Introduction

Any reader who has boarded a flight to the global South has seen them—the predominantly white, middle-class, U.S. travelers with or without matching T-shirts embarking on what have variously been termed “short-term service projects,” “missions,” “delegations,” or “volunteer vacations.” Many of you, our readers, have led these groups. Increasingly, U.S. volunteers travel internationally with religious, professional, educational, and civic organizations for short-term stays that include at least a service component. They travel, often with little cross-cultural experience and little time, but with lots of good intentions and lots of material goods. They arrive and, in two or so weeks, pull teeth, inoculate chickens and dogs, build houses, churches, clinics, roads, dams or ovens. They plant trees and flowers. They make compost. They sit with institutionalized people or cradle babies at daycares. They perform puppet shows or choral arrangements. They teach English.