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"Africa"
Last summer we had a teen volunteer from the US go to Ghana for a couple of weeks. When her father first contacted me and my company Cosmic Volunteers that spring, he said he had major concerns about her going on the trip. See, she had recently gotten picked up by the cops for having [...]
Did you know that Ghana just had a presidential election? Or that their president for the last 3+ years passed away this summer? No? So, next summer you’ll be flying as many as 7,500 miles to volunteer in Ghana — and you won’t even know the name of the guy in the portrait hanging at the airport in [...]
Pass the Hot Sauce Please
On December 20, 2012 · Leave a Comment · In Africa, How I Setup Programs, My Weekly Thursday Column, Scams
I got a call recently from a potential client who asked me if my company is for real or a scam. I answered, “If this were a scam, I’m certainly not going to tell you!” It’s a legit question though. I get where it’s coming from. Who wants to fly 5,000 miles to Africa to [...]
NPR host Michel Martin spoke to writer and journalist John Donnelly about his new book, A Twist of Faith: An American Christian’s Quest to Help Orphans in Africa. The entire interview is several months old, but I’ve meaning to post about it. I encourage you to listen to the entire thing, but here’s the main point [...]
Enjoy this video montage of the my eight-week visit in 2011 to Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana to setup volunteer programs for my company Cosmic Volunteers:
I get a lot of great questions from parents whose children are going to volunteer abroad. I want to share some of the answers I just emailed to the parent of a teen volunteering in Ghana this summer. Hopefully, this will help other parents as their children prepare for their own volunteer programs abroad: Yes [...]
I was very happy to receive a registration application last evening from a young woman in China who wishes to volunteer in Ghana in the summer of 2012. I do get a number of volunteers who are Chinese citizens, however most are living in western countries like the US, UK and Australia. So I went online [...]
A good friend in Ghana told me yesterday that the radio stations there played nothing but Whitney Houston songs all weekend, to honor her memory after the news of her death. I wasn’t surprised to hear that, based on my trips to Africa the last ten years. It’s nearly impossible to over-estimate the popularity in [...]
I had a wonderful conversation a couple days ago with a parent whose teen son flies to Nepal soon for a volunteer program. We talked for an hour, having a great conversation that ended with her telling me she felt even better about the trip. I don’t consider myself a talker, but when it comes [...]
A huge part of my job over the years has involved my visiting the host countries where I send my volunteers. Fried in Ghana! I’m drinking a corn-based sweet drink at the outdoor market in Kpando. It’s been critical for me to learn firsthand about the situation on the ground in-country. I always need to make [...]
My name is Scott P. Burke.
I'm in the volunteering abroad business.
This blog is where I share what I'm learning about it.Subscribe to my Blog
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