Voluntourism: Not just for the young or wealthy

We often hear about high school or college kids going off to build classrooms or work with children in developing countries. We also hear about their fundraisers, because these trips can be pricey.

But “voluntourism” doesn’t have to be expensive, and it’s not just for young people.

I’m a 53-year-old empty nest mother who recently spent three weeks traveling and volunteering in Guatemala. I discovered that there are hundreds of grass roots non-profits working in this Central American country, and most of them do not charge volunteers. Some offer room and board home stays for a nominal fee. Some even pay a small stipend (usually for a longer term commitment). The minimum time commitment varies, but many ask for a week or a month.

I chose to visit two organizations and to work with one for a week. It was even more rewarding than I imagined.

Today I’ll tell you about one of the organizations I visited. In future posts I’ll talk about the other two, and how you can plan your own voluntourism trip.

Opal House, serving poor kids in rural Guatemala

Seven years ago, Will Boegel was a podiatric surgeon and “Doctor of the Year” at Virginia Mason in Kirkland. His wife Diane was an emergency room nurse at Group Health. They had both done medical missionary work and felt a calling to devote themselves full-time to serving poor children.

Then they stumbled on a 70-acre coffee and avocado farm for sale in a small town in Guatemala. Agua Escondida is off the tourist circuit, perched high above Lake Atitlan, a crystal-blue caldera at the heart of the Guatemalan Highlands. From the property you can see seven A-shaped volcanoes, and all the way to the Mexican border.

The Boegel's used their life savings and raised additional funds to purchase the farm, and founded Opal House, a 501c3 charity. Their goal is to help the impoverished community in whatever ways they can. The couple are Catholic but do not proselytize. “We really have no agenda,” Will says, “other than to be good neighbors.”

Will volunteers at a nearby hospital. Once a year he hosts a group of surgeons to perform free foot and leg surgeries on crippled children.

The Boegels hire local workers to help with the farm, injecting much-needed jobs and money into the struggling local economy.

They have converted one of their outbuildings to a small apartment, where they provide free transitional housing to Mayan women and children facing domestic or financial crises.

To help address the lack of early childhood education, the Boegels started a Montessori school. On the morning I arrived for a two-day visit, a dozen adorable preschoolers were quietly focused on individual activities. Later, the kids helped prepare a nutritious snack and washed their own dishes. Local malnutrition rates are high, due in part to poverty and in part to a lack of nutritional awareness and the prevalance of junk food. (Diane told me children often refer to soda pop as “agua,” or water.)

When school was over, the children piled into the Boegel’s “school bus,” a small yellow rickshaw called a tuk tuk. Will invited me to come along. Bouncing through town with those happy children was one of the highlights of my trip.

Talking about taboos

In the afternoon I attended a weekly after-school group for preteen girls. Run by Diane and Jakelyn, a local Mayan woman, the group discusses things that aren’t traditionally talked about in Guatemalan homes or schools, such as menstruation. The 10- to 12-year-olds were shy at first, but soon the questions came in a torrent. Diane and Jakelyn hope to reduce the likelihood of teen pregnancy and inspire the girls to stay in school.

The next day I helped plant and water cypress, coffee, and avocado trees. The Boegels have planted 6000 trees so far, to help prevent landslides caused by the heavy tropical rains and steep volcanic slopes. They’ve converted the farm to organic and hope to inspire local farmers to stop using the subsidized chemical fertilizer that is degrading the soil and poisoning the lake.

The transition to life in a Guatemalan village has not always been easy. It takes a long time to earn peoples’ trust. There are still rumors that the couple is going to kidnap children. But there has been a lot of joy as well, and the Boegels say they are here to stay.

Because Will and Diane receive no salaries and their cost of living is low, Opal House’s overhead is less than 5%. The primary expense is Jakelyn's salary. They dream of an education endowment that will ensure longterm funds for the school. Another goal is for the farm to become self-sufficient and provide revenue.

Too soon, it was time for me to say goodbye. The Boegels drove me down the mountain where I boarded a small boat for a half-hour ride across the lake to San Pedro. In my next post I’ll write about the amazing week I spent living with a Mayan family and helping to develop a malnutrion project.