Note: For ease of reading, this printable version contains most of the
contents of this website. The Story of Backpack Nation starts
immediately below. Details of the disposition of the Phase One
money start halfway along, under the heading “Where‟d the $10,000
go?” And the guidelines for “Phase Three” are the final part. Print as
much or little as you need.
THE STORY OF BACKPACK NATION
My early travels
In 1973, with college a year and a half behind me, I left the United States for
the first time, headed out toward what I thought would be just a short peek at
Europe. Instead, my trip blossomed into a seven-month backpack odyssey,
in Western Europe at first, but then through Morocco, Turkey, Iran, and
Afghanistan.
Previously I had always taken for granted the running water, health care,
schooling, and countless other luxuries that surround most Westerners. But
even the briefest visit to a developing country can be more enlightening than
any amount of college, and now I quickly began to understand my privileged
place in the world. Had I been born in one of the world‟s less-developed
cultures I would, I realized, have had a life with far fewer opportunities.
Specifically, the opportunity to travel, even to travel as a rock-bottom
backpacker, would have been far beyond my reach. And long before that
first foreign journey of mine was finished, I had come to regard the
opportunity to travel as the most precious gift in the world.
During the following two decades my life strategy was this: work; save;
spend all my savings on travel; repeat. During one of my trips -- in 1988, in
the mountains of the Philippines -- I fell into conversation with an affable,
27-year old rice farmer named Tony Tocdaan. When Tony offered to guide
me through a string of isolated villages, a rice farming culture almost
unchanged since Tony‟s ancestors had settled the region 2,000 years earlier,
I immediately accepted.
As Tony and I hiked the rugged footpaths connecting the villages, as we
bathed in waterfalls and slept at night on the floors of his relatives‟ huts, the
two of us developed an easy friendship. Tony had only once ventured more
than a few miles from his village, but he had met other Westerners who had
told him stories about the greater world, and he was as interested in knowing
about my homeland and my life as I was in knowing about his.
Tony, however, is one of the three billion people on Earth who live on less
than $2 a day, and he would never, I knew, be able to afford casual travel.
Later, back home in America, I wrote him a letter promising that someday,
when I had saved enough money, I would send him a plane ticket and show
him around my country. This only seemed fair: during my own travels, I
had often been showered with hospitality beyond reason. And it seemed like
it might be fun, too.
My most incredible summer – 2001
Fulfilling my promise took much longer than I could have imagined, but
when everything was finally arranged -- in the summer of 2001, by which
time Tony was 40 years old -- the most extraordinary episode of my life
began to unfold. By then I was “settled” and living a quiet life in California:
50 years old, married, proud father of a four-year old daughter, earning my
living as a San Francisco cab driver.
But Tony‟s arrival unsettled everything -- in all the best possible ways. A
kind-hearted taxicab company owner loaned us a new taxi (I‟ve long
believed that “All good stories must have a taxicab in them…”) to use as we
saw fit -- this was just one of countless offers of food, lodging,
transportation, entertainment, hospitality, and money that poured in from
friends and absolute strangers who had heard about Tony‟s impending visit.
After several days cruising around the San Francisco Bay Area, Tony and I
put the Golden Gate Bridge in the cab‟s rearview mirror and spun the
steering wheel toward Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon, the Rocky Mountains,
the St. Louis Arch, and New York City.
From the start the entire experience was mind-boggling and breathtaking for
both of us -- and when the news media caught wind of our adventure it
turned surreal as well. My cell phone began to ring almost constantly: the
San Francisco Chronicle, the BBC, the Voice of America, National Public
Radio, the Christian Science Monitor, television‟s nationwide “Early Show,”
and many, many more. When the Philippine ambassador heard all the
hoopla, he called to invite Tony and me to a special reception in our honor at
the embassy in Washington, D.C.
Tony and I were breathless by the time our magical month ended and we
headed back to our respective families. During his visit, Tony had met many
people who said they would love to visit him in the Philippines. It occurred
to both of us that it might be a good idea if Tony were to build a guesthouse,
and within a few months I was able to raise and send him enough money to
allow that to happen. The lives of Tony and his family members have
changed considerably since the summer of 2001.
And whose life has not?
September 11, 2001
When planes smashed into the New York City skyline (just two months after
I took a photo with Tony in the foreground and the twin towers in the
background) I found myself as shaken as everyone else. My fifty years had
been very good years, and now I felt a profound urge to do something to try
to ensure that my daughter -- plus Tony‟s children, and yours, and all
children -- would have a chance at a good life in a world worth living in.
I knew that the American government would, surely, decide on some strong
responses, but it seemed likely that we, the people, might feel left out of
those decisions and unhappy with those responses. Still, there was nothing
preventing us from giving our government a little direction, nothing stopping
us from coming up with some grassroots responses of our own.
During the next several months I went on numerous day-long walks in the
woods at Pt. Reyes National Seashore, an hour‟s drive from my home. As I
walked I tried to imagine myself as a historian, 50 or 100 or 200 years in the
future, looking back at this interesting post-9/11 period. Would I see that the
world had disintegrated into total chaos, as certainly seemed possible? Or
would a more peaceful sensibility have taken root and flourished? Perhaps, I
hoped, all this tumult was simply humankind‟s last gasp of tribal hatred
before a shift in consciousness and the beginning of a sustained global
peace. Perhaps we were all about to come to our collective senses and
realize that we are all one family -- and start acting like it.
The Golden Rule
If my travels have taught me anything it is that people the world over have
remarkably similar, and surprisingly few, aspirations. In San Francisco, in
Soweto, in Moscow, in Mexico City and Manila and Kabul and Calcutta,
most people want only to be able to feed and educate their families; to be left
alone by their own governments (and by foreign governments, too); and to
have at least a shot at having a little bit of fun.
To me, it never seemed quite right that we in the West, generally, have these
opportunities, while those in the world‟s poorer countries generally do not.
My small, quasi-experimental attempt to address this situation was to share
some of my Opportunity and relative riches with someone less endowed:
Tony. And the results were so overwhelmingly positive as to erase any
doubts I might have once had about the ancient, simple, and not-so-secret
Secret of Life: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Why did some people applaud 9/11?
The news media reports on Tony‟s trip and his family‟s new guesthouse
prompted hundreds of individuals to get in touch with me. Many of them
had backpacked the world themselves, had found that experience to be the
most enlightening of their lives, and told me that they too were dismayed by
the enormous gulf of opportunity separating them from such a large segment
of the human family. Anyone who travels, or anyone who reads or watches
the news, knows that this imbalance will have to be addressed, and soon.
We Westerners -- consumers of 80% of the world‟s resources, possessors of
80% of the world‟s wealth -- are the rich relatives of the human family,
winners of the birthright lottery. And now, even in the remote regions and
isolated villages of the poorer countries -- where just about everyone lives
on less than $2 a day, and where people have traditionally been friendly,
generous, and curious toward foreign visitors -- there is a new sensitivity
about this imbalance. Imagine if one of your relatives won the lottery and
refused to share, or shared grudgingly with you. You might understand for a
while, but your rich relative would not be welcomed to waltz in and out of
your house forever.
It is this dynamic that allowed so many in the poorer countries to applaud --
sometimes silently, sometimes quite noisily -- al-Queda‟s terror. They felt a
gut satisfaction in knowing, finally, that Westerners, who often seemed so
blithely ignorant of, or indifferent to, the suffering of the world‟s poor, could
also suffer. Al-Queda had mobilized a handful of people, seized the
attention of the entire world, and was threatening to write a long, ugly
chapter in our collective history. In order to overwrite that chapter with a
better one, someone was going to have to take some action and breathe into
life a legend to eclipse Al-Queda‟s. But what action? And initiated by
whom?
Backpack Nation conjured into existence
Friends of mine in the travel industry estimate that at any given moment
there are some 2-3 million Westerners traveling independently in foreign
countries. During my Pt. Reyes hikes -- through hushed pine forests and
along bluffs above the Pacific surf -- I thought: “Why not transform this
group, my peer group, into an army of roving ambassadors, emissaries of
peace. Al-Queda made an enormous impact with a much smaller group.
What if…,” I asked myself, “What if we dispatched 10…no, 20…no, 100
backpackers per day on goodwill missions to the poorer countries? And
what if we funded each of these traveling ambassadors with $20,000…
$10,000 for travel expenses and $10,000 to deliver to one compelling
situation -- an individual, family, organization, or village -- that he or she
encounters along the way? Backpack Nation!”
In the woods it is easy to let one‟s imagination jump the tracks and run
unimpeded, and I certainly did. I envisioned 36,500 backpackers every year
fanning out through the poorer countries of the globe to fund the needs of
the people they met: seeds, cattle, wells, tools, toilets, homes, schools,
computers, medical care, capital for small businesses… These gifts would
form solid personal links between the distant peoples of the world, links as
solid as the permanent one that Tony and I now share; would help forge a
stronger human family, a family with no tolerance for terror, a family
concerned with the needs of all, including our meekest. The modern
streamlining of international travel and the advent of instant world-wide
communication had for the first time in history made such a thing possible.
“This…” I thought, “This will be a story no one can ignore! It will filter
into the planet‟s every nook and cranny and be remembered 200 years and
then some.”
Who will pay for all this?
To deploy 100 backpackers every day for a year and to fund each one with
$20,000 will cost $730 million. That may sound like a lot of money, but
when considered in its proper context $730 million is mere peanut shells -- it
computes to roughly $2.50 per American per year. The U.S. Defense
Department currently spends more than $1 billion every day, more than $400
billion every year, -- roughly $1,300 per American -- and never has the
populace felt so threatened, so vulnerable, so poorly defended. The correct
question isn‟t Can we afford to do this? but Can we afford not to?
To a cab driver, especially to your average fifty-something cab driver who is
about $1 million shy of his first million, $730 million can still seem like a
formidable sum. Yet the more I turned the idea over in my mind the more it
inspired me, and I felt certain it would also inspire many others. “Forget the
$730 million,” I told myself as I walked. “This may be a ten-year project.
„A journey of 1,000 miles begins with a single step…‟ „A butterfly flapping
its wings in Malaysia can touch off a hurricane in Miami…‟ You came up
with more than twenty thousand bucks to fund your adventures with Tony --
raise another twenty and you can fund the first Backpack Nation
ambassador. And we‟ll see what that might touch off… ”
September 11, 2002 -- Phase One launched
The travel editor of the San Francisco Chronicle wrote a story about my
intentions, and on the one-year anniversary of the day the twin towers
thundered to the ground 100 people came to a hotel meeting room in
downtown San Francisco to hear me talk about Backpack Nation.
It was a strong and hopeful beginning, full of goodwill and enthusiasm, and
for six months the project flew like a sailboarder riding a breeze across San
Francisco Bay. Newspapers across America ran articles about Backpack
Nation, and travel websites spread the story worldwide. Radio stations
called to chat, and I spoke in front of any gathering that would have me. I
received a couple thousand emails from interested and excited parties from
every continent, including Antarctica. One hundred and forty people applied
to be the first ambassador. Three hundred and fifty people donated $20,000
(in amounts ranging from $3 to $1,000) to make the idea a reality. I thought:
“Ten years -- hah! Backpack Nation might save the world in just a year or
two.”
And then I made a couple of mistakes and screwed the whole thing up. No,
that‟s not a misprint, not a joke, and no, it had nothing to do with money.
But the whole thing did indeed blow up in my face. During the three months
that were the worst of it, I heard an unfamiliar greeting from more than a
couple friends: “You look terrible! Are you o.k.?” But it passed, it‟s over. I
am consoled by the silver lining: thousands of dollars have been delivered
to individuals, families, and organizations in Afghanistan, Brazil, Ecuador,
Jordan… and more funds are on the way. But the result was definitely not
the one I envisioned. (To read about the disposition of the $10,000 intended
for the developing world, please skip ahead to the section titled “WHERE‟D
THE $10,000 GO?”)
In the nightmarish middle of Phase One I was tempted to quit, to send back
everyone‟s money, to stick my head in the sand and never take it out again
ever ever ever. Instead, I took life one breath at a time, took solace in my
family, and as the months passed came to feel restored. I really didn‟t want
to quit on such a sour note, and as the kind words of friends and Backpack
Nation supporters eroded the power of the nightmare, I began to ponder just
how I might escape the whole debacle with some dignity.
January-August, 2004 -- Phase Two
One of the (many) good things about Phase One was that I discovered I was
far from alone. I heard from hundreds of Westerners who told me about
projects they had initiated, projects designed to improve the lives of specific
people or situations in the poorer countries. I have by now heard so many of
these stories that I have come to believe that the world is in the middle of an
under-reported global phenomenon: individuals in the West, tired of waiting
for Governments or God or Someone Else to make the world a more
equitable place, are taking a stab at the job themselves. These people and
their projects are rarely portrayed by the mainstream media, which is so
easily seduced by every disaster, celebrity arrest, and hostage taking, and I
thought: “Why not shine a little light on some of these other stories.”
On this Backpack Nation website I put out a call asking for people to send
me stories about their projects, about sharing their resources and money with
people they had met during their foreign travels. I invited the general public
to vote on their favorite stories, and promised $1,000 to each of the five
leading vote-getters. (As a sort of penance for having so badly botched
Phase One, I funded this endeavor with $5,000 of my own money.)
An assistant helped me read the stories and we selected twenty to post on the
website. (These stories are posted under the header “20 Stories” on the
“About Backpack Nation” page of the website.) During June and July,
2004, more than 500 people read the stories and voted, and in August I sent
$1,000 to each of the five authors whose stories received the most votes.
That money has now started winging its way toward projects in Guatemala,
Senegal, Russia, and Vietnam, and in mid-November, 2004, a followup story
from each of the five authors will be posted on this website.
I was not surprised that the stories were well received -- I had (correctly)
imagined this. But I had also fantasized that while the pleasant tones of
Phase Two were still tinkling in people‟s ears I would let slip the news that I
was pulling the plug on Backpack Nation. I would slink back to my old life
and live quietly ever after.
Things have, however, turned out otherwise. The assistant who handled the
early intake and tabulation of the Phase Two votes left for a camping trip
shortly before the voting period ended, and turned the job over to me.
During the final three days I sat at this computer in my little studio here in
Oakland, California, often with my daughter on a chair beside mine, and
fielded emails from the all over the U.S.A., Canada, England, France, Italy,
Switzerland, Bali, Brazil, Australia, Kenya, Cameroon, Cambodia, South
Africa, Senegal, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, India -- from every
continent except Antarctica. Many people included little notes to me along
with their votes.
From Australia: “It was heartwarming to read people‟s stories and to think
yes there is more than greed and war on this planet!”
From the USA: “Thank you for this amazing contest. I am deeply moved and
inspired by all of the stories.”
From Italy: “I read the last of the stories this morning but not before
needing to blot my teary eyes. Thank you for providing this place for people
to share their stories. Thank your for your kindness and generosity.”
It really doesn‟t take much to refill my tank. My concern for the world has
been with me since Afghanistan 30 years ago, and it will be there -- just like
yours, probably -- until the day I die. And now, with my country, my world,
at war, was I going to nurse my little psychic flesh wound while my 19-year
old countrymen -- instead of being the Backpack Nation footsoldiers of my
imagination -- were, along with thousands of Iraqi civilians, losing their
limbs, spirits, and lives in a horrific groundwar? Who was I kidding?
Early 2005 -- Phase Three
Beginning on January 20, 2005 (presidential inauguration day in America)
Backpack Nation will again be soliciting stories of Haves sharing their
resources with HaveNots. This endeavor will be structured much like Phase
Two, but with a few tweaks. One of the biggest complaints I received about
Phase Two was that twenty stories was too many, making a voter‟s job
overly time-consuming. In Phase Three, an even dozen stories will be
chosen for posting on the website, the public will again be invited to vote,
and each of the top four vote-getters will receive $1,000. For more details,
please skip ahead to the section titled PHASE THREE.
Links
During the past three years I have come into contact with hundreds of
individuals who have initiated hundreds of projects that seem to be kindred
spirits with Backpack Nation. This website will now feature links to the
websites of other projects designed by individuals taking it upon themselves
to make the world a better place. See the “Links” header on this site‟s home
page.
Organization
I originally imagined that word of Backpack Nation would attract key people
with organizational skills that I lack, and that these people would erect an
appropriate infrastructure for this project. I imagined a board of directors,
non-profit status, an office place, employees who would handle finances,
communications, logistics, public relations… and, of course, 36,500
ambassadors a year and a transformed world. None of that has happened.
The organization has been, basically, me.
Nonetheless, this project is two years old, and quietly humming along.
Thousands of dollars have been distributed to compelling situations, the idea
of individual Westerners as ambassadors of peace has been pushed forward,
and thousands of people‟s lives have been touched. I am satisfied with the
forward motion and re-grounded in the original vision. An army of
backpacking ambassadors still seems like an excellent and absolutely viable
idea to me. And I‟m still curious about the organizational structure this
project will eventually assume.
Help Wanted
I am seeking someone who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area (preferably
in Oakland or Berkeley), who is aligned with the idea of Backpack Nation,
who has some ample experience in web design and maintenance, and who is
available approximately five hours a week to help me keep Backpack Nation
moving forward. I can„t pay a lot, but I can pay a little. If you‟re interested
please email me at brad@backpacknation.org.
Keep Your Money
I am most grateful for the approximately $21,000 so far donated to
Backpack Nation. I very well may again solicit funds in the future, but
currently I am not. If the spirit of this project moves you to give something,
I suggest that you give some of your money to someone who needs it more
than you do – if you are reading this on a computer there are billions on this
planet who qualify. But if you really do want to send me something, please
send me a postcard (Backpack Nation, PO Box 21347, Oakland, CA 94620,
USA). I do most of my traveling vicariously these days, so I do love to get
post cards.
THANK YOU
This project has proved to my complete, visceral satisfaction that there are
countless people in the world who share the sentiments I feel. This
knowledge has been priceless to me. Thank you forever for your support
and interest, and also for your own contributions to the world, however you
make them. I try my best to respond to all the correspondence I receive, and
if there‟s something you‟d like to discuss, please email me at
brad@backpacknation.org.
All the very best, always,
Brad
WHERE’D THE $10,000 GO?
In Phase One of this project I received donations of $10,000 intended for
delivery to one compelling situation in the developing countries. As events
unfolded, that plan became unworkable. Instead, I gave $6,750 to projects
recommended by some of the people who applied to be the first Backpack
Nation ambassador. These people and their projects are listed below. I‟ve
retained the other $3,250 and will use it to help fund Phase Three.
$2,000 -- Marc Gold -- 100 Friends
On the evening of September 11, 2002, at the conclusion of the meeting at
which I inaugurated Backpack Nation, I was approached by a man named
Marc Gold. Marc handed me his business card and asked me to visit the
website of his organization, 100 Friends. I was overjoyed by what I saw
there.
Nearly 15 years ago, while Marc was traveling in Asia, he met a deaf and
destitute Tibetan woman who was near death due to a raging ear infection.
Marc paid $2 for the antibiotics needed to clear up the infection, and was
told by the woman‟s doctor that for another $50 the woman‟s hearing could
also be restored. Marc pulled the money out of his pocket, and was later
present when the woman‟s new hearing aid was flipped on. Marc says the
look on her face was priceless. Not only had her life probably been saved,
her hearing and her spirit had also been restored.
One year later, back in America, Marc sent a letter to 100 of his friends, in
which he told them the story of the deaf woman and said: “I‟m headed back
to Asia. I have money to pay all my travel expenses, and I also have some
other money that I‟m going to distribute among the poor and needy that I
will meet. If you send me some of your money, I will distribute that, too,
and I will report back to you with the story of where the money goes.”
Marc was expecting to receive perhaps $300-400, but his friends sent him
$2,100 for that first trip. Marc has been on nine such trips during the past 15
years and has compiled a staggering list of places where he and his friends
have distributed money -- in places such as India, Tibet, Nepal, Cambodia,
Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Turkey, South Africa and
Mozambique.
Marc, a teacher, lives paycheck to paycheck as do most of us, but he has one
of the richest lives I know. Before his last trip, Marc‟s “100 Friends” (who
now number in the thousands) sent him nearly $20,000. $2,000 of that was
money that Backpack Nation supporters had sent to me.
Marc gave $1,000 of the Backpack Nation money to the Afghan Women's
Educational Center in Kabul, Afghanistan. AWEC works to feed and
educate destitute women and street children in Kabul, and to train them at
tailoring and other skills, such as computer work. One of AWEC‟s biggest
projects helps women who languish in surreal conditions in the Kabul
prison. The Christian Science Monitor recently wrote a story about Afghan
women jailed for crimes like adultery, traveling without being accompanied
by a man, arranging their own marriages, failing to have divorce papers in
their possession, or simply for falling in love.
Marc used other Backpack Nation money to arrange for a taxi ride to the
Kabul zoo for a young boy with a terminal disease whose biggest wish was
to ride in a taxicab. (“Every good story must have a taxicab…”) Marc also
arranged ongoing monthly financial support for an elderly invalid whose
husband and family disappeared and most likely perished during the Taliban
rule. He gave money to a family he met so they could winterize their home,
heavily damaged during the recent war, with windows and a door.
Additional funds went for rent money for a family of 17, who were about to
be evicted; to a family with 4 children all of whom have muscular
dystrophy; and to numerous others.
Marc tells all the people to whom he gives money that it comes from
individuals in America who are concerned with the plight of the poor across
the world. Imagine what these individuals and families think of America
today!
$2,000 -- Adam Carter -- Brazil
Adam Carter is a writer and traveler who tries to help ease the hardships he
observes in his travels. He has visited more than sixty countries in his thirty
years, and finds himself particularly drawn to the country and people of
Brazil. A couple of years ago Adam met a Brazilian man named Moreno
who lives in a favela (shanty-town) of about 5,000 people on the outskirts of
Rio de Janiero. Moreno, whom Adam describes as a "well-read, intelligent,
soft-spoken, gentle man of about 40," grew up and still lives in the
impoverished favela but managed to create a career in theater for himself.
Since Brazilian children attend school for only half a day, they are left with
hours and hours of inactivity. All too often, the children of Moreno‟s flavela
fall into the vices of drug dealing and the crime and violence of the shanty-
town. A few years ago, Moreno, long troubled by conditions in the favela,
opened his home as a sanctuary for the neighborhood kids. He recruited a
volunteer staff to help the children learn to dance, juggle, draw, play musical
instruments, and complete their homework. Moreno and the staff also
shower the kids with attention and affection that are often lacking in their
family lives. Moreno was so moved by the kids‟ response and appreciation
that he eventually quit his job, obtained some minimal funding, and
transformed his house into a community center for the kids. Moreno still
sleeps on a mattress on the floor, but he is up every morning to greet more
than 150 kids who come by before and after school each day to bathe in his
kindness.
After his last visit to the center, Adam Carter said, “There is love in the air.
Moreno‟s got some wonderful people working with him. And the kids… the
kids are absolutely glowing. From the minute they set foot in the place, they
love it."
A few years ago, funding from an Italian group allowed Moreno to put in
concrete floors and walls and to create an open space. But when Adam first
saw the center it was clear that Moreno was struggling to keep it going.
"They needed cleaning supplies, necessities for the kids, paper and pens,
snacks… Moreno wanted to be able to feed them something more
substantial -- like rice and beans -- and he‟s been moving ahead with plans
for a library and a studio where the kids can study dance and capoeria
(martial arts). But the monthly expenses -- about $400 -- were killing him."
In 2003, Adam raised $1,500 from his friends and family near Chicago, and
pitched in $500 of his own money and presented the money to Moreno. And
in August of 2004 Adam went back to Brazil, where he had a job writing a
guidebook, and delivered $2,000 from Backpack Nation to Moreno. When
Adam presented the money, Moreno shed a tear and vowed that Adam had
been sent from God. "Not quite," Adam responded, "just from Chicago."
With the donated funds, Moreno's project (called Final Feliz: "Happy
Ending") is expanding its facilities and care programs. Adam says that the
lunches Moreno has been able to provide are a nutritional boon that helps the
kids in all facets of their lives. “But just as important as their physical health
is the self-worth, confidence and love that Moreno and his staff give them
every day.”
$1,000 -- Microfund For Women -- Amman, Jordan
Microfund For Women has a decade of experience in making microloans to
women entrepreneurs in the Palestinian refugee camps that ring Amman,
Jordan. Thumbnail sketches of the lives of some of these refugees -- lives
that most of us living in the West can barely imagine -- are posted on the
MFW website at www.microfund.org.jo.
Established as a pilot project of Save The Children, MFW has been on its
own since 1994, and is considered a bright light among Middle East
development projects. When I checked MFW out with the US State and
Treasury departments and with contacts in the development world, I heard
only good things about them. A Backpack Nation applicant from Phase One
paid a visit to MFW in Jordan, and returned with a strong recommendation.
As the Israeli-Palestinian conflict seems to lie at the heart of so many of the
world‟s problems, I am thrilled that we can make this contribution.
$500 -- Beena Kamath -- Ecuador
Beena Kamath was finishing up a pediatric residency when she applied to be
the first Backpack Nation ambassador. Her application said, in part: “Being
the daughter of an Indian father and a Chinese mother, I have always held an
international world view and a curiosity about travel and different cultures. I
have used every vacation during my schooling to travel, and now I would
like to return to the places that have touched me, where I can make a
difference.”
Upon completing her residency, Beena set off on her own personal
ambassadorship, to southern Ecuador, to work for a year (virtually without
pay) in a health clinic in the small impoverished town of Guadalupe.
Toward the end of that year I asked Beena about her experience at the clinic.
Among other things, she told me that a group of 30 young people associated
with the clinic had recently started a Youth Group, “in hopes,” said Beena,
“of fostering a community spirit, unity, friendship and self-respect.”
The group‟s plan was to organize sporting events for the young children in
the town. I asked if $500 of Backpack Nation‟s money would make a
difference in their efforts, and Beena said it certainly would. After I sent the
money, Beena wrote, “This is the first time these young people have
organized a project on their own, including origination and planning of the
project and money management.” I‟m confident that no matter the results of
the sporting events, everyone involved, including the Backpack Nation
donors, comes out as winners. (Beena is now in Australia, furthering her
medical education and career by working in a neonatal intensive care unit
near Sydney.)
Kris Dreesen
When she was barely 20 and traveling in the Amazon rainforest, Kris
Dreesen encountered a community of subsistence farmers who had been
displaced by the Brazilian government‟s construction of a hydroelectric
dam. The dam had not only displaced the farmers, but the water it trapped
had stagnated and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes -- some of the
farmers were being bitten up to 900 times per hour. When Kris met them,
they were camped in protest outside the gates of the electric company. Kris
spent a month documenting the farmers' story and trying her best to help.
That experience, plus prior and subsequent solo travel experiences, fired
Kris with a passion for travel and a concern for the world‟s disadvantaged
peoples.
When she heard about Backpack Nation and the idea of individual travelers
as roving ambassadors, things clicked, and Kris began to save up for her
own ambassadorship. She is now employed as a journalist in upstate New
York and is well on her way to having saved enough money to pay for her
own ambassadorship. I have set aside $500 in Backpack Nation money for
Kris to distribute to a compelling situation she encounters when on her
journey.
Paul Munet
My daughter and I came upon Paul Munet on a park bench in Central Park in
New York City on a perfect summer day in 2002. Paul was weaving and
selling beautiful hats, baskets, and ornamental birds and fish -- weaving
them from palm leaves that he had personally collected by climbing palm
trees in Puerto Rico. Later Paul sent me a video, quite impressive, that
showed him scooting up an 80-foot palm tree to harvest more leaves for
more weavings. Parts of the video were shot in Thailand, where he was
teaching villagers the art of palm weaving which Paul has practiced to
perfection. Paul is also saving up money for his own ambassadorship, and I
have set aside $500 in Backpack Nation money for Paul to distribute to a
situation he encounters when the time comes.
Anne Jeschke -- $250 -- Bolivia
Anne was the senior and perhaps the most-traveled of the Phase One
applicants. Anne and her family have for years been involved with an
orphanage in La Paz, Bolivia, named Hogar Soria. Hogar Soria is home to
seventy-five children between the ages of 5-16 -- some are orphans, some
are lost, some are runaways (generally from physical abuse), some have
parents who are in jail. The orphanage has a list of needs: new beds; hearing
aids for some of the children; a covering for the outside laundry area to
protect workers from sun and rain. I‟ve sent $250 in Backpack Nation
money for Hogar Soria to use as the staff sees fit. Anne has matched BPN‟s
donation with $250 of her own, and Anne‟s son Matt has pitched in another
$50. We‟ll hear a report before too long on how the money is used.
The remainder of the $10,000
I will roll over the remaining $3,250 to help pay for the Phase Three story
submission event. And on we go.
PHASE THREE -- Starts January 20, 2005
Atrocities receive a disproportionate share of media attention. My intention
with Backpack Nation in general, and with Phase Three in particular, is to
promote the kinder, gentler side of life, the spirit of generosity and sharing
that underlies and permeates the human experience but gets short-changed
by the media. Specifically, I want to promote the phenomenon of Western
travelers reaching out to share ourselves and our wealth with people in the
poorer countries.
Toward that end, from January 20 (presidential inauguration day in the
United States) through Feb 15, 2005, Backpack Nation will be seeking and
accepting stories that emphasize encounters, relationships, and acts of
kindness between individuals who have met through travel.
By April 1, 2005, a group of colleagues and I will have read all the stories,
will have selected twelve that we find particularly appealing, and will have
this “field of twelve” posted on the Backpack Nation website. During the
months of April and May, 2005, members of the public will be invited to
visit the website, read all twelve stories, and vote for up to four favorites.
After the votes are tallied (approximately June 1, 2005), the four authors
whose stories have received the most votes will each receive $1,000.
SUGGESTIONS
In General: I will be looking for two things: (1) a great read, and (2) a
sense that the author understands the wisdom and value of sharing one‟s
gifts.
I’m also looking for: Echoes of the “pay-it-forward” principle and the
Good Samaritan parable…stories that reflect the magic of foreign travel…
stories that shine light on individuals trapped in the world‟s worst political
and economic situations…stories that capture the delights and difficulties of
cultural interchanges…anything that touches the human heart…the personal
“investment” of the author…knock-your-socks-off writing…
Writing Styles: The classic beginning-middle-end style is appreciated here,
but not required. An eloquent essay will certainly not go unnoticed
(particularly if written by a young, un-traveled person). For samples of
writing styles and stories that have appealed to me, please see “The Gift of
Travel” (or any of the other anthologies) published by Travelers Tales. Or
“The Kindness of Strangers,” edited by Don George of Lonely Planet.
Read the Phase Two stories: During Phase Two, twenty stories were
posted, and five authors were each given $1,000. Click here to read the
stories and see what worked last time around.
But there are no exact style specifications -- offbeat voices and offbeat styles
have every chance of being included in the field of twelve.
FURTHER SUGGESTIONS
-- I will be attracted toward stories that feature a Westerner donating cash to
an individual in the poorer cultures -- either to address a specific need or to
allow that individual to use as he or she sees fit. But a promise to deliver
$1,000 is NOT a requirement here. Perhaps you‟ve planned a trip to a place
where $1,000 will go a long way, but you want to determine the specific
situation later -- you could write about yourself, about why you want to
travel and where… Perhaps you want to tell the story of an act of kindness
you‟ve already performed, or recount someone else‟s act of kindness…
Please do.
-- If you do intend to deliver $1,000 to someone in a poorer country (highly
encouraged), please consider just how you might accomplish that. Lots of
people in developing countries lack reliable mail service, or have no
reasonable way to cash a check or to handle and protect that sort of cash.
-- If you are proposing to give $1,000 to an organization whose work you
admire (or that you work with), please note: My experience is that $1,000
does not make a big difference with a big organization, but can make a huge
difference to a small organization (or a village) and can even be life-
changing money for an individual (or a family). Smallish projects only,
please.
SPECIFICATIONS
FORMAT: Submissions must be in English and must be delivered
electronically -- either in the body of an email or in an attachment that can
be easily opened by standard computer programs. Please do not mail hard
copy.
WORD LIMIT: 1,500 words, including story title and byline. No
exceptions.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE: Please include an additional biographical note
of 200 words maximum, including your name, postal and email addresses,
country of citizenship, and a phone number (as possible).
REFERENCES: Please provide telephone numbers and (as possible) email
addresses for three people willing to vouch for you. I will only contact
references of people whose stories are included in the field of twelve. All I
care about is that you are who you say you are, and that you‟re not
fabricating your story. That would not be hard to do, but -- believe me -- the
karma just ain‟t worth it.
PHOTOS: Please do NOT send photos. If your story reaches the field of
twelve you may (optional) at that time send one photo for posting with the
story.
FOLLOW-UP: If your story is chosen among the final four, within three
months you will be expected to write and send a followup story for posting
on the website (plus other updates as appropriate) – followers of Backpack
Nation will want to hear the reverberations of your experience. If you are
not agreeable to this, please DO NOT send a story.
SNAFUS
In the case of a tie(s) or any other snafu(s) I will consult my circle of
colleagues, take a long walk in the woods, and then do what seems to make
the most sense.
QUESTIONS
Please email me at brad@backpacknation.org.
THANK YOU
Thank you for giving all of this your consideration. I invite your
participation, and request that you please pass this website address
(www.backpacknation.org) along to anyone you know who is planning a trip
or is already out traveling, anyone who is a foreign-based journalist, a
teacher, a travel-dreamer, or who simply has a killer story to tell.