My buddy Tim Bete, former director of the Erma Bombeck writers workshop, who forever holds a special place in my heart for dragging his daughters through 10 inches of snow to my first ever reading, is editor of a cool new project - ThankfulHome.
Here’s how Tim describes ThankfulHome:
ThankfulHome.tv allows people to share their stories about housing issues by submitting short videos. Visitors to the site can share why they are thankful for their homes or talk about a difficult housing situation they’ve faced (e.g., homelessness, unsafe conditions.) By connecting people who have decent housing with those who don’t, ThankfulHome.tv hopes new innovative solutions to housing issues will emerge.
Having been away from my home for the past six weeks, I’m feeling very thankful for my home. Almost as thankful as this girl…
I did a similar thing in front of the mirror, except I was wearing Underoos.
The day I left Muncie for my recent trip, NURU hosted one of their Be Hope to Her events in town.
I wanted to go, but the timing just wasn’t good. I would have had to leave from the event and go directly to the airport. I was milking those last remaining moments with my girls and opted to not be hope to her, but be a dad to Harper.
Nuru’s grassroots guru asked me to share a post about their Be Hope to Her events that took them around the country. It’s not out of guilt that I’m posting it, but out of great respect of the fine work that I saw the group doing firsthand in Kenya.
Earlier this spring, 1500 college students and young professionals on 23 college campuses, 3 city centers, and one international site, decided to take a walk. This wasn’t a protest march, but rather a solidarity experience that allowed men and women in the western world to grow in better empathy and understanding of part of the daily life of one in eight people on our planet.
The event was called “Be Hope To Her” or “BH2O+” and was organized by Nuru International in an effort to inspire people to confront the crisis of extreme poverty.
The participants in the event placed a yellow five gallon bucket on their head and carried the bucket through their town or campus to a water source. At the water source, they filled their buckets with water, and began a journey through the area with about forty pounds of water on their heads.
Each step these men and women took made statistics a reality. No longer were they hearing about the reality of women and girls spending several hours each day gathering water for their families. No longer were they considering the opportunities that these girls and women would not experience because of the consuming need to gather water for their families. No longer was the problem of extreme poverty a far-away issue that affects people “over there.” When these men and women walked in mid-April, they were awakened to the issue of extreme poverty in a way that a statistic or a story of another could never do.
The story of nearly a billion people living in extreme poverty became the story of these men and women who gave up time and other choices for one day so that the people of Kuria, Kenya and beyond might experience a life filled with choices and opportunity. Now there are 1500 new storytellers who can tell about their experience of one day, and the daily experience of millions.
And as you watch this video, these young men and women invite YOU to join us in the fight. They invite YOU to be part of the solution, to be part of the END of extreme poverty. Will you join them in the fight?
Andrew and I have been in touch with one another throughout our Nothing Personal project and one thing keeps coming up…this ain’t easy work. It’s uncomfortable and emotionally fatiguing to talk to folks whose lives have been shattered by the crisis.
I’m tired of living this crisis and talking about it. But we have a lot more important work to do. The events of 2008-2010 have changed my life and the lives of countless others.
Here’s a windblown me trying to make sense of it all.
I’ve got a lot of love for the BootsnAll Travel Network. Their community of travelers is great. I often turn to fellow travelers on their message boards for on-the-ground advice. Plus, they played an important part in my story.
Outside of my family, they were the first people I told about my wacky idea to go all the places my clothes were made. They liked the idea, hosted the original Where Am I Wearing blog, and then gave me some love in their newsletter.
So, when Steve Bramucci asked me to participate in the wonderful “How I travel” series he edits, I was thrilled.
You should go read it now if you are interested in having longer-lasting, spine-tingling…travel.
Warning: It’s hard to stop with just one interview. Before you know it you’ll be reading the archives and learning how Mark Twain, Rolf Potts, and Steve himself travel.
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