Workaway - The Website That Changed My Way of Traveling

When I started looking for possibilities of volunteering in India, I came across Workaway. I didn't realize it's value with the first visit, but it didn't take long until I found another link from a volunteering forum. leading there I started reading about them and it didn't take long until I was very much impressed and intrigued. I decided to register and pay the 22€ fee for two years the next day.

How does it work?
Workaway is a portal that brings together two groups of people:
1. People who want to travel to a country and get to know the locals, the culture and/or the language.
2. People who need help with something and can't (or don't want to) pay for the help.

The first group doesn't need a lot of introduction. A lot of young people want to have some time off before their studies begin or before they start with their first jobs. But I've come across quite a few middle-aged workawayers as well, most of them probably taking a sabbatical to do some traveling and volunteering. These people, workawayers create a profile in which the possible countries, the time frame and the kind of work wanted are shown. Of course there's a possibility to tell about your skills and abilities for the possible hosts as well. You can set up the profile to only to be seen by hosts, but if you - for some strange reason - want to, you can leave it public as well. In that case a Google search with your name might find your profile and make it accessible to all.

The second group is much harder to introduce and classify. I told you the second group of people need help with "something". I was deliberately being vague there. The examples below show the reason for my vagueness (click the links to see the host profile):

Teach two kids in Tonga, live in a sailing catamaran and swim with humpback whales.

Help renovate a thirteenth-century castle in the Pyrenees.

Help on a farm in Missouri.

Teaching and supporting children with learning disabilities in Ghana.

Help for friendly small hostel in Berlin.

And this is just a small selection. I could list a hundred of them and they would still all be very different from each other. I just saw that there are almost 5000 hosts registered, more than half of which come from Europe. There are about 750 hosts from Asia, Africa and South-America combined, so there is a definite bias to the western countries at the moment. I still had enough to choose from, because there are 89 Indian hosts registered.

I do realize I'm not allowed to claim Workaway to have changed my way of traveling, before I actually have traveled somewhere with their help. The title of this post still claims that, because it has revolutionized the way I think about traveling. It almost seems wrong for me to go on a "normal" holiday, if there's a workawaying possibility in that country or area. Well, maybe the big expectations and this hype will vaporize after India and after I've had some real workawaying experience.

The point I'm trying to make is: If you want to travel and get to know locals instead of just seeing hotels, big sights and other tourists, this website is definitely worth checking out.

I hope this has given you some idea of Workaway. I promise you, I'm not getting paid for this and it's not meant to be an ad for them. This post (and I guess the whole blog as well) is meant to show you that life is about fulfilling your dreams and doing things you really like. It's never too late!

Coming up next: Vaccinations

A Dream Coming True!

The decision is made! I'm fulfilling a dream. In August 2013 I'm going to India. I'm only booking a one-way flight, meaning the date of return is still unknown. Without going into too much personal detail, I'll just say that the end of my relationship six months ago made me realize that I've got all the doors open in my life. I decided it was time to leave the comfort of "what is known" and time to jump into the unknown - in other words to do something that I've dreamt of doing for a long time.

There's one thing I want to make clear to all the readers right in the beginning. I am not trying to save the world and I'm not going to India to help the poor and underdeveloped locals. Neither is my plan to bring the western progress to the east. I'm going mainly for the following two reasons:
1. I want to get to know India, Indian people and culture.
2. Self-searching. Traveling and especially traveling alone is a way to get to know yourself better.
Put those two reasons together and you'll see that my motives are pretty self-centered. The last thing I want is someone to think I'm going on a mission of some kind or that I do this to help others. No, it really is something I'm doing for myself, not for others. Now that we have that settled, we can continue.

Why India?
I took a course at the University of Osnabrück a few years back that was called "Images of India in 19th-Century Britain". It was about English literature written by English authors in India during the 19th century. I ended up reading a bit more than required for the course. This was not the starting point of my fascination for India though. It goes back much further, but I think the course gave the last push. Without the course, I would probably have chosen Peru or maybe another corner of South-America. (I'm still going there as well one day, I promise!)

The Plan
The planning so far has been made possible mainly by Workaway. I will tell you more about it in a separate post later. There are two projects on my list however that have nothing to do with them. The SARTHI project in Patna I got to know through my mother, who had read about them in an e-mail newsletter from Madison, WI she's subscribed to. And the Association for Social Development (ASD) is something I got introduced to through a German man, who has visited the project himself a few times and who organizes donations and volunteers from Germany for the ASD.

Even though August still is six months away, the adventure has already begun. I'm giving you a rough outline of my journey below as I'm imagining it will be at the moment. I'm very aware of the fact that it will still change a dozen times before I'm actually setting a foot on Indian soil, but I regard planning as being a big part of the fun. I guess it kind of gives me what the spammers always promise: "a prolonged pleasure".

Pretty early in the planning I realized that I really don't want to do teaching during my year off teaching. Other than that, the selection of projects was at least up to now rather random. Here's the momentarily plan:

Mid August to October

• Flight to New Delhi, a few days of acclimatizing and looking around there
• IF I get the job: travel to Himachal Pradesh (volunteering in a hotel in the Himalayas)

October

• Travel to Uttaranchal (helping on a farm)

November-December

• Volunteering in Patna for SARTHI (a social project, orphanage)
• Visit in Kolkata (a.k.a. Calcutta) for two weeks

January

• Travel down to Tamil Nadu (Vettavalam) volunteering for Association for Social Development

February

• Helping out at a coffee and pepper farm in Kerala

(There's still something essential missing from my plan. I would love to do some meditating or yoga in an institute or in a temple at some point. I haven't gotten to that part of the planning yet though.)

What about my job?
I have applied for an unpaid year off my work, meaning I would be able to keep my job, but without getting paid. I'm still waiting for a confirmation from the local educational supervisor. The principal in my school supports my application, so I think I've got a good chance of getting what I want. I'm not considering this a key issue, since I'm sure I'll manage to find a job next year without much trouble if needed. It would be a shame though, because I'm feeling very much like home in the town I live and work in right now. The reply from the supervisor is going to come soon and then I'll know whether a letter of resignation is needed or not.

Next post: Workaway
Coming up: Visa-formalities and vaccinations!