Don’t ask jetsetter David Papier what his favorite country is, because the 66-year-old won’t give you a direct answer. It’s not that he doesn’t want to answer the question. The truth is he really doesn’t have a favorite country.

A normal summer for me throughout high school and college never involved long, lazy days at the beach or weekend trips to the Appalachian Mountains. For years now, summer vacations were spent abroad with a group of American students to study and live in a foreign culture. But the summer of 2012, I decided to veer off my beaten track to experience something on my own. I chose teaching abroad in Jordan with GeoVisions because I thought I would be able to challenge myself professionally, physically, and mentally. I was looking for the best volunteer programs I could find and ended up going to Jordan to teach English to the all-male, all Bedouin employees at Feynan Ecolodge, as well as take a break from my technology filled world to live off the grid for a while. I truly had no idea what I was getting into, and when I was driving down the dirt road in the hottest sun I had ever experienced to the far off Feynan Ecolodge in Wadi Dana, Jordan…

Ciao! My name is Leanne. I’m from Rochester, NY. 

Living with a host family in Italy and teaching in a local school is one of the best volunteer abroad programs someone can do. Dee Murray, of Philadelphia, says filling out GeoVisons’ application to be placed with a host family abroad was a bit like online dating.   But she admits GeoVisons “got it right” when they placed her with her with “the most perfect” host family in Italy three years ago.  She says living with a family in Italy and volunteer teaching in a local school is one of the best volunteer abroad programs out there.