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The Culturally-Sensitive Butt:

on language, food, humility, and humor. A Swiss man, looking for directions, pulls up at a bus stop where two Americans are waiting. “Entshuldigung, können Sie Deutsch sprechen?” he asks. The two Americans just stare at him. “Excusez-moi, parlez vous … Continue reading

Posted in Just for Fun, service ethics | Tagged , , , , , | 15 Comments

LinkedIn turns attention to Volunteerism

Survey Says, “Your Volunteer Experience Matters” LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional network released the results this morning* of a survey of nearly two thousand professionals in the U.S. and found that 89% have volunteering experience, but only 45% include this … Continue reading

Posted in Volunteering | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Development & Aid Blogger Survey

In the past few years, a lot of new aid and development blogs have been launched, including this one. A few of the bloggers have joined together to create a small survey to learn more about who reads these blogs, … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Badly Presented Data

One of my pet peeves is badly visualized or explained data. I’ve read evaluation reports where it literally felt like the person just randomly pushed graph command buttons over Excel data tables and where the explanatory text was totally unyoked … Continue reading

Posted in Just for Fun | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Generation X and Volunteerism – nuancing the “hero” status

A couple of days ago I published a graph showing that Gen Xers have increased their rates of volunteerism over the past 5-6 years, while the rates of the Baby Boomers and Millennials decreased. (See full post here.) Being that … Continue reading

Posted in Volunteering | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Volunteerism and Employment: the surprising relationship

Volunteerism: it’s not a function of spare time! We know that people volunteer when they have both the heart for it and the resources for it, but which resource is more important, time or money? I would have thought that time … Continue reading

Posted in Economics, Volunteering | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

El primer Principio de Desarrollo Internacional Basado en la Comunidad

A pedido voy a publicar de nuevo el articulo Staying for Tea (Quedándose para el Té) como una serie de entradas de blog en seis partes. El artículo fue publicado originalmente en una revista llamada The Global Citizen (El Ciudadano Global). … Continue reading

Posted in En Español, service ethics | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Staying for Tea: coming to you soon ¡en español!

ENGLISH As I’ve been tracking the location of my subscribers, I’ve noticed a funny thing. I’ve got more readers of this blog from Cambodia, India, and Vanuatu than I do from Bolivia, Colombia, and Guatemala – places where I’ve actually … Continue reading

Posted in En Español | 5 Comments

A Staying for Tea Story: India 2006

As the depth of my hypocrisy sunk in, I struggled to contain my emotions. “Tell her ‘yes, and I’ll be right back,’” I instructed my translator, as shame deepened the red of my sun-baked ears. Turning to my small entourage … Continue reading

Posted in service ethics, Storytelling | Tagged , , | 8 Comments

Staying for Tea – Conclusion

We should not be paralyzed by the fear of committing errors, but we should be self-conscious and think critically about how we go about serving others.  This is the final post of a 6-part series republishing the original Staying for Tea article from The Global … Continue reading

Posted in Faith Perspective, service ethics, Storytelling, Voluntourism | 1 Comment