Thanks to a friend who just left for Ghana to spend three weeks on a clean water project, I'm itching to try the "volunteer vacation" thing. Anyone been there, done that? Is it worthwhile? Do you feel you've done good even in just a few days of work, or is the volunteering just a clever way to enable privileged Americans to travel in poor countries without feeling quite so guilty? I'm perpetually suspicious of any charitable endeavor that becomes "trendy" (see: pink shit is NOT going to cure breast cancer), but tempted to put my quasi-veterinary knowledge to use on one of these trips.
I haven't personally, but two close friends have done this. One went to Tanzania and helped build a school, play football (soccer), climbed Kilimanjaro and so on. He said (as you'd expect) it was amazing, and the way he speaks about it sounds like it was not only a Good Thing for him to do for the world, but also helped him get away from a small town and see more of the world. The other friend did a similar thing but more sport-based. He said he was a bit bored and it was nice and everything but 'a bit shit'. Moody bastard. So I think you make of it what you will, but I can't imagine it being a bad thing.