Transformational Development

Let me show you the work of the humble. Listen.

In the vacant places
We will build with new bricks

What life have you, if you have not life together?

Where the bricks are fallen
We will build with new stone
Where the beams are rotten
We will build with new timbers
Where the word is unspoken
We will build with new speech
There is work together
A Church for all
And a job for each
Every man to his work.

What life have you, if you have not life together?
There is not life that is not in community,
And no community not lived in praise of GOD.

- TS Eliot *with credits to Michael Pucci for showing this to me*

Peace and love.

My rant

I’m sick of political radicals, on both the left and right. No wonder there is so much discord in American when the only people who get any press are those that yell the loudest (Glenn Beck, Keith Olbermann, etc.). The far right thinks the left are communist infiltrating America while the far left rants hatefully of the hate and bigotry of the right (ironic huh?). While the war are words is flung from one side to the other those of us stuck in the middle (which I truly believe to be the majority of America) are left cleaning up the mess they have made. Maybe this is ignorant of me, but I hope that someday we can act like civilized adults and have real conversations about issues as opposed to just trying to yell louder than the other. I hear adults all the time talk about how children are so “disrespectful” and “poorly behaved” these days. Well what do we expect? We have senators yelling “You lie!” at President Obama and comparing him to Hitler. Then there are the hundreds of horrible things that were said of President Bush. When you look at these things how can we be surprised by our children’s actions? We are acting like 5 year olds ourselves. I say “we” because I feel everyone, myself included, has probably been guilty of this at one reason or another. I don’t care if you love or hate those in power, let’s have some respect for authority and be good examples for our children. I’m not saying I have all the answers, but I do pride myself on thinking critically about issues before making a judgment call. I am willing to have dialogue with people of opposing views and even if I disagree with them, I respect their right to their own opinion. There is something missing from the public discourse in this country, and I believe that to be respect and love for our fellow human beings.

We might never really agree
On anything about the lives we live
Between you and me. So differently.

We don't always see things the same
We should agree to disagree
If we meet at love we can work it out

Peace and love.

End of the year thoughts

As my year of travel has now ended I have a few thoughts to share with all of you. How do you wrap a year of traveling up into a single blog post? Sounds impossible, and it probably is, but I'm going to try it. I hope you enjoy!

Stats:

- Countires Visited outside of the US: 14 - in order of visit: Uganda, Rwanda, England, Canada, The Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Thailand, Burma, Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia

- World Heritage Sites Visited: 10

- Air miles traveled: roughly 56,939 mi

- Currencies used: 8 - USD, Ugandan Shilling, Rwandan Franc, Canadian Dollar, Euro, Thai Baht, Vietnamese Dong, Cambodian Riel


Food:

- Best fast food: Rolex - Ugandan delicacy of fried egg rolled up in a chapati for the bargain price of $0.40

- Best regional food: Thailand hands down!

- Worst regional food: Uganda - matooke, g-nut sauce, and jackfruit...a deadly trio

- Strangest foods: There were too many to limit this category to just one - fried grasshoppers (Uganda), omelet filled with ant and bee eggs (Thailand), & tiger penis soaked whiskey (Laos)

- Cheapest meal: Posho and beans in Uganda

- Most expensive meal: Anywhere in Europe


Transportation:

- Best airline: British Airways - decent food, ample leg room and free alcohol on international flights

- Worst airline: It was a tight race between Malév Hungarian Airlines and Jetstar Airlines, but in the end Jetstar came out on top - a combination of absolutely no leg room (my knees were literally pressed into the back of the seat in front of me), the toilet that did not flush, and almost dying because we flew through a thunderstorm.

- Cheapest public transit: Songthaew - $0.50 for a 25 min ride in or out of town

- Most expensive public transit: The subway in either London or Vienna - can't remember which one cost more

- Best way to travel: The sleeper train in Vietnam - what is better than falling asleep in a bed with air-con and waking up at your destination!

- Worst way to travel: Public bus in Africa - hot, cramped, and dusty


General Observations:

- Favorite Country: Uganda - the friendliest people in the world, the beauty of crater lakes, the insanity of the taxi park...I love everything about that country!

- Most beautiful place: Halong Bay, Vietnam - the most beautiful place I have ever been

- Least beautiful place: Downtown Kampala - smelly and dirty...but man I love it there

- Most memorable experience: Bike trip through the crater lakes in southwestern Uganda

- Worst experience: Throwing up for a day and night in a small rural Ugandan home - sugar cane and jackfruit are a deadly combination

Peace and love.

Discount tours and custom made suits

What a strange way to leave Thailand, standing in a suit store pretending to be interested in the made-to-order garb a man was pitching me. This is what I was confronted with yesterday, the day before my flight out. A man approached Ryan and I asking if we wanted to take a wat tour around Chinatown. We quickly waved him off, wanting to spend as little money as possible during our one night stopover. I couldn't help be interested in his offer, however, when he gave us the price of 50 Bhat for a 2 hour tour. I was a bit suspicious of such a cheap tour, but we listened to what he had to say. He told us that all we had to do was stop at a few souvenir shops along the way, pretend to be interested in buying something, and he would get a gas voucher from the businesses. Seemed easy enough. We started on our way and about 2 minutes into the ride he found out we were leaving Thailand the next day. He abruptly pulled the taxi into a gas station and said he could not take us to the wats, but that if we stopped at one store he would take us back to where he picked us up and would not charge us anything. He explained that one of the stops is the government run tourist bureau and if they found out we were not truly interested in anything then he would get in a lot of trouble. So we agreed and soon found ourselves outside of a tailored suit store in the middle of Chinatown. We had no idea what he had gotten ourselves into, especially when the driver said, "You have to really pretend like you want something, because if the owners find out you don't, they will beat me up." So we went in and started looking at the different fabric they had. A salesman quickly came up to us and tried to sell us something. We kept saying that we were just looking, but he insisted that we try some jackets on. We did this, and the salesman found one that was "just my size." The jacket barely buttoned up in the front because it was so tight. So we politely declined and said we wanted something that was already made because we were leaving the next day. The salesman then got angry and told me the only way to buy a pre-made suit was to buy it from a second hand store where "a man died and his family sold his old suit to the store." I found this rather comical, but the man was not amused, he fumed a bit, tried to get us to try on a few more jackets and then we decided to just leave. Needless to say, it is not what I expected on my last full day in Thailand, but then again, when is anything ever what I expect?

Peace and love.

The World is a Ghetto

I was perusing my itunes library today and I came across a song I haven't heard in a long time: "Ghetto" by P.O.D. As I listened to it I could not help but think that our politicians and citizens with opposing political beliefs in America should take a lesson from the lyrics from this song...

"We might never really agree
On anything about the lives we live
Between you and me. So differently.

We don't always see things the same
We should agree to disagree
If we meet at love we can work it out

Whether you think I'm so confused
Or if you feel the way I do
So don't give in to this hate within

Living in this world of pain
Don't let it bring you down
The world is a ghetto"

Peace and love.

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize...you must be kidding

I can't even to begin to describe how confused I am right now about the nomination of Obama for the Nobel Peace Prize. If you have not read my post from yesterday, please go read it before continuing this post (it is two posts below this). How can the same person be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize? Now, I want to point out right from the start that I realize that this is not Obama's fault; he was nominated for the prize, he did not actively pursue it. I personally like Obama, and think he is and will continue to be a good president for our country. The point is, Obama has not done nearly enough at this point to deserve this prize.

I wish the Nobel committee would have thought about the ramifications of giving this award to Obama. This will surely cause a media storm from the right attacking Obama, when in reality he had no power over the committees decision. All this will do is polarize the country even more than it already is. I can't imagine much good will come from this.

President Obama, do the right thing and reject the award and continue to work towards peace knowing the weight you now carry.

What Obama should do with his Nobel Peace Prize

Peace and love.

William Kamkwamba

If you have haven't seen this man yet, which would be hard with articles in multiple news websites about him and an appearance on "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart", you need to check this out. His is one of the more inspirational stories I have heard in a very long time. I leave it up to you to find out more if you want to, I just wanted to point this out and point you in his direction. Here is his website below:

William Kamkwamba

Peace and love.