India's holy city of Varanasi on the banks of the River Ganges

Indian culture is deeply rooted in spirituality, folklore and myth, details of which are narrated in the two great epic poems of Indian literature, The Ramayana and The Mahabharata, believed to have been written in Varanasi.

Varanasi, Benares or Kashi – all names of the the world’s longest continuously inhabited city -- is situated along the banks of the Ganges, a river believed to be the eternal abode of Lord Shiva, one of the most important deities in the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses. Hindus on pilgrimage travel here from all over India to do "puja" in the hundreds of temples spread throughout the ancient "old city" and to cleanse themselves of impurities by bathing in the waters of mother Ganga. The river banks are the site of "burning ghats" where bodies of the deceased are placed upon funeral pyres of wooden logs, then set ablaze for cremation. The ashes are placed in the river as it is believed that this allows Lord Shiva to hastily carry the soul to the next life.

The nearby city of Sarnath is important to the world's Buddhist as the site where the Buddha is known to have given his first teaching on the existence of suffering, offering a practical way out of suffering which is described as The Eightfold Path. Many Buddhist traditions have located temples and monasteries in Sarnath.

Varanasi embodies all the mysticism and beauty of incredible India and has become one of my favorite places to visit.

Return to Beloved India

I returned to India on Wednesday, first spending a few days in Calcutta before traveling the 400 kilometers to Bodhgaya on Sunday. The journey by train took me through forests, lush green countryside and fields of baby rice seedlings nurtured by a healthy monsoon.

Back in Bodhgaya where I previously lived and worked for several years, I'm enjoying seeing friends and colleagues and hearing about the progress of the health program here at Root Institute. Staff we hired some years back have blossomed into successful health workers and village health programs are now flourishing under their guidance. It's gratifying to see the momentum that has been sustained over the years.

The photos above come from a mural we painted four years ago to use as a backdrop for health teaching. The scenes depict various scenarios at the village level that promote healthy ways of living:

• promoting use of pit latrines for sanitation;
• preventing burns caused by open fires;
• polio prevention with immunization for infants and young children;
• improved family nutrition with harvests from backyard gardens.

Later this week, I'll travel to mystical Varanasi on the banks of the Ganga, an important pilgrimage site for India's Hindus. And then on to Delhi and a side-trip to the hill station of Nainital (to escape the heat).

Cambodia Reunions

Oftentimes I'm convinced that I'm one of the most fortunate beings on the planet!

This weekend, I crossed the border from Thailand into Cambodia and made the onward journey to Battambang, a colonial provincial capital on the banks of the Sangkar River. I had lived and worked here in Battambang in 2005 and have long wanted to return to visit with Khmer friends and colleagues. The homecoming has been so sweet.

Cham Nan and his family were neighbors when I lived in the riverside village of Pum Chen. He and his sister Sophy would often spend evenings with me and my housemate Vanessa, an English teacher, eager to practice their classroom-learned English with native speakers. The internet has allowed us to stay in touch over many years as Sophy has matured into womanhood and as Cham Nan has completed high school and entered university.

The family has welcomed me in their home during this visit, fattening me with love and traditional Khmer food. We traveled yesterday to their ancestral village in the countryside where grandparents and aunts and uncles still live a simple lifestyle farming the land. Even during the era of the Khmer Rouge and then the Vietnamese occupation, the elders remained on the land in the forest while Cham Nan's family sought safety for the children in the refugee camps of eastern Thailand.

While here in Battambang, I've been able to have a reunion with colleagues at the local military hospital where I had worked in 2005 with the NGO, Family Health International. I remember the year 2005 and how the wards were crowded with critically ill patients with advanced HIV disease; yet now Cambodia's HIV prevalence has lessened and the hospital admits fewer severely ill patients, likely attesting to the good work done in prevention and early care and treatment. What a breath of fresh air to return to see this achievement!

From the Land of Smiles

This morning, here in Bangkok, I went early to the Embassy of the People's Republic of China to apply for a tourist visa. Thinking I would be first in line given the early morning hour, I arrived to find an orderly queue of >30 people. But what a joy to be on a continent where there is order and no jostling for space. Even bustling crowds of 300+ Thai office workers exit the subway in perfect lines to approach a bank of turnstiles. Someone smiles at me, giving a non-verbal cue that I should go ahead. How wonderful to experience a culture so patient and peaceful!

One can readily see here in Thailand the effects of living in a country that has a comparatively peaceful history (save for a secessionist movement in the south and a border dispute with Cambodia in the northeast).

After six months in Liberia, I'm back in a land of sidewalks, saffron-robed monks, surfaced roads, hot water showers and Starbucks. I'm thankful that I can rest my weary head on a down pillow and stretch my long body out on an 8" thick Sealy mattress, albeit disconcerting to sleep without the ubiquitous mosquito net over my head.

I plan to spend this week working my "checklist" of medical appointments, books to read, international newspapers, cinema, chamber music, cafe latte and preparations for the journey ahead. I'll grab a little time at the beach next week before traveling overland into Cambodia to visit friends made when I lived there some years ago.

With thanks for the safe journey that brought me here.

Greg Mortenson's Idea for World Peace

I recently finished reading Greg Mortenson’s second book, Stones into Schools. Maybe you’ve heard about his efforts to build schools and support educational systems in Afghanistan and Pakistan, primarily in support of girls’ education. He’s moving through a period of controversy and criticism right now because of some suspicion that he’s overstated some of his achievements and, perhaps, even misused some of the funds his organization, the Central Asia Institute, has received as donations. Nonetheless, his writing is superb, extremely riveting, full of literary sketches and snapshots of the cultures of the region and generously peppered with tender stories of the relationships he’s developed and the lives he’s touched.

Mortenson is candid about the toll that his work has taken on his life – missing his kids’ first steps and some of their important milestones at school – and writes with passion and insight. I’m terribly sorry to read of his recent troubles, yet I respect his deep understanding of and clear vision for the role that basic education can play in achieving peace on the planet.

We can thank Greg Mortenson for reminding us that education of young women results in smaller, healthier and better educated families; that girls who stay in school marry later and have lower fertility rates; and that educating young girls contributes to a reduction in maternal mortality.

I hope that the criticism of Mortenson doesn’t overshadow the fundamental importance of his work.

Opening the heart to travel.............

I’ve been re-reading Peter Hessler’s book about China, River Town – Two Years on the Yangtze, a memoir/travelogue of his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in Sichuan province in the 1990s. Travellers like Hessler are our most spirited mentors as they intrinsically understand that the enlightening experiences of being on the road come to us only when we “make ourselves available”. He writes of being patient, developing trust, allowing things to happen, accepting invitations without suspicion of intention and, of great importance, not expecting to control every situation.

From my own experience, the interactions we have with others as we travel can be mutually beneficial. It is not simply Rick who benefits. Once we become too self-cherishing, we tend to grasp at our own happiness and gratification. Yet the traveller with an open heart and non-attachment to his own needs creates the marvelous opportunity for the "hosts" we encounter during our travels to likewise benefit from the experience. These shared experiences create a deeper understanding of commonality within diversity.

Kanai Das, the Indian poet-philosopher, writes that the world is his home. “When you walk, you are freed from the worries of ordinary life, from the imprisonment of being rooted in the same place. Wherever I am, that is my home.”

The death of another human being.......

I ask myself, "Is it ever just to celebrate and rejoice over the death of another human being, even when that human being may have supported undeniably evil acts?"

No, it is not.