VOL-UN-TOUR-IST n. 1. A guy who attempts to save the world in an attempt to save himself. 2. Someone who can only do it two weeks at a time. 

When Ken Budd's father suddenly collapsed in 2007, he was one year into his retirement, seemingly healthy, and just finishing eighteen holes of golf. Then in a matter of seconds he was gone. Seeing the legions of family, friends and coworkers paying tribute at his father's funeral, Ken began to reflect on the achievements of his dad, a man who rose from poverty, who never attended college yet climbed to upper management in a variety of high-tech companies, and who supported the financial demands of a household and still made time for his family. Ken began thinking about his own life, his marriage, the unspoken decision he and his wife had made to remain childless, and he began to wonder: what would he leave behind? How could he live a life that truly matters? Out of Ken's effort to find purpose and to confront mortality grew his memoir THE VOLUNTOURIST: A Six-Country Tale of Love, Loss, Fatherhood, Fate and Singing Bon Jovi in Bethlehem. 

Ken's volunteering mission began with an email, subject line: "Katrina Relief Volunteer Opportunities". Ken signed up. He spent a week in New Orleans, rebuilding homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina nine months earlier. What soon followed were several global excursions to countries with communities in need: Costa Rica, to teach English for two hectic weeks at an elementary school; China, to provide support to faculty at a special-needs school; Ecuador, to study and document climate change in the remote Andes mountains; Palestine, to participate in a series of projects in the war-torn West Bank, from building rock walls at olive farms to cleaning the streets of Bethlehem; and lastly, Kenya, to work in a children's home, nursing and caring for abandoned infants and young children with HIV. 

THE VOLUNTOURIST is a journey that is part insider look at the growing trend of voluntourism, part do-gooder manifesto, part personal journey. Wry and funny, heartbreakingly honest, as exotic in location as it is familiar in its concerns, Ken Budd has penned a memoir that will inspire you, captivate you, and linger in your mind long after you've turned the last page.

About the Author

Ken Budd is an award-winning writer and editor whose writing credits include Smithsonian, Stuff, the Washington Post, AARP: The Magazine, McSweeney's, Modern Humorist, and, Worldview, the magazine of the Peace Corps. Ken lives in Burke, Virginia, near Washington, D.C., with his wife.