Watch how I fit it all in!

Can’t see the video? Click on this link: Week Away Pack

As I mentioned in the video, Burma is fairly conservative so I included several shirts with sleeves and long skirts below the knee. Here’s a complete list of all I carried in the bag + the clothes I was wearing:

Clothes:

• 3 blouses
• 2 camisoles
• 2 long skirts
• 2 dresses
• 1 pair of pants (My orange pants – can’t leave ‘em behind!)
• 1 sarong + bathing suit
• 1 shawl
• 1 pj set
• 1 pair of parasite-proof shoes
• 1 pair of flip flops
• 1 longyi (that I bought while there)
• Underthings

Necessities: In addition, I had one medicine bag (Advil, band aids, Imodium, allergy pills, Alka-Seltzer, Tylenol), a toiletry bag, a small bag with jewelry (earrings and bracelets + 1 lacquer bracelet I bought), a small umbrella and a document pouch.

Tech: And, of course, some tech gear: Laptop, extension cords, converter plugs, and a Kindle. My camera I carried separately.

That’s it — And believe it or not, it totally worked! And I think I could have gotten away with one less dress. *I’m liking the WAP strategy!*

In fact, it’s making re-think what I’m carrying around that I really don’t need…My bag to Bangkok was 19.3 kilos. I’m sure by applying my WAP strategy, I can lose another 2 kilos of gear to get me a step closer to my 15 kilo goal. Hmmmmmm….

Stay tuned as I further reduce and refine my pack for the year ahead!

Since a number of questions come up fairly frequently, I thought I’d create an FAQ. Here’re the 5 most frequently asked queries:

How can you afford to travel for 2 years?

I’m a normal working professional that saved my money to buy a house. (i.e. I’m not rich and I didn’t inherit money). Instead of buying a house, I decided to take the 20% down payment and spend it traveling for 2 years.

On the road, I live pretty inexpensively. I like to take local transportation whenever possible and I don’t have extravagant taste. I’m happy with basic accommodation as long as it’s cheap, in a safe area and has a Wifi connection.

When I return from my trip in early 2013, I’ll need to go back to work, re-booting my consulting practice. At the end, I’ll have had a 2-year sabbatical and the memories of a lifetime!

How can I have an Adventure Philanthropist life too?

The short answer is anyone can have an adventure philanthropist life if they make travel and giving a priority. It’s the decisions – big and small – that you make every day that support this life.

For instance, I left my corporate job and started a consulting career so I could have a more flexible travel schedule. This was a big decision. A smaller decision was to set aside a certain number of days each month and a budget to donate to causes I care about. Both decisions are core to an adventure philanthropist perspective.

I’m also a proponent of what I call LivingMini. In this section of the web site, I talk about how I’ve downsized my life so that I have more money to give to charity and to travel. Personally, I’d much rather spend money on experiences instead of “stuff” – So I shopped less, but played more.

How can I volunteer overseas?

First, determine what is spiking your curiosity:

• Is it seeing a new place and culture?
• Or a particular issue such as marine conservation or poverty alleviation?
• Or a preferred activity like teaching in schools or building houses?

Once you decide which direction to go in, it will be easier to choose the best volunteer option.

I always think it’s good to go with an established volunteer program that can offer you an engaging, enriching experience as well as help on the logistical side, like pre-arranged accommodations, airport pick ups, and fellow volunteers.

And be prepared to pay to volunteer. Nonprofits invest a great deal of time, knowledge, and valuable resources in providing a worthwhile volunteer experience. It’s important that volunteers understand there are real costs associated and be willing to pay for this cultural experience.

Last, be sure and “chat” with someone who has been a participant in a volunteer program before signing up. That will give you a chance to ask targeted questions and better assess if the opportunity is right for you.

So where are you volunteering during your next holiday?!

Do you take donations on your site?

No. I personally donated all the funds for the GoErinGo! Fund and specifically don’t solicit donations on my site.

One of the objectives of www.GoErinGo.com is to encourage “participatory philanthropy.” I want others to enjoy and participate in the act of giving, so I’ve removed some of the barriers to giving (like giving your own money). By allowing readers to have input on how much and where my money is donated I’m hoping to foster an affinity for philanthropy.

I’m always looking for great causes to support. If you have a favorite charity, I would love to hear about it!

How can I donate overseas?

Since I have a donor-advised fund, the way I give internationally is through intermediaries like GlobalGiving.org, UniversalGiving.org, Give2Asia.org and Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), a British intermediary.

There are several advantages to using intermediaries, including providing:

• Patriot Act protection (ensuring that your donation is not going to fund terrorist activities)
• U.S. charitable tax deduction
• Screening of international nonprofits (in terms of financial transparency and effective programming)
• Ability to give small amounts (as low as $25 / $50)

Intermediaries also allow you to give to international organizations that focus on an interest area. For example, if you want to support women’s advancement, check out the GlobalFundforWomen.org. If you’d like to support social entrepreneurship, Ashoka.org is one alternative.

I saw one such girl succumb in India. She was a blond-haired, blue-eyes Russian lassie who had festooned herself with hennaed hands and feet, jangling anklets, wrists full of bangles, a traditional block-patterned skirt, hand-made shoes, and to top it all off – a bindi bulls-eye right between the brows!

I’m not casting stones. In fact, I can fully appreciate this girl’s impulse to indulge.

Disease of the Dress

I’m afraid I fell to the fever in Thailand. I knew I was infected when our day-guide to the hill tribes greeted me with a cheery “Hello Ms. Chiang Mai!” Oy!

I admit, I couldn’t resist all the light-weight colorful cotton skirts and dresses (and scarves and blouses). So practical in the hot weather! So easy to pack! (Who could see the wrinkles?). So cheap to buy! So fun to wear!

My Medicine

To rectify my fashion faux pas, I’ve committed to wearing only one (maybe two) pieces of my Chiang Mai wardrobe at any one time.

That said, I’m not sure I can do it. I’m fairly addicted at this point, and only the growing weigh of my backpack is holding me back from more must-have $5 purchases.

And who cares if I’m channeling Ms. Chiang Mai anyway?! I’m going to find that Russian chic and invite her for a cup of coffee to compare notes. Make that a cup of chai…

Thai Temptation

Here’s a shot of my new India-Thai wardrobe, plus a few items I picked up in Cambodia / Vietnam last spring. There is at least a consistency of color!

According to one survey, 5 out of 10 best cities to live in India are located in Kerala. And I believe it! The state has a distinctly Portuguese feel, great weather, and is surrounded by water – either the Arabian Sea or the famous “backwater” canals.

Even more impressive is that Kerala has India’s highest ranking on the UN’s Human Development Index, and India’s highest literacy rate at 99%. It is the only state to have banking facilities in every village and it is considered India’s least corrupt state – Go Kerala!

So many reasons to like this backwater (and I mean that nicely) region! Here are my 7 insider tips:

MEET (Cool Meet Ups) – Sunset Cruise. Kerala is all about water, with 34 lakes and 49 rain-fed rivers. These rivers and their tributaries wind through the land, creating a complicated system of canals.

We stayed on Kerala’s largest lake, Vembenad Lake, for several nights and took a sunset cruise. It was so peaceful, especially with the rhythmic drumming and flute playing in the background. Just listen!

Can’t see this vide? Click on this link: Kerala Cruise

EAT (Tasty Eats) – Masala Spices. A south Indian mixture of spices, masala is a combination of dry roasted garlic, ginger, onion, and chili. But it’s the added bay leaves, cloves, green and black carmandon and black pepper that give it its distinctive (and yummy!) flavor.

Masala spices are added to curries, meats, just about everything. I’m sure you’ve had it at your local Indian restaurant. If not, try it!

SEE (Must-see Sights) – Kathakali. Classical Indian dancing, Kathakali originated in Kerala in the 17th century. It is highly-stylized and more in tune with a dramatic opera. There are elaborate costumes, detailed gestures, and complicated (and usually violent) storylines. There is no talking as the plot unfolds to very loud percussion music. If you like enthusiastic drumming and cymbal playing – Kathakali is for you.

SHOP (Gotta Have) – Fish! As a water town, Kerala is known for its seafood and for its Chinese fishing nets dotting the shoreline. We walked around the market one morning to check out the daily catch, which was plentiful!

Side note: I was wearing flip-flops during our market crawl, just like I was when I got my worms in Mozambique. Where are my parasite-proof shoes when I need them? Argh!

ACTIVITY (Gotta Do) – Houseboat Tour. Kerala Houseboats are former rice barges that have been re-invented as houseboats to convey tourists along the famous backwater canals. It’s a cool experience! For an inside peek of life on the backwater, read: India’s Backwater Houseboats

GIVE (Greatest Need) – Fighting Corruption. India was just ranked #7 in the world in terms of corruption. This government greediness is compounding the country’s extreme poverty.

For instance, the government contributes US$8 billion a year on employment schemes for the rural poor. But local government officials invent “ghost workers” and pay themselves the additional salaries. The state also spends heavily on subsidized grain for the hungry, but it’s believed that as much of two-thirds of those subsidies are skimmed off the top.

So the Indian government is trying to fight poverty and corruption simultaneously. How are they doing it? Identity cards. In January, India enrolled it 200 millionth person in a new UID (unique identity) scheme that has created the world’s largest bio-metric database.

The UID program is voluntary, but poor people are lining up to get fingerprinted and their retinas scanned. Many of the poor don’t have identification documents for a number of reasons, including no birth certificates (because they were born at home) and no permanent addresses.

The ID cards will soon be linked to a person’s bank account so the government can deposit welfare subsidies directly into the individual’s account, thereby bypassing the corrupt local government officials. Education vouchers and medical care vouchers are next on the horizon. The cost of the UID system per person is $2.

The Indian government has partnered with the private sector to provide technology and security. It is estimated that the UID scheme may make 20 million government employees obsolete. Hopefully the corrupt ones will get the pink slips first.

ENJOY (Extra Fun) – Ayurveda Spa Treatments. According to Ayurveda philosophy, all human beings have 3 doshas (or constituents): vatta, pitta, and kapha. When a dosha is out of balance, it causes health problems. When doshas are in balance, the human body functions optimally. Ayurveda spa treatments help to bring your doshas into alignment.

I was being cheap and didn’t pony up the cash for a spa treatment, but Sam did, warm oil streaming on her legs and all. She said it was divine! (Although I’m not too sure how her doshas are doing…)

On this uneven playing field, Indian women face even greater barriers, especially when it comes to employment opportunities. A common belief is that a woman working outside the home is “slightly inappropriate, subtly wrong, and definitely dangerous to their chastity and womanly virtue.”

Nevertheless, Indian women do work – although much of their work is not documented or accounted for in official statistics. Some studies estimate that as much as 90% of all Indian women work in the informal sector: plowing fields and harvesting crops, weaving and making handicrafts, selling food and gathering wood.

As I traveled around the country, women were working everywhere. Here’s what I saw:

Kerala houseboats can have up to 5 bedrooms, in addition to bathrooms, sun rooms and dining areas. You board your boat about noon and begin snaking your way through the palm-fringed canals, gliding past isolated houses, coconut groves, schools, tiny stores, and churches and temples.

After a lunch of local fish, the meandering continues and you sit back and enjoy spying life on the famous Indian backwaters. Here’re an inside peek of life on the backwater canals:

p.s. If you’re thinking of tooling around on a houseboat, write me – I have recommendations for you!

Here’s an inside peek of life on the backwater canals:

I made the donation more than 4 months ago and have been thinking about it since. In general, I feel that the organization had broken the implicit promise between donors and organizations. As donors, we trust that the organization will steward the donation faithfully.

In particular, here’s why the donation was spoiled for me:

1) The in-country staff of the NGO asked me for money for his personal use. He asked me for reimbursement for incidental expenses like the phone calls he made. He also invited his friend to dinner and ran up the tab while passing me the bill. After that I took him aside and told him that his actions were inappropriate. He apologized, but still he was not a good representative of the organization.

2) When I made the public presentation of the award, the head of the community, instead of thanking me, asked me for more money. Granted it is hard for foreign NGOS to control the behavior of the final recipients, but nevertheless, it left a bad taste in my mouth. I also didn’t appreciate the jokes about rich American donors.

3) I raised my concerns to the founder of the NGO because I think it’s important that he know I had an unsatisfactory giving experience. He promptly apologized, but then called me the next day to say he’d refund my donation since I wasn’t happy, adding that they didn’t need the funding anyway.

Obviously my intention was never to renege on my donation (in fact, I had already given in full by this point) but hearing that my donation wasn’t valued was adding insult to injury. This misguided gesture made a bad situation even worse.

The founder did do me one favor. During our conversation he asked why I was disappointed if the end recipients received the funded project – wasn’t that the real reason why I had given? To help the community that needed it?

I thought this was a fair question, one I hadn’t asked myself. So I’ve been spending some time thinking about my personal giving motivations.

My Motivations for Giving

In my fundraising seminars, I always talk about the importance of knowing the motivations of your donor. Giving a donation is a very personal and complex decision. The desire to “help others” is obviously part of the giving equation, but there are more factors – personal thoughts on charitable giving – that help motivate a person to give.

Up until this point, I hadn’t really spent the time to discern my own motivations as a donor. And so I put some thought into it. Here’s what I’m looking for as a donor:

1. Good Work. I want to truly believe that the organization is helping its constituents and providing vital services.
2. Effective Management. I want the organization and the donation to be stewarded properly.
3. Funding Need. I want to give where the donation is needed.

I think the organization I gave to fell short on 2 of these 3 motivations for me, and that is why I was unhappy with the donation.

Refocused Giving

This situation also led me to think about which organizations I was happy to support in the past and why. And I identified two in particular:

• Ethiopian Women’s Lawyers Association: EWLA helps fight for women’s rights in Ethiopia. I didn’t give a donation to this organization before, but spent several days providing pro bono development work and a written fundraising plan. The GoErinGo! Fund will give a $1,000 donation.

• Lubashi: Based in Zambia, this organization helps provide shelter and education for girls who have been raped and abused while they are awaiting the perpetrator’s trial. I initially gave a $250 grant to this organization and will give another grant of $1,000.

In the end, I’m no longer unhappy because I think the situation provided me with a valuable lesson and an opportunity to give to organizations that I, as a donor, truly value. It gives me great joy to be able to make additional grants to EWLA and Lubashi.

Covering more than 10% of India’s land and home to 68 million people, Rajasthan is the largest state and includes the Thar Desert, which borders Pakistan. It also has the Aravalli mountain range, one of the oldest in the world (10 times older than the Himalayans!).

We spent several weeks exploring this Indian gem.

MEET (Cool Meet Ups) – Blue City. Jodhpur, with blue-painted houses surrounding the city’s central Mehrangarh Fort, is known as India’s “Blue City.”

We got a couple of different explanations on why some residents paint their houses blue. One reason is that blue was the color chosen by Brahmins, the highest caste, and now others are following suit.

Whatever the reason, the blue-hued neighbor is beautiful – especially at sunset. We were treated to a private dinner at the top of the fort, overlooking the city below. Spectacular!

EAT (Tasty Eats) – Indian Cooking School. Rajasthani food is spicy — Mainly because as a region at the edge of a desert, most of their food consisted of dried beans and meat, so spice was added to enhance / mask the flavor.

A specialty of Jaipur, where we had our cooking class, is gatta curry. Gatta are gram flour dumplings that are made with ghee (clarified butter), curd, salt, oil, and red chili powder. They’re an acquired taste.

Here I am as a cooking school student:

Can’t see this video? Click on this link: Cooking in Jaipur!

The cooking school did help me perfect some cooking techniques. For instance, apparently I’ve been stirring incorrectly all these years. The correct motion is to stir in a counter-clockwise directly in small circles at a very fast pace. A very pat the head, rub the tummy.

I also learned the flipping technique of lifting the food and flipping it in the air as you’re sautéing. Fun and slightly dangerous since I kept raising the pan higher and higher in the air, until I was flipping at shoulder height.

SEE (Must-see Sights) – Udaipur’s Lake Pichola. Lake Pichola is a man-made lake in the center of the town of Udaipur. There is a place in the center of the lake (the summer palace), on the southern shore (the winter palace) and on the hilltop overlooking the lake (the spring palace).

Udaipur was made famous in the James Bond film Octopussy – but I haven’t seen the film, so this bit of fame didn’t leave too big an impression on me.

Here I am in sailing on the lake one fine day:

Can’t see this video? Click on this link: Sailing Lake Pichola

SHOP (Gotta Have) –Bangles & Bindis. If you’re into shopping, Jaipur’s Pink City has it all! We took an afternoon off touring to simply walk around the marketplace and observe the crazed shopping scene.

I especially liked watching the women select their sari materials from a kaleidoscope of colors and adornments, like the stacks of glittering bracelets and bindis. Used through South Asia, bindis are small dots. They are usually red, but can also be seen as an added piece of jewelry.

Bindis are placed in between the brows as decoration. This is the place of the 6th chakra – the seat of “concealed wisdom.” By placing a bindi in this location, you’re said to retain energy and strengthen concentration. It’s also acts as a third eye and protects against demons. I need one!

ACTIVITY (Gotta Do) – Desert Village Visit. The Thar Desert, also known as the Great Indian Desert, is the world’s 9th largest subtropical desert, covering over 200,000 km2 (77,000 sq mi). Some believe the desert to be more than 10,000 years old.

The trip to the desert village was one of the highlights of our trip to India as we got a peek at what life is like for tens of millions of Indians. Want more information on fun to be had in desert village? Read: Chewing Paan, Drinking Opium.

GIVE (Greatest Need) – Malnutrition. An article in the local paper cited the Indian government’s HUNGaMA (Hunger and Malnutrition Survey) as saying the state’s under-5 mortality and malnutrition rates are unacceptably high and among the highest in the country. According to the study, every other child in Rajasthan is underweight.

In fact, 22 of Rajasthan’s 33 districts are in need of “priority attention” to curb child malnutrition, with the remaining 10 districts warranting “immediate intensive intervention” to improve food security. In fact, 9 of the districts lie in the bottom of the UNICEF child development index.

Rajasthan is part of India’s Golden Triangle (Delhi–Agra–Jaipur), receiving huge influxes of tourist dollars. Obviously this wealth isn’t trickling down to the families that need it the most.

ENJOY (Extra Fun) – Elephant Ride at the Amber Fort. Jaipur’s Amber Fort is famous as a perfect mixture of Hindu and Muslin architecture. Constructed of white and red sand stone, in the interior is filled with intricate mirror works, mosaics, engravings, carvings, paintings, frescoes and murals. It is really a thing of beauty!

For added fun, we (along with 5,000 other visitors that day!) rode an elephant up to the fort. Why not?!

On one hand, you have women washing clothes on rocks, ox-powered wells (that’s me riding behind the ox, fearful that he was going to poop on me!), and foot-pedal threshers for rice.

On the other hand, you have satellite dishes perched on the roofs of wooden shacks, cells phone in the hands of rickshaw drivers, and chickens roosting on solar-panels. In fact, I find the country’s enthusiastic adoption of solar power particularly interesting.

Harnessing the Sun

Densely populated and with a high sun exposure (averaging 300+ sunny days), India has the two ingredients to make solar power an attractive option for energy generation. Already considered a leader in wind-power generation, the Indian government is now embracing solar options.

Two years ago, India announced a “National Solar Mission” to generate 1,000 MW of power by 2013. That same year, India adopted a US$19 billion plan to produce 20 GW of solar power by 2020. I’m not exactly sure how much 20 GW is, but it seems like a lot(!) Reports indicate that solar power could cover all of India’s projects energy demands in 2015.

A couple of economic factors are also spurring India’s adoption of solar power:

• Falling prices of PV panels make the costs of adopting a solar alternative much cheaper, especially in light of increase grid power costs.
• India’s furious pace of economic growth is causing a huge electricity deficit (as much as 13% a day) that needs to be filled.

Indian Ingenuity

One drawback is that land is a scarce in India, especially per capita land availability. This means the best placement of solar panels is on the roofs of individual homes. The logistics of coordinating this on a country-wide level seem insurmountable (especially if you’ve witnessed Indian administration in action!)

Which means it will be up to each individual household to access solar power. Luckily, there is an affordable option. A Bangalore company is selling solar energy on a “progressive purchase” basis. It works like this:

Customers make a small down payment for a high quality solar system and then pre-pay for the service in increments, basically topping up their account each month through user-defined increments on their cell phones. So each month, a family can buy the amount of electricity it will need for that month: a pay-as-you-go system of energy consumption!

I think this is an ingenious approach to helping individuals’ access affordable solar power – all without the interference of a national electricity distribution system. Smart!

The good news is that the gender gap appears to be narrowing, with female literacy increasing nearly 12% between the decade 2001-2011. Let’s help continue the good work!

The GoErinGo! Fund will give $1,200 to sponsor 1 literacy center in an Indian slum – but only if 120 of you vote “Yes!”. Vote before March 10 to help Indian women break the cycle of poverty.

Fighting Adult Literacy

A one-year sponsorship of a Virmani Adult Literacy Center will teach approximately 200 women to read Hindi and learn arithmetic. This schooling, via a specialized computer program designed for illiterate learners, will teach women to read newspapers, signage, children’s report cards, daily accounts and legal documents they may have to sign.

To date, Virmani has taught 4,467 women, 44 men and 596 children to read. The program comprises 90 hours of learning time at a cost of just over $15 for each person. This adult literacy program is helping poor women reach their fullest potential and meet the challenges of life.

Check out these web sites for more information on the Virmani Trust and to make your own donation through www.GlobalGiving.org / Virmani Trust Donation.

Vote Today! 

Don’t forget to vote by March 10. We only need 120 of you to step up and be adventure philanthropists! Do it today!