Perspective and Motivation

July 12, 2007 by dunny.

No doubt the trip thus far has been wild and already an adventure of a lifetime.  I don’t know that we could imagine having more fun, meeting more interesting and generous people, or challenging ourselves in such mental, emotional, and spiritual ways.  We’ve been inventive and charmed as well as unlucky and a bit daft along the way, and we’re nowhere near the real challenges of our journey.

Folks have asked how we’re able to stay optimistic and focused through the blips we’ve had, and why we’re constantly harboring such an “Aint nothin gonna hold us down” attitude.  It’s the same reason we got into this mess in the first place.  Christina Noble.

Here’s a link to Christina’s book Bridge Across My Sorrows on Amazon.  She writes about growing up in absolute poverty in Dublin with an alcoholic father and sick mother, then living on the street by herself and eventually being sent to Industrial School.  She was raped and beaten.  She later moved to England and married a man who may not have drank like an alcholic but certainly abused her like one.  A dream about street children in Vietnam eventually led her there, not fully knowing what she might encounter.

One moment stands out as the point when she knew absolutely that she would dedicate her life to helping the street children of the world.  She saw two homeless Vietnamese girls in the park across from her hotel one afternoon.  At first glance they appeared to just be playing in the dirt, as kids often do.  Hesitantly, she approached the girls and as she stared at them, an ant crawled across the younger girl’s face.  Without flinching the girl slapped the ant and put it in her mouth.  They weren’t playing in the dirt.  They were grubbing for ants to try and avoid starvation.

If you’re interested in the reason we’re here in the first place, read this book.  Although the book was written before she got involved in Mongolia, the street-children epidemic in Vietnam is interchangeable with that of Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia.  Ultimately, our mission is wholly charitable.  The journey we’re on, while fun as hell, is extreme so as to draw attention to a situation we all may never otherwise understand.  While we skimp by on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, there are children digging for miniscule ants for a meal.  While we curl into sleeping bags in tents to keep warm, there are children hugging underground sewage pipes for warmth.  While we are occasionally glared at here in England, there are children who run to the streets to escape abuse and molestation in their own homes.  They may end up stealing, protistuting, and going to torturous Soviet jails before all is said and done.

To those of you who have donated to our causes already, you’ve made more of a difference than you’ll ever know.  To others, we don’t intend to motivate by guilt.  We simply want you to recognize these kids, whether or not you ever encounter them, as people like us…capable of anything given the opportunity.  If you have the means, consider a donation, that’s all we’re asking (SkipLizard CNCF Page). 

I encourage you all to read Christina’s book.  If for no other reason, you’ll read about a woman who knew nothing but pain, adversity, and loneliness and has managed to touch lives a world over.  You’ll also better understand the deeper looks Andy and I will undoubtedly have in our eyes when we get back.  Spread love friends.

Skip, out. (SkipLizard Homepage)

P.S. We started a web album for pics and will try to update it regularly.  Here’s the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/rydunn1/