Aha Moment in India
UPDATE: Did you hear? YOU did it! 60,000 vaccinations donated thanks to your comments and social media shares. Amazing. THANK YOU!
We must’ve been louder than I thought we were. My family and I were sitting in a corner of a restaurant of the beautiful and modern Ista hotel in Amritsar, India high-fiving and grinning at what we had done.
We had been on the road for eight months at that point. We had come through dozens of cities, conquered many fears and experienced many firsts, but today we had taken it to another level.
After hearing from our friend Prashant at Liberty India that the “Beating Retreat” soldier ceremony that takes place at the India-Pakistan border is a thing that had to be seen, we had taken ourselves and our two sons (ages 7 and 9 at the time) to see what the fuss was about.
The event itself was thrilling; pomp and circumstance beyond belief .
Bright colours and gates slamming and high kicks and back pats and cheering crowds
and finally, the firm handshake between two countries who agree to disagree on so much and the promise to repeat the whole thing the next day.
It was an incredible experience.
As we made our way through the crowds back to our waiting cab, adrenaline racing, I realized that the thrill was as much about what we had seen as it was about the fact that we had faced what the world had told us was something to fear and found it to be as safe as a baseball game outing at home.
The world became less frightening in that moment.
We couldn’t stop talking about it as we walked away, while we were in the car and now as we sat safely back in our hotel.
I know that we were loud because I noticed a woman dining solo across the restaurant looking over at us as she ate her dinner. I smiled at her, apologized, and a conversation ensued.
What incredible thing, she wondered aloud, had we encountered that had us so happy so late at night.
Us and Them| #Blogust
We explained:
How our families at home didn’t know we were here because we hadn’t wanted to cause any unnecessary worry.
How despite our initial fears we had trusted a once stranger who had become our friend and were having an incredible time in India because of it.
How much we had loved the ceremony.
How the thing we thought was so dangerous wasn’t dangerous at all.
And she laughed with us.
Yes, she agreed. The world is a funny place with its general ideas of people and places. As if one news story or even a dozen could ever do justice to the complexities of countries in conflict.
Where, she asked, were we from. “America?”
“No,” we explained. “We’re from Toronto.”
She stopped eating and her face paled.
She knew it?
“Yes,” she told us. Her son had been in school there but she had insisted he come home. It was not safe! There had been a murder of a foreign student at his university. Toronto, she told us while we sat miles from the India-Pakistan border, is a dangerous place.
And that’s when it hit me.
We are the same. All of us. Our desires. Our fears. We love our children. We worry for them. We want them safe at all times.
And sometimes that desire to protect becomes so overwhelming that we forget that on the other side of the world there is a mother trying to do exactly the same with a completely opposite package of information coming through her media outlets and often a lack of resources to do more.
It wasn’t the first time I’d pondered our similarities with people around the world, ( That was in reality one of the reasons we did the trip in the first place) but it was the first time that the perspective of my reality was so completely tested.
What I thought to be fact was in fact someone else’s fiction. And what I knew first hand to be fiction was believed by this loving mother across the world to be fact.
And yet we both wanted the same things: To keep our families safe. To protect our offspring while recognizing that a part of that was showing them the world.
A Shot at Life |#Blogust
This is why I am so honoured to have been asked to be a United Nations Social Ambassador with the Shot at Life program.
The program works through the United Nations to offer vaccinations to children in developing countries who could not otherwise be afforded the protections that many of us take for granted in North America.
It offers a mother on the other side of the world the opportunity to provide for their child. It offers them a way to protect. It offers a “happy and healthy first.”
The shots are being donated by Walgreens, who will match up to 60,000 vaccinations through this education campaign.
How do you help? It’s simple.
Spread the word.
Comment on this blogpost. Share it through social media mentions and instagram photos. And continue to do so for the other posts being shared by myself and the 30 other bloggers tapped for this amazing initiative this year. For every share a child will be vaccinated.
There’s something else you can do to.
Travel.
Get out there and meet the people just like us. The ones who you may think you have nothing in common with. The ones who you’ve been told are scary, or terrorists or animals. The ones you’ve been led to believe are unsafe.
You can go slowly – get to know the waiter in your all-inclusive or the neighbor who immigrated recently – but make the effort.
The opportunity to hear a new perspective on something that you thought to be a given fact and then to have it change everything you thought you knew is an incredible thing.
I wish you all that opportunity.
During Shot@Life’s Blogust 2014—a month-long blog relay—some of North America’s most beloved online writers, photo and video bloggers and Shot@Life Champions will come together and share stories about Happy and Healthy Firsts. Every time you comment on this post and other Blogust contributions, or share them via social media on this website, Shot@Life and the United Nations Foundation pages, Walgreens will donate one vaccine (up to 60,000). Blogust is one part an overall commitment of Walgreens donating up to $1 million through its “Get a Shot. Give a Shot.” campaign. The campaign will help provide millions of vaccines for children in need around the world.
Sign up here for a daily email so you can quickly and easily comment and share every day during Blogust! For more information, visit shotatlife.org or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.
What an amazing initiative!
It’s inspiring to watch it go!
What a marvelous story – your children are very fortunate to have you as parents. And we can all wish that many more families from many more countries could share your experience. Maybe then peace could come to parts of the world that seem to always be in conflict. At least by commenting on this story we can help save some children from disease.
I feel fortunate to have these kids. Thanks so much for doing your part with this comment!
Beautiful! Will be heading out of the country in October and can’t wait to experience a different culture and recognizing all the similarities! Thank you for supporting vaccines!
Safe travels!
Every time I think I’ve heard all about your trip around the world, I hear more, and I realize how much you learned. We all love learning along with you. Keep posting!
Oh, there’s so much more still to tell Kathy. I may just have to write a book. ;)
What an amazing experience. I travelled through India years ago. Of all the countries I visited in South East Asia, it was the only one I was afraid of…. I thought it was dangerous. It turned out to be my favourite — beautiful, peaceful, life changing. Thanks for sharing your story (your family is the cutest) and for supporting such a worthy cause.
My husband feels the same way Lisa! He loved it most of all. Thank YOU!
What an inspiring, enlightening story and initiative. Thanks so much for sharing.
Thanks for participating Pam. Appreciate it.
What a great post! My son and I are preparing for a year trip starting in West Africa. Everyone is telling us not to go. Thank you for this reminder!!!
Safe travels Brandee!
I can only imagine that your boys will remember the ceremony, and the lessons you all took away from it together, for the rest of their lives. And now, thanks to your beautiful post for #Blogust, I get the chance to share your incredibly beautiful story with my girls. Thank you!!!
So proud to be a part of this #Blogust campaign with so many fantastic people and perspectives! Thank you.
I remember having a similar experience in Paris but about children playing. They are the same everywhere.
Great job!
We’ve seen that too Jenn. Kids are usually the first to see the similarities.
Such a great story! What an experience to share with the family.
It has been a few years and the lessons keep coming Jeff. :)
Wow – what a perspective changer. Thank you.
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Heather this post feels so important right now, when the world feels even scarier than ever. Thank you!
Fantastic post! Thanks for sharing!
Love this, Heather! Fabulous perspective and a great way to help.
Thank you for sharing your inspiring story. God Bless you all.
Oh how we need this collective recognition of our connectedness, our sameness, our humanity.
Ref-AHA moment in India- #Blogust addressed “Shot at Life ” program as United Nations Social Ambassador is as global cultural contact for social & protected world.Parenting as natural family & life process is mix of desires,fears, love ,affection,behavior,& consciousness for the children.Social Cultural contact between
countries & individuals could address & promote social control mechanism, justice
to the complexities,reduce & prevent social stress & conflict ,around the world.#Blogust as global conversation & comments have global vaccination & immunization objectives for safe global childhood.
What a fantastic story about traveling and seeing astonishing sites — only to find familiarity and common ground everywhere.
I love this post so much. This illustrates perfectly what I *so* wish the world at large would just get, once and for all.
We really are all the same.
This is a wonderful initiative and I am really happy that you are a part of it. Bravo!
It’s inevitable that media will inform our opinions and perspectives in some way. This article is a great reminder to not solidify those opinions and perspectives on issues, people and cultures without first seeking out our own tangible, real-life experience.
Love this initiative… Giving all children a chance. Travel is one of the best experiences, what a gift to give your children. :)
Great cause. Thanks Walgreens!
TFS!
Great perspective!
Thanks! :)
Great reminder of how travel can open minds and help us to see our similarities rather than our differences! Love this Shot@Life initiative too – every mother should have the opportunity to protect her child with vaccinations.
Totally agree Lisa. So many mothers out there who want more for their children. We can help in such small but powerful ways.
Thanks so much for this post Heather! It is a wonderful perspective on the perception of risk and benefits of travelling. Thanks to Walgreens for this wonderful initiative.
Thanks Mandy. Appreciate the comment!
What a simple way to give back and help someone across the globe. Great work!
Thanks Heather! Humbled to have been asked and so happy to be able to do it.
oh, how so much I wish we could all agree two, at the very least, show up and agree to disagree for yet another day. And shake hands. And then, of course, move actively toward finding solutions. We are all the same, because of our differences. Thanks for writing this.
Right Susan? It blew my mind. What if?
What a moving, honest post. Thanks for sharing this, and for participating in #blogust
Appreciate this Liz. #blogust
Such a great story and experience.Having grown up in South Asia and moved to North America, I truly understand how we’re all the same. #Blogust is such a great initiative of using social media ”power” to do good!
Thanks Yashy. So proud to have been asked to participate. So simple. So powerful.
Amazing what we can learn when we open our minds. Thank you for sharing your journey.
xo
Thanks for coming along Sarah.
What a beautiful post. Yes, traveling does open our minds. Hugs!
Back to you. Thanks for the comment.
So true Heather! This is a fantastic article and what a great initiative.
Thanks Andrea, I know you know how vastly different the world is from the way it is often protrayed. Love all that YOU do to help destroy stereotypes.
What a great story, Heather! You so rarely hear from people who think Canada’s not safe! So interesting. And great to hear about this UN program. Happy to support a program that helps children – and mothers!
Exactly! I do think Canada is safe but to an outsider with different information it looked so different. Really made me stop and think about my own perceptions.
Very inspiring discovery of the parallels we tend to either be ignorant of or choose to ignore!!!! Thanks
Thank you!
Great post! I too travel a lot but have not brought my kids with me yet to anything overseas. Traveling around the world changes your life and it is one of the greatest life lessons of all. It shows us that everyone is different yet alike and also how important it is to give back. There are so many less fortunate than us who never will have the chance to travel. Great post!
Thanks Nicole. Traveling with the kids has only made my travel experiences better!
This is amazing, Heather!
Thanks Julie!#Blogust rules!
Thanks for taking me there with the story, Heather, through your words, pictures and experience! Commendations too to Shot for Life.
Thanks for coming with me Heather. ;)xo
Blogust is one of my favorite events of the year. Thanks for sharing!
Quickly becoming one of mine too. :)
Your photos are amazing!
One world. But what variety. Tanks for sharing HGD!
Great post!
I love this. Thank you.
Thank you for reading!
I love your travel stories Heather but this is one I will always keep with me. Thank you for sharing it and supporting such a worthy cause.
So glad!
Dear Heather,
What a fantastic post — it resonates with me a lot, giving us the chance to know “the other” that we may fear, have stereotypes of or don’t want to see, maybe. And what I like the most is that you are sharing that approach to life with your family, your kids….and as you say, essentially we are all humans, who love our loved ones, who want to be loved, who want to do meaningful things. I do believe that when we allow people, friends and family just to be humans, we allow ourselves to be loving and caring humans, too. Thanks for campaigning with ShotaLife!
So well said Cecillia.
Thanks for sharing this for blogust! It’s so amazing that you travel with your kids!
Thanks! I travel with the kids almost as much as I travel without them these days. It’s so rewarding.
Great insight … and thanks for supporting the SHOT@LIFE vaccination campaign through Blogust 2014
Thanks. Happy to be a part of it!
Great blog post. Your story is a perfect way of illustrating that parents all around the world are wanting their children and families to be healthy and safe.
We really do all want the same thing I think.
The simple truth of you story is heart warming. Before we reduced ourselves to the exposure of the sometimes slanted media, we interacted with neighbors and newcomers into our communities. Seeing people without the tarnish of prejudgement, eye to eye, erases mystery and opens the door to untainted acceptance.
Praise to Walgreens for the vaccines and remaining an American Co.
Thanks for the comment Ray..and for getting it. :)
Thank you for working with Shot @Life and your great photos!
No problem Barbara. Happy to share them.
Dear Heather!
What a great initiative! You are an example for me!
Thanks for let me be part of it (in a very small way… :)!).
R.
Thank YOU. Really heartwarming to see the response this has had. I’m grateful.
Amazing initiative! Well written and so true – we all share some of the same fears!
Thanks Leorna. Appreciate the comment.
I think about this often, although on a much more local level — i.e., living in and having my kids grow up in an urban setting (school system, public transportation, etc.) and the “safety” of our environment vs. friends and family living in the suburbs vs. those living in rural areas. My comfort level is so much higher with so many people around and looking out for each other as opposed to where I grew up with no neighbors, no one else around, and still feel a little unsettled in less populated areas.
And your story makes me think about how blessed we are to be in an area where my children have met so many people from so many different places that their exposure to India and Pakistan comes not just from the news, but from the kids from those countries sitting across from them in the classroom.
Thank you for sharing this.
I feel the same way Jen. You don’t have to go to India to meet someone from there. You can meet them here at home if you’re open to it. Same goes for almost every where else in the world. I feel lucky to live in a place where so many people from so many places are open to sharing a bit of their insights with me.
Great post!
Thank you.
Wow, I was so moved reading this post! Thanks for sharing your amazing story and I will definitely be sharing.
Thanks Kath!
Thank you so much for sharing your amazing travel story and photos! People are equal all around the world, and knowledge is the beginning: we have to look at each other with open hearts and minds, first of all from people who live near us. (I was born and lived till some years ago in Milan, now stay in a little town only 35 km away and persons around me say: “Milan is so dangerous, it is not safe to live there!” and I can not agree, obviously).
And also thank you and Blogust for this great cause!
“Knowledge is the beginning”
I couldn’t agree more! Thank you.
We travel every chance we get, although my husband and I still have demanding, full time jobs. We will be traveling to India for the first time in November through December and found your article both insightful and very helpful.
Thank you very much!
It’s such a magical place Candace. Enjoy it! (I’ve written about some magical moments there here on the blog. Do a quick search of India if you’d like to find them.) Love the feeling it evokes even more than the land itself.
What an amazing story. We truly are all the same. :)
It’s a lesson I keep learning.
Excellent! Thanks for supporting polio eradication and immunization!
So happy to do it.
Great cause!!
#Blogust rules. :)
Yes, traveling is the best life lesson ever, great story!
Thanks Kathy. Enjoyed your post too.
Yes!!! Get out there, travel. And, things that we anxiously perceive as scary, may not be so scary afterall. Great post!! Great cause, too!
Thanks Jennifer.
Wonderful words! Thanks for sharing x
thanks!
Great post!
thanks!
Regardless of the colour of our skin, the colour of our flag, or the way we pray, every father and mother in the world want the same thing – a better life and future for their children than the ones they have.
Well said Nizam.
This is truly a reminder of our similarities rather than the differences that so becomes our focus. Thanks for sharing.
Warm Regards
Felicity Richards
We all suffer from fears based on partial stories…it’s good to read and share those that debunk the myths a bit.
Kudos to you and your family for being intrepid explorers – and for sharing it with the world – I do hope to get out and do some world and culture exploring myself one day soon…and thanks Felicity, for sharing this post with me :)
What a breathtaking post. I also realized in Ethiopia how many of us want the same thing for our children. But we think less here about how we want our kids to live past five; we just expect it will happen. That’s why this effort is so important to me, and I am so glad to be able to support it with a simple comment.
It’s a lesson I keep learning
Truth!
“We are the same. All of us. Our desires. Our fears. We love our children. We worry for them. We want them safe at all times.”
:)
Fascinating share, thanks.
Thanks for helping support #blogust
Thanks for this good reminder.
Thank you
Beautiful, thank you!
Thanks for reading!
I love this – this is how I try and raise my girls. Homeschooling as world schooling and hoping they learn compassion, empathy and knowledge of the world they cannot just read about. Much love to you and your family xxxx
Thanks so much!! Best to your family too!
So true and such a great reminder!
Thanks for reading!
Amazing, eye-opening experience!
One of my favourite moments from our trip. :)
Thanks for sharing Heather, you uncle John is soooo proud of you, said you need to visit St. Lucia to add to you world tours…Blessings to you and family
Happily! Hope he knows how much I love him. He’s never far from my thoughs. xo
What a powerful reminder of all the things that connect us as individuals!
It really was Elena. The world is so topsy turvy these days…hope it helps a little.
What an incredible experience! Thanks for sharing this important lesson. Smiles!
Thanks Lorraine!
What an interesting view of Toronto! :)
Eye-opening for me!
Thank you! Your post was very insightful! So many people live their entire lives without recognizing that we are all the same!
Thanks so much for reading and commenting.
Very insightful! Thank you!
Thank you!
Nice post. Kudos to you and your family! I was only once in India a few years on a business trip while working for an international NGO. I’d love to go back there one day with my kids. While in India, I had the opportunity to participate in an anti-polio drive. I administered drops of oral vaccine to a couple of youngsters at an immunization booth in Uttaranchal. I am so thrilled and proud that India has been declared polio-free earlier this year.
That’s awesome Sandra. We loved India. I hope to have the chance to visit again.
I love that you faced what the world had told us was something to fear and had such a fabulous conversation with a stranger! Here’s experiencing many more firsts during your family travels!
Thank you!I wish you the same! :)
Hi Ardis Brayman thanks for an informative article. Join the group here at MyComms as a way of showing support for Pakistan and letting the world know India and Pakistan hopes for a future together, https://www.mycomuniti.com/group/india-with-pakistan
I like aleardy what u want , it’s amazing .