letters home: February 2008

About two weeks ago now, Sharm and I went to hear the author of the Geography of Bliss read at a quaint local bookstore. Turns out, he’s from the Baltimore area, and after years of traveling the world as an international correspondent for NPR, he set out on a different kind of quest – to find the world’s happiest places.

He read mesmerizing passages about Bhutan and Iceland and explained how, according to the “Happiness Institute” in Amsterdam (who knew there was such a thing?), that the bliss he pursued actually had little to do with location, nationality, money, education, gender, race, climate, temperament, or astrological sign. It seemed that a key determinate of happiness could be summed up in the words of a Bhutanese wise man he interviewed, aptly named Karma, who insisted that happiness is 100% about relationships.

Like many “nuggets” during the reading, that notion brought new expression to something I've always felt was true. But it wasn’t until an unexpected reunion a few days later that I understood the "geography" part firsthand.

During my time in Indonesia, Amin and Manan were not just great teammates, they were incredible friends. Amin even joined our house full of girls for a few months (and spoiled us with his Indian cooking). Within days after I learned about the "geography of bliss," both boys were in the States, taking part in a conference for past and present tsunami psychosocial delegates in D.C. It was tremendous experience for them, and an absolute treat for their Americana friends.

Somewhere amid the perpetual laughter of our weekend reunion, as six former teammates be-bopped around Baltimore and camped out at my apartment, the truth of Karma’s words profoundly sunk in. In Indonesia, and everywhere, the blissfulness of life comes from bonds formed with those around us, wherever in the world we are. And even though more than a year had passed since we were all last together, the original joy (so geographically linked to Indonesia) easily found its way across oceans, simply because of the people.

And if that wasn’t enough to drive home the epiphany, the icing on the cake came last week as I prepared to leave for Tanzania. I received an urgent message from our travel agent, who was supposed to be getting my visa, saying instead that I had to get a new passport. Apparently, if it’s within six months of expiring, you have to get a new one before you can leave. So reluctantly, and hurriedly, I agreed.

Within days a shiny new passport appeared on my desk, alongside my old, overly stamped and slightly-faded friend of ten hard-to-imagine years. It was a compact journal of my journeys, with my fresh-faced 23-year-old picture always reminding me (while making others laugh) of who I was when I began this pilgrimage that’s now lasted a decade… I was clueless incarnate, with a red t-shirt, beaded hemp necklace and an expectant heart that never, ever could have imagined what was ahead.

But as leafed through those familiar pages as if it were a precious family photo album, I realized that the nostalgia I felt reminiscing over stamp and stamp was not about those *places* at all, but about the people I met there... Lucas, my star student in China. Lisa and I hitchhiking through the Israeli desert. Boubacar, the malnourished Guinean boy who was struggling to recover in a dilapidated hospital. The infamous bus ride with Jennifer through northern India. Elzat’s sisters in Kyrgyzstan. Alanou, the Ugandan mother, who is courageously raising (with a smile even) nine children in a refugee camp. Face after face flooded to mind, signposts on my map of memories, each one pointing me a little closer to where I’m blessed to be today…

And here I am in Tanzania, drinking an early morning coffee, while fishing boats traverse the harbor a few hundred meters away, trying to wait patiently for breakfast (it’s a virtue one must indeed have in Africa). I will leave here tonight after a relatively short trip, taking home conversations as souvenirs, memories of chatting with the lovely and fabulous "princess of Africa" Yvonne Chaka Chaka (with a name like that how could you not be a true diva), and of Reuben the farmer’s tiny Artemisinin crop (I am not sure how much he realizes the lives the medicine made from his plants will save – he just cares that his family is surviving), and of bumping along the dusty roads of Arusha National Park with my new friend, William the French photographer and our lovely driver John, on a pristine Sunday morning, looking at giraffes, zebras and monkeys...

And I could go on, because of course, there’s more, much more… but my breakfast is here and today's journey awaits. May the steps of your day (the geography of your life) find you in blissful company. And thank you, for helping me find my way here...