send and receive urgent messages or make urgent phone calls. Remember you may be go-
ing to remote places and you don’t want mobile phones ringing every five minutes (if they
work at all) as it spoils the atmosphere.
If you want to communicate quietly (and cheaply) on your mobile phone then this is what
Kerry Davies did in Cambodia:
Texting. After hating all those people with mobile phones at home I admit I am now ad-
dicted to texting. Often a text arrives so quickly you can have a conversation.
And then there’s the humble land line. Jacqueline Hill had a good arrangement with her
relatives:
My parents called me once a week at the office (I had no phone or internet connection in
my flat) and, as it only had one phone, this had to be carefully timed.
If you can’t arrange for incoming calls to a land line near you, don’t underestimate the
international calling card. These usually work by giving you a freephone number which
connects you to another service provider who can offer you a better rate on your call
than the local provider can. These cards are often sold in local newsagents and shops,
particularly in touristy areas. There isn’t one card which works everywhere, although the
Global Phonecard from ekit (www.ekit.com) comes close; this company also has a few other
communication services that may interest you.
To help cut the costs of calls, Mike Laird, who volunteered in Bolivia, has some good advice:
One of the best things is to have a cascade (or telephone tree) set up so you only have to
make one phone call (ie you call your folks, they call your brother and sister, they call two
of your friends etc). I know it means you don’t get to speak to all your family and friends
but there may be times when you don’t have enough money.
In addition to these methods, many international volunteers rediscover the ancient art of
letter writing. Robert Driver, who volunteered in the jungles of Belize, remembers keeping
in touch this way:
By letter during the jungle phase and by phone and letter during the rest of the time. It was
quite refreshing keeping in contact this way.
And, of course, if you’re out in the wilds, you may agree with Michelle Hawkins, who
volunteered in Costa Rica. She says:
In Costa Rica I didn’t keep in touch, as there was no electricity or postal system. It was
actually quite liberating not to be contactable by phone, email or post.Online Travel Diaries
One of the most interesting ways of communicating during your volunteer placement is to
keep an online travel diary (otherwise known as a ‘blog’) which you can share with friends
and family. Numerous companies offer travel diary packages with differing features and
functions. However, for the most part, you can expect interactive maps, space for online
diary entries, digital photo albums and personal message boards.
For a small fee each month, it’s like creating your own travel website but much easier.
Best of all, your friends and family can log in, catch up with your news, see pictures of you
and where you are and send you messages.
Whichever company you choose, check what happens to your diary at the end of your
trip – don’t get caught out by the sites offering only online storage. An online diary is a
wonderful record of your time spent volunteering and you want to make sure you can
download it to your computer or have it burnt onto CD or DVD when you come home.
Companies that offer online travel diaries include: Lonely Planet (http://lonelyplanet.mytripjournal
.com), Off Exploring (www.offexploring.com) and Travel Pod (www.travelpod.com).Skype
Even if you’ve never heard of Skype, by the end of your assignment you will be familiar with
its contribution to keeping international calling costs down. Skype is only one of numer-
ous ‘Voice over Internet Protocol’ (VoIP) services, which harness the internet to deliver
either very cheap or free phone calls, but it is the one that has cornered the market. Go into
many internet cafés in the developing world and you will find a Skype icon already on the
desktop, together with a ‘head-and-breast set’ comprising headphones and a microphone.
To take advantage of the system, you need a Skype ID (a calling name), plus a password.
You can easily get one at http://www.skype.com. Then whenever you need to make a call you
head for the nearest internet café, and click on Skype.
Even cheaper (because you don’t need to pay for the internet café) is to use your own
laptop with a broadband connection. The computer comes with a ‘soft phone’, which
means you enter the phone number, click on an icon to dial and then converse using a
headset. You either pre-pay around £5/US$10/A$13 for an hour’s talk time (though in
practice the payment lasts for much longer) or rely upon the person you’re conversing
with being signed up to Skype too – in which case almost all calls are free.If It All Goes Wrong
In everyday life it isn’t often that you have to get used to a new job, a new culture, a new
country, new living arrangements, new colleagues and a new support network all in one
go. But this is what you do when you become an international volunteer.
At first it can be hard. During the first few days (and often weeks) you will need to give
your mind and your body time to adapt. In all likelihood you will also have to reassess
your personal expectations and those related to the job. Jacqueline Hill, who volunteered
An Earthwatch volunteer comes face to face with a Kenyan black rhino during a surveying expedition for a year in Bangladesh, wisely advises:Photo: Laura Morrison / Earthwatch03: The Practicalities:If It All Goes Wrong