Dream Trip 2009

Great Travel Moment

I saw this boy herding four donkeys in Udaipur. He posed for some pictures and I gave him some rupees. Only when I got home did I recall that he seemed preoccupied. Upon studying the photos, I noticed his frame. He's very thin. If only I had stopped long enough to give him more attention, ask his name, find out where he was herding his donkeys. Had it occurred to me that he might need food, some new pants or a shirt, or even a moment in which he felt special, I might have responded differently. "Buy yourself a toy," we often say to children here in the U.S. Of course, a toy is probably at the bottom of this boy's list. Whatever he needed, I should have sensed it. Travel is not just what we see or what we learn about others, but what we learn about ourselves.