Over the past ten years, while gathering together Rotarians, Rotaractors, Interactors and friends of Rotary to travel to India for participating in National Immunization Days (NIDs) against polio, I have received countless Emails and telephone calls, texts, etc., inquiring as to "what to pack?" or "will it be hot?" or "do I need to bring my own sleeping bag?" and the list goes on and on. Basically, what I feel people are asking is "How do I prepare for a journey which will be life-changing?"
There are many "pearls" of wisdom one could offer to the traveler who is inexperienced with the sub-Continent of India, its people, its smells, its colors, its culture, but one of the very first pieces of advice which I offer is, "Whatever you do, before you leave on this first journey, do NOT read books such as Culture Shock - India." I remember the first time I traveled to India, in January 2001, friends were offering bits of wisdom, even though most of them had never traveled to India! "Make sure you take plenty of protein bars and whatever you do, don't eat the food!" Several offered to purchase and give me Culture Shock - India, but I told them I wanted to experience everything I could, without being tainted by others' prejudices and idiosyncrasies. This is not to say that I had no apprehensions and experienced no trepidation about being away from my family for two weeks, with the possibility of not being able to call home or check on my business. Having said this, however, I also remembered the fact that at the age of four, one of my friends in kindergarten, Charlie Dimaggio, was afflicted with polio and our family child sitter, Mrs. Henry, contracted polio when I was about five. I still remember when my sisters and I were allowed to visit Mrs. Henry in the hospital, and there she lay, inside that torpedo-shaped "iron lung" and I was scared. It made horrible hissing sounds as it pulsed to assist her to breathe out and breathe in. Mrs. Henry was confined to that apparatus for the remainder of her life - probably twenty years.
The very best advice I could offer to any of the newcomers to this adventure is be open to anything and everything, drink in the smells and the vivid colors, taste everything, hear everything, see everything, be flexible, be ready for the unexpected. Know that what you are doing is noble - you are literally saving lives by administering drops of polio vaccine and you are changing lives for the better.
How appropriate that our incoming president of Rotary International, Ron Burton, has chosen his theme for the coming year - EMBRACE ROTARY - CHANGE LIVES!
There are many "pearls" of wisdom one could offer to the traveler who is inexperienced with the sub-Continent of India, its people, its smells, its colors, its culture, but one of the very first pieces of advice which I offer is, "Whatever you do, before you leave on this first journey, do NOT read books such as Culture Shock - India." I remember the first time I traveled to India, in January 2001, friends were offering bits of wisdom, even though most of them had never traveled to India! "Make sure you take plenty of protein bars and whatever you do, don't eat the food!" Several offered to purchase and give me Culture Shock - India, but I told them I wanted to experience everything I could, without being tainted by others' prejudices and idiosyncrasies. This is not to say that I had no apprehensions and experienced no trepidation about being away from my family for two weeks, with the possibility of not being able to call home or check on my business. Having said this, however, I also remembered the fact that at the age of four, one of my friends in kindergarten, Charlie Dimaggio, was afflicted with polio and our family child sitter, Mrs. Henry, contracted polio when I was about five. I still remember when my sisters and I were allowed to visit Mrs. Henry in the hospital, and there she lay, inside that torpedo-shaped "iron lung" and I was scared. It made horrible hissing sounds as it pulsed to assist her to breathe out and breathe in. Mrs. Henry was confined to that apparatus for the remainder of her life - probably twenty years.
The very best advice I could offer to any of the newcomers to this adventure is be open to anything and everything, drink in the smells and the vivid colors, taste everything, hear everything, see everything, be flexible, be ready for the unexpected. Know that what you are doing is noble - you are literally saving lives by administering drops of polio vaccine and you are changing lives for the better.
How appropriate that our incoming president of Rotary International, Ron Burton, has chosen his theme for the coming year - EMBRACE ROTARY - CHANGE LIVES!
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