Please help a blogger in distress!

I have no trouble deciding to sponsor prizes for Passports With Purpose, where this year travel bloggers are raising money to build TWO libraries in Zambia with Room to Read. After all, A Traveler’s Library is ALL ABOUT far off places and BOOKS.

I have no problem asking sponsors for those prizes, because the sponsors (Hotel Monteleone in New Orleans, Interlink Books and MacMillan Audio) are happy to be associated with such a great program.

I have no problem spreading the love by tweeting, posting on Facebook, Google + and by writing blog posts at A Traveler’s Library about Passports With Purpose.

I have no trouble deciding to put a widget on my blog that shows you the progress in fund raising.

I have no problem budgeting to contribute several $10 bids on fantastic travel prizes in order to help Passports With Purpose reach its goal.

What I DO have a problem with is deciding which of the wonderful prizes to choose. Do I go for broke and put all my tenners on ONE prize? Do I go for all the ones I crave the most, $10 at a time? Do I try to play the odds and bid on ones that may not be quite as popular?  Do I let Ken have a vote? What a dilemma!

Hawaii Big Island

In case you haven’t visited Passports With Purpose to check out the fantastic list of prizes, yet, here’s a run-down on ten that are jerking my chain.

Home Away $1000 voucher from one of the four cupcakes who dreamed up Passports With Purpose, Nerd’s Eye View. We stay in apartments whenever we can, and this would guarantee a nice trip.

110,000 Hyatt Gold Points good world wide. (YEP! I didn’t add zeroes–that’s actually what it is) from Boarding Area, is worth $2640. (Ken’s pick)

Two Nights at Grand Hyatt Kuaui, worth $1000. Donated by No Vacation Required. The one island we HAVE visited in Hawaii, and we loved it SO much. (Ken’s Pick)

Two Nights lodging at any Ohio State Park resort, worth $450. Now how could I resist the chance to return to the state park where I honeymooned? This one is donated by Road Trips for Families (for whom I have written a few pieces.)

Five nights at Big Island Hawaii Resorts.  This year’s prizes include several Hawaii resort stays, and they all are tempting, but I have not been to the Big Island, and it is definitely on my bucket list.  This one, worth $1692,  is donated by another of the cupcakes who thought up Passports with Purpose, Wanderlust and Lipstick.

Five Day Tournament of Roses and L.A. tour.  Even before knowing who is playing in the Rose Bowl this year, Ken picked this one. We’ve never made it over there when our own Ohio State Buckeyes were playing (and this is definitely not their year). The prize does not include game tickets, but does have the hotel, tours and the rose parade. Worth $1696 and donated by Mira Terra Images. Yes, this is a Ken pick.

A Nine-Day Costa Rica Tour. Now there’s a place that’s definitely on my wanna-go list. It was actually the first prize to catch my eye. Donated by G Adventures of Wanderers in Residence, this prize is worth just shy of $1000.

4-Day Raft Trip on the Salmon River with O.A.R.S. We rafted the Colorado through the Grand Canyon with O.A.R.S. and that ranks as a top experience of a lifetime. Would love to do another river. Sponsored by river guide Joslin Fritz of Wander Lust and Lipstick.

5-Night Stay in Budapest. We won an apartment stay in Budapest once before (in a different drawing)–why not again? Worth $796, this prize is sponsored by Inspiring Travellers. A Ken pick.

One- Week apartment stay in Umbria. Ahhh, we only visited Assisi last time, but we could be persuaded to see more of Umbria! Worth $798, this prize is sponsored by Why Go Italy. A Ken pick.

Well, considering that I left all the travel gear off my list (like the Bamboo Blend Traveler’s Pack sponsored by Wandering Educators), and we do not really need the FIVE Kindles or the Nook Tablet from various sponsors–my list is actually pretty reasonable. But it is stretching my budget–particularly if I put more than one ten on an individual prize. You see the problem?

And of course, when YOU bid, you will also be tempted by the prizes sponsored by A Traveler’s Library–a THREE night stay at the gorgeous Hotel Monteleone in exciting New Orleans; $300 worth of books that take you to far off places from Interlink Books; or $100 worth of audio books from MacMillan Audio to listen to on your next road trip. But I cannot win those, so good luck to you–I’d really like to see one of my readers win the prizes I sponsored.

SO–Advise me on how I should allocate my money–which prizes should I bid on? All on one, or $10 each?  HELP! And Hurry, because the bidding ends on December 16. And we want to help kids like this keep reading.

Literacy Day in Zambia

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Uzbekistan ornament, from National Geographic Gift Store

Passports With Purpose–Libraries in Zambia

It’s Passports With Purpose time again. Travel bloggers around the world join forces to raise money for a single worthy cause.  You can see all the details in my last post about the launch of PwP. This is a reminder, you have just two weeks to bid on the fantastic array of prizes. Bidding ends on December 16. Win fantastic trips, photo equipment, luggage, books, hotel stays and all kinds of travel gear. And this being the giving season–you’ll give that stuff you win to somebody else, won’t you? Each entry costs only $10, so bid several times. 100% of your money will go to build a library in Zambia. Winners of raffle prizes will be notified at the end of December, but everyone is a winner who helps this great cause.
Out of Print– Books for Africa

This is one of my favorite shopping expeditions this year.  I’m buying things for (XXXXXXXXX) and (XXXXX) [sorry, had to censor that since relatives read these posts sometimes.  But here’s the deal. Out of Print has taken the fantastic vintage art work from old (and sometimes out of print) favorite books (think The Great Gatsby, Clockwork Orange, Wuthering Heights) and put the designs on t-shirts (a purple one for Alice Walker’s The Color of Purple, of course), notebooks, tote bags, journals, note cards, and my favorite…e-reader covers. Can you imagine, whipping out your e-reader to read a frivolous romance, but nobody knows because it is disguised inside the cover that depicts James Joyce’s Ulysses?

Okay, great gift shopping, but what about the give back? Like Passports With Purpose, Out of Print cares about books in Africa. Each purchase enables the purchase of a book for Africa, through the charity, Books for Africa.

Hydros Water Bottles–Fighting the Global Water Crisis

In my original gift post, 10 Perfect Gifts for Travelers Who Read, I introduced Liberty Bottleworks. Before tellling you about Hydros, I need to add that Liberty also gives back to several different charities. You can see a list of charities here, and they pledge 1% of their profits and 1% of their working hours to helping those charities.

Now on to Hydros. Hydros bottles are environmentally friendly and made in the USA like Liberty Bottleworks, but they add a water filter to their product, so they are particularly good for people who are camping, hiking, or visiting third world countries. Hydros works with Engineers Without Borders to bring clean water to places in need. In addition to buying filter water bottles on their site ($1 from each sale goes toward ending the global water crisis), you can also purchase gift cards AND you can buy wrist bands that are a more direct way to contribute to providing water for people who need it.

Global Artisan Gifts–Fair Trade Helps Fight Poverty

Each year I like to find a place where I can buy gifts made by craftspeople, micro businesses in third world countries. Many people depend on their living by making small trinkets and there only market has been tourists who come to their remote location. But with the Internet, some lucky artisans have banded together or been sponsored by larger organizations so that they can sell their creations around the world.

• Global Handicrafts is a fair trade store based in Hong Kong, but you can buy their goods at the Global Handicrafts online store. There is a wonderful variety here from handmade clothing to chocolate, coffee and tea. Have fun browsing in their “Shop” section.
• Ten Thousand Villages is well known and has a fabulous selection of fair trade items. I particularly like their toy section for children’s gifts. Not only do such gifts carry a lesson, but they are the kind of toys that give a child room to imagine and think instead of just pushing buttons to make things light up and make noise. Sadly, the independent toy stores where I used to get things like German carved wooden toys have gone out of business in my town, so I welcome the opportunity to find handmade toys.
• Google It. If you have visited a country and want reminders of your travelers, while helping local business, try googling handicrafts (name of country) or a more specific item you are looking for. Be a good neighbor to the countries you have loved.

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.

Shelley Seale and friends in India

Destination: India

Readers of A Traveler’s Library have continued to turn to the articles about Slumdog Millionaire, and the response posts from Monica Bhide. So when Shelley Seale‘s book, The Weight of Silence, Invisible Children of India, arrived on the scene this month, I was eager to talk to her.

Today, I am going to give you part of the e-mail inteview I did with Shelley, and in two weeks, I will return with more about her book and her reading recommendations for travelers to India. Shelley supported the charity, Miracle Foundation, and her first trip to India was as a volunteer for that group. I asked her how that made her experience different than that of an ordinary tourist.

Shelley: I think it probably did  create quite a different experience than I would have had otherwise. Caroline Boudreaux of The Miracle Foundation did an excellent job of preparing us for the culture shock of India, as well as for the children and the volunteer work. Of course, it can never be fully described and you can never be fully prepared for it – I remember how overwhelmed I was at first, both by the country and the sea of children who surrounded me the first night I arrived.
India was the most alive place I had ever been – it wrapped me up immediately and refused to let go. It still hasn’t.
In India everything is on full view, nothing is hidden – both the incredible, magical beauty and the frantic poverty that does not let you rest.
Its rawness of life strips away the unnecessary – distractions, superficial attachments, trivial worries. … life becomes fundamental, only the essentials of being, and causes you to be fully present in your own existence.

Shelley says that people who are trapped in their own preconceptions find it

— far too easy to be shuttled from place to place, safely cocooned in cars and five-star hotels from which they gaze out at the spectacle passing before them. They dutifully traipse around the Taj Mahal and Varanasi with their video cameras before returning home, perhaps with the feeling that they’ve missed something essential. But they never really saw India.

I myself went on such a tour in 2007, with Deepa Krishnan of Mumbai Magic tour company. Deepa had introduced me to the nonprofit Akanksha, which I profile in the book. They provide schooling for kids living in slum communities, and Deepa donates a third of her company’s profits to the organization. Deepa took me to Dharavi, the slum where much of Slumdog Millionaire was filmed and widely regarded as the largest slum in Asia. It was an incredible, eye-opening experience. She introduced me to women making pappadam bread while their toddlers hopped around them, and men making clay pottery by the hundreds. Dharavi gave me a resounding rebuttal to the myth that poverty is the result of laziness. I have never seen people work so hard in all my life. The place abounded with an industry and entrepreneurship such as I have not ever witnessed anywhere else. It was an amazing experience, and I believe that things like this can do a lot to eradicate cultural bias and misunderstandings, and also the images of poverty that many of us have.

Deepa herself said it best when she explained it to me. “This is the Mumbai of the aspiring migrant, with his fierce drive for survival, for self-improvement,” she said. “The Mumbai of small enterprise. The Mumbai of poor yet strong women, running entire households on the strength of their income from making papads. Every morning, these women put food on the table, braid their daughters’ hair, and send them to schools. Dharavi is one place where this third Mumbai is visible. They have hope for the future, you see? This is the Mumbai of dreams.”

I loved the movie (Slumdog Millionaire). … But what most people don’t know is that there are 25 million kids living in India under circumstances like those portrayed in the movie. For these kids, this is their everyday reality – without the fairytale ending.

Thank you Shelley, for allowing A Traveler’s Library to be part of the launch of  The Weight of Silence. I look forward to reading your book and sharing more of our conversation with readers.

Readers: Will you be reading The Weight of Silence? Do you think westerners can do more to help?

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©2012 A Traveler's Library. All Rights Reserved.