Money is the Root of All...

My thoughts on a sleepless Tuesday night.

Lately money has been the root of all...adventure.

Last month Thailand.
Snowboarding
Tomorrow Hokkaido.
March, more snowboarding and domestic travel.

Late April...India?!!

So I have just been given the opportunity to do another volunteer gig. This time in India building houses for the Dalit social caste, formally known as the untouchables. It would be a week long work camp in a small village located in Andhra Pradesh.

A great opportunity since if I go to India, I want to see the real side of India. Not the clean side, the fake side, the tourist brochure side. Sure I want to see that too, but I want to really experience the culture, the people, the life. Doing this with a volunteer group is probably the most rewarding AND safest way of going about it.

The problem, the price.

Flights costing around $1000 stacked on top of a volunteer trip fee of $650 plus another $150 to get an Indian visa. Then of course this doesn't include domestic expenses of travel such as domestic flights, food outside of the work camp, etc. etc. Although I am sure domestic expenses are relatively cheap.

Will my school allow me to take 6 days of personal holiday in late April/early May? This will allow me about 13 days in India with the help of a few national holidays.

Is spending $2000 worth it? Going all the way to India just for two weeks to haul some bricks? I bet the people I will be hauling bricks for will think so.

This is only a few months away. If I join there is fund-raising, visas, preparations, etc. I only volunteered in Thailand a little over a month ago. What am I thinking?

My other choice for "golden week" holiday is to visit my friend in Taiwan. The total cost being less than $1000. Taiwan is cool, but India is...well more adventurous in my book.

Another JET, Kyoko, is also planning on going to India. I am staying at her place tomorrow before I head off to Hokkaido. I will probably end up making my decision about it after talking to her.

So people always say "Money is the root of all evil." I think money is the root of all movement. The root of all adventure.

A more accurate saying would be, money is the root of all. But like everything else, strong roots can't prevent rotten apples.