Global Girl

So, I had a great day today: First, I was able to meet such a nice Brazilian girl who works on a team of researchers studying voluntourism; Then I got to listen to a short lecture summing up some of their research by another nice researcher; Finally, I met the professor heading up the research herself!

After hearing their lecture and comparing their research to my own perspectives and experiences, I decided to write out the five things that I would tell a future voluntourist and share them with you all! Some of these aspects have a little more to do with the specific case of voluntourism in Brazil, but most can be applied universally.

1. Your experience is going to be very different if you don’t speak the language of the country in which you are participating in volunteer work. It is much better to study a lot of the language before arriving.
2. Organizing volunteers takes a lot of resources and time. This is something that many volunteers (and sometimes organizations themselves) don’t realize. Often times it can even make the actual day to day work much more difficult, even though it often makes the work more enriched.
3. Take advantage of each day and find your path within the organization. The more you take advantage of your time volunteering, the less work you are for the organization and the more it will be a meaningful experience. Along those same lines, learn from both the good and the bad. In my time as a volunteer, I don’t think I took advantage of the experience as much as I could because like I said in an earlier post, I was shy and felt lost. I learned from that experience and realized that I needed to know much more about the situation within which I was working and learned that I shouldn’t be shy!
4. This fourth recommendation has more to do with Rio than others, but I’m sure it is a good recommendation no matter where in the world you are: If you go to a country to do volunteer work, don’t participate in activities that directly have to do with the reasons why these problems exist. For instance, do not go into a community during the day and participate in a project that is trying to provide different opportunities for kids so they don’t go into trafficking, if by night you go into these communities to do illicit activities.
5. Learn about the place you are going. Not only by popular culture and movies, but try and read some academic books or articles. It would be even more beneficial if you could learn both some Macro-aspects and Micro-aspects of the situation in which you will work. I believe that this will enrich the experience a lot.

If you are going to be a voluntourist, and you read Portuguese, stay on the look out for work by Bianca Freire-Medeiros. Her and her fabulous research assistants are currently working on this concept, and will provide some insightful things to think about as a voluntourist.

(So, sorry Bianca, if ever reads this, I tried to not spill out the names of all these people out of their respect, but I’m trying to do some grassroots “propaganda” here, and so I have to say your name!)

She will be releasing her book about Favela Tourism this month, Gringo na Lage, which for those voluntourists of Brazil, will also give a good idea of some of the components for the portrayals and images of these spaces and interactions between cultures of the tourist and toured.