Traveling and Charity Go Hand in Hand
To combine traveling and charity is a win-win situation but there are so many things keeping you from doing it, right? Does it sound impossible to sell everything you have and leave with one backpack? Or do you think it is too late? Read Diana and Mark's experience and you might change your mind on what you think is out of reach.
Diana and Mark Van de Wall
HOME COUNTRY: HOLLAND, NETHERLANDS
CURRENT COUNTRY: THAILAND
AGE: 47 & 48
PROFESSION: WORLD TRAVELING VOLUNTEERS
Mark and Diana both grew up in The Hague in Holland, where they met at the age of 19 and 20. They both remember being real party animals when they were living in Holland. In fact, Mark had always wanted to travel but Diana wasn't ready to leave her comfort zone. Diana had had several different jobs - from a hairdresser to helping people at the house - and Mark had been changing jobs every year, he even had a job working with reptiles for a while.
Mark: "I asked Diana to leave Holland with me and she said she couldn't because of all of her friends and family. I was so upset that I actually bought the tickets and then I thought about it again and confessed to myself that I would have been back in a month because I would miss her too much."
So he waited for Diana to be ready to travel for seventeen years!
Diana: "We went on holidays and every time we stayed a little bit longer. Then we took two months off and went to Thailand, Mexico, Brasil and Suriname. I noticed I was not home sick at all."
Mark: "We sold the car and the house. I was cleaning out my cabinet and there was one drawer that was full of documents, including my old passports with all the stamps in it. I said to myself, I can't throw that away! And then I did and it actually felt great. All I had left were my insurance papers. It was such a relief, I felt like I could fly. We left the house with our bicycles and a backpack. We even ended up giving our bicycles away in France. It was amazing. If you don't have anything, you can't lose anything.
We went to Suriname where we lived in the jungle four months with no electricity.
By the time we left, I have already had my enduro bike. We lived on the road for a bit and then we found a house where we could stay for free. The owner told us we can stay as long as we want, if we clean out the garden. The garden was full of mangos, lemons and oranges that we could eat or sell on the market. We got intouch with an owner of a guest house in Paramaribo, the capital of Suriname. He asked us to take over the guest house when he left for vacation. When he returned, he was so happy with our work that we took over the guest house for a year.
Our visa had expired by the time we were ready to move on to our next destination, Brasil, so we couldn't take the plane. Instead, we took a boat to French Guiana and we crossed another river to go to Brasil. We had some trouble with immigration but in the end it all worked out and we could stay in Brasil, where we lived for five months. We stayed on an island called Barra da Lagoa, Florianópolis.
After finding out we couldn't get a job in Brasil, we decided to go back to Holland to make some money working for a couple of weeks. We took a freight boat and traveled around Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland and Luxembourg. Having spent some time in Europe, we decided to do something for charity instead of work and party all the time.
We came back to Thailand, the country we have always loved.
We traveled to the south of Thailand for one month then had to go to Malaysia to extend our visa. Upon our return to Thailand we bought the Lonely Planet guide for the first time in our lives. I looked up Kanchanaburi in Thailand. It was a place we had visited before and we loved it, so we decided to go back. There was a listing "volunteers wanted" in children's home in Sangkhlaburi.
We stayed there for four years. The work we did was rewarding but tiring, it was 24/7, and we missed the vicinity of the sea since we were both born and raised in a port town. We took two weeks off at the seaside and that was when we both agreed on the decision to quit working in the children's home."
Diana had a dream about Mark working with dogs. Shortly after that, they found out about Soi Dog shelter in Phuket. Four years later, they are still living in Phuket, Thailand enjoying life.
MARK'S TRAVEL ADVICE
- Don't be desperate to find a job, just let it go and the right situations and money will come to you.
- When you travel, people give you things. Even if you don't ask for it. We once got 20o GBP which saved us when we were broke in the Philippines.
- "Just do it!" There are too many people out there who live in fear. They are paying rent, own cars, get loans in a bank and they basically become their own prisoners and slaves to society. I was a salesman for an insurance company and my job was to make people afraid. Don't be one of them.
MARK'S THOUGHTS ON HOMESICKNESS
I went back to Holland two years ago for a short visit. I loved going to the supermarket, products were of such good quality and everything was so organized. But that excitement only lasted a couple of days and I was ready to leave again.
DIANA'S ADVICE TO READERS
Diana: "Train your mind to stay calm and positive. When you start to worry, change your negative thoughts into positive ones. When you practice this often it will become more and more automatic to think positive and the law of attraction will bring out the positive. Don't mind other people's opinion and follow your heart. Everyone has their own truth and their own story."
DIANA'S FAVORITE QUOTES
"Because one is content with oneself, one does not need others approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her." - Lao Tzu
"Today, I will move forward with my life, despite what others are doing or not doing. I will know it is my right to cross the bridge to a better life, even if I must leave others behind to do that. I will not feel guilty. I will not feel ashamed. I know that where I am now is a better place and where I'm meant to be." - From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie ©1990, Hazelden Foundation.
PLANS FOR THE FUTURE
Diana and Mark have been traveling for ten years. They are going to continue living in Thailand as long as they still own their dogs and later on, they are planning on traveling around the world. What they both wish for is to grow old together with a healthy body and mind.
Thank you for reading Mark and Diana's story. Do you already see yourself on a beautiful beach in Thailand or an island in Brasil? Find out what Diana recommends!
Photo credit: Mark Van de Wall
Author: Eva