Thanks for your inspiration I the simple good official blog launch

Hello There!

As you may have known, I left my job with PwC a few months ago to focus my time and energy on social entrepreneurship. My partner Priya and I have been working on a photoblog called the simple good. We did a soft launch about 2 months ago and have been collecting valuable feedback, redesigning our blog, creating a logo and working on what's next in the mean time. We are now trying to broadcast our message to a wider audience with a full launch of our blog. 

the simple good is a crowd-sourced photoblog focused on appreciating the little things in life. The inspiration came from our journeys traveling and experiencing the different realities of life across the globe. We collect public submissions of images coupled with personal stories about how the image exemplifies the simple good. The images could be anything from street art to landscapes to anything and everything that is simply good. The goal is to enable people to discover and share different perspectives from around the world inspiring good thoughts and good actions for ourselves, our communities and our world. 

This idea was inspired by you. I have been studying in academia and learning about business through my previous job, but what I have really been doing my whole life is learning about people and society from each and every person that I have ever interacted. That means you, thanks for inspiring me, you are my most valuable asset. 

Please help me spread the word by participating with your submissions, sharing the message of the simple good with your networks through facebook and twitter and encouraging all of your friends to get involved and spread good. If you like the pictures and the stories on the blog and want to stay updated, you can subscribe and get the simple good delivered to you daily. Everyone likes good, so don't be afraid to show the whole world that you do too. Every little thing will go a long way and I would be honored if you could join me in the next step of this journey. The more we spread this, the good-er our world will be. 

Let me know if you have questions, feedback or if you just want to chat!

Peace

Muffadal Saylawala

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Ecuador

I spent my first couple days in Quito wandering around the old town, climbing up to all the different vistas and had a really fun time just walking around and taking pictures. The highlight of Quito though, was definitely a friend I met through couchsurfing. She was so curious and inquisitive about Pakistani and Indian culture and we had so many really interesting conversations. I had a really great time getting to know Quito through the eyes of a local and feel like I have a really good friend in Quito. The best part was that it was all in Spanish and I was able to carry on some really complex conversations all in Spanish, so I guess I am learning!

After Quito, I listened to my friend´s advice and headed down to Banos. I arrived at night where I met two Swiss guys in my hostel and we decided to hit the town since it was Saturday night. I met a bunch of other people that night from all over Europe and the US and was hanging out and going around town and chatting with people until nearly 8am, so it was a really good night. I came back to the hostel, fell asleep and when I woke up the two Swiss guys had been replaced by 2 French parents.

I hung out with their son for a bit that day and went to dinner with them all and decided I would go mountain biking with them the next day. The whole situation was very amusing to me though because here I am this Pakistani American hanging out with this French family and the best way we can communicate with one another is in Spanish.

The mountain biking was great the next day. There are a bunch of waterfalls along the way that you can hike to from the road and its mostly a downhill ride, so you can get going pretty fast. There was even a 40m bridge to bungee jump off on the way there so I jumped off it backwards which was quite a rush. At one point though, the weather was horrible, it was pouring rain and really windy and I was just riding down this mountain in shorts and a tshirt, completely soaked and muddy, but I liked it, it added to the adventure of it all. The scenery was awesome though and it was even more exciting being able to take it all in from behind the handlebars of a mountain bike.

The next day Batiste (French guy) and I rented ATVs and carved our way up to the volcano through some more mud and rain which was also a good time. Later in the day I did another bungee jump off of a 130m high bridge. Unfortunately, they would only let me fall for about 60m because there were too many rocks around, so I ended up jumping again backwards. Both times were really scary and it took me a long time to jump. I spent a lot of time standing or kneeling (because my legs were shaking) on the little platform looking out at the green mountains all around me and listening to the power of the river and the rocks thundering 130m below me. I remember just thinking to myself how awesome life is and then I leapt off the platform as far as I could and just flew like a bird.

That night I had a very interesting conversation with the French family about globalization and society. I think it was the most complicated conversation I have ever had in terms of the different languages used. Because the parents understood English better than Spanish, I would speak at first in English and whatever they didn´t understand, their daughter would explain in French. Then, the parents would start to respond in English, but when they couldn´t find the words to express what they meant, they would then switch to speaking in French. Their daughter would then transalte this back into Spanish for me to understand since her Spanish was much better than her English. We talked like this for 2 hours or so. They argued that globalization is bad because it kills local businesses and erases local cultures and customs by promoting big box universal stores that are impossible to compete with like McDonalds and Wal-Mart. I saw their point of view, but of course argued like the ruthless American capitalist than I am.

The next morning the family carried onto Puyo where I was planning to head later that day as well, but I figured I wasn´t going to be seeing them anymore and had to find some new friends. I got to Puyo a little later, got in a cab and asked for a hostel in the guidebook. The cabbie didn´t know where the hostel was or how to read a map so I was sitting there trying to navigate on the map and give him directions in Spanish. As soon as we got a street where there was a hostel (not the one I wanted to go to) he told me were here and said I have to find it on my own. I knew it was close, so I was like ok whatever, I´ll just find it. I look accross the street and the French girl is standing there waving to me almost as if she had been waiting for me! So, I went and got a room in their hostel and then tried to find them later at a tour agency, but could not. I walked around town and found the agency I wanted to do a tour with, but they were closed. There was, however, a friendly British couple sitting outside and waiting. I sat down and chatted with them for a bit and then we walked around later and found another 3 day 2 night jungle tour that we liked. We decided to go to a restaurant to grab something to eat, and of course I find none other than the French family there having a drink. I tell them about our tour and then have a nice long lunch/chat with the British couple.


The jungle tour was really good. Granted it wasn´t in the deep deep jungle like I was hoping, but it was still really nice and definitely looked and felt like what I thought the rainforest would. There were all kinds of trees, plants and flowers that could cure just about anything, lots of mud, empowering rubber boots, waterfalls, and very very unpredictable weather. The best part about the rainforest tour though, was by far the conversations I was able to have with the guides at night about their lives and the rainforest.

In short, this is basically what we talked about:

Tourists go to the jungle thinking that they will be exposed to simple minded people that don´t have to worry about money and stuff like us crazy Westerners do. We think that we will get a taste of what it is like to just live off the land and be happy and not need to worry about making money or having a big house or any of those things. Through tourism, indigineous amazonian people have been exposed to Western desires and thinking and now know about our nice clothes and our desires to have more money and bigger houses, etc. etc. So much, that now the youth of these people no longer desire to live their ´simple´lives, but rather they too want to come to the city and make more money and buy big houses. If this happens, then who will be left to protect the Amazon from big oil companies and deforestation? As it is, so many tribes have been exploited and the richest part of our world that could hold the cures to who knows how many diseases is being erased.

I know we always hear about this stuff in the news and read about it in the paper and such, but being there, in the Amazon and having these conversations with Amazonian people was a really chilling experience. After talking to them, I felt so frustrated and genuinely scared for them and for our world thinking about what is happening and how in 50-60 years these people think that there may be no more rainforest. I really hope I can do something to make them wrong.


After the second day, I said goodbye to the French family yet again since I wanted to spend another day in the rainforest. I spent my last day there with the British couple and then we got on a bus from Puyo to Banos to Ambato (where they got off) to Riobamba which is where I got off. I waited a couple hours and then got another bus down South to Cuenca where I arrived in the wee hours of the morning.

I spent my first day there wandering around, but it was a Sunday so everything was closed and it was kind of like a ghost town. I headed back to my hostel at night and went back to check on some laundry I had done earlier. As I was doing this, I was thinking I would then sit down in the cafe and meet some new people and see what happens from there. I walk back into the cafe and guess whose sitting there waving to me? My French Family! I could not believe that I was running into them again, but it was a pleasant surprise and we chatted for a bit.

The next day I went to Paqrque Nacional Cajas with a friend I had met in Banos. We met some other people I had met the night before in the cafe and we made the trek around the lagoons in the eerie tree and fog covered mountains as the four of us. We were at an elevation of nearly 4000m so it was pretty cold, and the water was even colder The Swiss guy really wanted to jump into one of the lagoons, but didn´t want to do it alone. So, I stripped down to my boxers and jumped inot the ice cold lagoon followed by my Swiss and Israeli friends. The water was soooooo cold, but it was really refreshing and I am glad we did it, even though I was cold for the rest of the day. The scenery was awesome though and it was so peaceful with not many people there. I felt like this is the true unspoiled natural beauty that I came to South America to see and it made me really happy.

After the hike, we went out to the street to try and wave down a bus to take us back to Cuenca, but all the buses that passed by refused to take us on because they were full or something. So, we decided to try and flag down a pickup truck instead so that we could hitch hike back. After a few attempts, a nice family stopped and the four of us climbed into the bed the pick up truck and off we went speeding down the mountain towards Cuenca. It was such a rush because I had never really hitch hiked before and the guy was driving really fast and it was so cold, all the air rushing around us and the amazing scenery whizzing by made for a great end to the day.

That night I met some French girls I had met in Banos in my hostel and they were playing cards with a German guy. I sat down with them and we played cards and chatted for nearly two hours. While chatting, the German guy told me he was going to Puerto San Lopez the next day for whale watching and that sounded interesting so I decided to go with him. The next day we made the 8 hour bus journey to the coast and there I was, amazing. In the morning I was on a mountain and in the evening I was in the coast ready to see whales jump out of the water, I love this life.

The next day as we were walking to the agency for our tour, guess who sees me from their hostel? None other than my French Family once again! So I chat with them for a bit and tell them I will see them after the tour.

Whale watching was incredible. It is mating season and the males are competing for mates right now. So, in order to impress the females, they jump out of the water and trying to grab their attention and it is unreal. Imagine something the size of a bus leaping out of the water and splashing down right in front of you.. it is seriously one of the most incredible things I have ever seen and I don´t really have words to describe it. I am still wondering how something so big and heavy leaps out of the water like that, its really something crazy.

After being amazed, I had my last lunch with my French Family and said my last goodbye and headed off on another 14 bus journey back down South to Loja where I am now. This is my last day in Ecuador and I am crossing the border tonight into Peru for the last leg of my journey. I will be home in three very short weeks.

Colombia

I am writing this post as my attempt to try and keep in touch with everyone that is someplace other than I am.

I flew into Cartagena, Colombia with no plan, and no friends, but I do have a whole lot of ambition and adventure, so no worries. I won´t lie to you though, despite the picturesque buildings and all the beauty of Cartagena, my first day wandering around was pretty lonely. I kind of started to think to myself, maybe I really was wrong about this and I should have listened to my friends and family when they said I was crazy. You are all right though, I am crazy. I made a promise to myself and said I will meet new people every single day, otherwise this trip is going to suck. The places I am visiting are nice and everything, but the journey is really about the people that I will share it with.

The second day I went on a day trip to Las Islas Rosarios by Cartagena. I met some Peruvian girls, a German, and of course some Brits and tons of Colombians. The islands were great, I got to go snorkeling and swim in Playa Blanca, I had a really good time and met all kinds of interesting people. I was really scared at first to talk to somone in Spanish because my Spanish isn´t too great, but once I started talking to the Peruvian girls they were really friendly and supportive of me practicing so it was nice and I felt comfortable.

I went to this crazy mud volcano the next day which was basically like a grey orgy of people just trying to move around but completely immobile. It was literally a volcano of mud that you climbed up and jumped into, it was so bizarre. I can understand how and why people drown in quicksand now.

That night in Cartagena I went out with a very interesting older British lady I met in the morning, looking for some live music. We met a really friendly Colombian-American girl and her friend who ended up taking us out all night and showing us the town from a locals eye. We went to all kinds of crazy places and ended up at the beach for sunrise somehow. It was really great to be shown around town by a local who really loved her city and her country and was just so friendly and kind in general. So much for all that propaganda about Colombia being really unsafe and stuff. After two weeks I have yet to feel unsafe even once.

After watching the sunrise on the beach I hopped on a bus upto Santa Marta where they had a huge festival going on. I stayed there a night and went to Tayrona National Park which was unbelivable. I met a really cool Israeli American guy that I hung out with most of the time. You have to hike through the rainforest for a couple of hours and then you are greeted by massive boulders and the power of the Caribbean Ocean along with lots of signs that say no swimming. With my ´´great´´ swimming skills, of course I decided to have a dip and the current was the strongest I have ever swam in. We continued walking down the beach for another hour or so all the way down and just chilled out for a couple days. I slept in a hammock, cooked with my friend on an open fire and spent a few days exploring true natural beauty.

From there I went to Taganga for a night to check out some festival or party on Wednesday nights at garaje which was really interesting. I met a guy that was traveling in Colombia with his sister and he was only 17! He really impressed me and I love to meet people like that because it pushes me to do go even further and do more things.

From Taganga I made the 17 hour bus journey down to Medellin, the city of eternal spring. I met Brett and Susy (friends from Oman) and was able to stay with them and their family which was awesome and really really nice of them. We went straight to the feria de flores, but we were a bit late and weren´t able to get great seats to see all the stuff. Nevertheless, it was still really cool to be part of the whole parade and everything with a real local family. Brett and Susy showed me around town for a bit and then we went on a chiva organized by AIESEC which is basically just a big open party bus that drives around town, it was glorious and it was raining.

The next night I met people from Chicago! In the last 3 years of traveling and such, I have never met someone else that was traveling from Chicago. I was talking to one of the older Colombian guys from Chicago and I asked him (in Spanish) to teach me something about Colombia that I can´t find in a book or online. He thought for a second, looked at me and just started grinning like crazy with his teeth. He said ESO ES COLOMBIA! He told me that these are the happiest, friendliest people you will ever meet in the world and then he proceeded to prove it to me. He grabbed my arm and took me over to a group of Colombians singing and dancing in the park where we were and he just started grinning and dancing and motioned for me to do the same, so I did. The people were great and everyone was saying hi, hows it going, where you from, etc. and I sat and talked with them (complete strangers introduced to me by a semi stranger) for at least 20 or 30 minutes. This was the best interaction I have had with people so far on my trip and it just proved that Colombia is safe and people are friendly and happy as ever despite what the news says.

The next day Brett and Susy took me to some Paisa Pueblos and I had some authentic bandeja Paisa and desserts as well. I wrapped up my last day in Medellin running some errands with Brett and just wandering around some places we hadn´t seen before. Medellin was really a beautiful city and I can´t wait to show you all pictures of it, I really hope I go back to the city of eternal spring very soon.

I hopped on another overnight bus from Medellin down to Popayan, a small village that usually has lots of students. I finally got to meet up with someone from couchsurfing and it was GREAT! She took me around to all her favorite little local places like this cafe her friend owned and the Morro from where you could see the whole town. I had some local empanadas, fruit juice, and tamales that you can only find in Poapayan that I would not have otherwise known about. She introduced me to her group of friends and all of just hung out at the cafe and I loved it, I felt like I was just another one of their friends hanging out in the cafe. I really wish I could have stayed longer here. Later at night I even met a friend that is really into photography so we went on top of the Morro and walked around town taking pictures at night. Popayan was really nice and a quaint little town, I would really love to visit when there´s lots of students and see how it feels in relation to U of I.

Popayan was kind of the end of my Colombian journey. I hopped on a bus from Popayan to Ipiales (border town) via Pasto. From Ipiales I took a minibus to the border and then walked accross. In Ecuador I hopped on another bus to get to Tulcan (another border town) From TulcanI hopped on another bus that brought me to Quito and here I am now. That is my trip so far, only 5 weeks left. Ecuador here I come.


Ciao for now

"We cannot successfully address any of our problems without addressing all of them. -"President Obama, Feb. 21, 2009

I read an Article in the International Herald Tribune today talking about how the Obama administration is trying to do everything all at once and as a result will do nothing correctly.

There is a lot of buzz and hype around the Obama administration and everyone knows that the expectations are extremely high. He still has very very high approval ratings, suggesting that the public likes what he is doing. However, there are (as there should be) some critics out there always trying to point out the bad things. Most of the Obama criticism I have seen thus far has been kind of silly and doesn’t make much sense to me logically. This opinion, however, really stuck to me.

I think one of my biggest personal flaws is that I always try and do everything all at once and often times get overwhelmed. This can be bad because often times it really strains my time management skills and there are only so many hours in a day and so many things you can keep in your head at once. I heave learned (the hard way) that I cannot do everything all at once, that I must take things one at a time and focus in on specific tasks in order to accomplish the greater goals I have in my head. somehow, however, everything always gets done no matter how much there is or how impossible it may seem. Task by task, everything gets done.

Obama has put together a team of rockstars and if anyone can take on the insurmountable task of re writing modern economics as we know it, it is him and his team. I still have a lot of faith in his ability to lead and judging by approval ratings, so do lots of other people, but I think it is really important to keep thinking critically about what he is doing and criticizing things and making them better because it can always be better.

However, I think the reality of today’s situation is such that it really is absolutely necessary to take on all the problems at once, there really isn’t any time to waste and I think it is absolutely necessary to handle everything all at once. That is what a great leader is supposed to do.

Salalah

Everyone told me Salalah is the most beautiful place around and that it is especially great during the Salalah festival in August, so I figured I must go while I am in Oman to see what all the fuss is about.

I fell asleep on the 12 hour over-night bus ride across the country and woke up to find the bus engulfed in fog and mist. I was amused; this made no sense. After not seeing a single drop of rain in Oman, I kept thinking to myself, 'Am I still in Oman? I found my way to the hotel where everyone else had arrived the night before (they flew) and we ventured out for a day of exploring.

The first day we drove around a bit and saw some very deep sink holes and caves and then we made our way to the area where there was supposed to be a massive waterfall. Unfortunately, there hadn't been enough rain over the past couple weeks and the waterfall was not yet falling. Nevertheless, the area was really interesting, something unlike anything I have seen in the Middle East or the Gulf before. It reminded me of Memorial Day weekend when families go to a park and get together, have a BBQ, play some games... you get the idea. There were families from all over the gulf: Saudi, Oman, UAE, Bahrain. There were men, women, kids, everyone all in one place with the least separation I have seen yet. It was nice to see everyone just hanging out in the park, reminded me of home.

Later that day we went to a nearby town on the coast. The waves all over were super powerful and no one was swimming in the water, or even trying to wade in on the beach. I stood by watching the waves crash against the rocks for a while and then walked over to the dock. There was a fishing boat pulling sharks out of a big iced container on the boat. We all stood there and watched, awe-struck as they systematically pulled out 59 blood-stained sharks. Then, we went to this ominous anti-gravity spot where you we put the car in neutral, turn off the engine and the car moves up a slight incline. This was pretty amusing so we took some videos here and kept going back and forth and trying to push the car down, but it never worked. We ended the night catching up with some Americans in Salalah studying Arabic at an Omani restaurant, followed by some shisha.

In the following days we went to Mughsail and saw some geysers periodically spurting out ocean water under a cave like structure. The next day we saw some 'springs' that had no water and a couple of tombs. Everyone kept telling me that all these places were going to be soooo beautiful and wonderful as if this was the greatest place on earth. It was nice to be in Salalah for a couple days, relax, and get away from the intense heat common to the rest of the gulf. However, I don't think this cloudy, rainy, dirty, foggy, and kind of green place was anything extraordinary like how it was made out to be by everyone I spoke with. I think its just the novelty of having rain and fog in the middle of the desert that makes people think it is so beautiful. Salalah was a nice weekend getaway in Oman, but it's not going to make next year's top ten tourist hot spots list.

...long overdue

I have been meaning to start this blog for nearly two years now, ever since I graduated high school. All through high school I had dreamed of traveling and seeing the world and funny things like this, but never realized that I would soon make these dreams come true.


Since entering college I have taken advantage of a myriad of study abroad, work abroad and travel opportunities. My first winter break (Dec '07- Jan '08) I spent about a month in Istanbul, Turkey learning about globalization and how Turkey fits into the whole EU puzzle. This was the first time I ever ventured off to another country without my family. I learned a lot about being independent and doing things for myself. The best thing about Istanbul was the rich history. I loved going to places I had read about like The Blue Mosque and the Hagia Sophia and feeling the energy, imagining what Sultanahmet must have been like in its hey-day. It's a completely different level of understanding and learning when you are able to feel a place instead of just read about it and see pictures.

Right after freshman year finished, I went on the Business Honors simulated Business Trip to Brazil. This program was a bit more structured and business focused. We had lots of company visits where we would hear presentations from Brazilian executives about how business is done in Brazil. We would then (led by Professor Bear- the world's expert on the Brazil) proceed to challenge these executives by trying to to ask them difficult and thought-provoking questions. It was an amazing experience being able to do such a thing at such a young age. The leisure time was great too. I remember one day when we were in Paraty, we had a big boat for all 45 of us and we just went out into the ocean and went island hopping all day long, seeing some of the most beautiful and pristine sand beaches I have ever seen. Brazil was a great time to bond with all of the other business honors students and I really learned a lot about how great everyone in the program is.

I came home for one very short week in which I got plane tickets and made final arrangements for going to Kenya. I spent my summer in Nairobi, Kenya doing developmental work. Through much fortitude and persistance, I found myself three internships while in Kenya where I taught math and business classes to students in a community high school (Raila Educational Centre), ran the ASK AIDS awareness program out of another public high school (Jamhuri), and created a system of accounting and a business plan for a children's home (Stars for Jesus Children's Home). My summer in Kenya was one of the most challenging experiences of my life. I came to the land of whizzing matatus and extravagant safaris not knowing anyone, eager to "make a difference," but I faced a many more challenges than I was ready for. At first, there was a lot of miscommunication with AIESEC, and I didn't have any work at all. I was having an extremely difficult time adjusting to the culture and the people, and I felt incapable of connecting with anyone, leaving me very depressed and demoralized. I knew I was down and that I had to get up, so I kept my purpose in perspective and I forced myself to go out and to meet people and to forge meaningful relationships, I forced myself to go and find my own work, I pushed myself harder than I ever have to fulfill my goals. Adversity builds character and Kenya gave me the opportunity of a lifetime to build more character that I could handle. By the end of my very very short two months, I had succeeded. I felt like I was making a positive impact on local Kenyan society through my work and I was really helping the people I was interacting with. I was so accustomed to the Kenyan way of life that Kenyans would mistake me for an Asian Kenyan and speak to me in Swahili. I would respond back with the few words of Swahili that I knew and go on with my day and they would never know. This is the epitome of exchange, when you can fool the locals into thinking that you are one of them, and it is the greatest feeling on earth. Even though it was one year ago now, I still think about Kenya every single day and how much I miss it and how much its helped me develop as a strong individual.

One of the most empowering things I did in Kenya was climb Mt. Kenya. It is the tallest mountain on the equator and the most difficult trek in Africa. It was an exhausting and treacherous four day climb. Towards the top, we got to a point where our guide said it is unsafe to continue climbing. There was a lot of snow and the terrain was extremely rocky making it slippery beyond control. All 12 of the people that had made it this far agreed, but I didn't care. I had decided long before that I will reach the top of the mountain and touch the Kenyan flag. I told the guide that I am going up whether he wants to take me or not. I trudged on, through the altitude sickness, hunger, and fatigue because I was determined to touch that flag. I must have slid and almost died at least 10 times since I separated from the group, and unfortunately the guide didn't give me much comfort as he was tired and climbing in front of me, so he wouldn't have been able to do anything if I fell. I made it though, and there I was, standing on top of Mt. Kenya. I could feel nothing anymore. I forgot about my altitude sickness, and the cold, and everything that was aching, and the exhaustion, nothing mattered because I was on the top. Standing up there all alone was quite humbling. The view was similar from up top as it was from the earlier point where everyone else stopped but it felt entirely different. Standing there alone made me realize how small I really am in the grand scheme of things and how seemingly insignificant I am, yet were all part of this cycle that is so much bigger than any of us could ever imagine, and each individual component is necessary in order to make the whole function properly. It sounds fundamentally simple to understand, but standing up there and feeling it in my heart and in my blood was a completely different level of understanding.

At the end of my Kenya experience, I went to Uganda with the idea of going white water rafting in the Nile and coming back to Kenya. The trip had a great start with the bus leaving 3 hours late and then breaking down in the middle of no where at 4am for about 5 hours. The total journey to Kampala, capital of Uganda, took 23 joyful hours. I ended up extending my trip with Husayn and Andrew and we ended up spending a good 10 days traveling literally all over the country. This is the first time I really traveled independently and it felt great to organize things on my own and find my own way. I developed a very thick skin for tourist gimmicks and pushed my independence even further.

When I came back to Kenya, it was the weirdest feeling; I felt comfortable, I felt at home again. Just as everything was fitting together and making sense and life was great in Kenya, my time expired. Of all the places I have been in my life, leaving Kenya was definitely the most difficult. Nevertheless, I got on that plane and headed to Singapore for my semester long study exchange program.

I quickly realized that Singapore was the complete opposite of everything Kenyan. The taxi ride home from the airport was impossibly smooth and orderly, everything was clean and efficient, and lots of rules for everything that no one dares to disobey; it was like a whole new world to me. One of the most interesting things about my first couple months in Singapore was feeling reverse culture shock in reference to Kenya instead of the US. Singapore is a very interesting place and its amazing how the country has developed from being ridden with poverty to having living standards comparable to Western Europe and the US in a mere 40 years. I learned a lot about being independent and challenged myself to penetrate societies compartments.


Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is one of the most international institutions I have ever been to. Singapore itself has Malays, Chinese, and Indians. On top of that NTU had international students from literally all over Asia, even Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. Additionally, NTU was home to exchange students from all over the world from the US to Europe all the way to China. Even in such an international environment with the people most prone to being open and wanting to have cross cultural communication; in general, all the Singaporean Chinese kids hung out together, all the Malays hung out together, all the Europeans hung out together, all the Iranis hung out together, etc, and there was very little mixing of these peoples. I was always that one American/Pakistani guy sitting in the middle of 5 Malay kids trying to have a conversation about life. Singapore taught me that human nature says stick with the people you know and don't branch out to everyone else. I realized how difficult it is to be that one guy, but I have made a conscious decision to continue doing it because I like it.

After a rough academic semester in Singapore, I had about a month before I had to be home, so I decided to pack a backpack and go explore some more of Southeast Asia. I had already done a couple of shorter trips to Malaysia and Indonesia, so I decided to head up North to Cambodia. Siem Reap and the Temples of Angkor were out of this world. I was amazed by the intricate details of the temples and how could it be possible that all these temples are still standing? Even more impressive were some of the temples struggling to peacefully co-exist with mother nature who was trying to eat them up by growing massive trees that were almost becoming part of the structure of the temples.


From Cambodia I took a bus to Vietnam starting in the South in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). I made my way North taking a bus upto Dalat and then Nha Trang and then Hoi An. I met some awesome Vietnamese women in Hoi An that were operating a restaurant and a tailor business. Geoff and I sat there for hours laughing and joking with the women; it was great. We went back to our hotel for a bit and then came back to the restaurant. It had started pouring rain, so we ran through the rain and it felt invigorating, I felt as if I had been reborn or something. We reached the restaurant soaking wet as they were closing up and they took us with them and their friends to go to a karaoke bar. The women were great singers and it was amazing to be able to sit there and talk with them and experience a part of Vietnam that I didn't even know existed. From Hoi An I took a very long bus ride upto Hanoi and from there I was off Bangkok, Thailand.

Instead of going South to see all the beaches and night life, I decided to head up north to Chiang Mai and then to Pai. In Pai, I rented a motorcycle and rode off into the mountains not knowing where I was going or how I would get back. I rode through open fields and rice paddies, rolling hills, soaring mountains, and some of the most beautiful unspoiled natural beauty I have ever seen. I came back to Bangkok and spent a couple of final days in SE Asia.

I was finally going home. I had a 12 hour stopover in Seoul where I explored the city a bit, but really I just wanted to go home. After nearly eight straight months of being away from everything I knew and loved, and an amazing journey full of challenges and surprises, I was finally back. I'll never forget the moment when I passed by the customs officer and he gave me a warm smile, looked me in the eye and said, "Welcome home!"

Over those eight months I changed more than I realized it. I learned to appreciate everything I have, and realized how I am one of the luckiest people on earth for all the opportunities I have been able to take advantage of. I gained a newfound appreciation of the good 'ole U S of A and have since become a very proud American. The thing I love most about traveling and seeing the world is trying to understand how other people live, realizing that it is often times fundamentally different from how I live, and recognizing that this is okay because even though were all different, were all human and we are all much more similar than we are dissimilar.

I didn't stay put for very long after that, I went to Tunisia over spring break for an AIESEC conference called MENA XLDS. Here, I learned a lot about how AIESEC functions and leadership and met a lot of people from all over the world. We had some great conversations about East vs. West stereotypes and it was a lot of fun.


After the semester ended I went on the International Business Immersion Program to Europe. We had been studying the global agribusiness supply chain all semester and my group focused on EU trade with developing nations, analyzing the issue through the eyes of the chocolate industry. In Europe we went to Belgium, France, Netherlands, and Germany. I went to lots of company visits trying to figure out how the global agribuisness supply chain works in the real world. I saw lots of super advanced facilities and got to speak with all sorts of business professionals across Europe.

After the trip I went to Amsterdam for a couple days and then Spain for about 10 days with Masha. Spain was especially interesting because I took Spanish in high school, so it was fun trying to pick up as much as I could and trying to communicate. I started out in Barcelona, then Granada, Sevilla, and finally Madrid. I really liked Southern Spain for its mix of modern and Muslim architecture. Spain was a very chill place in general, it seemed like everyone was just taking a break all the time, which was very nice to experience.

From Spain I came to Oman, my current locale. I am here for the summer on an internship with PricewaterhouseCoopers and even that is coming to an end very soon. It has been a very difficult and frustrating challenge trying to adapt to the work culture in Oman. Everything is done very slowly and it it seems like there is a lack of fundamental people management skills. I had a very tough time getting work to do for the first couple of weeks, no matter how persistent I was. It just didn't make sense to me why I wasn't getting real work to help with. I proved myself on some small projects which allowed me to establish trust and gain credibility. Since then, I have been able to get on real projects, taking on all kinds of responsibility that interns don't usually get. I have learned a lot about the audit world and the audit process and confirmed my feelings that I do not want to be in the audit profession. Nevertheless, I am very thankful for my experience here because I really wanted to learn the audit process and I think it will help me a lot in my future endeavors by understanding this portion of the business cycle.


Outside of work, Oman has been very interesting so far. I have gotten the chance to go all around in Oman to Nizwa, Sawadi, Sur, and Sinaw, and I am going to Salalah this weekend. I even got the chance to go to Dubai, Jordan, and Israel while I was here. One of the best weekends I have had here was when we went camping in the desert with the Bedouins. Jihad and Hasan took us to Barzaman to meet their friend Hamnan and his family. The Bedouins are extremely friendly and open, and they welcomed us as if we were their family. We arrived quite late at night, but we still went and plucked a goat from their herd, and proceeded to drive out into the middle of no where. The Bedouins slaughtered the goat, cleaned it, and cooked one of the best meals I have ever eaten, all over an open flame. They cooked the meat with lots of rice and special spices and lemon, and it was delicious. We set up camp and sat around the fire for a bit chatting the night away. Everyone had fallen asleep and I was just laying there on the mat in the sand, staring up into abyss. I must have laid there for hours just staring at the sky, I even saw three shooting stars while I was laying there. It reminded me of Champaign a lot and I really missed home. The next morning we went and saw camel racing, which has become a very entrepreneurial venture for these Bedouins. It's amazing how the way of life of these nomadic desert people has transformed in the last generation. They are basically like the counterpart to modern cowboys in the USA. After camel racing we drove around the desert looking for small lizard holes. We would then stop the car, connect a hose to the exhaust and gas out the lizards. After some time, they would breathe out all the fumes and recover and be ready to run around. We would put them down on the ground, circle them and then let them run around as we chased them and tried to catch them. As vulgar as it may sound, this is kind of like the equivalent to little boys trying to burn bugs through the lens of a magnifying glass. Nevertheless, it was a great time and I had a lot of fun. Later, we took them back to Hamnan's home and cooked the lizards with some rice and chicken and had a feast. It was an awesome weekend.



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So that is a little taste of what I have been doing for the past two years. It has been an unbelievable ride so far and I hope that there is much more to come. I still can't believe that I have had such a rich global experience at such a young age, and I am very thankful for it. I have been through a lot of challenges and have had to pound through constant obstacles, but its all worth it in the end. It is a huge world out there and I feel it is our duty as able citizens of the earth to go out and experience as much as we can.

Kenya - The most challenging summer of my life

This is the reflection I wrote after my powerful experience spending the summer in Kenya doing a developmental intership.

I created it as a pdf along with photos to send to my classmates. You can read all about Kenya here.