Bridges

I saw this organization on a TED video, and it sounds pretty amazing. They work with kids around the world to help them create documentaries about the places they live in. Its a great way to promote understanding of other cultures, and hopefully bring people together. Check it out:
Bridges

Mapping books with Google

I came across this neat site that maps out locations described in different books using Google Maps. Take a look: Books: Mapped

Great Educational podcasts

This site has a great listing of some free educational podcasts out there. I typically like to download a podcast or audiobook to my ipod for the walk to work, and these are some great ones!

Pay it Forward magazine!

Great post from Nipun about the conversion of a traditional print magazine to a "Pay It Forward" approach. I picked up a copy of the magazine the other day from Nipun's house, and its a great read. I can't wait to see how these PIF approaches to "commercial" enterprises turn out! First Seva Cafe, now this!

Save energy with black backgrounds

Here's a website encouraging people to 1) Move to LCD screens, and 2) Use dark backgrounds for their websites. Apparently having a dark background on your website can save power used by CRTs displaying its content. Rising Phoenix Design

Seva cafe on YouTube

Check out this video on YouTube about the Seva cafe in India. The idea behind the cafe is a "pay it forward" approach to dining. When you sit down to eat, your meal has already been paid by someone before you. Then at the end of your meal you can choose to pay as much as you'd like for the people after you. I've been lucky enough to dine at one which opened in LA, and will hopefully be dining at the one in Berkeley in the near future.

Cafe Gratitude

The other night we went up to Berkeley to attend a sutra lecture by Rev. Heng Sure. It was a great lecture, and afterwards we looked for somewhere to eat. I had originally planned to visit Cha-Ya Japanese veggie restaurant, but by the time we got out it was closing down. So we drove down the road a bit and ran into Cafe Gratitude. It was a great dining 'experience'. Its a vegan restaurant, and all the menu items have names like "I am Happy", and "I am Thankful". Not only is it fun to place your order, "I am mahalo and I am refreshed.", but then when they bring out your food they say, "You are mahalo, you are refreshed". That in itself was worth the price of admission, but the food was good too! I was pretty hungry, and filled up on my delicious "live pizza" dish. If you're near one of their 3 locations, its worth checking out :)

Back to work!

"Money is the wealth of the materialist, and works miracles in the realm of the physical. Time is the wealth of the pilgrim, and works miracles in all realms."
--Ed Buryn

We've been back at work for about a week now. Its amazing how quickly the 3 months went by! In alot of ways it feels like I never left work, and have just gotten right back into things, but I can't help but wish I was still on leave. Its definitely nice to be home, with all of its comforts, but part of me misses the uncertainty (and discomforts) of travel. I'm very grateful for the wonderful opportunity I had to travel the world and meet such interesting people. Hopefully it won't be the last time I can take an extended break from work.

Trip to Ecuador part 3

Our next project was painting some walls at one of Vista Para Todos's clinics. We arrived in our finest painting clothing, and proceeded to sand down the walls and paint them blue. We did a much better job this time around, and a few of us even climbed up on some scaffolding to paint the upper walls. The kind folks there served us a delicious vegetarian lunch, even though they were initially at a total loss as to what they could prepare for us.

Afterwards we went across the street to an orphanage and witnessed Una Grand Dia! in action once again. By this point a few of our team members were getting a bit tired of the Barney routine, but the kids still loved it. :) The orphanage was really nice, and had four houses to hold groups of kids. Once again I thought that the orphanages had a much more family feel.

Trip to Ecuador part 2

We spent Christmas day doing some sightseeting. Our first stop was the teleferico, a tall mountain in the middle of the city with a gondola ride. From the top you could see all over Quito, and take a few hikes. From there we heaeded to the Mitad Del Mundo site, which is a monument to the equator (for which Ecuador is named after). We didn't have much time, but managed to scramble around and take pictures at each compass point. There is a large museum, and a red line marking the equator so you could put half your body in the northern, and the other half in the southern hemisphere.

A few of us really wanted to do some more service, so we stopped by a small store to buy snack packs to hand out to some of the people on the street. The store was not quite ready for our order of 80 bags of candy, so we ended up all pitching in and creating an assembly line to crank out the snack bags. It was fun helping out the store owners, and stuffing the bags full of candy. Then we headed to a random street corner and people just started lining up for the snacks. I was amazed at how nicely they lined up, single file, to receive the candy. Unfortunately there were more people than candy, but we did the best we could.

Trip to Ecuador part 1

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult.
- E. B. White

We flew into Quito, Ecuador and were taken our totally posh accomodations at the Hotel Sebastian. One of the owners of the hotel is a member of the local rotary and was kind enough to house our group at a significant discount. It was so nice to have a clean, fresh smelling room with reliable hot water. Our activities in Quito were mostly arranged through Vista Para Todos, a group which does a wide variety of charity work, primarily in the field of health care. One of the founders, Diego, was kind enough to arrange various volunteer opportunities (and sightseeing) for our group, and frequently came along with us. After getting a chance to drop off luggage, they took a few of us around on a city tour.

The next morning our first service activity was helping distribute gifts to kids on Christmas Eve. We teamed up with El Grand Dia to be with a large group (around 300) of poor kids for a few hours. During that time we did various activities including a modeling contest for the girls, and a lion bashing contest for the boys. It was great seeibg the smiles on all those kids faces!

That evening a few of us attended midnight mass at the San Francisco Church, the oldest in Ecuador. There were tons of folks outside shooting fireworks, and a few kids even lit sparklers inside the old wooden church! It was a packed house, and we stayed until communion, then headed back to the hotel for some rest.