Name: 【TEDx】Travel for the better | Tina Eckert | TEDxSalzburg
Uploaded: 2016-05-29T15:22:12.000Z
Duration: 17 min 52 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

I applied to an aid agency for a long-term mission to Nepal.

There are many possibilities nowadays for getting through or getting around

Anyway, in 2009 I was in such a state of discontent,

discontented with my job, and a little with my overall situation,

although I might add, it was a first-world problem,

My problem was: I was 27 and could imagine exactly

what my life would be like in 10, 20, 30 years.

For me, that predictability was frightening -

Basically, I had a full-blown quarter-life crisis -

I just didn't know: Should I continue along a safe career path,

Or what if I threw the dice of life again

At that time, I was an independent travel journalist

As I said, more of a first-world problem -

travel journalism was, despite my fear of flying,

I got to travel around the world for free,

and travel around the country in a very privileged way.

But from time to time I also traveled to very underprivileged countries,

where, to be sure, there is more to see and say:

idyllic villages with friendly, smiling locals,

who - despite their poverty - express so much happiness and joy.

However, this is the type of pictures and clichés

But after a while, this became a sticking point for me.

I was doing too little, just scratching the surface.

Besides it was a little pretentious of me

to write, make judgments, about a country that I really didn't know properly.

I wanted to get to know countries properly

in order to write more authentic articles, and to satisfy my personal interests.

How does one get to know a country better?

By living among the people, with the people, in their homes,

by occupying oneself with the challenges and the problems of the people,

At least this was the answer that I gave myself to these questions.

Beyond that I wanted to do something meaningful.

I wanted to contribute, do something good.

And after a trip to Nepal this feeling became even stronger.

Although I had been to developing countries before,

Until 2006, there was a 10-year civil war going on,

which left behind not only countless orphans,

but also numerous economic and social problems.

With a per capita income of 550 euros a year,

Nepal is the poorest country in South Asia,

and one of the 20 poorest countries in the world.

A quarter of the population live below the poverty line.

Almost a fifth of the population suffer from malnutrition.

All these facts, in connection with many personal stories and experiences

struck me at a time when I was ready and open to change,

After my return, my decision was certain.

I quit my job, and applied to an aid agency.

And I'd like to give you a short excerpt of the reply

my application received, because it's an unforgettable one:

"We are an internationally operating organization,

We are not a rescue center for a fun-seeking globetrotter,

who happens to just think she wants to live in Nepal,

and is looking for someone to fund her stay."

My application was quite serious and well-meant,

and this reply was abysmally and brazenly offensive.

and, of course, I immediately wrote an emotional answer -

Instead, I turned that quite intense feeling I had

I used it as driving force to start my own company:

"Karmalaya, heart work and soul travel" -

a company that basically offered exactly what I had been looking for,

namely the possibility to travel around a country differently,

the possibility to get to know a country well

by being able to live and work with the locals,

and certainly not just anywhere, but in selected development projects.

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【TEDx】Travel for the better | Tina Eckert | TEDxSalzburg

commitment

want

world

work