Aung San Suu Kyi is now free, over 6,000 political prisoners have been released, and sociopolitical change is slowly engaging the nation.

Community organizations and businesses are encouraging travelers to support the democracy movement and the national economy now that the travel boycott has ended.

Finally Reality Tours can travel to Burma in good conscience and engage with people as citizen diplomats. We hope you will consider joining us in 2013.

Some of what you’ll experience on a Reality Tour trip to Burma:

• Journey to important historical and cultural sites (Shwedagon Pagoda, the pagodas of Pagan, the ancient cities around Mandalay, U Bein Bridge, etc.).
• Dialogue with opposition leaders and former political prisoners, human rights advocates and members of Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League of Democracy.
• Engage with artists, craftspeople, farmers and educators to hear their hopes for the future.  Our local guides will offer unprecedented access to local people and groups.
• Explore how Burma will face a burgeoning tourism industry, and question who will reap the benefits of a vibrant tourist industry.

Ethical tourism can offer a much needed boost to Burma’s economy while contributing to community development. We will explore this issue by partnering with The Ethical Traveler on this trip, and one of its representatives will help facilitate these important relationship building tours.

Hope to experience Burma with you!

We hope you are able to join us on our first year of building people to people ties in Burma. A trip-of-a-lifetime just waiting to happen.

Arirang Mass Games Photo: Global Exchange

This September, on the day of the 64th Anniversary of the foundation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), a group of international travelers will be among those to attend what may be one of the last performances of the Arirang Mass Games during a whirlwind trip to North Korea.

You could be among them. There are some spots still open for Global Exchange’s Beyond the Bamboo Curtain Reality Tour to North Korea this September 7th-15th.

Arirang Games Photo: Global Exchange

Started in 2002, the Airang games, named after the most well known Korean song and emblem of nationalism during the Japanese colonial rule from 1910 to 1945, takes place at the May Day Stadium in Pyongyang. The event features about 100,000 performing artists, divided into five acts each developing a part of the DPRK history, focusing on unification and national unity and featuring political developments and themes.

The Airang games is just one of the highlights of the Beyond the Bamboo Curtain Reality Tour.

During our stay in the DPRK travelers will also have the opportunity to gain first-hand perspective on the effects of both U.S. and North Korean policies.

We will experience a slice of daily life at schools, hospitals, a bowling alley and farming cooperative, local restaurants and more. Other stops will include a visit to the Sinchon War Museum (Museum and Site of U.S. Korean War Atrocities in Sinchon) and the demilitarized zone (DMZ).

Is it Time for You to Visit North Korea?

If you would like to see what’s behind the bamboo curtain, now is your chance. Visit our website for all the details about this upcoming trip and perhaps you’ll join us for this adventure of a lifetime!

Jane in Iraq, Embedded with the Marines in Anbar

Our guest blogger today is Jane Stillwater, a woman whom the folks here at Reality Tours have known for over a decade. We might tease her as being a “serial tripper”, and tell her not to worry about sending in  her registration as she is in the database, but in all seriousness we honor Jane for her adventurous, compassionate spirit and for being a true citizen diplomat!

It’s wonderful to read on Jane’s blog about how each journey has impacted her. Her blog begins with: “Imagine a world where EVERY child is wanted, nurtured, protected and loved.” Jane is preparing to take her 6th Reality Tour this summer.

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In the last ten years, I’ve participated in five different Global Exchange Reality Tours  and each one of them has been both awesome and jaw-dropping. GX has taken me to Cuba, Afghanistan, Iran, North Korea and Belfast! And I’ve gotten to see places and meet people there that nobody, not even the locals, hardly ever get to see or know.

Jane Stillwater, Reality Tours Alumni

And I’ve also been able to come back home and write about what I have seen and to help tell other Americans that Iran, Cuba, Afghanistan. etc. are not filled with evil terrorists and boogeymen but rather with just ordinary people like you and me, trying to make a life for their families just like we do.

So when Global Exchange recently announced that it was sponsoring a new trip to Uganda on July 2, I was SO there! Signed up immediately. The trip will focus on efforts in Uganda to stop human trafficking and eliminate the use of child soldiers — what’s not to like about that?!

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Jane, you are a welcomed addition to any Reality Tours trip!

TAKE ACTION!

• You can read more about Jane’s hopes for our upcoming Uganda Reality Tours trip on her blog.
• Learn more about our powerful advocacy delegations that examine human trafficking, child soldiers and human rights.
• Interested in going on a Reality Tours trip but low on funds? Here are 3 free resources to help you fundraise:

1. Financial Scholarship Application  
2. Fundraising Tips
   
3. Fundraising Pack

Dr. Vandana Shiva

Reality Tours has explored the rich history, geographical beauty, vibrant culture and pressing social and ecological issues in India for over two decades.

This November we are honored to invite you on an organic journey of a lifetime called Sacred Seeding & the Rights of Nature, inspired by the special invitation by Dr. Vandana Shiva.

Vandana Shiva is globally renowned. As an activist she has coordinated, supported and learned from grassroots networks on a wide range of issues across India. As an advocate, especially in international flora, she has proved to be one of the most articulate spokespersons of counter-development in favor of people-centered, participatory processes. As an intellectual she has produced a stream of important books and articles, which have done much both to form and address the agenda of development debate and action.

Watch Dr. Vandana Shiva’s invitation here:

About the Sacred Seeding & the Rights of Nature Trip:

Learn about the struggles and success of those that  have pioneered the organic movement in India. Enjoy hands on opportunities to get in the fields of Dr. Shiva’s organization and farm Naydanya. Engage with the country’s biggest network of seed keepers and organic producers, for the conservation of indigenous seeds. Be inspired by the powerful potential of the Rights of Nature campaign and what it means for local communities and ecosystems, as well as the potential that these laws have for the whole planet.

Shannon Biggs

Reality Tours has visited Navdanya many times over the years. This year Dr. Shiva will spend four full days with us and will  be joined by our Global Exchange Rights of Nature expert, Shannon Biggs. Shannon’s  advocacy brings the global issues back to the global North where she is working to educate, organize and support communities to exert their rights in the face of globalization.

TAKE ACTION!

• Join us on this exciting new Reality Tour or customize your own!
• Get Involved with our programs and campaigns today!

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!

Creating the Tassa Tags at the Regina Center

Do any of you intrepid Reality Tours travelers need a new luggage tag? If so we strongly recommend you purchase a Tassa Tag. Here’s why:

TassaTag is a special luggage tag that helps you claim your luggage more easily and is a visible voice against child sex tourism for the travel industry.

Tassa Tag is a project of ECPAT-USA and stands for Travelers Take Action Against Sex Slavery and Trafficking. TassaTags are big, bright  4”x6” hand-woven cotton, fair-trade luggage tags.

The TassaTag project raises funds (in the US) for the following purposes:

• To train people in the Travel Industry to take an active role against sex tourism.
• To Inform the public that sex with children is against the law everywhere, and if caught the person will be prosecuted and extradited to their home country, if necessary.
• To mobilize congress against child sex tourism

Five colorful TassaTags

While the mission is compelling enough today it is the motivation behind the tags and the personal passion of  the founder of the project, Brenda Hepler that we wanted to share with you.

When asked what motivated the her to get involved Brenda states:

“ The horror of a child being a sex slave was so horrendous to me, I could not turn away.  So I created the TassaTag, was led to the Regina Center where the women perfected the prototype, and then gave them to ECPAT-USA where I continue to volunteer as the director of the TassaTag Project.”

TassaTags provide work with dignity for women at the Regina Center in Nongkai, Thailand and funds the pre-schooling for their children.

At Global Exchange we know the power of Fair Trade and advocacy. When you support Tassa Tag you support ECPAT-USA’s work to raise awareness of the sexual exploitation of children in the travel industry and the community they employ in Nongkai.

TAKE ACTION!

• Become a visible voice against the sexual trafficking of children while finding your bags easily by picking up a TassaTag of your own;
• Learn more about efforts to combat human trafficking on an advocacy Reality Tour!

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.

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. 

Lilia and Women in Kabul, Afghanistan 2007

This International Women’s Day Global Exchange commemorates our 10 Year Anniversary of building people-to-people ties in Afghanistan. Last year marked the 10th year of US involvement  in Afghanistan and US foreign policy promoted us to think how we could educate and advocate against US militarism and occupation. Thus in 2002, in response to the popular justification that we were at war “for the women of Afghanistan”, Reality Tours decided to create delegations so our members could see reality on the ground for ourselves. Our “Women Building A Nation” was born; the first solidarity gender focused delegation included women who had left Afghanistan in the 1980s when the Soviet Union invaded, US women interested in women’s development and micro-finance, a concert producer and a celebrity, all committed to spread the word after they returned.

Laura & the Carpet Dealer in Kabul, 2004

As we honor a decade of relationship building, friendship and learning and while we recommit ourselves to work for peace. We thank our program officer Najib whose energy, intelligence, humor and commitment continue to inspire us and our primary partner organization Afghans4Tomorrow who continue to build awareness and grassroots community development projects. Over the next few weeks we will highlight a few of our past participants thoughts.

Today we feature Asma Nazihi Eschen, a recent delegate and Co-Founder of Bare Root Tree Project for Afghanistan,

I had the best experience in Afghanistan when I participated in the Global Exchange Reality Tour.  The tour was organized for a group of 9 people to see and meet different entities, from high government officials to grassroots NGO that are working in Afghanistan to improve the lives of those living in this war torn country. Najib our tour leader was one of the best persons that I have ever met. He made sure that we were safe, comfortable, and that we could see and do all the things that we requested of him. Everything was incredible; from seeing the RCR hospital and meeting with Masooda Jalilie, the Women’s Affairs Minister, to exchanging with the students of Ashuina (street children’s school) and attending the reopening of the Kabul University for Women. 

Najib, also gave us a tour of an old village north of Kabul that had not suffered physical damage by the civil war or the Taliban. This was truly an experience to see how this Afghan community had lived without being physically impacted by war and  the foreign hands that has affected the psyche of most Afghans in Kabul. Traveling in Afghanistan is safe and Najib knows how to work with both his GX delegates and the locals to make sure all parties have the best exchanges so the experience will be in the fabric of one’s mind to remember for life. Najib has great sense of humor that soften the harsh realities that were sometimes too difficult for us Westerners to bare them. I’m very grateful for Global Exchange’s Reality Tours that gives people like me an opportunity to travel places that most of us to scared to go by ourselves, or even to scared to think about going there. Continue organizing the Reality Tours for us because it opens our hearts and minds to the world and its people. 

To all our alumni like Asma, we thank you for your commitment to citizen diplomacy and dialogue with the Afghan people. Are you ready to  join us?

Children International Summer camp in Wonsan

With the death of the North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-il known as the ‘Dear Leader’ and the world’s attention now turned to his youngest son Kim Jong Eun, the “Great Successor”, very interesting and intense times lie ahead for North Korea.

Kim Jong-il was 69 when he died from an apparent hearth attack while on board a train. A video of North Koreans publicly mourning their ‘Dear Leader’ now appears on YouTube.

If you want to learn more about the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and go beyond what is portrayed in the media, join one of our citizen diplomacy delegation called “North Korea: Beyond the Bamboo Curtain.”

About Global Exchange “Reality Tour” delegation to North Korea:

The North Korea delegation planned in 2012 runs from April 11th- 19th during the days of the centennial birthday of President Kim Il Sung.

Pyongyang Embroidery Institute

The Citizens Diplomacy Reality Tour to North Korea will give participants the distinct opportunity to see inside this tightly guarded nation and gain first-hand perspective the effects of both U.S. and North Korean policies.

Participants will have a chance to put a human face on this ongoing political dispute and help facilitate understanding and respect between people of different nations. Experience a slice of daily life at a school, farming coop, and temple and visit landmarks like the Sinchon War Museum and the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea. Find out more here.

Got questions about our North Korea Reality Tour trip? If you would like to speak with someone at Global Exchange about our upcoming delegation to North Korea, please e-mail Reality Tours.