Volunteering | The Working Traveller

Archive for the ‘Volunteering’ Category

Workers of the World #1

Posted by The Working Traveller on November 30th, 2010

Articles and posts by or about travellers working their way around the world

Tourism
Why I’ve Become a Tour Guide
The Gringo Starr’s long journey from keeping an eye on 14 year old sex pests in London to leading walking tours around Buenos Aires.

Who Says Work Can’t be Fun?
Annie, the Wayward Traveller, lands two jobs on the same day. One as a tour leader, the other a gig as a contributing writer for a website.

Teaching English
Nomadic Interviews: Wandering Earl
Earl Barron sidestepped the traditional route to teaching English when he started his own classes in a park in Thailand. Earl also discusses his life working on board cruise ships and selling ebooks.

Posted in Volunteering, Workers of the World, Working

Tags: brazil, busking, fim extra, malaysia, paid jobs, peru, photography, study abroad, summer camps, teaching english, tefl, tourism jobs, travel blogging, travel writing, Volunteering

9 Comments »

Travelling Across America on the Cheap

Posted by The Working Traveller on September 26th, 2010

Get your kicks on Route 66 went a line first sung by Nat King Cole. The lyrics of the song cover a journey from Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, taking in the towns along the route: St Louis, Oklahoma City, Amarillo, Flagstaff, San Bernardino.

Written in 1946 by Bobby Troup the song is a celebration of the freedom and romance ingrained in the American psyche of travelling long distances… in a car.

The same freedom has been expressed countless times before and after in American literature, songs and cinema. Despite its roots in ancient Greek literature, the American continent has inspired road movies in a way that, Wim Wenders aside, Europe has not.

Posted in Main Features, Travel Features, Travelling, Volunteering

Tags: car travel, couch surfing, driveaway, drug trails, hitch-hiking, ridesharing, usa, Volunteering, work exchange, wwoof

1 Comment »

Volunteer at the London Olympics in 2012

Posted by The Working Traveller on September 17th, 2010

The starting gun was fired on Wednesday for those that want to participate in the London Olympics in 2012.

The public is invited to volunteer as a ‘Games Maker’, taking on either a general or a specialist role. The majority of volunteer roles will be generalist and require no qualifications except passion and enthusiasm for the games.

Generalist roles include drivers, language jobs, government relations assistants, stewarding and athlete escort. Specialist roles include doctors, nurses, sports specialists, anti doping officers and press operations staff.

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: london, london olympics, stewarding, uk, Volunteering

3 Comments »

Our CheapOair Guest Post about Volunteer Work in Peru

Posted by The Working Traveller on August 5th, 2010

I’ve been planning on following up our first guest post, Volunteer Your Way Through Central America, for some time.

The sequel will move south and deal with something similar for South America, covering ten of the continent’s countries (excluding Guyana, Surinam and French Guiana where I can’t find any inexpensive volunteer work), but so far there hasn’t been the time to write it.

So I was pleased when CheapOair, who as their name suggests sell cheap flights, got in touch and gave me the push needed to write another guest post. Hopefully I’ll get around to finishing the South American piece soon but until then here are 5 Cheap Ways to Volunteer in Peru

Posted in Columns, Site News, Volunteering

Tags: guest posts, peru, travel blogging

No Comments »

5 European Festivals to Volunteer at this Summer

Posted by The Working Traveller on July 20th, 2010

I thought I’d follow up on 3 Summer Music Festivals in America Looking for Volunteers with something similar in Europe. Typically the rewards of volunteering at a festival are a free ticket and better camping away from the common riff raff that paid to get in.

Spraoi Festival
Waterford, Ireland. July 30 to Aug 1
Started in 1993 this street theatre and outdoor music festival attracts over 80,000 visitors to Waterford. Though the festival is free many volunteers donate their time simply to enjoy the craic. Volunteer roles include crowd control, act liaison and construction.

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: bulgaria, festival volunteer, france, ireland, norway, oslo, Volunteering

3 Comments »

5 Cheap Places to Volunteer in Ecuador

Posted by The Working Traveller on July 12th, 2010

The 1970s TV adaptation of Day of the Triffids imagined that the enormous carnivorous mobile vegetation come from Ecuador. It’s the sort of remote jungle location, complete with smoking volcanoes, where script writers feel they can plausibly find lost cities, long extinct dinosaurs and walking foliage.

More realistically though it’s the sort of place that adventurous working travellers can find some inexpensive volunteer work.

Teach English, Volunteer
Aiming to attract English teachers to primary schools in the Andean province of Chimborazo, this officially endorsed programme costs nothing to join. Food and accommodation is provided by a local family. Volunteers should have basic Spanish and be able to stay for six months between September and June. Teaching experience, or working with children, and a TEFL diploma are desirable.
www.teach-english-volunteer.com

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: ecuador, organic farms, voluntary teaching, Volunteering

7 Comments »

3 Summer Music Festivals in America Looking for Volunteers

Posted by The Working Traveller on July 8th, 2010

I recently spotted a tweet from Matador about 10 Summer Music Festivals in the USA and it got me wondering, how many of those festivals would give me a free ticket if I was willing to help them out?

MIA at Lollapalooza Music Festival, Chicago The answer is three (it was six but All Good Festival starts today which we felt was a little short notice and the deadline for volunteers had passed for Camp Bisco and MAHA). Here they are.

Hullabalou
Louisville, Kentucky. July 23 to 25

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: chicago, festival volunteer, kentucky, seattle, usa, Volunteering

2 Comments »

Raise Funds for Travel by Volunteering for Medical Trials

Posted by The Working Traveller on July 2nd, 2010

Getting paid for laying around in your dressing gown munching pizza after being pumped full of drugs sounds a little too good to be true but this is what His Dudeness Ralf Kreuze does to finance his travels.

A fan of the champion of the housecoat, Jeff Lebowski, Ralf is a serial drug trial volunteer. Describing himself as a plain old lazy bum he has travelled to Albania, India, Iran, Pakistan, Oman, Azerbaijan and Nepal, among other places, on the money he receives from the inconvenience of being stuck with needles.

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: drug trials, money, uk, usa

5 Comments »

12 Cheap Ways to Volunteer with Animals

Posted by The Working Traveller on June 26th, 2010

Whether cuddly or creepy crawly everyone has a favourite animal. From bats in Australia to Wolves in America, here are 11 opportunities to work with animals and one chance to work for them (cats).

Bats
Tolga Bat Hospital, Australia
Making banana smoothies for the furry flying mammals is one of the many tasks assigned to volunteers at the Tolga Bat Hospital. Situated in a Queensland forest valley, volunteers are needed all year round for a minimum of one month and should expect to pay for their food and accommodation.
www.tolgabathospital.org

Posted in Volunteering

Tags: animal jobs, australia, belize, chile, conservation work, costa rica, horse jobs, internships, italy, uk, uruguay, usa, Volunteering

2 Comments »

Our First Guest Post: Volunteer Your Way Through Central America

Posted by The Working Traveller on June 24th, 2010

We had our first guest post published a few days ago. I recently wrote about 12 Travel Blogs Looking for Guest Posts and decided to write for one of them myself.

It has been a long time since I wrote for another publication. There is enough work to do already keeping JAB and the Overseas Job Centre updated (let alone this blog), but being published in the excellent Art of Backpacking reminded me of the thrill of seeing my name in another publication.

Posted in Site News, Volunteering

Tags: belize, central america, guest posts, JAB, panama, Volunteering

2 Comments »