Has anyone here gone vagabonding or out-of-area volunteering?

[TheIronStar]

I'm considering doing such things, if only for a few months; I can afford some more time away from the working world, and personally I haven't experienced much of life given the way I've been living these years. I'm considering going volunteering in another city, or possibly even another country.

If there's anyone here who's done such a thing, I have some questions:

If one doesn't have anyone with whom one can store one's belongings (I've read that many people leave their stuff with friends or family when they go), how hard is it to deal with storage and with finding an apartment again reasonably quickly when one returns from one's trip?

How does one best deal with having been "out of it" (regarding the working world, or the rest of one's life where applicable) along the way when the trip ends and one is back to one's old location?

If the location was not a "dollar-friendly" area (i.e. purchasing power of the dollar is relatively low and/or costs of living are relatively high, or at most one doesn't have any advantage relative to the purchasing power in one's old location), what measures did you take to keep costs low but utility of the trip high?

Many people have gone on such trips with the intention of discovering new things or finding new directions in life; what sorts of actions would maximize the probability of such? (I wouldn't want my time away to be just a wallet-buster or a waste of time, and if I return to my old line of work, routine, etc., I would want to be able to effectively sell or at least reasonably defend the use of the time away from the working world. I'd like to see new things and gain new directions myself, but I can't expect to do this nearly indefinitely should I not gain new insight that allows me to make serious positive change in my life, and I'm also aware that these sorts of time-away-from-working situations do cost significant amounts of money.)

What sorts of "unexpected" things (or at least unexpected for someone who's never done this sort of thing before and who has no friends who have done it before) should one anticipate?

[funchy]

Some ideas for out of area volunteering:

Peace Corps

Doctors Without Borders | MSF USA

Sea Shepherd


They take care of your accommodations for you and may provide meals for you as well. If I had the time, I wish I could do one of them. I don't think you're out of the working world so much as just working in a different environment; highlight those new skills on your resume when you return.

[TheIronStar]

Thanks for those links. Although it seems that I wouldn't be able to do any of them anyways, though, so I'll have to continue searching more on my own.

Has anyone here done this sort of thing?

Also, has anyone here gone "vagabonding"?

[Plays With Life]

Yes, I've done it. I inherited some money so travelled with that. I've also travelled broke - and, at least for me, it wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as most people would make it out to be. I travelled around North America for 5 years, alone.

One thing is - you really don't have to have something set up, before you get there. You can just get a one way ticket, or hitch a ride with someone, and figure it out when you show up.

Normally, I take everything I own and get rid of it. That way I don't have to worry about storage. I close any bank accounts I have and carry all my money in cash. I take a backpack and one change of clothes. Everything else I either sell, give away, or toss in the garbage. It's really a Fly Like An Eagle kind of liberation feeling, to do that.

I've never done any kind of volunteering or anything like that, so I can't comment on that. I'm more on the vagabonding side of things. I just pick a direction I don't know anything about, and go in that direction.

I also don't ever "go back" to an original location, so I can't comment on that. But I CAN say that, my most recent move being to the U.S., people had a hard time with the fact that I have NO credit history whatsoever (lol). So I had to find the right landlord who was willing to take me regardless. If you've got the cash when you come back, you can always just pay in advance - that will satisfy most landlords.

Also - the trip doesn't HAVE to cost money. In fact, it can make you money. I've worked and come away with a net profit on my trips to Hawai'i, and Alaska.

About getting a job - I'm actually proud of what I've done, so that shows up when I talk about it. One time I applied for a job at a motorcycle repair shop, and wrote on my resume that I had ridden a motorcycle down from Alaska. That caught their attention

Honestly - it's not for everybody. If you have trouble with the unknown, and the unexpected, and with not knowing where you're going, it's like to be damn uncomfortable. I've gone on short trips with a few people who couldn't handle the "throw it to the winds" way that I like to travel - so we couldn't do it that way. We had to have a tour book, decide a destination, know where we were going to end up and when, and how we were going to get there. For me it was just like - gah - that defeats the whole purpose of it. Why do you want to go somewhere, if you already know what's there?? So that, I think, is the vagabonding attitude. And damn is it nice when I meet people who do it that way

[Plays With Life]

Oh - but also, I've stored things in different places a couple of times. I rented a storage unit and payed for a year in advance, both times. The second time, the year expired and I had to keep paying, so I was able to pay them with Western Union from Mexico (where I was) to California (where the unit was). That's usually not a problem. International checks ARE a problem. Finding some other way to do it, besides a local check, is a must. I sent a Mexican check to pay for that storage, and it was going to cost the storage place over $100 USD just to cash the check. That's when we had to find a different way to do it.