Money

Money makes the world go round doesn't it?

This vacation has taught me numerous lessons, the one occupying my mind at the moment is money. One tends to have deep thoughts about it when you are paying to haul gravel up hills.

Friday I found out the cost breakdown of what my money goes to here.

The cost to volunteer here is $150 per week.

$100 of this goes to the owners of the place, $50 to the volunteer coordinator. Out of this money she has to buy the volunteers breakfast and dinners. She also has to pay the owners $1 per volunteer per day for lunch (which is cooked by the owners wife.) So no wonder we do not have a plethora of amazing food, the volunteer coordinator has to pay for it out of her pocket! That doesn't make sense to me. To note: all of the other volunteers but me are here with organizations. They have paid their organizations $500 per week, still only $150 of it goes to the sanctuary/zoo. (Whew at least I didn't go that route!)

This especially didn't make sense to me Friday morning when I spent the morning hauling gravel up a hill. I found that with each bag I got grumpier and grumpier.
I do understand that manual labor is required to build animal enclosures and such, I just envisioned spending a bit more time learning about and working with the animals. I do know that there are a few organizations here that portray themselves the same way as this one, yet do not take tourists, I wonder if that makes a difference?

I guess part of it its my own fault, but once again it is managing expectations. My expectation of this experience was that I would be learning a ton about and helping out with animals. I guess I am helping in a sense, just not the way I thought.

If I were doing this work in exchange for room and board, akin to WWoofing last year, I would be a bit more ameniable to it. But the kicker for me is that I am paying.

This vacation is the first time that I have done paid volunteer work, and my expectation was that the bar would be set a bit higher, but once again here comes life teaching me lessons.

The book I am reading right now "The Road Less Traveled" postulates that we should re-frame our thinking about the uncomfortable and tough moments in life, for it is through those that we really learn what we are made of. It is when we relish them and the lessons they teach us, as difficult as they may be, that we really move forward in life. I always want to move forward, learning, thinking, growing, and hope that I can become bit more Buddhist about things, not have expectations, and be open to what life has in store for me.

The controlling part of me still sits on my shoulder though and says things like "You paid to haul gravel? What an idiot, if you are paying, you should be getting more out of it."

But this is the thing with vacations, traveling, and life. You can plan or try to plan as much as possible, but there will always be unknowns and bumps in the road. I am just trying the be the person who stops, listens and learns from them.

Lesson here? I think I paid too much.