A Time to Reminisce

Although it’s been an absolute joy to come back to our home countries and have all those familiarities to comfort us during this difficult time, like home-cooked meals (I always miss my mum’s lasagne when I’m away), your own bed, spending more quality time with family and pets even time to yourself. The novelty soon wears off and we definitely understand that feeling that all those adventure-seekers are starting to develop. Itchy feet, longing for freedom, that desire to explore and wanderlust. I don’t know about you, but I am spending an unhealthy amount of time scrolling through photo memories from “back in the day” when travel was allowed. I am trying to re-live those experiences of what backpacking and travel give you like sampling foreign foods (avoiding those wet markets for obvious reasons), meeting like-minded people, discovering off the beaten track attractions, understanding culture and language unlike your own…even just thinking about it gives me butterflies in my stomach.

Preparing for your Volunteering Adventure

But here is to turning over a new leaf, stop dwelling on that trip you should have been living now and start preparing for the future. Covid-19 will be combatted and life will eventually return back to normal. Meanwhile, now is a brilliant time to sit tight, make light of a bad situation and start saving and planning NOW for that adventure LATER. I am not going to profess to be an expert saver or give you professional advice on how to manage your own savings. But I do have some great tips and ideas to help you through this time of solitary and stillness.

Create a Travel Kitty

While you are unable to go out for coffee dates and splurge on dinners or drinks out with your friends, why don’t you put what you would be spending in your spare time instead into a designated travel kitty? You might surprise yourself with how much money you might put in there! Working from home is significantly reducing local travel costs (and carbon emissions!). With less expenditure on public transport, parking and petrol, this money you’re saving from daily commutes could also be added to your expanding travel kitty. The miles you aren’t clocking in your car can also be replaced with air-miles when it is deemed safe to travel again.

Get Creative in the Kitchen

While in lockdown, you will be cooking at home a lot more, this in itself will help you with saving money but is also a good time to learn to cook using some exotic and foreign ingredients from the destination you next want to travel to such as bumbu sauce from Indonesia, molé sauce from Oaxaca or piripiri from the Portugeuse. Getting your chef-hands on some of these hard-to-find items may be a hassle with fewer shops and businesses open but is a worthwhile challenge to make those delectable and traditional recipes. People are tending to do their shopping in bulk to make it last for an extended period of time, presumably to reduce their exposure in supermarkets (and not to hoard for doomsday). Actually, this is a game-changer, not only will it save you money buckets of money in the long run, but it will also give you more clarity in what essentials you will need. Instead of passing by the shops almost every day to get bits and bobs for that night’s dinner, you can meal-plan in advance which can prove to be cheaper and healthier.   Get Creative with your Exercise Makeshift home gyms are becoming a popular option since gyms have closed. And it goes without saying that this is going to be a huge money saver for many gym-junkies out there. Create some space and find anything you can (within reason) to replace dumbbells – use milk or water bottles, books or packets of rice and bags of flour (a good option for all those hoarders out there). There are now also hundreds of free webinars and online classes for yoga, Pilates and fitness. Get your sports team together on a video platform app and do virtual workout sessions with your teammates. With a dash of self-motivation and pinch of desire, there is no reason to lose your strength and fitness during the lockdown period. Re-allocating your normal day-today spending into a travel-kitty is super easy. With a bit of perseverance and self-restraint to stop yourself from online shopping or ordering food delivered to your door, you could have hundreds of extra dollars of spending money for your exciting trip that awaits you in the not too distant future.

Got a Bit of Extra Time on Your Hands?

Start to research and plan your big adventure by making a digital scrapbook, set out your route and make a list of the must-see destinations and must-do activities with pictures and maps on your phone. Start to learn greetings and the basics of the language spoken in country of choice. Delve deeper into what your next volunteering destination can offer you by reading travel blogs for insights and do’s and don’ts. This is sure to inspire you and get you through this tough time.

Re-start the World

As the world slowly turns back to normal and travel bans begin to ease, you can help to restart the world again. Any trips and travel that you do take when this is over will have a tangible positive impact on tourism and local businesses. The team at Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers needs your help now more than ever, as projects and programs around the globe are starting to open with the first one back up and running in Thailand this week. Many others will be available mid to late 2020 and into 2021. To see how you can have a positive impact on the animal welfare and wildlife habitat conservation go to our website to check out some of the programs on offer in Australia, Ecuador, Mexico, Malawi, Thailand and South Africa. For the animals and environmental lovers who want to travel with purpose and contribute to grassroots projects, Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers collaborates with ethical, sustainable and conscientious organisations all around the world. With opportunities to combine projects within these countries, you can make significant impacts in marine conservation, animal rehabilitation, education programs, wildlife care and rehabilitation or research and veterinary assistance. To finish, remember to be kind and compassionate to yourself, there is nothing worse than beating yourself up thinking you could be somewhere else or doing something more. During times of stress, it’s easy to lose focus and push yourself so hard, to the point where you aren’t realising what you’re doing to yourself or what’s going on around the world. This is called “Avoidant Coping”. Remember to stop and breathe and be mindful, open and accepting of how you’re feeling. The team at Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers hopes that everyone is safe and well if you’d like to contact us regarding volunteering, internships or travel post-covid19 era write to us at volunteer@oceans2earth.org. Written by Megan Cundy, Oceans 2 Earth Volunteers Marine Conservation Advocate