Vaya! A l o Cubano

Many of our  Reality Tours Cuba  alumni will remember Karen McCartney. Karen lived in Cuba for years and regularly facilitated Global Exchange groups. Today Karen shares one of her memories about Cuban chivichanas while leading a Reality Tour trip we used to call “Following Che’s Footsteps”. 

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Chivichanas in Cuba: Tour Facilitator Karen McCartney Shares her Story by Karen McCartney

Elizardo, the ICAP represententative takes the microphone from our driver and turns to face our tour participants:

“Where we are going today is historic, for it was here, in the heart of the Sierra Maestra mountains, that President Fidel Castro, his brother Raúl, Che Guevara and their band of guerrilla fighters waged the battle that brought down the dictatorship of Fulgencia Batista and ushered in the Revolution. That was back in 1959. It took them three years to succeed and we are going to take this opportunity to retrace their steps. We’ll go into the mountains and see their headquarters for ourselves.“

Looking out at the Hotel Nacional, Havana

Just then our driver, Juancito, calls Elizardo over to him. They confer for a minute or so. From the concerned looks on their faces it is apparent that something is wrong. They beckon to me and Diana. It turns out that our coach is an older model and Juancito is doubtful about its ability to climb the hills that lie between us and our hotel in the tiny mountain village of Santo Domingo. We stop at the base of the steepest hill I have ever seen. Someone a few seats behind me mutters that the gradient would be illegal in the United States.

“What we really need is a fifth gear for the ascent and hydraulic brakes for the descent. Our coach has neither,” whispers Juancito.

“So what do you recommend?”

He looks up at me apologetically.

“Walking.”

We agree to let Juancito drive on at his own pace and for us to follow on foot. It will take a couple of hours longer but it’s safe. The students are elated at the prospect of getting out of their seats and eagerly rush toward the exit.

Joining in the Dance at Love and Hope, Pinar del Rio

All twenty-five of us set off, walking on occasions at an angle of what must be about 65º to the perpendicular tilt of the road. The landscape is undoubtedly the most magnificent that I’ve seen so far in Cuba. Lush vegetation springs from sheer drops, and abrupt upward sweeps arrest the gaze and guide it skyward into the clouds. The sky is shrunk, framed by verdant peaks. I too am shrunk, made delightfully small, humbled by the power of these mountains. I remind myself that I am in the east of Cuba, somewhere between the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, surrounded by topography which has not changed in millennia. All of us are quiet now, content to pay homage to the moment, knowing that it will never come again. Around us there is birdsong, insistent calls produced by exotic creatures I cannot see and cannot name.

An ugly clattering, suggestive of metal colliding with concrete, intrudes on my reverie. It is getting louder, faster, and it’s coming toward us. From around the bend – at speed – comes a chivichana, a guider steered by an elderly campesino, his face frozen into a grimace. G-force, or perhaps the immensity of effort required to keep his vehicle under control at such speed? It’s not clear. Both hands are on the reins, pulling hard now, and his heels slam against the front wheels, jamming them to a halt a few metres away. Mules and home-made guiders are the most common forms of transport in the Sierra. The students are already gathering around enthusiastically. I stay back, content to watch and let the encounter develop under its own dynamics. A few words are exchanged in broken Spanish between the wizened, bright-eyed sprightly driver and his admirers.

“Qué lindo. What a beautiful guider. Did you make it yourself? What speed do you go? Is it dangerous?”

And then, inevitably,

Delegates Laughing with Cuban Architect, Miguel Coyula

“Would you mind if we take a few photos?

Photos taken, the students give the old man the thumbs up and he manoeuvres his chivichana into position to continue its downward journey. Just as he is about to lift his heels from the front wheels one of the group calls out to him,

“Señor! Señor! Por favor.”

We turn our heads to see Jeremy, one of the quieter boys, hoist a bottle of Havana Club rum on high,

“Muchas gracias!”

And then he tosses it with a long slow motion to the old man who catches the bottle in a single deft sweep of the hand. Only a talented baseball player would have been capable of such elegance, and the group applauds. Then he is gone in a flash, followed by a rapidly retreating commotion that can be heard echoing through the mountains for a minute or two after we have lost sight of him. We see more chivichanas over the next few days; sometimes they are little more than a blur as the locals power down these slopes at breakneck speed on this most unique form of transport.

Living Inside the Revolution, An Irish Woman in Cuba. Book by Karen McCartney

To see more of Karen’s impressions please see  her blog. If you want to create a memory of your own,  learn more about the US Embargo against Cuba, or explore Cuban culture and history join us on a Reality Tour today. 

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.

Last June I journeyed to one of my favorite destinations on the planet, Cuba. Despite the fact that I have lived and worked there off an on since 1991, and have had the honest pleasure of facilitating over twenty some delegations over the years, this last group was one of my most enjoyable ever. I am not sure really why. We were 13 dynamic, well traveled and inquisitive individuals with only one thing in common…the intrepid travel writer Jeff Greenwald.

I met Jeff in 2003, after he had recently founded, the Ethical Traveler. I  loved the idea of ET and was honored when a few years later he asked me to serve on its advisory board. Since then we’ve been on countless panels together; collaborated on campaigns that mobilize the international community of travelers as a global PAC to use their clout and advocate on important social and ecological justice issues; and promoted “voting with your travel budget” at the World’s Best Ethical Destinations.

I remember the day Jeff and I spoke about creating a tour for him and his friends. I felt awestruck. There is so much to see, do and learn. As we brainstormed about an itinerary, he said, “Malia, I want to see your favorite places and meet some of your favorite people”. I smiled and thought, well it will be one trip of many for you then.  I love that personally he trusted me with this challenge and a few months later, our group met in Miami and were off to soak up the sights, sounds and stories of Cuba.  It was wonderful to reconnect with communities and friends from the Mureleando arts project and the intergenerational voices at the Convento de Belen in Havana, to engaging with the teachers, parents and kids at the Love and Hope arts program for children with Down’s Syndrome and advocates for community development and conservation at Las Terrazas in the provinces.  I encourage you to read more about Jeff’s ever thought provoking insights from his “Dispatches from Cuba”. Today, I have the honor to feature a few of Jeff’s thoughts and share the word about his upcoming and yes, second trip back to Cuba.

The Beauty of the Vinales Valley, Pinar del Rio

The trip was a watershed event in my travel career. The country affected me profoundly—just as Nepal did, during my first visit in 1979. The art, music and mojitos were a revelation …. Not to mention Piñar del Rio’s gorgeous landscape, Havana’s neoclassical architecture,  and the warm, generous Cubans we met along the way.

This coming June, I will be leading another trip to the island. It’s called “Exploring Cuba: Sustainable Development, Community & Art,” and will take place June 12th-20th. Though the trip is a benefit for Ethical Traveler, the cost is very reasonable. Like last year’s trip, we’ll meet with social leaders, artists, naturalists and entrepreneurs. We’ll explore spectacular landscapes, and tour World Heritage Sites like Old Havana. Again, this will be a fairly small group — between 12-18 people. This really is a wonderful opportunity to visit a remarkable, fast-changing country. I hope to hear back from you, and promise that this will be a journey to remember (in a good way!!).

Sonrisas en Havana

Learn more about the background of Global Exchange’s  Cuba program and future Reality Tours to Cuba after you have read Jeff’s Dispatches. If you still want to read more, check out more coverage from our Alumni in the news. Recently Stelle Sheller and Janet Young, traveled with us and were featured in their local newspaper in the article, “ Local women travel to Cuba and discover two worlds” and they share  their “unexpected” findings.

A4T Science Fair in Kabul Afghanistan. These students (4.5 to 7 yrs. old) sang the Afghan National Anthem to the audience before the Fair's presentations.

Today’s special blog  is the last commemorating a decade of Reality Tours in Afghanistan and features the insights of Marsha MacColl, on behalf of our partner Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). On behalf of Global Exchange we thank all the tremendous energy and efforts of A4T and look forward to a dynamic future of continued collaboration.

Congratulations to Global Exchange Reality Tours on the 10^th Anniversary of your tours to Afghanistan and on your partnership with Afghans4Tomorrow (A4T). Each delegation has stayed in the A4T Guesthouse since 2004, enjoying the warm hospitality of the staff.  The house, located in a quiet secure area of West Kabul, has 5 guest bedrooms upstairs and a lovely garden in the back. Depending on the size of the group, the rooms sleep between 2 and 4 people.  The guides who helped plan the tours and activities of these Global Exchange Reality Tours are Najibullah Sedeqe and Wahid Omar, who also have volunteered with Afghans4Tomorrow for 10 years and serve on its board. Their tours have included, among other things, interesting in-depth meetings with Afghan women from all sectors of Afghan society, visits to primary schools, hospitals, universities, watching a buzkashi games and attending the International Women’s Day celebration in Kabul.

Najib has also been a wonderful guide for these delegations. The many delegates I’ve talked with over the years highly recommend these tours. They said Najib put them at ease with his warm welcome, his concern for their safety, his quick wit, compelling stories and the Afghan history he shares on the tours. Many have kept in touch with him over the years.  Some delegates in fact have been inspired to get involved in helping one of the many Afghan-related NGOs (or start one of their own) after they return from the tour.

Here are some of the 35 third graders reading in their home school class. If you would like to help us raise funds for chairs and school supplies for these students, please make a donation at: http://www.afghans4tomorrow.org/donate

There have been several GXRT alumni who have helped Afghanistan through A4T since their tours. They are:  Kim O’Connor (GXRT ’04), who joined A4T when she returned in 2004 and recently served as President for the past 2 and a half years;  Adrienne Amundsen (GXRT ’10), who joined A4T in January ’12 after volunteering since ’10; and Asma Eschen (GXRT ’03), an honorary A4T Board member, who co-found the Bare Root Trees Project and has led a group to plant trees in Afghanistan six times since 2005. The Bare Roots group has planted/distributed a total of over 130,000 trees in rural and urban Afghanistan. See Asma’s post on this GXRT Blog in this series.

As an A4T member since 2004, I’ve enjoyed the stories and photos that many GXRT alumni have shared with me over the years. It has been a life-changing experience for many! Our board members have helped the GX program directors over the years with information they’ve needed for their delegates, guesthouse arrangements and helping delegates to meet some of our members and staff. I volunteered to teach English in our A4T school in Kabul for 10 days in 2007 and greatly appreciated Najib’s help with all the arrangements of my work and also a visit during the Nowruz holiday to Istalif village near the Shomali Valley. This reality tours program is great for travelers wanting to learn more about ordinary Afghans, their culture, history and how they’re overcoming many difficult challenges.

The NGO which inspired me to volunteer to help rebuild Afghanistan is Afghans4Tomorrow.  A4T is a non-profit, non-political, humanitarian organization founded in 1998 and dedicated to the development of sustainable, community driven projects focused on education, agriculture and healthcare.  A4T has an all-volunteer board residing in both the US and in Kabul. We are able perform our work thanks to the generosity of our donors and volunteers from around the world.  We hire local Afghans to be the managers of our programs and teachers in our schools. We have established relationships with multiple sponsors, foundations, and non-profit organizations. 

In our Shekh Yassin School, Wardak Province, 162 girls are in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. Here are the 25 first graders reading their books in Pashto.

Afghans4Tomorrow currently operates a school in Kabul and one in Wardak Province. Our school, located in the Chelsetoon area of Kabul, opened in 2004 and has nearly 300 students, 170 girls in kindergarten through 9^th grade and 110 boys in 1st through 7^th grade. This school is one of the best private schools in Kabul. We plan to add 10^th grade this year.  The school started in 2005 as a “catch-up” school for older girls who had been deprived of an education during the wars. Now most all those students have caught up and are the normal age for their grade level. Several A4T alumni have graduated from high school and are in a community college or a university.

Our School in Shekh Yassin, which opened in 2005, serves students from three villages in the Chak district of Wardak Province. It has a boys’ school of 568 students, in 1^st to 9^th grades in two shifts per day, and more than 175 girls in three Home Schools, from 1st to 6th grade. We plan to add 7^th grade this year. We are unable to add 10^th grade to the boys’ school until we can build 3 new classrooms. 

A4T held its second Science Fair program on Oct. 15, 2011 in which 17 students participated in 9 teams. They did research on their experiments for one month, assisted by their science teacher.

The students presented their research results to 4 qualified judges at the fair. After their evaluation the judges gave prizes to the top 3 winning teams. The project that won 1^st place showed the filtration of dirty water using four kinds of sand and one kind of charcoal. Government officials, private school principals and the media were invited to attend the Science Fair celebration.  A4T hopes to see this same program in all government and private schools throughout Afghanistan in the future.

Afghans4Tomorrow’s goal for both schools is to help improve Afghanistan’s very low literacy rate, to provide a superior education and to have a substantial number of our graduates continue to college.

Teacher demonstrates an experiment in copper and iron ions in solution to a 7th grade Chemistry Class at A4T Boys School in Shekh Yassin, Wardak.

Since 2007 A4T has operated the A4T’s Abdullah Omar Health Post in Sheikh Yassin village which provides a doctor, pharmacist and staff offering basic health care, medicines and immunizations. Last year A4T added a midwife to better serve the women coming for pre-natal checkups, deliveries and post-natal and baby checkups and to help reduce the high maternal and infant mortality rates in Afghanistan. Our health post has improved the lives of thousands of people each year.

A4T’s Agriculture Stream is pleased to report the successful training of 120 rural farmers the last two years by helping them to raise poultry and supplying them with equipment for their chicken coops, and healthy birds. The women poultry farmers sell the eggs to help support their family.

Volunteers are needed to help A4T continue there great work. Please visit their website to learn about their projects, affiliates, members, photos, videos, and how you can make a difference.

Join Us on an Upcoming Reality Tour to Afghanistan! Learn more. Visit our website for all you need to know about upcoming transformative journeys.

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. 

Paul Prew in the Sarayaku, Ecuador 2007

Reality Tours started offering delegations to Ecuador in the spring of 2002. Now we are celebrating ten years of  rich, educational programming that examines pressing social and ecological issues affecting Ecuadorians from the Andes to the Amazon. While there are many special aspects of our program in this culturally and biodiverse nation, it is the indigenous struggles to protect their cultures, ecosystems and Pachamama in the face of major petroleum and mining corporate interests that lay at the foundation behind each eco-tour. As I prepare for my fourth trip to the Ecuadorean Amazon, I feel honored to engage and learn once again from the wisdom, experiences and successes of  communities like the Sarayaku. To know that our journeys keep their promise to inform and inspire make all our hard work in San Francisco and in Quito worthwhile! Just read the insights of past participant Paul Prew:

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Indigeneity and the Environment in Ecuador- A Past Participant Shares His Story by Paul Prew

I traveled to Ecuador in July of 2007 with Global Exchange.  While it has been a few years, the experience is with me to this very day.  While preparing a new course, I was reviewing a number of films on indigenous and environmental issues.  In the film Crude, I saw a number of the same people, organizations, and locations featured in the movie that I visited on the Global Exchange tour.  I was impressed with the ability of Global Exchange to plug us into a variety of social movements and organizations.  As an educator at a state university, I use the experience every term in a number of my courses.  In addition to my Indigeneity and Environment course, I use the Global Exchange tour for a number of my courses.  The Global Exchange tour was helpful in two specific ways.  First, the tour outlined the struggles faced by the people of Ecuador and others in similar nations.  Second, the tour also provided a number of concrete models of citizens tackling very difficult problems in their community.

Heather with Child in Salinas, Ecuador, 2007

The issue I have discussed often in my classes is the effects of oil exploration in Ecuador.  While on the Global Exchange tour, we visited Coca and participated in a “toxic tour” of the region.  As soon as we exited the plane, the smell of fuel oil was immediately present.  Our tour took us through towns with pipelines transecting them.  We visited a waste oil pit where oil was collected in a large pond with no lining to prevent it from seeping into the groundwater and surrounding ecosystem.  We also visited a waste oil pond that was cleaned up, but oil remained in the soil and in the shallow pond that replaced the waste oil pit.  We also stumbled upon workers fixing an underground pipeline that had been leaking.  As a result of the leak, we were able to film a home that was destroyed by an explosion resulting from built up gas.
Not all of the experiences regarding oil exploration focused on the problems people faced.  We also visited the indigenous community of Sarayaku where we saw people actively preventing environmental degradation.  In Sarayaku, the community members have successfully prevented oil companies from initiating oil exploration in their territory.  The Sarayaku have been able to attain this level of success through a number initiatives that have reorganized their society and reached out to the global community for support.  We learned about the changes in their governance structures, education, and environmental policies.  Their local model provides examples for other communities to follow.

Building Fish Ponds in the Sarayaku, Ecuador 2006 Image by Malia Everette

I think the lessons learned in the community of Sarayaku resonate with me the most.  In the United States, our privileges are dependent on resources we take from others around the world.  We tend to lack an awareness of our ecological boundaries.  The Sarayaku are acutely aware of their ecological relationships and attempt to proactively mediate their relationship with the surrounding environment.  While they have made many changes, one issue stands out.  Because of contamination and over-fishing outside of their territory, the Sarayaku have had to deal with declining fish populations.  To help supplement their fish catch, the Sarayaku, in conjunction with resource ecologists, have developed fish farms.  These fish farms are sustainable using plantain and termites for fish feed.  Because these fish farms were not a traditional means of meeting their needs, I asked the Sarayaku elder, Don Sabino Gualinga, how these fish farms fit with their notion of “balance.”  He replied that they must deal with the concentration of people, and there is hope that they will return to an equilibrium in the future. Now, they have other areas (nature preserves) where there is balance.  In this way, the Sarayaku are actively thinking about their relationship with nature and assessing how they can maintain their culture and also maintain their livelihood in the rainforest.  These ideas allow me to help students contemplate their own society and its relationship with nature.

Children and Blue Skies in Salinas, Ecuador 2007

The theme of struggle and success resonated throughout the tour.  We visited cooperatives in the mountain town of Salinas and also the community of Yungilla.  We heard from farmers fighting a mining company near the town of Intag.  We met with organizations such as Accion Ecologica where we learned about Plan Columbia and its effects on the local population.  After discussing these issues in one of my classes, a student talked with me after class.  She was stationed in the military base in Ecuador near area where Plan Columbia was implemented.  She began by telling me that the local population was not very friendly to her or the other US troops.  Knowing that this was the result of Plan Columbia, I asked her about how friendly people were when she visited other areas of Ecuador.  She admitted that her experiences outside of the military base area were very pleasant, and people were very friendly.  Because of the Global Exchange tour, I was able to help this student see that the people of Ecuador were not antagonistic toward “gringos” but were justifiably upset about the policies of the US government that affected their lives.  We were able to discuss this distinction and make it a learning experience.

The Global Exchange tour in Ecuador was a life changing experience.  I hope to join another tour in the future.  I am still amazed at the depth of the experience and how profoundly it has impacted my life and those who shared in the tour. 

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Take Action! For those of you that would  like to learn more and get involved:

• Learn more about Global Exchange’s Rights of Nature campaign.
• Travel with Global Exchange: Visit our Find a tour page to find the trip that interests you most.

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?

Ron Herman's image from Havana

A few weeks ago I received an email from Ron Herman, a dynamic and gifted photographer and chair of Foothill College’s photography department sharing with me a cover story in the Palo Alto Weekly about his customized Reality Tour to Cuba.

The article called “A Changing Cuba: Cuban, Local Photographers Reveal the Heart of the Country” featured the story of Ron and those that traveled with him. In it was a detailed narrative with beautiful imagery about the customized Reality Tour Ron made happen, a rich testament to dreams becoming reality, specifically Ron Herman’s photographic educational travel dream becoming a Reality Tour!

After reading the article, I asked Ron if I could share it and include a few of his words about why he created the customized Reality Tour and why he choose to partner with Global Exchange. Here is what he had to say:

Like many, the mystique of Cuba has always intrigued me. Right now, Cuba is at a transitional point, and I believe that the Cuba today will look and be very different from the Cuba tomorrow. I decided that the timing was right to make this trip a reality, and so I contacted Global Exchange to arrange a customized tour for my group of photography professionals.

Ron Herman's image from Havana

Global Exchange’s Reality Tours emphasize education and relationship building to improve international relations. Cultural exchange is very important to my personal travel philosophy, so I knew Global Exchange would be the right organization to arrange our trip. When developing our tour, they made sure that every day was one where we learned something new and unexpected about Cuba. They incorporated a variety of activities where both cultures could learn from each other, which in the end, resulted in a socially responsible and personally rewarding travel experience.

In 2010 and 2011, I led groups of photographers to Cuba to engage in activities that brought photographers from both countries together to share ideas and information. We mounted an exhibition of our work in Cuba and upon our return, mounted two joint photography exhibitions of Cuban and American work.  These exhibition opportunities are just one link in the chain that connects American and Cuban photographers, and I hope we’ll see more creative collaborations in the future.

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Photo Credit: http://cubainfocus.wordpress.com/

On behalf of Reality Tours we thank Ron for working with us and look forward to building upon the relationships we have been developing between his community and those in Cuba. The relationships as captured by these Cuban and American artists are revealed in their images as is a shared spirit of education.

TAKE ACTION! For those of you in the Bay Area check out “Cuba in Focus,” an exhibition by 11 American photographers (Katherine Bazak, Mary Bender, Harlan Crowder, Lisa D’Alessandro, Ron Her- man, Bob Hills, Mary Ellen Kaschub, Robin Lockner, Laura Oliphant, Cynthia Sun and John Thacker) and seven Cuban photographers (Guillermo Bello, Raúl Cañibano, Mario Diaz, José Manuel Fors, Eduardo Garcia, Jorge Gavilondo and Perfecto Romero) at the  Krause Center for Innovation, Foothill College, 12345 El Monte Road, Los Altos Hills. The exhibition runs through Dec. 8.

As Eduardo Garcia, one of the Cuban photographers who met with the group and has work in the exhibition,  “We photographed together with common goals. Now our American friends can show our reality from their perspective. For us, it’s important to gain the friendship of people who care about Cuba.”

Go to Cuba! Find out how you can travel to Cuba with Global Exchange Reality Tours.

A young Palestinian boy in the West Bank by Ken Yale

When Global Exchange founded Reality Tours back in 1988, it did so with the belief that travel can be a tool for promoting peace and cross-cultural understanding. Since then, we have committed ourselves to organizing enriching, thought provoking and philosophically complex Citizen Diplomacy delegations around the world, even when those nations are often demonized as enemy states or part of the “Axis of Evil”.

Citizen diplomacy is based on the concept that individuals have the right to help influence and shape foreign policies for their country by informally meeting with global citizens and learning about their reality.  As you will read  below, Ken Yale’s reflection and learning is exactly the kind of transformative experience that keeps us here at Reality Tours ever motivated to continue our work to have you “Meet the People, Learn the Facts, and Make a Difference”!

“PLEASE DON’T JUST TAKE IT FROM ME…”

By Ken Yale, Reality Tours Palestine & Israel 2010 Past Participant

“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” 
– Aldous Huxley

“Begin challenging your own assumptions.  Your assumptions are your windows on the world.  Scrub them off every once in awhile, or the light won’t come in. “  - -Alan Alda

We are often unconscious of the potential and significance of the moment in which we live.  This was certainly true for me in July, 2010, as I prepared to embark on a Global Exchange Reality Tour of the West Bank in a period when progressive movements in the region did not appear to be very strong.  Less than six months later, the Arab Spring began in Egypt and Tunisia.  Now it is hard for anyone with open eyes to miss the power of this unique historic moment as growing waves of mass uprisings for human rights, democracy, and social justice continue to spread outward from the Middle East and North Africa to nations on every continent.

It’s not easy for most of us in the US to understand the conditions and dynamics that are fueling such rapid change in the region and offering inspiration and hope for global social justice.  We struggle to either discover or unlearn decades of history that have been largely ignored, obfuscated, or distorted by a corporate controlled media and an educational system that discourages critical thought and examination.  For many of us who grew up in Jewish families, we are further challenged to find the courage to confront a lifetime of cultural and religious narratives that demand allegiance to a settler colonial Israeli state as a foundation of our identity.

As a young child growing up in a Jewish Chicago neighborhood, every Sunday morning my parents would send me off to temple with a donation for Israel.  For every dime, we would get a stamp with an image of a leaf to paste onto a drawing of a tree.  When you filled all the branches, you had funded another tree that would be planted in the newly formed nation of Israel, then only about ten years old.  We should feel proud, we were told, to support our people from all over the world, who were returning to the land God gave just to us and making the barren desert bloom despite being surrounded by hostile Arabs who were trying to push us into the sea.  This narrative, repeated in many forms throughout my childhood, was never questioned or challenged in my family or community.

Landing in Tel Aviv airport about fifty years later, I made my way to the baggage claim past a long hallway displaying Zionist art from the 1950′s.  Dozens of posters from the United Israel Appeal, with titles like “Conquering The Wasteland” and “One Million In Israel, On To The Second Million” encouraged the Jewish Diaspora to come settle in Israel with slogans and imagery eerily familiar from my childhood.   An Israeli cab driver picked me up and soon we came upon a group of 25 orthodox Jews blocking an intersection and screaming that we should not be driving on the Sabbath.  As we made a U-turn, 3 teenagers ran toward the taxi and flung eggplants the size of bricks against the cab.  “Welcome to the real Israel,” I thought!

Once I finally connected with Mohamed, the Global Exchange trip leader from the Siraj Center, I immediately felt more relaxed and secure.  He was warm, caring, articulate and insightful, with an amazingly deep knowledge of the history, politics, and culture of the region.   As we drove towards our orientation meeting, Mohamed noticed me staring at a very long, straight row of trees paralleling the highway for miles.  I was fantasizing about how the trees we helped fund as kids could have been planted in a place just like this, when Mohamed said,  “Beautiful, isn’t it?  You’d never know those trees were placed there so that people driving this popular highway won’t see the wall just behind it.”

Mohamed was referring to the 450 mile long separation barrier that Israel has constructed around much of the West Bank and Jerusalem, the most visible symbol of the apartheid state built through military conquest, occupation and the systematic dispossession of Palestinian land and human rights.  It is around 25 feet high in many areas, topped with concertina wire and electrified fence, monitored by surveillance cameras, snipers, dog patrols and soldiers.  It often divides Palestinian communities from their own land.  The wall is the backbone of the infrastructure and policies of occupation that include extensive military checkpoints, mandatory ID cards, restricted access to roads and water, demolitions of Palestinian homes, mass arrests, repressive legal, administrative, economic and military regulations, and the construction of Jewish settlements which confiscate Palestinian lands in violation of international law.  The wall is often covered with the graffiti of resistance, and is a frequent target of Palestinian, Israeli, and international protest.

Mohamed and I are about the same age, so we grew up at the same time, but in obviously two very different worlds.  Mohamed’s family has lived in Palestine for many generations, but they were displaced from their homes and can no longer travel freely.  Just before Palestine was partitioned in 1947, there was a total population of 1.75 million, one third of whom were Jewish, owning 6% of the land.  After the war of 1947-48, the new state of Israel was formed with 78% of the land, leaving just 22% for Palestinians, primarily in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, and East Jerusalem.  Today, Gaza is under a military and economic blockade and 200,000 Israeli Jews have established settlements in East Jerusalem.  A report released during our tour by the Israeli human rights group, B’Tselem, said Jewish settlements now control more than 42 percent of the West Bank through their jurisdiction and regional councils.

On a daily basis, occupied Palestinian territories are increasingly being carved up into small, disconnected and impoverished enclaves, much like the Bantustans of South African apartheid.  Yet I, who had never set foot on this land before, had so many more rights than Mohamed and his family, including the ability to get full Israeli citizenship, based on nothing more than my being born a Jew thousands of miles away.  What a painful irony that this is rationalized in the name of liberating Jews from centuries of anti-Semitism.  “Never Again” we were often told in my community, with reference to the Holocaust.   But is “Never Again” only for Jews, or for everyone?  Justice or Just Us?  Can there be a humane and fulfilling life for any people, no matter how oppressed, that is built on a foundation of ethnic cleansing, denial of human rights for others, and alliance with international corporate and imperial powers?

Graffiti Wall by Ken Yale

One of the many things I appreciated about Mohamed was that despite his incredible knowledge, he would always say, “Please don’t just take it from me.  Engage people from every perspective, see with your own eyes, make your own meaning, discover your own truths.”  Our Global Exchange tour provided the opportunity to meet with two or three organizations and countless individuals every day, both Palestinian and Israeli, some activists and others not.  We heard stories, stories, and more stories, all very moving, from human rights groups, a prisoner’s group, military refuseniks, a woman’s art cooperative, a youth theater, a Jewish settler organization, the nonviolent direct action movement, residents of refugee camps and kibbutzim, politicians, university students and faculty, international solidarity activists, and so many more, including a wonderful home stay with an open and generous Palestinian family.

Perhaps the day that was most memorable was our trip to Hebron.  Despite its location on Palestinian land in the West Bank, a one square kilometer section of the Old City has been occupied by 400 Israeli settlers with the support of 1500 Israeli soldiers.  In Hebron as a whole, over 10,000 Jewish settlers live in 20 settlements.  The military has closed down a large section of the main street in the Old City, shuttering hundreds of Palestinian shops, evicting their owners, and banning Palestinians from even walking on the street.  I will never forget the striking image of dozens of stray dogs that roamed the once teeming market area, with more freedom of access than the rightful Palestinian residents of Hebron.

If you are considering visiting the Middle East at this incredible time in its history, I’d strongly encourage you to go with a Global Exchange Reality Tour and/or the Siraj Center.  They made it possible for me to make personal and organizational connections and experience the region in ways I couldn’t possibly have arranged on my own.  Every time I read the news these days, I access lenses and insights from the trip that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

But please, don’t just take it from me…

The following was written by Jeremy Jimenez, who traveled on a Global Exchange Reality Tour trip to North Korea in 2010.  Jeremy Jimenez has taught Ancient History, Global Studies, and IB Economics at a variety of middle and high schools across the world, including urban and suburban schools in New Jersey, two international schools in Venezuela, and as a guest lecturer to dozens of schools across Norway as a Fulbright Roving Scholar. He is currently pursuing a Ph.D in International and Comparative Education at Stanford University.

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Having now been to 110 countries, I would not hesitate to state that there is no place on Earth like North Korea. In just the 15 minute ride from Pyongyang’s airport, you feel immediately transported to another era. The city is immaculately clean, the whispered clanking of a bike or occasional car among the little noise you hear in its capital. This calming effect is, of course, somewhat mitigated by the proliferation of posters extolling agricultural production or anti-imperialist slogans. While it is not uncommon to see a solo traveler passing by with a friendly smile, more memorable is how often one encounters people gathered in groups. This mass organization of society manifests itself regularly as you are whizzing past countless brief slices of daily life, whether it be soldiers/civilians practicing some marching formation, women huddled in close proximity polishing the sidewalk clean with brushes, or ‘field trips’ of farmers to the ‘holy sites’ of North Korea. While this collectivist orientation is fairly typical of East Asian cultures in general, North Korea takes it to a whole new level.

Tours, like nearly every other aspect of society, are organized from dawn to dusk, with wandering around on one’s own generally not permitted even within buildings (except one’s hotel.)  Nonetheless, despite this regimented schedule, there were no lack of spontaneous moments that enabled us to see North Koreans as individuals in their own right.  When telling a cashier at a rest stop, upon being asked, that I was a teacher, she told me that I “have wasted my life…..(I) should have been a film star.” On another night, what was initially meant as a quick introduction to a game of rotating ping pong with our local guides became a lengthy, sweaty, and intensely hysterical competition. After the game, being particularly absent minded, I Ieft behind my camera; I had already done this several times before as North Korea is a particularly easy place to abandon one’s usual regard for potential thieves.  When one of the guides retrieved it and gave it to me, he quite humorously pointed out “a man can become very rich following you around.”

What makes a trip to North Korea so unique and important is to have your assumptions challenged, since there are precious few visitors there, or North Koreans abroad, who can share their outlook. For example, hearing so much about how ‘strict’ the government is and how anti-American its orientation, one might suspect to have an unpleasant grilling by customs officers upon arriving.  Would I be interrogated for having a South Korean stamp in my passport? Would my books and tech devices be confiscated as they might be considered against the regime? To my surprise, probably only Singapore had a quicker, more hassle-free passage through customs.

Another interesting observation I couldn’t help but notice is how traditional the society is both with regard to gender stratification as well as the classic Confucion respect for the elderly, no doubt a result of the country’s isolation from the norms of globalization brought by mass media and the lack of opportunities to interact regularly with foreigners. Regarding the latter, I particularly recall when a soldier guiding us to a lookout point at the DMZ was quite impressed and insisted we applaud a fellow 83 year old traveler who was able to climb the steep hill without assistance. Regarding the former, I recall our GX guide Alessandro at a rest stop requesting to drink strawberry milk, but was given coffee instead saying that the strawberry drink is only for girls. Similarly, when I accidentally dropped my shirt in the mud and inquired if there was a nearby sink I could use to wash off the mud, my guide Ms. Kim adamantly insisted I let her clean it because “men are not supposed to wash clothes.” Lastly, when I jokingly wanted my ability to distinguish male from female sculptures of dragons recognized by our guide, he replied that if I was so good at distinguishing the two, I wouldn’t have let a tattoo artist make a female dragon turtle on my leg (though when I explain this is just reflecting a harmonious Yin Yang balance, he mutters something along the line of “touché”.)

What was particularly insightful, though, were the extended conversations afforded to us on our long distance trip to Wonsan, a lovely beach resort town whose laurels I was asked to recount for a producer of a local documentary film. Sometimes these chats simply involved answering our guides’ fascination with our technological devices, such as my ipod or portable Macintosh. But more academic conversations were also more common than I had anticipated, such as when Ms. Kim wished me to summarize the American revolution with notes and diagrams in her notebook (in exchange, of course, for Korean lessons.)  Also of note was when our guides emphatically insisted that I would not be allowed to leave the country until I wrote down the lyrics to the Animaniacs countries of the world song, a rendition of which I frequently was asked to perform at our dinner engagements.

Perhaps most interesting, though, was an extended conversation of politics and economics. Mr. Kim gave a spirited defense of his country’s military first policy, putting the belligerence of its armed forces in the context of the international community’s repeatedly hoping and calling for the downfall of the regime, especially during the famine crisis following the death of Kim Il Sung. While it is hard to imagine a respectable position genuinely defending the human rights abuses perpetrated by the government against its own people, hearing from the perspective of a North Korean directly can help to bring one closer to the complex truth behind many of the governments’ policies.  Of course, despite the English fluency of our guides, cultural misunderstandings can still persist, as when I asked one guide if people are more likely to join political parties from rural or urban areas, it was hard to know if my guide’s deadpan answer “I don’t know – I don’t work for the central statistic committee” was a joke or merely a polite exchange of data.

Another fascinating topic of conversation to me, as an economics teacher, was whether or not North Korea will likely copy China’s liberalization, given its close relationship and dependence on China’s aid (the conclusion of the Mass Games this year involved a not so subtle praise of the country’s special relationship with China.) Surprisingly, Mr. Kim said any investment from China comes with “strings attached”, and that while laws concerning potential investment are “still at (a) conceptual phase” with a “newly formed commission addressing these issues”, Mr. Kim felt it was essential not to ignore the environmental damage of economic growth, for “we don’t wear Chinese clothes.”

In short, any day as an American in North Korea is sure to be an immensely rewarding and stimulating experience. While much of the trip involved a decades old itinerary of grand monuments as well as officially sponsored commercial areas or academic institutions (which in no way, though, makes any of these destinations any less fascinating), the real treasures of North Korea are its people, who are generally curious about the outside world and, despite their obvious reluctance to criticize their own government. have the same kaleidoscope of intriguing and genuinely warm personalities as anywhere else in the world.

Travel to North Korea!

If you’re interested in finding out about upcoming Reality Tour trips to North Korea, please visit our website.