Volunteer Army

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As for the Alphonsos, their perspective shifted dramatically when they returned to their homeland of Guyana, where mosquitoes, jaded students, frequent blackouts and an irregular water supply were part of daily life. "I learned that you can really live very happily as long as you have good relationships with the people around you. You don't have to have all the amenities that we in this country seem to have," Mervyn says.

The Alphonsos' legacy, and that of most other volunteers, is quite different from what it would have been otherwise. They are no longer just another retired bank executive, another doctor in Oklahoma, another lawyer in Nova Scotia. Instead they have developed a taste for adventure and sacrifice, adjusting to life with little money or Western comforts. The payoff is the chance to use skills honed over decades and see those skills directly improving the world--and their own lives.