poverty tourism as volunteering

The young woman I work with, who our office manager suggested we should pass the hat for to fund her mission trip, keeps posting about how she “preached Jesus to 2 Muslim ladies” etc. They are staying in nice hotels and going out to poor villages to preach at people. Had to finally hide her on FB cause it irks me so much and I have to work with her (already had one run in with her the 2nd time she loudly dissed Catholics to a coworker (same office manager) at work - I generally keep out of religious, political etc conversations and didn’t say anything the first time when she referred to Catholics as baby Christians, but couldn’t keep my mouth shut the 2nd time). I can just imagine how she’d react if a bunch of rich Muslims came to our city, stayed in luxury hotels, and went to poor homes and preached Allah. She would not think that was OK at all.

So glad the pass the hat suggestion fell flat with everyone. I wouldn’t have contributed, but was relieved everyone else felt the same way.

Things that seem similar superficially are not necessarily the same.