Second Draft

Taking a volunteer travel abroad trip isn't always the easiest thing to do, but it's something that Emily Orstad has been able to do three times. All three have been with GIVE Volunteer and the trips have taken her to Thailand, Laos and Tanzania. A biology major at the time of her first two excursions to Thailand and Laos, Emily claims that her major was not a deciding factor in deciding to take her first trip as she had always enjoyed the outdoors. In fact, she explained that GIVE made her realize she enjoyed working on conservation and sustainability so much, so she changed her major to Enviromental Sciences afterwards. 

A native of Naples, Florida, she claims that a big reason for why she took the trip her first time was because she "saw their posters on campus and then ended up going to one of their meetings" and after attending a meeting she remembers saying to herself "Oh my god, I have to go." Then she told her mother who did research to make sure it was not a random scam and she chose Thailand and Laos as a combination for her first two trips during the Summer of 2015. The reasoning behind it was the "idea of doing things with elephants and the opportunity of going to two places which meant I would be able to do more."

When asked about the fellow volunteers, she describes the group as diverse as the college students who volunteer are not just from America, but from around the globe as she encountered some college students from Malaysia, China, Venezuela, London, and Australia. Before meeting at the host communities' volunteers' do not know each other, but Emily explained that this was also a positive experience as "people who generally sign up for the trips are usually really nice, outgoing, and friendly so it isn't hard to get to know them and have a good time with these strangers right off the bat."

As we got to talking of the native people she met during her trips she seemed to brighten up. When in Tanzania, the rooming arrangements for the volunteers were in hostiles near the middle of the village which allowed the locals who were taught English by them to come by and interact. Interactions with the native people themselves were more than what were spoken as Emily says they "might not be able to understand what they are saying but can understand them through body language and having fun." Connections made through these simple interactions made it tough on Emily when it came time to head back home, but she had a way to keep in contact through Facebook. It was unexpected to her before she got to witness herself was when she saw the native men walking around in traditional clothing, a machete or club on their belt, along with a cell phone.

GIVE's practices seem to be differ from the volunteer tourist groups explained by the research that I found. Emily says that when a volunteer first arrives they are told about "how things are going to work along with the cultural things to be aware of, to be respectful of things" and "they make sure you aren't doing something totally taboo in the country." They are also instructed to not give personal belongings to the natives as they would not learn anything about self-sustainability from a free hand out. Building things were always alongside the natives and were things that the native people felt needed development. In the classroom, GIVE gave Emily and the other volunteers the responsibility of teaching an English topic for the given day and allowed them to figure out a lesson plan within certain guidelines.

Answering the question of what it was like when she got back from her time abroad, she said it was a culture shock. To her "after witnessing what is happening in a third world country" ignorance was surrounding as everyone did not seem to realize how fortunate they were. But she could not blame those people, and instead took it as an incentive to live more sustainably while spreading word of how to help those less fortunate.

To Emily, GIVE does not seem to be imposing themselves on the natives. She claims this through her own conversation with a trip coordinator on her first trip to Thailand and Laos that told her about a potential new trip to Nepal and how they were in the process of working it out with the natives. Three years later, the trip is open for registration for the first time. Enthusiastically, she proclaimed that the trip I am to take is something to be "very excited for" and that it would be one to remember. Though every volunteer might say they want to help change the world, Emily says that through her trips she feels "impacted more on how there's more things to life" than what everyday people seem to put importance on.

In conclusion, I have learned that GIVE makes an effort of making sure the native people of the communities they volunteer at do not feel imposed upon. This is the case as I have found that the process of making a community a destination for volunteers is a process that starts with building a relationship with the locals first. Also, they do not seem to be constructing buildings for those communities to hand them resources they need, but instead aide in the building by providing knowledge they don't have. While the at FSU there is not a recognized club, in the end the GIVE community is bigger than that through the use of the Internet connections made are kept no matter the physical distance.