Author(s): Ken Budd

Travel

"Voluntourist": A guy who attempts to save the world in an attempt to save himself. Someone who can only do it while on vacation. In 2007, when Ken Budd was 39, his father collapsed. He'd just finished 18 holes of golf. He had been retired for a year. By the time Ken and his wife got to the hospital it was too late. Over the next few weeks, as grieving friends revealed how Ken's father had impacted their lives, he began thinking about parents, and children, about people: What do we leave behind? How do we make a difference in the world? How do we live a life that matters? Ken's wife is his childhood sweetheart. They have been married 15 years. Ken cannot imagine life without her, and yet - she doesn't want children. He does. In the wake of his father's death, his desire for family grew stronger. I just don't have maternal feelings, she told him. And then Ken got an e-mail, subject line: Katrina Relief Volunteer Opportunities. Ken signed up. He went to New Orleans. And then he kept volunteering: Costa Rica, to teach English; China, to work with special needs children; Ecuador, to study climate change; Palestine, to work in a refugee camp; Kenya, to work with orphans. The goal: to find purpose by helping others, one trip at a time. And to accept his childless life. The result is a journey that is part insider look at the growing trend of voluntourism, part do-gooder manifesto, part personal journey. Wry and funny, heartbreakingly honest, as exotic in location as it is familiar in its concerns, "The Voluntourist" is a memoir that will inspire you, captivate you, and linger in your mind long after you've turned the last page.