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" You tumble out of your bunk at 5 a.m., take an ice-cold shower, and schlep banana-tree trunks across the rainforest to build a bridge. That&amp;#039;s called summer vacation for volunteers with the Malaysia-based Great Orangutan Project, which works to protect the dwindling population of red-haired apes. And it&amp;#039;s one of hundreds of do-goodery options for people itching to heed President Obama&amp;#039;s call to service, asking not what your time off can do for you (tan lines, hookups, tiki bars), but what you can do with your time off.  A slew of &amp;quot;voluntourism&amp;quot; books are hitting shelves this summer, starting with Volunteer Vacations Across America and National Geographic&amp;#039;s The 100 Best Volunteer Vacations to Enrich Your Life. The guides describe how to do everything from building a mobile karaoke studio in Cambodia to restoring a monastery in Tibet. A little too selfless for you? Consider this: &amp;quot;In today&amp;#039;s economy, it can be crass to talk about how you spent two weeks at a resort,&amp;quot; says Andrew Mersmann, author of Frommer&amp;#039;s 500 Places Where You Can Make a Difference, in stores this fall. &amp;quot;But if you spent your days saving endangered black rhinos, that&amp;#039;s cocktail conversation.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.marieclaire.com/travel/news/a3068/volunteer-vacations/>