Travel: Has it Changed You?

Child labour. What image does this conjur for you? For me, I think of the tiny girl in Mexico, who couldn’t have been more than three years old, tapping me on the shoulder, trying to sell me chewing gum while I sat drinking coffee.

Not a second hand story, a real experience, with a real child. Travel changes our perception of things. Everyday we hear stories of what is happening in the world, via the media, via friends. We are inundated with second hand information. But when you travel, you see right in front of you the real person. Sitting in an air conditioned hire care in Mumbai, the young girl inches away from my window spinning cartwheels for money shed a whole new light on the word poverty.


“The way the west influences, effects and at worst exploits people in less powerful positions is something that has both shocked me, and prompted me to do my little bit to effect positive change,” says Jen Djula, the founder of Blue Caravan. Blue Caravan is an online store that promotes direct trade with emerging and independent designers, and insists on ethical production. Jen’s travels have included stints in India, Africa and South East Asia. “My work has grown largely from my experiences of travel, my study in politics and community development and my love of design,” says Jen.



BlueCaravan



Travel is often the spark that fires a passion. Lillian Rodrigues Pang’s work grew from her love of stories from all over the world.

Lillian Rodrigues Pang, Storyteller

A professional story-teller, Lillian was inspired by the work of New Yorker Diane Wolkstien in Haiti. “Diane went to Haiti in the 70's and recorded over 400 stories and published a book of selected stories, The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales,” says Lillian. Diane is now a world renowned storyteller, and the award–winning author of 23 books. “After the disaster in Haiti,” says Lillian, “Diane’s book is being translated to train new storytellers, preserving their stories for future generations.”



Diane Wolkstien in Haiti, by Diane Wolkstien


Diane’s travels preserved a beautiful oral tradition. Many of us become more conscious of preserving our world after traveling. I have travelled to some of the most beautiful wild places on Earth. On safari in South Africa, words and pictures could not describe the wonder of being three metres away from a pack of lions eating their kill.


Lion Cubs on a Kill, Safari in South Africa, 2008

 Or watching cheetah stalk their prey. It is impossible when you have experienced these things first hand not to be in awe of the majesty of the natural world. But how many of us remain true to that experience once we get home? Is there really much we can do to have an impact on our world?



Cheetah stalking prey, Safari in South Africa, 2008

Jen Djula certainly believes so. “I'm excited by the transformative potential of ethical products, and they industry they represent. Very small changes in the choices we make can have an enormous impact in creating a market for ethical designers and manufacturers,” says Jen. “We live in a global society, and the impacts of our choices are vast and far reaching.”

Reaching to the ends of the Earth.

You may have heard people say our lives are a sum of the books we have read and the movies we have seen. I believe our lives are the sum of our experience.

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