Smiling at the World: A Woman's Yearlong Quest for Advneture and Love [Idioma Inglés] - Softcover

As we enter the 21st century, the thirst for self-knowledge is epidemic and with it, the knowledge of other cultures and ways of living. With more affluence, it seems everyone is traveling. Feeling disconnected from family and community in modern society, we hope that by traveling we can find something lost in ourselves. We take package tours to Spain, cruises to the Mediterranean and the more adventurous climb sacred Buddhist shrines in Java or exotic locales in the Amazon. But this type of travel only serves to highlight the problem that sent us here: the problem of separation. All of this travel still keeps us distant from the very cultures we have traveled to see. This travel still puts us outside watching the pot not inside as part of the stew. On a trip to Thailand, we may see an elephant but we do not feed the elephant or wash her or walk with her or help in her rescue. According to the Travel Industry Association of America more than 55 million Americans have taken what can be described as a volunteer vacation and nearly twice that are considering doing the same. “It is just the beginning of the volunteer travel boom,” said Marcia Selva, president of Global Spectrum. Travelers especially the high-end travelers want to accomplish something. Today they build clinics, houses, libraries and wells. People now want to get dirty.” It is not just seeing the tree or the monkey: it is not about simply learning facts about the environment. It is about being made aware of and helping the world and its people –with as little impact as possible, of course. The real benefit of taking a volunteer travel vacation is that it fits the current desire to explore, learn, expand the mind and experience something different while enriching our lives. A green volunteer guide with a list of opportunities is helpful but it is not the complete approach. A guide cannot answer these questions: Can a woman take this trip safely alone? What are the problems? What is the work like? What are the costs? What is day-to-day life like? A guide will not fire the desire because it lacks the real life ecovolunteering experiences. There is no book on the market today that answers these questions. Smiling at the World combines travel narrative, first hand day-to-day experiences volunteering at wildlife sanctuaries and other projects with information on how to follow the same path. Reading about the author's candidly revealed excitement, fears, and personal challenges, the reader shares her adventures and feels the changes in each new place. After adventuring with the author, the reader can design her volunteer trip even for two weeks. As a public speaker about volunteer travel, I have observed three reasons why people want to travel and volunteer. First, they do not want to be a “tourist who just looks at things.” Secondly, they want to learn, do something new, and give back to a world that has been generous to them. They want to travel with a purpose that will make them feel good at the end of their journey. In need of a pathfinder, they want to know what to expect and how to make a good choice. The third reason so many women and men today want to travel and volunteer is that they want to explore the globe, its people and its cultures. Smiling at the World will provide the intimate details of the author's experiences, frustrations and changes adapting to each different culture as each chapter highlights a different project and a new country: the emotions, the feelings, the problems, the joys, the experiences of a real woman, not a super woman, setting out to journey around the world as a volunteer. This shared excitement of the joy and struggles of being in different cultures can be used as a guide for a woman traveling alone as she feels an immediate fellowship with the author. The author's mishaps become the reader's; her perceptions remind us of our own. Along with the compelling story full of pluck and wits, the author helps satiate travel daydreams or perhaps gives you the kick you need to start packing. Just as I do in my classes and workshops, I will offer insight into the experience as well as the details to organize the trip saving the reader hours of individual research. However, the overriding goal of a giving back, getting involved, and bringing people together remains front and center. This kind of travel is how you really get to see the world and experience more of the food, the culture, the camaraderie. Smiling at the World: A Woman's passionate Yearlong Quest for Adventure and Love will show how to gain a new perspective on your life through short term volunteer commitments. Smiling at the World, full of rich first hand experiences, allows the reader to experience volunteer work with the author and use the book as a resource for her own journey.

Travel/Adventure Have you ever wanted to leave everything behind and travel the world? Joyce Major rented her houseboat, sold her car, left her successful real estate career and took off for a trip around the world – alone! Major's yearlong global “volun-tourism” adventure unleashed her passion for helping the planet, her enthusiasm for people, her zany sense of humor and her gift of storytelling. The eclectic group of volunteer projects she chose range from monitoring a troop of wild baboons to conservation work in Rio and chronicles heart-breaking tales of wildlife rescue, hilarious re-tellings of misadventures and thoughtful reflections on soul-searching experiences.Smiling at the World covers the gamut from a 12th century farm restoration project in Italy to a sustainability sanctuary in New Zealand; from newspaper reporting in Ireland to teaching English in China; from wildlife sanctuaries in Africa, Australia, Thailand and England to riding the Trans-Siberian Express AND MORE... · Feel the warmth of a lion cub sleeping in Major's arms · Touch the rough skin of an elephant getting washed in the river · Revel in joy hearing an English student in China sing John Lennon's Imagine (need dot here In line with above) A resource for travelers - details include project costs and work expectations plus descriptions of food and lodging.A story about love in its many forms – for humanity, the earth and wildlife - and how a smile connects them all. Major's insights honor the realms of the mind, the spirit and the heart. Pauline Bernard "Joyce Major, the quintessential traveler, epitomizes responsible tourism at its very best. In "Smiling at the World," Major takes us into the hearts and minds of the world in which she has become so fully engaged." — Bob Fisher, travel journalist, www.travelosophy.ca “As a conscientious traveler, Joyce Major shares a riveting first hand account of how voluntourism transformed her life and offers insights on how this 'responsible travel' movement can transform yours.” — Brian Mullis Sustainable Travel International You'll want to pack your bags as Major fires up your own desire to travel, to learn and to give back to the world.[Author Photo] Joyce Major lives in Seattle for now and divides her time between writing, teaching classes on volunteer travel and yoga. She is an advocate of smiling.Alegro Publishing 978-0-9799740-0-7 www.alegropublishing.com $12.95 Barcode