Hi guys

Very short life story: Back in my early twenties, whilst doing a Bachelor's degree I had the idea to buy a truck and drive around Africa for a couple of years or so. Things changed, mostly the central Sahara became off-limits for travellers and I instead I turned to Eurasia, ended up spending almost five years on the road until I had done just about everything I wanted to do, and decided to come back. Did a Master's degree and got what seemed like a pretty nice job in an energy company.

That was a few years ago and I'm starting to tire of this career and question if I want to stay in the industry much longer. The world is changing; the era of having a career for life in one company is over; the idea of a globetrotting career in Big Oil seems now like an out-of-date daydream.

So I'm thinking it might soon be time to do that trip to Africa. However, now being in my mid-thirties, I'm looking to do a trip which would mix personal travel / exploration with giving something back, and also give me something to put on my CV, helping me get back into conventional employment after the trip. I can spend 2-3 years travelling and will not need to earn money during that time, so unpaid work would be fine. With a background in geoscience I think I would have something to offer energy / geology / water based projects above a pair of hands, but I'm not sure.

So, getting to my question, does this sound like a reasonable idea, or is it really a naive fantasy to stop off en-route and work on projects? Are there local NGOs who can use short-term (e.g. 3 month) volunteers? Is there a need for technical people with specific skills?

I'm really sketching this out as an idea, so I'm not really sure if I'm asking the right questions even, and I'd be very grateful if someone with some experience of this could give me some guidance.

Thanks!

EO

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EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.