Thursday, January 15, 2009

Clearly, I'm just incapable of maintaining a blog, but I feel compelled to write this post.

Last night, I met one of the most interesting people I've ever come across.

His name is Barton Brooks and he founded Global Colors, a non-profit. He's currently circumnavigating the globe in one year while volunteering in about 30 countries. He's funded by a ridiculously wealthy family.

He found a rikhshah driver yesterday, doubled the driver's daily fee, and asked the driver to help him spend $75 in one day to do something for the local communtiy. Right now they're at a crematorium buying wood to burn with the bodies of the homeless.

Brooks is an unbelievably charismatic guy and calls what he's doing Guerrilla Aid. The idea is to just help out whenever and wherever you can. If you're walking by a monastery, ask what you can do to help and then spend the rest of the day helping the monks build a garden (he did this not too long ago). He's going to be on Oprah soon.

It's impossible to convey how impressed and inspired I am, so I wanted to share the experience.

Otherwise, the trip has been fun. Our favorite stop was our first, Darjeeling, where we watched the sun rise opposite Khangchendzonga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khangchendzonga, the world's third highest mountain and a part of the Himalyas. Here's a photo from that morning (there's a small town in the foreground).

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Is This What It Feels Like To Be A Foreigner In New York?

I'm hoping that when my friends Ted and Emma arrive in five hours I'll begin thinking thoughts besides "is that guy going to stab and rob me?"

Being alone and incapable of speaking Hindi in Delhi is overwhelming. The city is spread out, so you're forced to constantly get in Rikhshahs (and therefore be ripped off because you're foreign) and I feel like I stand out no matter where I am (although a lady yesterday did stop to ask me directions). I can't imagine what it must feel like to not be ethnically Indian in this city. One positive is that my Hindi is improving enough (I'm on lesson 5 of my tapes) for me to be able to ask for directions and ask a stranger where they'd like to eat dinner -- they're house or mine.

Ted, Emma and I will be spending our first few days in Delhi doing the tourist thing and meeting up with at least one friend-of-a-friend, a friend of Emma's aunt and a freelance journalist based here who I met once.

I'll try to write some more tomorrow after they arrive (and maybe I'll even coax one of them to write a guest post!). I'm also hoping that their arrival -- and the recent end to the three-week family circus I endured -- will usher in a more productive period for the blog.