The past and the future

NOTE: I'm not sure if our newsletter is SENDING properly so here is what I've been trying to send:

July 16, 2005


Dear Friends,


Well our Fellows are out in the world and writing wonderful stories back to (for) us. The contrast in travelogues could not be more striking. Hart Eddy is finding the future of tomorrow in Shanghai, China while Caitlin Cohen is traveling back in time to Bamako, Mali. In these two travelers we have the yesterday of Africa and the tomorrow of China. We have a continent dealing with all too human problems and China, a country so determined to grow that it is virtually eliminating human interaction with the gleaming skyscrapers of tomorrow. And yet both write about dust- gray construction dust and red terra cotta, reminding us that we are on a planet that is mostly dirt and water.

I’m struck by the current relevance of our Fellowships. Pick up a newspaper this week and you’ll see stories about the G8 nations doubling aid to Africa fro such preventable diseases as Malaria, the Live 8 concerts bringing light to debt-relief, or China’s growing economic power and the affect on American manufacturing sectors. We’re lucky to have two people giving their personal accounts of these stories. Caitlin is working in a medical clinic and finding the sad truth in so many preventable illnesses. Hart is finding the rapid pace on construction in Shanghai fascinating yet soul-less. We hope you’ll enjoy reading these stories and seeing the pictures.

The Photo Gallery Pages are located at www.pbase.com/MyTravelBug under “Fellowship Albums”.


Caitlin Cohen is in Bamako, Mali interning in a medical clinic.
“On a wall at the clinic, there is a picture drawn by a child that said “Embrasse-moi même si j’ai le SIDA. Je ne peux pas te rendre malade.” (Hug me, even if I have AIDS. I can’t make you sick). It was heartbreaking, almost as heartbreaking as the poorly stocked supply closet for the clinic. Malick asked if I had brought any Determine rapid assay tests to test expectant mothers for HIV because they were almost out, and I replied truthfully that I had not. I had not known they would go through the 500 the NGO had brought in January so quickly. I had made a couple calls to Abbott Pharmaceuticals a few months ago about getting donations for the kits, but had not followed through. Now I realize how valuable those few hours of follow-up could have been.” –On dust and details

On dust and details
The medical clinic

Hart Eddy is in Shanghai, China trying to get oriented but finding all the rapid fire construction very dis-orienting.
“I’ve come to Shanghai to research a screenplay adapted from Dostoyevsky’s classic, Crime and Punishment, but I’m starting to think Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas might be a better text to work from. I think back to the subtitle of that book: A savage journey to the heart of the American Dream. In the summer of 2005 it seems that the American Dream is a nightmare tinted red: I’ve departed for China during a media storm of hyperbole tinged with Sino phobia—a near unanimous hysterical shout from the big-box purveyors of public opinion (TIME, U.S. News and World Report, The New York Times, etc.) that we are on the doorstep of a “Chinese Century”.

As we speed towards the central Shanghai, I feel a pang of guilt mixed with a sense of absurdity. How can two countries that are so economically enmeshed be so culturally estranged from each other? And who am I to superimpose a dusty Russian novel on a metropolis about which I know nothing about? I don’t even speak a shred of Mandarin. I start to think about factories, mounds of goods piled high at Wal*Mart, political repression, freedom, decadence—what do I know about any of it? Isn’t this an assignment for an economist or a political scientist—someone with a grasp of floating currency and firm command of historical data? And isn’t my infatuation with Dostoyevsky a kind of young man’s literary cliché?” –Starting to get the Fear

Starting to get the fear
Tomorrowland
Ghost of Shanghai
A purified environment


Have you ever tried to book a Train ticket overseas? It’s not easy. You’re lucky if you can find an English language website to book a ticket in Europe. My Travel Bug, Inc. is working on a deal with RailAgent.com to bring you the best prices and scheduling on train tickets to Europe, Australia and beyond. Stay tuned!

We’re overhauling “how do you say” language center this month. We plan to bring you a complete list of languages around the world as well as basic phrases and audio files for correct pronunciation. We hope you’ll visit often once we get it up and running!

In the meantime, be safe, stay cool and wear sunscreen!


Sincerely yours,


Amanda O'Neil
My Travel Bug, Inc.

P.S. Donating to My Travel Bug, Inc. has never been easier. Paypal members can login and “send money” to Treasurer@mytravelbug.org It’s quick and tax-deductible!