Belize City, Belize

Monday, June 21, 2010

Manual Labor by Suburban College Kids

1 comment:

  1. Why do we do this? Yeah we could pay day laborers to do this, bring them jobs and they'd probably do it better, faster, more efficiently, but think of it as a cultural exchange. For many of us, this is our first experience with the Third World, even if it is Disneyland Third World, as my sister once said. We're learning to respect, love and build relationships with people we wouldn't ordinarily know, whose lifestyles are so different from ours. Also, we're learning more about the country than we would if we were just tourists: we make tortillas with our cook, eat mangos after putting up a huge tent with the other workers' children, meet the Mennonites visiting the old folks' home with us.

    Voluntourism maybe isn't the most efficient way to do service, but I'm not convinced it's so bad. It's just another way to visit a country.

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