It’s impossible to process, after all, my life is so far removed from the whole situation. There’s no way I can compare or relate — I have a spacious home, I’m totally on the grid, there’s soup on the stove, sitting to my left is a camera that’s worth either a month’s wages or the cost of a very basic but significant little house for a family in southern India. It’s dizzying to think about it.
It’s been longer than I care to mention since I traveled in India. What do I remember of those travels? Oddly specific things — the noise in the market in Old Delhi, the marmots on the slopes below Kachenchunga, the guys at the desk at that hotel in Manali, a roadside stop below a giant stone Buddha. Snapshots, it’s like I was another person then, and I suppose I was. I skidded through India on equal parts amazement and oblivion until — as happens to lots of Western travelers — I got too sick to continue.
But India, oh, it sticks to you, it changes you. It makes you skinny and wide-eyed and grinds some of your sharper edges away permanently. Walking in India’s earthbound cities make you understand a pantheon of gods with thousands of arms. One of the first things I wrote about when I started to write about travel was India, what I remembered, the sitar in the hallway, a night train, the boys with the glasses of chai clattering against the windows as the train pulled into each station, the ceiling fans, the cheap metal spoons and the little tiffin containers filled with fresh yogurt.
I want to go back to India, now more than I have ever wanted to. See, there’s a village that doesn’t quite exist yet that I’d like to visit. It’s called Karunganni, it’s in Tamil Nadu, and if you’re reading this, you probably helped fund it. It’s not near anything I’ve ever heard of and I can’t find it on the map. Sometime next year it will exist, and it is my sincerest desire to walk through it with Beth, Debbie, Michelle, and Meg, my friends and the cofounders of Passports with Purpose.
Travel is inspiring in all kinds of ways. It opens your eyes, your mind, your heart. And it makes you want the world to be kinder, better. You see kids who should be in school but are selling trinkets. You see devastated habitat. You see women making beautiful things and smiling, never mind that they’ve had a foot blown off by a land mine. You see families with small children living on the street. You see dirty water and trash everywhere. I’m not suggesting that’s all you see, but if your eyes are open, you see more than glorious old stones and cheap textiles and unreal landscape. You see your life in sharp contrast against the lives of people who aren’t sitting at desks cluttered with expensive camera gear while dinner simmers on the stove.
Passports with Purpose has given me a way to work with people who care about the world in a concrete way and to take action to make it better. And now, rather than seeing things that are broken, I would like very much to get a first person look at the things we have worked to fix. This year, we raised 50000 dollars for LAFTI. The funds will go to build homes for 25 families in Karunganni and a village that doesn’t quite exist will take shape. I would like to see this place, a place made real by the generosity of travelers. And I would like to say thank you to the people that live there for helping me be a better traveler and a better person.
A special thank you to Passports with Purpose Platinum sponsor, BootsnAll, a community driven network for independent travel. Hey, use them to book cheap flights to India and visit that village!
The Passports with Purpose crew is looking for sponsors to help us travel to India to visit Karunganni. Please get in touch if you’d like to learn more.
Congratulations. It made my morning to see you have reached your goal. You aimed high and reached it. And there are still a few days left before PwP closes!
There is nothing better than traveling with purpose. With your permission, I would love to post links to this to my facebook, and to my blog. For those of us who have much of the money, marbles and chalk, to go into an area where poverty reigns and make a positive difference – nothing better. I’m listing you on my own blog, and applaud your good work.
Congratulations Pam, Beth, Debbie, Michelle and Meg! You made it happen, and you have enriched and improved the lives of 25 families beyond measure. You did it!!!!!!
Congratulations on a fantastic fundraiser this year! It was heartwarming watching the entire travel community (and friends) pull together to make this happen.