Ken Budd

Many people look at their children as their legacy to the world. They are, after all, what so many of us leave behind after our deaths, the best parts of ourselves. But if someone chooses to remain childless, what remains after they are gone? How are they remembered and what is their legacy? Ken Budd tackles that question in his introspective, unusual, and wonderful travelogue.

When his father dies of a heart attack unexpectedly, Budd sees first hand the many ways in which his father lived a show more good life, contributed to others' happiness, and made a difference in the world in so many small but significant ways. Losing his father makes Budd think about what he wants to do to live a life that matters. Unlike his own father, he himself will never be a father so he cannot strive to emulate his dad in that way but he can choose to give back for the goodness in his life and so he embarks on six "voluntouring" trips of around two weeks each in which he pays for the privilege of going to poor, troubled, or devastated places in this world to do whatever sort of work he can to contribute to bettering the lot of the people and the place.

His drive to volunteer cleaning up in New Orleans post Katrina, to teach English in Costa Rica, to help care for and teach special needs kids in China, to count flora and fauna in a cloud forest in Ecuador as a part of a scientific global warming project, to help Palestinian refugees with menial work on the West Bank, and to care for orphans in Kenya in between stints in his regular working life comes as much from his realization that life is short and it is vital that we do the best we can with the time we are given as from his need to somehow process and grieve the fact that while he would very much like a child, his wife is certain that she does not and he must honor her feelings in this above his own.

Each section of the book presents a different voluntourism experience and Budd deftly captures the uniqueness of each place, the resilience and hope of the people, and his own feelings facing each different situation and in coming to terms with his father's loss and the loss of his potential children. He captures the personalities of some of his fellow volunteers, sketching them briefly but managing to show their essence even in their short cameos. He describes the hard and dirty unskilled labor for which he, a writer and editor, is qualified and honestly presents the difficulty and frustrations of many of his volunteer jobs. But he also acknowledges that despite the deprivations, the occasionally uncomfortable living conditions, and the looming question of whether he is really making a difference, doing something good, or causing more harm, he is the one who has gained immeasurably through his varied experiences.

Well written, inspiring and honest, this travelogue/memoir is filled with humor and humanity. It chronicles Budd's personal journey, his marriage, coming to terms with his grief, and stepping outside of his own comfort zone to grow into the sort of person he wants to be. You'll find politics, history, science, and so much more here. But mainly you'll find people going about their daily lives in the face all sorts of obstacles, pleased that others truly see them and thankful for the help they are given, even if sometimes that help causes them even more work. This is all about human connection and the small wonders that can occur when we just reach out one hand and make that connection. It would be tough to come away from this book without the wish to set out on your own voluntourism experience, to make your own difference in this world, to be a person who matters. show less

This book, The Voluntourist, shed light on many aspects of what it means to volunteer in a third-world country. Although the author's motives were many and varied and fairly atypical, they were believable. He obviously was trying to compensate for a less than ideal relationship with his father, a man now elevated to near sainthood. He also felt some remorse and great sadness at the lack of children with his beloved wife, a deep emotional issue that is fairly often expressed from a woman's show more vantage point but not generally explored from a man's point of view. That was very moving and deeply emotional.
The book brought out the many ordinary comforts we rarely sufficiently appreciate, as the living conditions on the author's trips to were third-world countries were often very crude and lacking most everything we take for granted. The tasks that were assigned to Ken were often very basic and elementary. (Scrub a floor, walk with a toddler, etc.) Another point that was revealed, although not explored in depth, was whether the voluntourists were "creating a dependency or building a self-sustaining program".
The Voluntourist was somewhat too long for many readers and not very compelling, but still held my interest and gave me good reliable information about volunteering in a forthright and many times amusing manner. show less

I wanted to read this book because I've always been interested in the nuances of "voluntourism," since there are clearly some pros and some cons to the practice. I think Ken Budd did a good job showing this tension, showing the value of the trips he talks about while also highlighting the selfish reasons for the trips and the varied ways he *didn't* help. I'm not sure he comes to a neat and tidy purpose for his life at the end of his story, but it did give me something to think about for show more future travels. Although I enjoyed the his story and style of prose, I felt that he could have gotten the same point across with the same feeling with fewer words. I occasionally got lost in the substories about friends or fellow volunteers. show less

Grieving the death of a father who was universally respected and well-liked, Ken Budd was at a loss when he looked at his own comfortable life as a writer, editor, and husband. "What sort of impact will I have made on this world when I die?" he asked himself. Budd's sense of aimlessness was compounded by approaching 40 without children of his own. He is happily married to his childhood sweetheart--who is happily childless and intends to stay that way. So the author embarks on a series of show more trips volunteering around the globe, sometimes solo, sometimes with his wife: Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, teaching English in Costa Rica, helping disabled children in China, studying climate change in Ecuador, working at a Palestinian refugee camp, and an orphanage in Kenya. As Budd makes his small imprints of goodwill on the people and places he visits, he begins to make peace with his place in the world.

This is a meandering memoir with gentle humor. Included in the back are resources for travelers who would like to be "voluntourists" like Budd. show less