Wide-Open World ― How Volunteering Around the Globe Changed One Family's Lives Forever

For readers of Three Cups of Tea; Eat, Pray, Love; and Wild comes the inspiring story of an ordinary American family that embarks on an extraordinary journey. Wide-Open World follows the Marshall family as they volunteer their way around the globe, living in a monkey sanctuary in Costa Rica, teaching English in rural Thailand, and caring for orphans in India. There’s a name for this kind of endeavor—voluntourism—and it might just be the future of travel.

Oppressive heat, grueling bus rides, backbreaking work, and one vicious spider monkey . . . Best family vacation ever!

John Marshall needed a change. His twenty-year marriage was falling apart, his seventeen-year-old son was about to leave home, and his fourteen-year-old daughter was lost in cyberspace. Desperate to get out of a rut and reconnect with his family, John dreamed of a trip around the world, a chance to leave behind, if only just for a while, routines and responsibilities. He didn’t have the money for resorts or luxury tours, but he did have an idea that would make traveling the globe more affordable and more meaningful than he’d ever imagined: The family would volunteer their time and energy to others in far-flung locales.

Wide-Open World is the inspiring true story of the six months that changed the Marshall family forever. Once they’d made the pivotal decision to go, John and his wife, Traca, quit their jobs, pulled their kids out of school, and embarked on a journey that would take them far off the beaten path, and far out of their comfort zones.

Here is the totally engaging, bluntly honest chronicle of the Marshalls’ life-altering adventure from Central America to East Asia. It was no fairy tale. The trip offered little rest, even less relaxation, and virtually no certainty of what was to come. But it did give the Marshalls something far more valuable: a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to conquer personal fears, strengthen family bonds, and find their true selves by helping those in need. In the end, as John discovered, he and his family did not change the world. It was the world that changed them.

Advance praise for Wide-Open World

“Volunteering may not change the world—but as we learn in Wide-Open World, it will change you and your family. Let this heartwarming, hilarious, poignant book be your inspiration: Dare to follow in the Marshall family’s footsteps, and give more of your time, effort, and heart than you ever thought possible—and watch the blessings flow!”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Good Good Pig

“Compelling, richly detailed, and often laugh-out-loud funny, Wide-Open World is the poignant story of four ordinary people trying to salvage a family while saving the world (or at least making it a little bit better). Sometimes the truest path to self-knowledge is focusing on the needs of others, and this book provides ample—and compulsively readable—evidence of just that.”—Gwen Cooper, author of Homer’s Odyssey

John Marshall is a nine-time Emmy Award–winning writer, producer, and director. In addition to his work behind the camera, Marshall has been a familiar face on Maine television for more than ten years, writing and hosting numerous weekly TV shows. Wide-Open World is his first book.