Travel is often very selfish. Most people land in a foreign country, rush around  sight-seeing  and escape again without getting a real glimpse into the people or culture. There is a different way. Adam Pervez, is choosing to spend his two-year world adventure volunteering in rural communities while getting immersed in local cultures and forming meaningful connections with the people he encounters. Perhaps the more you give to foreign cultures and people, the more you will get in return.

Please tell us about yourself.

I am 29 years old and hail from Cleveland, Ohio, USA. I studied electrical engineering, worked for an oil services company in the Middle East, then went to Spain to get an MBA (Masters in Business Administration), and then accomplished my “dream”… working in renewable energy in Scandinavia!

What was the driving impetus to quit everything to travel?

The quality of life in Scandinavia was amazing. I lived in Denmark and life was good and easy. But it just wasn’t for me. I found myself full of anxiety and stress. I’d feel pressure in my neck, my eye would twitch, and I kept getting sick. My body was rejecting the life I presented it and I had to figure out what my ideal life really was. I outline the series of events culminating in my decision to quit working in my Corporate Tool To Nomadic Idealist series.

Please tell us about your website, HappinessPlunge.com?

I call the process of self-discovery, formulating a new life, and then going after it without looking back The Happiness Plunge. You have to take the time to plan something sustainable and perfect for you and then dive headfirst into this new life.

In my case, I left behind the comfort of a six-figure corporate life to take the road less traveled. It felt like a bungee jump without the cable, yet I wasn’t nervous nor concerned whether it would work. Everything felt right and I still can’t imagine doing anything else right now.

I started the site to share my ideas about happiness initially. Then once I “took the plunge” and quit my job, I started serving as a case study for my philosophies. I don’t advocate that people pursue my nomadic life. I advocate people pursue their perfect life.

The more people out there pursuing the right life for them, the better this world will be. If I can inspire a few other people to take the plunge, and then they inspire a few people, then there will be a lot of happy and positive people out there doing amazing things, probably making the world a better place!

What is the Happy Nomad Tour?

The Happy Nomad Tour is the fun label I’ve given my Happiness Plunge. I’m a nomad, happily traveling around the world. As of mid-December 2011 I’ve been to Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, and I’ll be in Venezuela for Christmas and New Year’s Day.

Each place I go I volunteer with the goal of leaving it a bit better than how I found it. Most travelers look to take from a place, I look to give. You can see the planned Happy Nomad Tour route here.

Travelling to rural locations must pose some problems for personal supplies, internet, etc. How has it been so far?

The more rural the location, the more amazing the experience has been so far. In Panama and El Salvador I was pretty off the grid (literally and figuratively) and it was so amazing to see how they live, what they believe, and what they think of the outside world. In Honduras I helped people off the grid connect to it using 21st Century technology – a truly amazing and rewarding experience.

In terms of personal supplies, I have minimal requirements: toothpaste, toothbrush, floss, nail clippers.. not much else. So it’s no problem to keep stocked up on supplies. The internet can definitely be a problem at times and going days without it can put a strain on me. To some extent I can prepare things offline, but even with text and pictures ready, it still takes a long time to put a post together once I get online. In some places I’ve used internet cafes, regular cafes, hotel lobbies, USB modems, and even the Panama Canal watching area to get connected and keep things up to date. I am grateful to take what I can get when it’s available.

When I’m in a remote site, I live as the locals do. I eat their food, bathe their way, use the bathroom their way, etc. It’s true immersion and I love it!

How has the experience of volunteering and connecting with locals been so far?

Every experience has taught me something, made me step outside my comfort zone, and made me appreciate their way of life. In other words, it’s been amazing! I don’t want it to end as this world has so many solutions to offer in a time when cultures seem to be converging and losing distinctness.

How do you find the volunteer organizations and how do you do it for free?

I’ll be posting a series of articles about what goes on the scenes behind The Happy Nomad Tour on my website soon. I don’t want to spoil that, so stay tuned. But yes, it’s a lot of work doing it the way I do it and keeping the volunteering free!

Are you earning an income while traveling?

As of right now, I have no income at all. So no, not yet.

I don’t have any ads on my site and there are only a few affiliate links sprinkled here and there. Right now I’d say I don’t want to load my site with ads to earn an income. In time, I’d love for it to be a community of people taking the plunge, supporting each other and sharing their experiences. Let’s see.

In 2012, I’ll start looking for income opportunities. I’d love to speak at business schools to encourage their students to think outside the box and pursue their passions since I was in their shoes not too long ago and I’m doing something totally different with my MBA.

Can you give us a rough break down of your monthly living expenses?

I don’t have a budget, but I’m frugal by nature. Again, the behind the scenes post is coming covering this topic, but when you eliminate (or as I say, outsource) housing, you can really keep costs down.

Can you please tell us some administrative details about your banking, health insurance, credit cards, etc.

I use SydBank from Denmark. I never transferred my money to my U.S. bank account, though I have one there too for emergencies. Sometimes I have to try multiple ATMs to get one to work with my Danish card. Apparently, many ATMs don’t like the chip in European debit/credit cards. Only in Colombia did I give up and use my U.S. account, but I was in a rush. I’m sure it would have worked somewhere.

I use a Chase British Airways credit card since it offers 0% surcharges on foreign purchases (though I don’t think I’ve used it abroad yet though) and it gave me a very valuable 100,000 frequent flier miles.

I use worldnomads.com for my health insurance. Luckily, besides a tooth filling and a stomach bug in Honduras, I’ve been pretty healthy.

Do you travel with a lot of possessions?

You can see my gear here. It seems like a long list, but it’s really not much stuff at all. I don’t feel like I need anything less, nor more. I can fit everything inside the big green backpack, but I usually carry the small one with my electronics separately. For some reason separating them feels more comfortable.

How long do you plan to continue the Happy Nomad Tour?

Initially, I said I’d travel for two years. If I do travel for two years, then I’m already more than 1/6 through the journey and I still can’t wrap my head around how fast time is passing by!

So yes, it could easily extend longer, but it depends on money too. I’m giving myself a year to figure out how to make things sustainable given the little amount of money I need.

What are some of the downsides of constant travel?

I’ve become accustomed to a lot of things I never thought I would, but one of the biggest things is stretches of days/weeks without a good night’s sleep. I just arrived in Colombia and I swear the neighbor of the place where I’m staying (I’m couchsurfing) is running an illegal night club next door complete with loud pounding music until 3am.

I have had maybe five hot showers since I left Honduras two months ago.

Another downside is always needing to think ahead and plan where to go in the future, where to stay, where to volunteer, etc. If I were stationary, this would be eliminated, but each new place offers so much new inspiration that I don’t mind

I speak Spanish, so I’ve been fine in Latin America. I have a feeling, though, that once I get to Asia I’ll quickly tire of the language barrier. In the past, it was always short trips and I was in the comfort of the touristy area where many people spoke English.

Do you have any advice for people considering volunteer work abroad or long term travel?

Know yourself. Know your limitations, your perceived level of comfort, etc. Do your homework and find your fit.

Don’t expect long-term travel to be easy. It’s not. You have to constantly be on guard, planning, and cognizant.

Don’t expect to see results from your volunteering efforts. Change takes time, and realize that what you think might be helping could actually be harmful. Instead, don’t try to measure your volunteering efforts. And if you do, measure it differently!

Links
HappinessPlunge.com – Adam Pervez’s website
Follow HappinessPlunge on Twitter
HappinessPlunge on Facebook

I  Made a Mistake

JetSetCitizen is not a very good name for this website. The idea of jet setting to exotic locales, while exciting and romantic, is definitely not the message I want to promote. My idea of a JetSetCitizen is more about being a global citizen and the personal responsibility that requires. Really experiencing foreign cultures and connecting with people around the world can be transformative and enlightening, if you let it.

Travel is Not a Competition

Travelling for the sake of getting passport stamps or crossing items off a bucket list are just other manifestations of our rampant consumerism. Some travellers compete by how many countries they have been to or attempt to regale in tales of how authentic or exotic their experiences are. How different is that from trying to one-up your neighbor’s latest purchase? Instead of keeping up with the Joneses, many of us are keeping up with the Indiana Joneses.

Maximize Profit or Maximize Good

We have been sold the idea that we have to produce and consume more to ‘advance.’ The strength of an economy is measured by growth in total production, whereas other measures like happiness, health, social relationships, clean air, wildlife, access to water and countless other factors that make life worth living, are ignored.

So much of what we do seems focused on making as much money as possible. Look at the late night commercials for ab machines, fake antique coins, replica jewelry and countless other falsely advertised products. Sure it is possible to profit by selling get rich quick schemes, promising easy weight loss, or marketing over-priced affiliate programs, but is that really how we want to spend our lives?

All of us on this planet, particularly those of us fortunate enough to come from developed countries, are a cost to the planet. We consume, waste and destroy to live and entertain ourselves. The impact of our individual environmental and societal footprint varies by our life choices, but definitely all of us are a drain to the ecosystem in some form or another. We can choose to live a self-centered life and take as much as we can for ourselves, or we can find ways to give back.

An Excellent Life

I have been thinking about these issues for a long time. The search for more meaning is a big reason why my wife and I sold everything to live a nomadic lifestyle, but the real inspiration for this post is this video of Dwight Turner and his work helping urban refugees in Bangkok, Thailand. I am not going to summarize the video, just watch it. It is only a few minutes of your time. Better yet, visit his website and watch it there. You might just be inspired to click the donate button on that page to give a few dollars and have a major impact on the lives of a family you will never meet.

Food for Thought

At the end of every single day ask your self this question:

Did I give more than I took today?

If you are answering”no” for too many days in a row, maybe it is time to change what you are doing?

What does it really take to make a location independent travel lifestyle work? Many people assume that it is okay for single people in their early twenties to take a gap year to travel the world, but what if you are getting older and need to focus on a career? What if you are travelling as a couple? How do you make a living? Simon Fairbairn and Erin McNeaney of NeverEndingVoyage.com share their experiences transitioning to a life of long-term travel in this interview.

Please tell us about yourselves.

We are a British couple who’ve been together since we were 18 (we’re now 30). Our first backpacking trip together was around Europe when we were 19 and we’ve continued to travel ever since. Simon has worked his way through varied careers as a musician (the highlight was playing at the Glastonbury Festival), legal caseworker to help asylum seekers stay in the UK, and web designer. I worked for a community arts organisation working with refugees to organise arts projects and events including an annual multi-cultural festival attended by 10,000 people.

How did you decide to embark on a nomadic lifestyle of long term travel?

Although we had taken one month backpacking trips around Europe and I spent three months volunteering in Sri Lanka after university, I always knew that I wanted to do a year-long round the world trip and after working for a few years I was keen to head off. It took a bit of effort to convince Simon but as soon as we set off at the end of 2007 he was hooked. We spent an amazing year travelling around Asia, Australia, the South Pacific and the US and had more incredible experiences that year than we had in the previous ten.

Returning to the UK was hard and we struggled to fit back into the dull routine of working 9-5. We had been back a few months when I discovered the world of digital nomads – people who could work and live anywhere in the world. This seemed perfect for us, especially as Simon was developing his web design career at the time (after designing websites for fun for 10 years) – an ideal location independent job. It was a natural step for us and wasn’t really a difficult decision to make. We decided to save as much as we could in nine months (as we were already experienced at saving for our previous trip we managed to save 75% of our income, sell everything we own and then hit the road. We left England with a one way flight to Rio de Janeiro on 1st March 2010.

What countries have you visited so far?

On our first trip we visited Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands and the US.

This time we spent our first year travelling mostly overland in South America: Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru and Colombia; then Panama and Costa Rica. From there we moved on to the US, Canada, England, Hong Kong, Japan and now Thailand.

What are your most and least favourite countries so far?

Our favourite country is India. It’s a country of extremes, vibrant, colourful, challenging but never boring. We also loved the food and as vegetarians it’s one of the few places in the world where we can eat local food without worrying that it contains meat.

Our least favourite is New Zealand, which is a bit controversial as most people love it. For us it was too much like England and it didn’t help that we were there during the winter and it rained constantly, so we couldn’t do a lot of the outdoor activities that it’s famous for. That said, least favourite is relative and we still enjoyed snowboarding and heli-hiking on a glacier.

Can you give us a rough break down of monthly living expenses?

Our living expenses vary widely – when we are house sitting and have free accommodation we spend very little, but then other months can be expensive when we are travelling around places like Japan and have to buy international flights. During our first year in South America we averaged £1500 a month for the two of us. Our second year so far is working out at £2000 a month on average as we have travelled to more expensive places like the US, Canada and Japan, and we’ve spent a lot on international flights. As we don’t plan our travels very far in advance we buy one way tickets and these often aren’t much cheaper than returns so flights have been a big expense this year.

We have shared detailed breakdowns on our blog of our travel expenses in Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay; Bolivia and Peru; and Japan.

These days we don’t travel that frugally, although we are flashpackers rather than luxury travellers. We always stay in private en-suite rooms, and as we spend a lot of time working in them we can be quite fussy. We also spend quite a lot of money on food, but we don’t drink very much. After a few months travelling we often need a break from moving around to get some work done so we rent apartments for a few months. We usually end up choosing quite luxurious places as we want somewhere comfortable to work. These cost anywhere from $650 a month in Thailand, $800 in Argentina up to $1200 in Colombia.

Can you please tell us some administrative details about your banking, health insurance, credit cards, etc.?

As UK citizens we don’t need health insurance but we do have travel insurance which covers medical emergencies while we are travelling. We manage all our finances through online banking and access our money by withdrawing cash using debit cards at ATMs. We also have a few credit cards for emergencies. It’s important to have a number of different cards in case one gets stolen (which has happened to us). We also carry a few hundred US dollars just in case.

Although we don’t have a home base it’s impossible to manage without an address so we use a relative’s address where our banking and tax related mail gets sent.

Do you return to the UK often?

We’ve been back to the UK once in 20 months for a friend’s wedding and to visit family. We don’t know when we’ll next go back, it’ll depend if a visit works out with our travel plans. While we were there we stayed with various family members.

We sold almost everything we owned before we left and don’t have anything in storage. We keep two small boxes at Simon’s mum’s house with some documents and photo albums.

Do you still own a house there?

Unfortunately we do still own a house in the UK, which we are desperately trying to get rid of. The market is awful at the moment so we haven’t been able to sell it, so we’ve just put it on the rental market. We don’t like having the tie, and there’s always the worry that something will go wrong with the house (ours is over 100 years old) and it’ll cost us a lot to fix it. Dealing with the house from abroad is a bit of a pain, and we are lucky to have a friend and relative nearby who have helped us out a lot. If we find a tenant then we’ll have the estate agent manage it for us. Ideally we’ll rent it out for six months and try selling it again next year.

Do you travel with a lot of possessions?

We travel with a carry-on size backpack each plus a travel guitar. We love travelling with just carry on luggage – we save time at airports and always have our bags with us on planes and buses. It’s also much easier not having to lug a big backpack around when looking for accommodation. You can see exactly what we travel with on our packing list post. People are fascinated by that and it has been our most popular post for the 20 months we’ve been running the blog.

What are the essential items you must travel with?

Really the only essential item for us is a laptop, which we need to work on. Simon has a Macbook Pro and I have an Asus EeePC netbook (although I have my eye on a Macbook Air). I also love my Kindle – being able to travel with hundreds of books on a device smaller than a paperback is amazing.

Have you had any serious travel problems?

Not really. Simon got pick-pocketed in Costa Rica but he only lost $30 and one of our debit cards (which we had a backup for). We tend not to keep too much in the wallet we use daily just in case it gets stolen. On travel days our passport, cards and money are in money belts and our backpacks are lockable so it prevents anyone being able to get to the laptops easily.

How do you earn an income now?

Our main source of income is Line-In the WordPress web design and development business that Simon runs. We only started monetising the Never Ending Voyage blog three months ago and now have some income from that and another travel website I run, from selling links, advertising and affiliate products. I’ve been surprised at how lucrative it can be and although those sites are making about £900 a month at the moment, I have no idea how long it will last.

We aren’t currently making quite enough to cover our expenses (we saved up before we left to give ourselves a cushion) but to be honest we haven’t tried that hard, and have often been distracted by travel. We aren’t particularly good business people, and Simon loves what he does so much that he tends to over deliver way more than clients have paid him for. It turns out being a perfectionist isn’t so good for business!

Ultimately client work isn’t scalable so we are currently settled in Chiang Mai, Thailand for three months to develop some products to sell including Premium WordPress Themes. We aim to have income coming in from multiple sources.

What are some of the downsides of a location independent lifestyle?

Sometimes we get tired of moving around and we miss home comforts like a couch, a comfy bed and having a kitchen. That never makes us want to return to the UK though, instead we just rent an apartment for a few months or look for a house sitting opportunity. After a few months of comfort we get itchy feet and are ready to hit the road again.

Our biggest challenge has been building a business as we don’t have any experience with that.

Is it difficult to travel as a couple?

We don’t find it difficult at all and argue less on the road than we did at home when we were stressed with work and commuting. We rarely have any time apart, and that’s not a problem for us, although it is nice to have an apartment with two rooms so that I can sleep if Simon’s working late!

Do you plan on settling down in one country as a home base?

We have no plans to settle down permanently. There isn’t one place in the world that we want to commit to, although we’d be quite happy to spend a few months each year in San Francisco. The world’s a big place and there are still too many places we want to visit. Even if we begin to travel more slowly we are still addicted to the freedom of this lifestyle.

Do you have any advice for people considering long term traveling?

Do it! Get control of your finances, cut down your unnecessary spending and start saving now. It’s important to set a start date for your trip, even if it’s two or three years from now. It gives you something to work towards and helps keep you motivated while you save.

Links
Neverendingvoyage.com
Follow @nevendingvoyage on Twitter
Follow on  Facebook

Long-term travel is a life-changing experience. It is exciting to meet new people, experience new cultures and completely broaden your horizons. Most of us travel for our own personal satisfaction and growth, however there are many people, living and traveling abroad, dedicating their lives to make the world a better place. Such selfless devotion truly is amazing. Bernard Pollack and Danielle Nierenberg are two of those people striving to make a difference in the world. They took some time out of their African endeavors to answer some questions here.

Zimbabwe- HIV:AIDS Orphanage Project Visit with the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Associations in Harare

Please tell us  a little about your backgrounds.

B: Danielle currently serves as Co-Project Director of State of World 2011 for the Worldwatch Institute , a Washington, DC-based environmental research organization. Her background is in sustainable agriculture; impacts of meat, egg, and dairy production on the environment, primarily climate change; animal welfare, and farmers; greenhouse gas emissions and the food system; biofuels; urban agriculture; and food safety.  She also worked for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic and volunteers at farmers’ markets, the Earth Sangha (an urban reforestation organization), and 1Well (an NGO focused on sustainable development projects all over the world).

D: Bernard’s background is as an expert on political campaigning and communications. His expertise in organizing state and national campaigns for the AFL-CIO has resulted in the election of major pro-worker candidates and laws in California, Kentucky, Minnesota, Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania. He has developed communication programs for labor organizing all over the U.S. and has worked extensively with media reporting on workers’ issues. He is currently traveling across Africa with me, meeting with labor unions and workers across Africa, and blogging everyday from Africa on our personal site called BorderJumpers.

Are you both full-time journalists?

D: Last year the Worldwatch Institute received a two-year grant to evaluate environmentally sustainable solutions to alleviating hunger and poverty, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. The grant is enabling us to expand our research and writing on food and hunger issues, do more on-the-ground research, and develop a comparative analysis of different agricultural innovations and technologies to help policy-makers, farmers, NGOs, agribusiness, and development agencies make more informed decisions regarding food production and food security goals.

The major outcome of this project will be State of the World 2011, our flagship publication, focused on hunger. Over the next two years, we will also publish research on this topic in Worldwatch’s other print and digital publications. I am traveling throughout sub-Saharan Africa to highlight stories of hope and success in environmentally sustainable food production.

Bernie and Dani in Zambia

Where are you now?

D: Africa is the epicenter of hunger and poverty, so it seemed logical to focus our research for the project here. We are currently in Dakar, Senegal, headed across Western Africa all summer to Mali, Cote D’Ivoire, Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Cameroon. Countries we’ve traveled so far include: Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Since we left in October 2009 we’ve visited approximately 130 projects in those countries.

Uganda- Visiting Schools with Project Disc (Slow Food International)

Please tell us about your work in Africa?

B: We are tired with all the misconceptions about Africa. All we hear in the media is about conflict, HIV/AIDS, famine and disease. You almost never hear anything positive, and as a result people think the situation is hopeless. That’s why everywhere we go we are looking at African-led innovations and sharing those stories, in hopes of reaching the funding and policy making community so they can get scaled up or replicated, but also to challenge misconceptions that things in Africa are “beyond repair.” After sixteen countries, we’ve really seen firsthand how much incredible work is happening on the ground here and I’ve never felt so much hope.

D: The project is a two year grant to evaluate environmentally sustainable ways of alleviating hunger and poverty with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.  We hope to build a roadmap for the funding and donor communities of projects that either need to be scaled up or replicated across the continent. Hundreds of millions of dollars are poured into funding agricultural projects every year in Sub-Saharan Africa. The reality is that so much of that money is misused, or misplaced and never reaches the hands of the farmers, workers, and people who need it the most.

We want to paint a new picture of Africa, one far different from the infomercials and images we’ve become accustom to. We are meeting with Africans on the ground, who are using their vast knowledge, and developing innovative ways of reducing hunger and improving food security in their communities. We want them to be the face of our project, putting their stories front and center, sharing their hopes and dreams to audiences they’ve never reached before.

From what you have seen, are African countries progressing and improving the quality of life of their citizens?

B: There is a lot of news that is not being reported on from the continent — we are seeing dozens of examples of stories of hope and success in agriculture from NGOs, policymakers, farmers groups, workers, unions, etc, that are helping to further not only food security in Africa but general quality of live. For example, in Uganda, a young team of volunteers is working with kids, parents, and teachers to reignite an interest and appreciation for indigenous food. In Rwanda, Heifer international is working with very poor farmers to improve their qualities of life through smallscale livestock projects. In Ghana, NGOs are working to improve access to processing facilities for palm oil so that farm workers can earn more money.

What have been your least and most favorite countries so far?

B: There is no least favorite because every country is different with positive and negative aspects which you could also say about the United States. We didn’t like aspects of Nairobi, but we loved traveling deep into rural parts of Kenya like Samburu. Johannesburg at times was stressful for us, but we’d definitely be up for living in Pretoria, Durban or Cape Town. Within countries there is so much diversity that it all is a valuable learning expierience for us.

Is Africa safe to travel?

D: I would say that Africa is like anywhere else, you have to be careful, obviously political conflict is more an issue than in the United States but we either have been very lucky or everything you’ve heard about Africa being dangerous is wrong. With that said, big cities like Nairobi and Johannesburg are not safe to be by yourself at night, you need to take a taxi, etc.

B: We’ve also been lucky and blessed. We watch each other’s backs as we travel together. People warned us about places that have had recent political upsets like Zimbabwe and Madagascar but we are really glad we went to those places because they turned out to be some of our favorite countries. We are avoiding Libya and the Sudan, just because we feel uneasy about our safety.

What African countries do you recommend for other travelers?

B: It depends on why you are traveling to Africa, we like to go off the beaten track a little bit. If your looking for a vacation, go to Mauritius. If your looking for something off the track, head to Zimbabwe and Madagascar. If you want to see a lot of wildlife, then head to Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda. If you are looking for great live music, then check out Ghana and Senegal. Africa has every adventure you could ever dream of.

Have you encountered any major problems or dangerous situations?

D: No (knock on wood), we’ve been very lucky.

What are your travel expenses?

B: On average we spend we spend $50 a day which includes a budget hotel or hostel, local meals, travel by taxi, and entertainment. VISA fees vary greatly and can be very expensive for Americans – but it ranges from free (Senegal, Botswana, South Africa, Rwanda) to over $100USD (Nigeria, Mozambique, Cote D’Ivoire). It all depends on what you want to do, plan several hundred a day if you plan to hike Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania; Lemur trek in Madagascar; whitewater raft at the source of the Nile in Kampala, Uganda; or Gorilla trek in Rwanda.

Africa can be very expensive depending on what you want to do and it is worth splurging for safety – private taxis at night, long haul-buses instead of shared taxis for international travel, making sure you are staying in a good location, etc. We also benefit by the fact that projects we visit go out of their way to make us feel at home, from airport pickups, to driving us between projects, to feeding us in their homes, it really helps cut down costs.

Traveling in Africa is totally not what you expect. People are often afraid to take a risk here, so they plan very packaged vacations for things like the World Cup or a safari. We couldn’t imagine a more friendly, or welcoming place to travel.

Are you able to get good Internet access and other modern conveniences?

D: We are really surprised how connected Africa is in terms of hi-speed wifi (these are mostly in cities). Also Skype allows us to keep in touch with the United States for free, SIM cards in each country make local calls incredibly cheap, and email is accessible nearly everywhere. In terms of what we miss — it is mainly different foods — like fresh salads, bagels with cream cheese, vegetables like broccoli, cranberry juice, a good latte, etc… Stuff that we totally took for granted in the United States but are hard to find here.

Do you see yourselves ever permanently relocating to Africa?

B: Yes, definitely a possibility. We love the people, energy, the diverse cultures. Our choice would be Senegal so far (with that said we have 25 more countries to see). In reality we’ve talked about how we could live in Uganda, Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Madagascar, and Senegal. Since that list will only grow, it’s hard to imagine ever leaving.

Links
Borderjumpers
Follow Bernie and Dani on Twitter