April 1, 2010 - And the Winner is.................

And the winner is.......Turkey.





In August, I asked the universe where I should travel this summer. After eight months of voting, the answer is Turkey. At least, that's what the universe told me as late at February, when I noticed that the 100-plus votes on my polls were decreasing, rather than increasing (See March 7 post "Blogger Glitch").

I immediately reported the problem to Google, which runs Blogger. Problems are only addressed by posting them on a help forum. You can see my post at this link. Since Google never fixed my polls, I felt that I had no other choice but to honor the leading vote getters at the time of the malfunction.

Prior to the malfunction, on the question of which country to visit, Turkey was the leading vote getter by a slim margin over Egypt and Australia. As far as charities, Doctors Without Borders was the overwhelming vote getter, followed by Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children.

Again, I'm sorry for the glitch, but I can assure you that it was totally out of my control. I hope everyone is satisfied with this solution.




So the world wants me to visit Turkey this summer.

I've always been fascinated by the country because I've read that the culture is a mix of European, Ottoman, Middle Eastern, and Asian traditions. That makes sense because geographically the country is a bridge between Europe and Asia. It also makes sense historically because the Ottoman Empire at its height stretched across three continents.

Now I know where I'm going, but I still need your help. As I've written before, this isn't only my trip. It belongs to the world. With that in mind, I need your suggestions on what to visit beyond just tourist attractions. It could be a place. It could be an organization that is doing noteworthy, positive work in Turkey, especially an organization that normally doesn't receive publicity. It could be a particular person that is making a difference in Turkey that you'd like the rest of the world to know about. It could be a cherished tradition.

I enjoy beaches, but it's hard to learn about any culture merely sitting by the ocean sipping drinks at a resort. The purpose of this trip is to delve into a culture I know nothing about and write about my discoveries. Wherever I visit, I will post the information on my blog, so that my students and the rest of us can all learn something about Turkey together.

I eagerly await your suggestions.

In addition to needing your help with suggestions, I also need your financial help to get to Turkey and to travel within the country. This blog is an experiment in benevolence, so I am starting my journey with no money and will travel only as far as the universe takes me.

You can donate by clicking on the PayPal button up above on the right-hand side of my blog.

I can assure you that I will spend the money wisely. I've always preferred traveling frugally by throwing on a backpack, utilizing public transportation, and staying in basic, locally-owned accommodations. That way, I feel good about supporting the local economy, and I have a better opportunity to actually get to know and to forge ties with the people who live there.

If anyone is uncomfortable giving me money, benevolence comes in many other forms. I would welcome and appreciate any private offers of meals, transportation, or accommodations, however simple they might be. Some of my best travel experiences have been staying with families, rather than in hotels, and I would love to share all of these experiences on my blog, as well.

If I don't have enough funds to buy an airline ticket by May 15, I will cancel the trip because I'm afraid if I wait any later than that, a last-minute plane ticket would be exorbitantly priced, which would be unfair to my donors. In such a scenario, I would send all of the money that I'd received to the charities Doctors Without Borders, Catholic Relief Services, and Save the Children.

To some, this journey might sound ludicrous, but as I keep telling my students, I believe that the world is made up mainly of kind, generous, trustworthy people. I am maintaining my belief that enough of these people will come to my assistance. I am maintaining my believe that a person can travel around the world relying on the generosity of strangers. I am maintaining my belief in miracles.

Regardless of what happens, I am already grateful for the response I've gotten from my blog. When I began this journey, I wanted to demonstrate to my students the power of a single person and a single idea.

Many of my kids come from impoverished backgrounds in foreign lands, so they lack some of the financial resources and personal connections and contacts that other kids take for granted. As a result, most of my students don't think that they can achieve such dreams as going to college or landing a good job or climbing the ladder of success.

This blog is one way I hope to show them that anything is possible.

Constantly, I tell my kids that any idea or dream can spread like ripples on a lake, regardless of how much money a person has or who he or she knows. I think this is especially true with the rise of the internet. That is why I decided to use the internet for my journey and why I've done no other fund-raising or sought any other forms of publicity, other than this blog.

If I had contacted media outlets or companies or sought help from influential people, then this endeavor would have become an exercise in my personal abilities and my perseverance. I would have been controlling the ripples, rather than giving up control to the universe and letting the ripples spread where they may, through the actions and good will of others.

In addition to my 9th grade ESOL English class of 15 students, I have still told only six people about this blog. Yet, I'm amazed that I've gotten more than 1,400 hits on my site from 35 states and 23 countries, as far north as Russia, as far south as Argentina, as far east as Japan, and as far west as Tonga.

Although the ripples continue to spread, so far, I've received only $34.05 in donations. I'm reminded of a joke that my student, Juan, made back in September when I told the class how much I had collected. With a grin on this face, Juan said, "Mister! Now you really do have enough money to take a trip - to McDonald's."

Not many people, including my students, think I'll raise enough money to get to Turkey, but I believe I will, even though I have less than a month and half to do so before the May 15 deadline.

My dream is that the universe will send me to Turkey, so that I can share my discoveries with my students and my blog readers; that I will have enough money left over after the trip to donate to the three charities; and, in the process, that maybe one of my students or even an adult will be motivated to pursue his or her own dreams.

Is my dream impossible? I don’t think so because the words of John Updike keep echoing in my head - "Dreams come true. Without that possibility, nature would not incite us to have them."

The original question that I asked back in August remains unanswered - Can a person travel around the world relying on the generosity of strangers? I know it's possible, but I need your help.

Why? - March 28, 2010

Since I began this adventure in August, I’m frequently asked, “Why are you doing this?” My answer is simple. "I have to."

After the conversation I had last year with my students about whether people are basically good or basically evil, I immediately came up with the idea to launch this blog, but I dismissed the idea just as quickly.

We all know the drill. Human beings have a knack for looking at all the reasons why something will fail, rather than focusing on why it will succeed. I generated a long list of mental objections - “No one will even read the blog.....We are in the midst of a recession. No one will give you any money.....It’s a silly idea that can’t possibly work.”

But the idea kept coming back.

Ever since I was a boy, my father’s told me to listen to my internal voice and follow my hunches. Sometimes I do. Many times I don’t, although most of the time good things happen when I do. Despite my reservations, I felt like I owed it to my father, myself, and my kids to give the blog a shot.

Now, eight months later, I’m glad I trusted my instincts. Have I raised a lot of money? Nope. I’m still sitting on $34. Will I end up going overseas? That remains to be seen, but regardless of what happens, I feel that the blog has been a success because it’s gotten the attention of my students, and maybe, it’s given them the motivation to trust their own hunches.

Even though the weeks are passing ever closer to the time when I will have to make the final decision on the trip, I remain optimistic that I’ll be going somewhere this summer. My gut keeps telling me that something wonderful will happen. I’m not sure what, but I’m excited about what lies ahead.

As always, thanks for reading my blog.

One Person Can Make a Difference – March 13, 2010

Anything is possible.

Even though I've been saying it for eight years, my students still have trouble believing it, especially with some of the great challenges they've faced in their lives. At times, I'll admit it's hard to sell this message of hope when a student tells me something like, "I'm poor, Mister. I can't go to college. I have to work to help my family."

When faced with such comments, I refer to the long list of people who have overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and become successful, proving with their lives that anything is possible.

Helen Keller lost her hearing and sight as a baby, but she managed to graduate from Radcliffe College and became a world-famous speaker and author.

Stephen Hawking suffers from Lou Gehrig's disease and since the age of 21 has been almost fully paralyzed, but he's become one of the best-known scientists in the world and is considered to be one of the greatest minds in physics since Albert Einstein.

Oprah Winfrey was born to poor, unwed, teenage parents in rural Mississippi, but that didn't stop her from becoming one of the most influential women in the world and the world's first black female billionaire.

"But they're old people," I’ve often heard my students say in reply, or they’ll say something along the lines of, "We don’t know anybody around here who's done anything."

Last week, that changed when my kids saw for themselves, in our own school, that anything is possible.

Like most schools across the country, my high school, Southeast Whitfield, is suffering from massive budget cuts caused by the economic downturn. There's not enough money for the essentials, let alone extras, such as new athletic equipment, but that didn't discourage the head of our school's physical education department, Carrie Burch, from trying to acquire the equipment. After all, anything is possible

In the fall, Carrie heard about a contest by the professional football team, the Atlanta Falcons. The contest involved students from schools across the state of Georgia filling out registration forms and turning them in at locations of a national sporting goods chain. The school with the most completed forms would win.

Carrie's enthusiasm spread to her staff and throughout the student body, and last month, the principal of our high school received a phone call from the Falcons, saying that Southeast had won the contest. In fact, it was the highest amount of forms ever received in the contest.

And the prize? The sponsors of the contest donated $5,000 of apparel to our school’s athletic teams and another $5,000 in cash, most of which will be used for the much-needed equipment for the physical education department, equipment that Carrie told me the school could never have afforded.

To celebrate the victory, members of the Falcon organization, including two cheerleaders and the team mascot, Freddie the Falcon, visited Southeast to throw a pep rally.

All too often, we tell ourselves that we can’t do something. "...I'm too old. I'm too young. I'm too poor. I don't have any connections..."

But, the world is full of examples that show clearly that anything is possible and that one person can truly make a difference. If Carrie Burch can get $10,000 of new athletic equipment in the midst of one of the worst recessions in decades, what can you and I accomplish with a little ingenuity, hard work and faith?

Blogger Glitch - March 7, 2010

As fellow participants in this world-wide journey, I wanted to make you all aware of a Blogger glitch that I'm having with the site.

Last month, I discovered that votes were disappearing from my two poll questions - “Which country should I visit?” and “Which charity should receive any leftover money?” At first, it was just a handful, but now dozens of votes have vanished. With the country question, I've gone from 139 votes to to 34. With the charity question, I've dropped from 84 votes to 23 votes.

I set up the polls because I wanted to get as much input as possible, and I appreciate all of you who have voted. I’m sorry that many of your votes are now missing.

When I discovered the problem, I immediately reported it to Google, which runs Blogger. Problems are handled only via a Help Forum. You can see my post about the problem at this link and see the reactions I’ve gotten so far.

Google is aware of my problem, and, hopefully, is working to correct it. Apparently, similar such problems with disappearing votes have occurred in the past.

Prior to the poll problems, on the question of which country to visit, Turkey was the leading vote getter by a slim margin, and as far as charities, Doctors Without Borders was the overwhelming vote getter, followed by Catholic Relief Services and Save the Children.

My plan is to still close the polls in April. If the polls are not fixed by then, I will stick with the choices that were leading prior to the poll malfunctions.

Again, I’m sorry for the glitch, but it was completely out of my control. At this late stage, it seemed inappropriate to start the voting all over again because it would negate the votes that were tabulated before the malfunction. I hope no one's enthusiasm has been dampened by the problem, and I look forward to seeing where this journey still ends up. Stay tuned, and thanks for reading my blog.