Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel

Back in 1997 Reality Tours wanted to offer a tour of a lifetime to India that would inspire our members.

When we met Dr. Arun Gandhi, the grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and learned about the important work he was doing in the US and India we knew we had a wonderful partner.  We developed a plan; Arun would educate our participants about the philosophy and teachings of Gandhi as we journey to historic and cultural sites important in Gandhi’s life, while also witnessing his living legacy in the work of cooperatives, ashrams, schools and NGO’s throughout India.

Exploring Gandhi's Legacy

We’ve been partnering with Arun ever since. Together our Reality Tours have brought to life the importance of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence and self sufficiency.  For 15 years we’ve worked together on what Gandhi referred to as trusteeship.

Arun taught participants and Reality Tours trip leaders that each one of us has a talent that we have acquired or inherited, and that we can use this gift to achieve our goals, for personal gains or in service to others.

Last month, Arun let us know that moving forward the Gandhi Worldwide Education Institute (GWEI) will be organizing The Gandhi Legacy Tour on its own, apart from Reality Tours. Though a bittersweet moment it was to hear this news and it will be quite a change for us, we recognize that GWEI has grown and built the capacity to support all the administrative details and logisitcs it takes to organize a tour.

Arun and Gandhian Legacy Tour Delegates Bringing in the New Year

Arun and the GWEI have the expertise and the experience to handle the tour.  Reality Tours thus congratulates the GWEI! May the next 15 years of the Gandhian Legacy continue to educate and inspire all who participate to truly “be the change we want to see in the world”!

With almost 100 departures a year, it is easy for you to Meet the People, Learn the Facts, and Make a Difference on a Reality Tour this year!

Advocacy delegates and community walk and talk, Cambodia

Reality Tours has promoted meaningful travel since 1989. We know socially responsible tourism benefits the host economy and that the more local people benefit from tourism, the more likely it is that women receive these benefits. However, there are many negative impacts associated with mass tourism. Sex tourism is an egregious and growing trend that we have witnessed further exploiting and eroding the rights of women and children worldwide.

Because of this Reality Tours became a signatory to ECPAT’s Code of Conduct in 2010.  Tour operators can make a positive difference and do a lot to educate our communities about this growing exploitative industry.

Anti-Human Trafficking Delegation meeting with Gulu Youth Development Association

ECPAT International is a global network of organizations working together for the elimination of child trafficking, child prostitution and child pornography. The network is comprised of 81 groups in 74 countries around the world.

Since signing in 2010, Reality Tours has worked to train ourselves and train our partners and hosts. We’ve updated our materials to include this Code of Conduct, and proactively informed our travelers. This was an important, practical next step for us- especially after partnering with Not For Sale for the past 4 years on our advocacy delegations.

Bringing our public education efforts about global human trafficking back “home”, we’d like to share a new documentary released by ECPAT-USA and  WITNESS that exposes the lack of adequate child sex trafficking laws in the US.  “What I’ve Been Through Is Not Who I Am,” tells the story of Katrina, a formerly sexually exploited teen who was arrested many times. It was only after she accepted an offer of help from a safe haven that she was able to escape.

Please take a moment to learn how legislative reform measures and new approaches can shift our collective response from a punitive one to a restorative one. When you hear Katrina’s personal story you’ll understand that we are jailing children in the US, that there is no such “thing” as a child prostitute, and that it is time to change our system.

Meet the People

If you’re interested in exploring this issue, consider the transformational power of Reality Tours delegations on Human Trafficking. You’ll meet modern day abolitionists first hand and hear stories of struggle and triumph. Join us.

Vaya! A l o Cubano

Many of our  Reality Tours Cuba  alumni will remember Karen McCartney. Karen lived in Cuba for years and regularly facilitated Global Exchange groups. Today Karen shares one of her memories about Cuban chivichanas while leading a Reality Tour trip we used to call “Following Che’s Footsteps”. 

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Chivichanas in Cuba: Tour Facilitator Karen McCartney Shares her Story by Karen McCartney

Elizardo, the ICAP represententative takes the microphone from our driver and turns to face our tour participants:

“Where we are going today is historic, for it was here, in the heart of the Sierra Maestra mountains, that President Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Che Guevara and their band of guerrilla fighters waged the battle that brought down the dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista and ushered in the Revolution. That was back in 1959. It took them three years to succeed and we are going to take this opportunity to retrace their steps. We’ll go into the mountains and see their headquarters for ourselves.“

Looking out at the Hotel Nacional, Havana

Just then our driver, Juancito, calls Elizardo over to him. They confer for a minute or so. From the concerned looks on their faces it is apparent that something is wrong. They beckon to me and Diana. It turns out that our coach is an older model and Juancito is doubtful about its ability to climb the hills that lie between us and our hotel in the tiny mountain village of Santo Domingo. We stop at the base of the steepest hill I have ever seen. Someone a few seats behind me mutters that the gradient would be illegal in the United States.

“What we really need is a fifth gear for the ascent and hydraulic brakes for the descent. Our coach has neither,” whispers Juancito.

“So what do you recommend?”

He looks up at me apologetically.

“Walking.”

We agree to let Juancito drive on at his own pace and for us to follow on foot. It will take a couple of hours longer but it’s safe. The students are elated at the prospect of getting out of their seats and eagerly rush toward the exit.

Joining in the Dance at Love and Hope, Pinar del Rio

All twenty-five of us set off, walking on occasions at an angle of what must be about 65º to the perpendicular tilt of the road. The landscape is undoubtedly the most magnificent that I’ve seen so far in Cuba. Lush vegetation springs from sheer drops, and abrupt upward sweeps arrest the gaze and guide it skyward into the clouds. The sky is shrunk, framed by verdant peaks. I too am shrunk, made delightfully small, humbled by the power of these mountains. I remind myself that I am in the east of Cuba, somewhere between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by topography which has not changed in millennia. All of us are quiet now, content to pay homage to the moment, knowing that it will never come again. Around us there is birdsong, insistent calls produced by exotic creatures I cannot see and cannot name.

An ugly clattering, suggestive of metal colliding with concrete, intrudes on my reverie. It is getting louder, faster, and it’s coming toward us. From around the bend – at speed – comes a chivichana, a guider steered by an elderly campesino, his face frozen into a grimace. G-force, or perhaps the immensity of effort required to keep his vehicle under control at such speed? It’s not clear. Both hands are on the reins, pulling hard now, and his heels slam against the front wheels, jamming them to a halt a few metres away. Mules and home-made guiders are the most common forms of transport in the Sierra. The students are already gathering around enthusiastically. I stay back, content to watch and let the encounter develop under its own dynamics. A few words are exchanged in broken Spanish between the wizened, bright-eyed sprightly driver and his admirers.

“Qué lindo. What a beautiful guider. Did you make it yourself? What speed do you go? Is it dangerous?”

And then, inevitably,

Delegates Laughing with Cuban Architect, Miguel Coyula

“Would you mind if we take a few photos?

Photos taken, the students give the old man the thumbs up and he manoeuvres his chivichana into position to continue its downward journey. Just as he is about to lift his heels from the front wheels one of the group calls out to him,

“Señor! Señor! Por favor.”

We turn our heads to see Jeremy, one of the quieter boys, hoist a bottle of Havana Club rum on high,

“Muchas gracias!”

And then he tosses it with a long slow motion to the old man who catches the bottle in a single deft sweep of the hand. Only a talented baseball player would have been capable of such elegance, and the group applauds. Then he is gone in a flash, followed by a rapidly retreating commotion that can be heard echoing through the mountains for a minute or two after we have lost sight of him. We see more chivichanas over the next few days; sometimes they are little more than a blur as the locals power down these slopes at breakneck speed on this most unique form of transport.

Living Inside the Revolution, An Irish Woman in Cuba. Book by Karen McCartney

To see more of Karen’s impressions please see  her blog. If you want to create a memory of your own,  learn more about the US Embargo against Cuba, or explore Cuban culture and history join us on a Reality Tour today. 

 

Our Reality Tours inspire many people, and it’s fun to hear how our alumni have been transformed by their experiences and how they incorporate these experiences into their lives upon their return home. In this post we highlight the impressions and lessons learned by Karl Meyer and Shareen Brysac. In the fall of 2009, they participated on a Reality Tour to Kerala, India led by our in country program officer Suresh Kumar. Their experiences are described in a chapter of their new book Pax Ethnica: Where and How Diversity Succeeds.

Those of you who have taken the tour will recognize many of the interviewees including the journalist and freedom fighter Vasodevan Nampoothiri, Dr. R. Krishna Kumar, a pediatric cardiologist; newspaper editor S. Radhakrishnan, coordinating editor of The Mangalam Daily; Professor G.S. Jayasree of Kerala University, publisher of a journal of women’s studies, Samyukta; and Sri Marthanda Varma, Maharajah of Travancore. Gods’ Own Country (Kerala) is one of five chapters of Pax Ethnica, describing societies where people of various ethnicities and religions live in peace. In the book the authors question whether there actually are such places, and if so why haven’t we heard more about them, and what explains their success.

Reality Tours Participants and Community, Kerala India

To answer these questions, Meyer and Brysac undertook a two-year exploration of oases of civility, places notable for minimal violence, rising life-expectancy, high literacy, and pragmatic compromises on cultural rights. Beyond the Indian state of Kerala, they also explored the Russian republic of Tatarstan, Marseille in France and Flensburg, Germany, and the borough of Queens, New York. Through scores of interviews, they document ways and means that have proven successful in defusing ethnic tensions. This path-breaking book elegantly blends political history, sociology, anthropology, and journalism, to suggest realistic options for peace.

We extend our congratulations to Meyer and Brysac on your new publication and thank you for traveling with Reality Tours to Kerala! See praise and reviews for Pax Ethnica or sample their blog for the Pulitizer Center for Crisis reporting.

Travel to Kerala with Global Exchange: If you would like to explore our trip to Kerala, visit our website for information, photos and ways to learn more.

 

Last June I journeyed to one of my favorite destinations on the planet, Cuba. Despite the fact that I have lived and worked there off an on since 1991, and have had the honest pleasure of facilitating over twenty some delegations over the years, this last group was one of my most enjoyable ever. I am not sure really why. We were 13 dynamic, well traveled and inquisitive individuals with only one thing in common…the intrepid travel writer Jeff Greenwald.

I met Jeff in 2003, after he had recently founded, the Ethical Traveler. I  loved the idea of ET and was honored when a few years later he asked me to serve on its advisory board. Since then we’ve been on countless panels together; collaborated on campaigns that mobilize the international community of travelers as a global PAC to use their clout and advocate on important social and ecological justice issues; and promoted “voting with your travel budget” at the World’s Best Ethical Destinations.

Having Fun at the Muraleando Community Arts Project

I remember the day Jeff and I spoke about creating a tour for him and his friends. I felt awestruck. There is so much to see, do and learn. As we brainstormed about an itinerary, he said, “Malia, I want to see your favorite places and meet some of your favorite people”. I smiled and thought, well it will be one trip of many for you then.  I love that personally he trusted me with this challenge and a few months later, our group met in Miami and were off to soak up the sights, sounds and stories of Cuba.  It was wonderful to reconnect with communities and friends from the Mureleando arts project and the intergenerational voices at the Convento de Belen in Havana, to engaging with the teachers, parents and kids at the Love and Hope arts program for children with Down’s Syndrome and advocates for community development and conservation at Las Terrazas in the provinces.  I encourage you to read more about Jeff’s ever thought provoking insights from his “Dispatches from Cuba”. Today, I have the honor to feature a few of Jeff’s thoughts and share the word about his upcoming and yes, second trip back to Cuba.

The Beauty of the Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio

The trip was a watershed event in my travel career. The country affected me profoundly—just as Nepal did, during my first visit in 1979. The art, music and mojitos were a revelation …. Not to mention Piñar del Rio’s gorgeous landscape, Havana’s neoclassical architecture,  and the warm, generous Cubans we met along the way.

This coming June, I will be leading another trip to the island. It’s called “Exploring Cuba: Sustainable Development, Community & Art,” and will take place June 12th-20th. Though the trip is a benefit for Ethical Traveler, the cost is very reasonable. Like last year’s trip, we’ll meet with social leaders, artists, naturalists and entrepreneurs. We’ll explore spectacular landscapes, and tour World Heritage Sites like Old Havana. Again, this will be a fairly small group — between 12-18 people. This really is a wonderful opportunity to visit a remarkable, fast-changing country. I hope to hear back from you, and promise that this will be a journey to remember (in a good way!!).

Sonrisas en Havana

Learn more about the background of Global Exchange’s  Cuba program and future Reality Tours to Cuba after you have read Jeff’s Dispatches. If you still want to read more, check out more coverage from our Alumni in the news. Recently Stelle Sheller and Janet Young, traveled with us and were featured in their local newspaper in the article, “ Local women travel to Cuba and discover two worlds” and they share  their “unexpected” findings.

 

 

A4T Science Fair in Kabul Afghanistan. These students (4.5 to 7 yrs. old) sang the Afghan National Anthem to the audience before the Fair’s presentations.

Today’s special blog  is the last commemorating a decade of Reality Tours in Afghanistan and features the insights of Marsha MacColl, on behalf of our partner Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). On behalf of Global Exchange we thank all the tremendous energy and efforts of A4T and look forward to a dynamic future of continued collaboration.

Congratulations to Global Exchange Reality Tours on the 10th Anniversary of your tours to Afghanistan and on your partnership with Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). Each delegation has stayed in the A4T Guesthouse since 2004, enjoying the warm hospitality of the staff.  The house, located in a quiet secure area of West Kabul, has 5 guest bedrooms upstairs and a lovely garden in the back. Depending on the size of the group, the rooms sleep between 2 and 4 people.  The guides who helped plan the tours and activities of these Global Exchange Reality Tours are Najibullah Sediqi and Wahid Omar, who also have volunteered with Afghans4Tomorrow for 10 years and serve on its board. Their tours have included, among other things, interesting in-depth meetings with Afghan women from all sectors of Afghan society, visits to primary schools, hospitals, universities, watching a buzkashi games and attending the International Women’s Day celebration in Kabul.

Najib has also been a wonderful guide for these delegations. The many delegates I’ve talked with over the years highly recommend these tours. They said Najib put them at ease with his warm welcome, his concern for their safety, his quick wit, compelling stories and the Afghan history he shares on the tours. Many have kept in touch with him over the years.  Some delegates in fact have been inspired to get involved in helping one of the many Afghan-related NGOs (or start one of their own) after they return from the tour.

Here are some of the 35 third graders reading in their home school class. If you would like to help us raise funds for chairs and school supplies for these students, please make a donation at: http://www.afghans4tomorrow.org/donate

There have been several GXRT alumni who have helped Afghanistan through A4T since their tours. They are:  Kim O’Connor (GXRT ’04), who joined A4T when she returned in 2004 and recently served as President for the past 2 and a half years;  Adrienne Amundsen (GXRT ’10), who joined A4T in January ’12 after volunteering since ’10; and Asma Eschen (GXRT ’03), an honorary A4T Board member, who co-found the Bare Root Trees Project and has led a group to plant trees in Afghanistan six times since 2005. The Bare Roots group has planted/distributed a total of over 130,000 trees in rural and urban Afghanistan. See Asma’s post on this GXRT Blog in this series.

As an A4T member since 2004, I’ve enjoyed the stories and photos that many GXRT alumni have shared with me over the years. It has been a life-changing experience for many! Our board members have helped the GX program directors over the years with information they’ve needed for their delegates, guesthouse arrangements and helping delegates to meet some of our members and staff. I volunteered to teach English in our A4T school in Kabul for 10 days in 2007 and greatly appreciated Najib’s help with all the arrangements of my work and also a visit during the Nowruz holiday to Istalif village near the Shomali Valley. This reality tours program is great for travelers wanting to learn more about ordinary Afghans, their culture, history and how they’re overcoming many difficult challenges.

The NGO which inspired me to volunteer to help rebuild Afghanistan is Afghans4Tomorrow.  A4T is a non-profit, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1998 and dedicated to the development of sustainable, community driven projects focused on education, agriculture and healthcare.  A4T has an all-volunteer board residing in both the US and in Kabul. We are able perform our work thanks to the generosity of our donors and volunteers from around the world.  We hire local Afghans to be the managers of our programs and teachers in our schools. We have established relationships with multiple sponsors, foundations, and non-profit organizations. 

In our Shekh Yassin School, Wardak Province, 162 girls are in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. Here are the 25 first graders reading their books in Pashto.

Afghans4Tomorrow currently operates a school in Kabul and one in Wardak Province. Our school, located in the Chelsetoon area of Kabul, opened in 2004 and has nearly 300 students, 170 girls in kindergarten through 9th grade and 110 boys in 1st through 7th grade. This school is one of the best private schools in Kabul. We plan to add 10th grade this year.  The school started in 2005 as a “catch-up” school for older girls who had been deprived of an education during the wars. Now most all those students have caught up and are the normal age for their grade level. Several A4T alumni have graduated from high school and are in a community college or a university.

Our School in Shekh Yassin, which opened in 2005, serves students from three villages in the Chak district of Wardak Province. It has a boys’ school of 568 students, in 1st to 9th grades in two shifts per day, and more than 175 girls in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. We plan to add 7th grade this year. We are unable to add 10th grade to the boys’ school until we can build 3 new classrooms. 

A4T held its second Science Fair program on Oct. 15, 2011 in which 17 students participated in 9 teams. They did research on their experiments for one month, assisted by their science teacher.

The students presented their research results to 4 qualified judges at the fair. After their evaluation the judges gave prizes to the top 3 winning teams. The project that won 1st place showed the filtration of dirty water using four kinds of sand and one kind of charcoal. Government officials, private school principals and the media were invited to attend the Science Fair celebration.  A4T hopes to see this same program in all government and private schools throughout Afghanistan in the future.

Afghans4Tomorrow’s goal for both schools is to help improve Afghanistan’s very low literacy rate, to provide a superior education and to have a substantial number of our graduates continue to college.

Teacher demonstrates an experiment in copper and iron ions in solution to a 7th grade Chemistry Class at A4T Boys School in Shekh Yassin, Wardak.

Since 2007 A4T has operated the A4T’s Abdullah Omar Health Post in Sheikh Yassin village which provides a doctor, pharmacist and staff offering basic health care, medicines and immunizations. Last year A4T added a midwife to better serve the women coming for pre-natal checkups, deliveries and post-natal and baby checkups and to help reduce the high maternal and infant mortality rates in Afghanistan. Our health post has improved the lives of thousands of people each year.

A4T’s Agriculture Stream is pleased to report the successful training of 120 rural farmers the last two years by helping them to raise poultry and supplying them with equipment for their chicken coops, and healthy birds. The women poultry farmers sell the eggs to help support their family.

Volunteers are needed to help A4T continue there great work. Please visit their website to learn about their projects, affiliates, members, photos, videos, and how you can make a difference.

Join Us on an Upcoming Reality Tour to Afghanistan! Learn more. Visit our website for all you need to know about upcoming transformative journeys.

 

 

The Idlers Visiting Cobblers in Afghanistan, 2009

As part of a series honoring 10 years of relationship building, friendship and learning in Afghanistan, today we share the story of  Patricia J. Idler and Randy Idler who created a customized Reality Tour to Afghanistan in 2009.

I first spoke with Patty when she called Global Exchange to explore the possibility of a customized Reality Tour trip.  She wanted to go to Afghanistan to learn, meet and engage with a special group of people, to build relationships and create a socially responsible business that would give back. We worked together to put her vision into words, then I introduced her to our in country program officer Najib to help make her dream become a reality (tour.) Here is Patty and Randy’s story.

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Guardian Angels and Afghan Cobblers: A Customized Tour Past Participant Shares Her Story by Patricia J. Idler and Randy Idler

Global Exchange you made our trip to Afghanistan amazing.  Thank you for your friendship and global exchanges.  When I wrote to your office in a panic before I went to Afghanistan, I needed to have real authentic help in Afghanistan.  Fear and paranoia are detrimental to any situation, and I suddenly was full of anxiety.   I am not dismissing that there are very dangerous situations in the world, but I am not normally in a state of real fear.   I needed someone to reassure me that there were normal Afghan people that want the same things for their families in Afghanistan that I want for my family.  I needed to know that there would be someone that was my friend and knew the lay of the land, like a guardian angel.  I needed to know that I would not hurt the US soldiers by coming to help and getting in the way.  Global Exchange you provided me with guardian angels.

My hope was to find cobblers in Afghanistan that would want to sell their product to a nonprofit or for profit that would also give back a percentage to the little street children that do not deserve this awful situation. My hope was to help the economic situation in Afghanistan.   We are not going to be getting our US service boys home, unless American citizens empower themselves and help out.  The statement that there is nothing to fear but fear itself is a reality.  American citizens have become so fearful of others.

Global Exchange your love of people and the world made the difference.  You brought me back to reality.  You emailed me and said; we can design your trip; we can help you even if you have your trip planned.   We have wonderful guides and drivers.  Here are their emails.  We have been very successful with our exchanges all over the world to every country.  Would you like to contact people?  Would you like to come see us in San Francisco?   This simple reassurance allowed me to get back to work on my project.

Engaging with Shop Keeper in Kabul, 2009

I would recommend you to the world traveler that hopefully wants to help the world. I wish I could express how grateful I am to organizations such as Global Exchange that want to replace fear with peace, prosperity and hope for mankind.

The driver and guide you sent asked if they minded if they brought their kids.  It was wonderful.  We saw more of Afghanistan than we saw with other guides or on our own.  We met our cobblers.  We met Afghans everywhere.

We were not targets, but we did dress with respect for the Afghan culture.  We dressed like the Afghans, because we respect them and did not stand out.  We met Babur and we walked back in time.  We went to the Afghan markets and bought kites in the old city to fly on the hill on Fridays.

We began to understand that you do not need to take items from America for the children, like harmonicas.   One must buy from the Afghans for the Afghans. Items like bottles of water and simple things like food are wonderful items readily accepted.  We began to see the little children and feel their hunger and realize that child labor laws here are even ridiculous. When your tummy is empty,  is it better to starve?  They would love to be able to work for food.  Their begging is the sole supply of revenue for their families.  Schools like Aschiana school try to educate the street children and help the families with small micro loans for business.  Our countries are planets a part.

My husband was so fearful before we went with the help of our guardian angels relaxed.  He began to give to the children, “but you must give to all not just to some”.  We began to learn and listen to the store keepers on the empty streets.  We began to understand the pride that has been taken from people that just want fair trade prices and to be treated like respectful business people.  We began to make friends.  Thank you for your help Global Exchange.

The US soldiers want the situation to get better and return to their own families.  Every American needs to pitch in and help the situation or we need to go home and help rebuild another way through groups such as Global Exchange.

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Thanks to the Idlers for taking the leap of faith to call Global Exchange and customize their first visit with us to Afghanistan. You can too. Visit our customized tour page for more information. 

 

Paul Prew in the Sarayaku, Ecuador 2007

Reality Tours started offering delegations to Ecuador in the spring of 2002. Now we are celebrating ten years of  rich, educational programming that examines pressing social and ecological issues affecting Ecuadorians from the Andes to the Amazon. While there are many special aspects of our program in this culturally and biodiverse nation, it is the indigenous struggles to protect their cultures, ecosystems and Pachamama in the face of major petroleum and mining corporate interests that lay at the foundation behind each eco-tour. As I prepare for my fourth trip to the Ecuadorean Amazon, I feel honored to engage and learn once again from the wisdom, experiences and successes of  communities like the Sarayaku. To know that our journeys keep their promise to inform and inspire make all our hard work in San Francisco and in Quito worthwhile! Just read the insights of past participant Paul Prew:

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Indigeneity and the Environment in Ecuador- A Past Participant Shares His Story by Paul Prew

I traveled to Ecuador in July of 2007 with Global Exchange.  While it has been a few years, the experience is with me to this very day.  While preparing a new course, I was reviewing a number of films on indigenous and environmental issues.  In the film Crude, I saw a number of the same people, organizations, and locations featured in the movie that I visited on the Global Exchange tour.  I was impressed with the ability of Global Exchange to plug us into a variety of social movements and organizations.  As an educator at a state university, I use the experience every term in a number of my courses.  In addition to my Indigeneity and Environment course, I use the Global Exchange tour for a number of my courses.  The Global Exchange tour was helpful in two specific ways.  First, the tour outlined the struggles faced by the people of Ecuador and others in similar nations.  Second, the tour also provided a number of concrete models of citizens tackling very difficult problems in their community.

Heather with Child in Salinas, Ecuador, 2007

The issue I have discussed often in my classes is the effects of oil exploration in Ecuador.  While on the Global Exchange tour, we visited Coca and participated in a “toxic tour” of the region.  As soon as we exited the plane, the smell of fuel oil was immediately present.  Our tour took us through towns with pipelines transecting them.  We visited a waste oil pit where oil was collected in a large pond with no lining to prevent it from seeping into the groundwater and surrounding ecosystem.  We also visited a waste oil pond that was cleaned up, but oil remained in the soil and in the shallow pond that replaced the waste oil pit.  We also stumbled upon workers fixing an underground pipeline that had been leaking.  As a result of the leak, we were able to film a home that was destroyed by an explosion resulting from built up gas.
Not all of the experiences regarding oil exploration focused on the problems people faced.  We also visited the indigenous community of Sarayaku where we saw people actively preventing environmental degradation.  In Sarayaku, the community members have successfully prevented oil companies from initiating oil exploration in their territory.  The Sarayaku have been able to attain this level of success through a number initiatives that have reorganized their society and reached out to the global community for support.  We learned about the changes in their governance structures, education, and environmental policies.  Their local model provides examples for other communities to follow.

Building Fish Ponds in the Sarayaku, Ecuador 2006 Image by Malia Everette

I think the lessons learned in the community of Sarayaku resonate with me the most.  In the United States, our privileges are dependent on resources we take from others around the world.  We tend to lack an awareness of our ecological boundaries.  The Sarayaku are acutely aware of their ecological relationships and attempt to proactively mediate their relationship with the surrounding environment.  While they have made many changes, one issue stands out.  Because of contamination and over-fishing outside of their territory, the Sarayaku have had to deal with declining fish populations.  To help supplement their fish catch, the Sarayaku, in conjunction with resource ecologists, have developed fish farms.  These fish farms are sustainable using plantain and termites for fish feed.  Because these fish farms were not a traditional means of meeting their needs, I asked the Sarayaku elder, Don Sabino Gualinga, how these fish farms fit with their notion of “balance.”  He replied that they must deal with the concentration of people, and there is hope that they will return to an equilibrium in the future. Now, they have other areas (nature preserves) where there is balance.  In this way, the Sarayaku are actively thinking about their relationship with nature and assessing how they can maintain their culture and also maintain their livelihood in the rainforest.  These ideas allow me to help students contemplate their own society and its relationship with nature.

Children and Blue Skies in Salinas, Ecuador 2007

The theme of struggle and success resonated throughout the tour.  We visited cooperatives in the mountain town of Salinas and also the community of Yungilla.  We heard from farmers fighting a mining company near the town of Intag.  We met with organizations such as Accion Ecologica where we learned about Plan Columbia and its effects on the local population.  After discussing these issues in one of my classes, a student talked with me after class.  She was stationed in the military base in Ecuador near area where Plan Columbia was implemented.  She began by telling me that the local population was not very friendly to her or the other US troops.  Knowing that this was the result of Plan Columbia, I asked her about how friendly people were when she visited other areas of Ecuador.  She admitted that her experiences outside of the military base area were very pleasant, and people were very friendly.  Because of the Global Exchange tour, I was able to help this student see that the people of Ecuador were not antagonistic toward “gringos” but were justifiably upset about the policies of the US government that affected their lives.  We were able to discuss this distinction and make it a learning experience.

The Global Exchange tour in Ecuador was a life changing experience.  I hope to join another tour in the future.  I am still amazed at the depth of the experience and how profoundly it has impacted my life and those who shared in the tour. 

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Take Action! For those of you that would  like to learn more and get involved:


 

picture by Malia Everette

Boreth Sun's visit to Global Exchange in San Francisco, California

This is the second in a two-part interview by Global Exchange Reality Tours Intern Sue Sullivan with our Cambodia and Thailand program officer, Boreth Sun. Follow along to discover what it means to be an in-country representative of Reality Tours and our partnering organization Not For Sale.
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This past October, Reality Tours’ in-country program officer for Cambodia and Thailand, Boreth Sun traveled to the Bay Area to speak at the 2011 Global Forum on Human Trafficking.

Reality Tours has been honored to work and partner with Boreth since 2007 and we took advantage of his visit to show him the office and take him for a brief tour of San Francisco…after all, a few of us here at Reality Tours have traveled with him throughout his beautiful country.  We also had the opportunity to interview him about his experiences working with us and facilitating Reality Tours.

Boreth’s perspective is informative, compelling and inspiring. Learn more about what it means to be an in-country partner and why it is important for the international community to visit and learn first-hand about life in South East Asia in the second in this two part blog.

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Sue: What has your experience been as an In-Country Program Officer in Cambodia?

Boreth: It has been a learning experience for me because I have had a chance to meet with a lot of people from the US and elsewhere through Reality Tours. I take it for granted that everyone should know about these issues; about community issues, human rights issues, human trafficking, poverty, the community struggle for people to improve their livelihood, to manage their own resources, about the big fight against corporations coming to take over their land, I thought people should familiar with all these issues, but Reality Tours, you realize that through people coming in that sometimes, its their first time they are seeing things and looking at things from a different perspective. For me it has also been good to help show people, link people and promote cultural change, a change of mindset to look at things from different perspective. It really is rewarding for me that some of these participants, from the delegation Reality Tours, the Reality Tours have changed their life, it has changed their career, and they’ve become more socially aware and conscious. They even started working to promote social issues; to begin to look at issues far away form their community, far away from their homes. What they’re doing in the US can have big impacts elsewhere in the world. So for me, it’s rewarding to see that. Some of the people who participated on the tour also went back to Asia, went back to Thailand, went back to Cambodia and they are providing some support to local NGOs. Its not that they just went back and offered support, they went back, they learned more and then they give more and they can become sort of an agent of change, promoting, spreading news of what is happening elsewhere in the world that some people sometimes take it for granted.

USF Cambodia Customized Reality Tour 2007

Sue: What are some of the most impactful moments you have witnessed while facilitating GX Reality Tours?

Boreth: Some of the most impactful moments were when the first time I showed people around, some students from the University of San Francisco, they were young, energetic, willing to learn and experience new things, we took them to a dump site where they see lots of people and kids as old as two years old up to teenagers scavenging for whatever in the dump site they could make a few dollars and also make their living.  I think at that moment, in the students you could see the mind shift and how people react to these types of issues. Some of the students have come back and start working for Not for Sale Campaign to promote children’s rights, basic rights of people who don’t have access to education and school… I think that’s what gets me going..to see that we can make a difference. A visit like that can make a difference. A visit like that can help people change because nothing is more powerful than going to experience things, see things and then doing things afterwards. Its not just organizing a trip for people to learn, to see to experience, but to actually transition people into taking some action and doing what they believe is right. I think that’s what gets me going and why I’ve been doing work with Global Exchange since 2007 and I’m still doing it now.

Sue: What are the most compelling issues that Global Exchange members and travelers should learn about?

Devotion at Ankor Wat, Reality Tours Delegation August 2010

Boreth: You see, a lot of people in the US, they know about Cambodia mostly for the killing fields. They know about the Vietnam War, they know about the genocide in Cambodia, the killing fields in Cambodia and Angkor Wat, one of the oldest temples in Cambodia. But there’s more to it than that. The most compelling issue in Cambodia is mostly looking at poverty. After many years of war, poverty is the biggest issue. People are desperate, the majority of people are still poor, and that’s why they’re vulnerable to be trafficked; to be bought, sold and traded into different entertainment industries of the world. So those are the most compelling issues. But we should not focus on the symptom or the survival of the issue, we need to address the grassroots of the issue, which is poverty and food securities. Right now because of climate change, you look at Southeast Asia, you know Thailand and Cambodia; Cambodia is underwater now. People are going to loose their crop, their pig, their chicken, their duck, everything, their livestock. So the people are being affected by the climate change, by this flood and this pushes them further and further into poverty. So people become so desperate, they will do anything to survive. I think another big issue in Cambodia is environmental degradation. A lot of corporation companies from around the world, mostly Chinese are going there to destroy a lot of Cambodian resources. Deforestation is big, land concession is big, they take away people’s land and give the right to the corporation to grow different crops soybeans muang beans as part of the corporations trying to make big money. Also minerals, they extract minerals from the ground and again they are destroying the resources. In the future, in Cambodia, I think the biggest compelling issue, the biggest challenging issue will be environmental degradation because it impacts food security and people’s livelihoods, and destroys the social fabric, the social structure of community villages throughout the country. That’s going to be the biggest challenge. You can see that’s what’s happening now. The flooding is just the beginning of what’s to come I think.

Sue: Is there anything else that you’d like to share about your experiences as a Global Exchange in-country program officer?

The Power of Recycling and Reclaiming- A visit to a dump and meeting with SCARO, a Cambodian NGO working with garbage collectors.

Boreth: What I just want to say is that I think what Reality Tours and Global Exchange are doing in Cambodia and Thailand is great. I think we become a bridge between the West and the East and Asia. I think we build a bridge for change. We exchange information, we exchange experiences, we exchange skills, the know how, the technologies. We are connecting the world and I think this is great work that Global Exchange is doing. And linking with the institutions such as NFS and the socially responsible NGOs and enterprises. We are helping build the bridges. In doing this, we become some sort of agent of humanities and change. When we do this, we can build the world to be a better and more peaceful place for everybody, not just the rich and powerful.

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Past Cambodia Reality Tour trip participant Photo by: Tammy Gustafson

Special thanks to Sue Sullivan, Reality Tours’ intern for conducting this interview with Boreth.

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Find out about how you can travel to Cambodia and Thailand on a Global Exchange Reality Tour.

 


Boreth Sun Visiting Global Exchange in San Francisco

This is the first in a two-part interview by Global Exchange Reality Tours Intern Sue Sullivan with our Cambodia and Thailand program officer, Boreth Sun. Follow along to discover what it means to be an in-country representative of Reality Tours and our partnering organization Not For Sale.

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Sue: Could you tell us about your work in Cambodia and how you got involved with the Not for Sale Campaign?

Boreth: I started working with Global Exchange in Cambodia in 2007, for the first time when I organized a trip for a group of students from USF through Global Exchange. We helped students learn about the reality on the ground what happened in Cambodia, meet people, see people, learn from the people, share stories with people and all of that.  That’s what NFS has been doing along with Global Exchange. I started organizing the trip one time and then after Global Exchange sent me an email asking me to continue leading the tours, help linking people with different agencies, different institutions, community leaders, government officials and all of that and the next thing I know I got stuck.

Sue: What is your current role with Not For Sale in Southeast Asia?

Boreth: I am the coordinator for Cambodia, helping coordinate all activities from the other side of the world with Alessandro Isola and with Malia Everette. Recently, NFS has asked me to help with some networking in Cambodia as part of their work in trying to access some quality material and products from Cambodian social enterprises. They are importing some (stuff) from Cambodia through a garment factory called, STOPStart. STOPStart I think is owned by Not for Sale and some individuals. They want to try to tap into some resources. So I’m going to help them for only the next several months to link them with the right people, custom people, licensing, tax people, legal issues and also help linking them with some NGOs that can tap into some quality sale products or just handcraft products; bags T-shirts and all of that. That’s why I got involved. So again, very similar to a Reality Tour, helping people linking to the right institutions, development agencies, community leaders, villages, all that kind of stuff.

A Visit to Ankor Wat, Reality Tours August 2010

Sue: Could you tell us a little about the work of Not for Sale in Cambodia?

Boreth: In Cambodia, NFS, really doesn’t have a lot of direct activities, what NFS does is through me in Cambodia linking NFS US with different hr NGOs to fight against human trafficking. Basically, NFS does this to link people with different institutions who are fighting human trafficking. My goal is to link them with the right agencies that are doing a lot of great work, but also helping Stop Start, a garment factory who is promoting Fair Trade and hiring some people who are victims or survivors of human trafficking to work there. I link them with different agencies like Nymo.

Welcoming Sign at NYEMO, Cambodia

Nyemo is an agency, an NGO who is working with survivors of human trafficking to make quality products, handicrafts and different fabric design and all of that. NFS is linking with them now and tapping into their products to import them to the US to sell them in different parts of the US.  Its not direct support but linking to the right social enterprises, to responsible enterprises to help promote change in Cambodia.

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We here at Reality Tours are grateful that Boreth got “stuck”. We are excited to continue deepening our relationship and working together to organize broad educational tours, customized delegations and Not For Sale advocacy journeys in the years to come to Cambodia and Thailand. With our passionate partners all over the world, we are able to ensure that tourism is ethical, socially responsible, respects human rights, and is conscious of the local environment and culture. Thus we extend a special thanks to Boreth for working with us to “Meet the People, Learn the Facts, and Make a Difference”!

 

Past Cambodia Reality Tour trip participant Photo by: Tammy Gustafson

 

Take Action! Find out about how you can travel to Cambodia and Thailand on a Global Exchange Reality Tour.