go – the projects. Although we do not require, or expect, our volunteers to make any further financial contribution after they have paid their admin fee, many do come with money they have saved or raised specifically to give as a donation. We actively encourage our volunteers to manage these donations themselves through our “Mini projects” program whereby they can identify a need or problem in the project they are working with and use their donation (and/or special skills or knowledge they bring with them) to satisfy or resolve it. Past projects include: Setting Victoria (mentioned above) up in business as a mobile sandwich seller when her husband abandoned her – this meant that she is now able to earn a living to support herself and her 3 children (2 of whom regularly attend our school); Organising a day of free dental treatment (and paying for the necessary equipment); Putting into place a speech therapy program for some of the children at the orphanage who were experiencing difficulties.

Some volunteers even use their donations to help make our organisation more self-sustainable – for example, we have recently had a group of volunteers produce postcards which are for sale at our office and on our website – all proceeds go to the projects (and the postcards are also a great marketing tool to attract new donors and volunteers)

These are just a few examples out of the many wonderful things our volunteers have done, above and beyond the daily volunteering tasks, to make a lasting difference in the lives of the people we work with. Whenever I feel a bit down, thinking about all the amazing people who have given so much time and energy and love always makes me feel revitalised and ready to take on the next challenge!

Next up - Part 7: It’s really real!