Saving Lives in what is arguably the LEAST conventional way possible!
Posted by Ana Manzur-Allan
You may not know us, and let’s be honest, you probably don’t, but we’re raising money for Embrace in what is arguably the LEAST conventional way possible: Three intrepid, or possibly very foolish, adventurers, Travis Senor, Justin Pendergrass, and Adam O’Sullivan, are undertaking a rally across the width of Northern India and Nepal: approximately 2,300 miles over 16 days…in a tuk-tuk.
If you’re not familiar with a tuk-tuk, it’s a 3-wheeled, 7 (yes seven!), horsepower beast of locomotion with a top speed of 35mph and is usually reserved for taxiing people around crowded cities in Southeast Asia. But us? We’re taking this lovely little motorized tricycle off-road; through the jungles, mountains, and deserts of the Indian subcontinent.
And we’re doing this for charity. Yes, we love the thrill of adventure and the idea of testing ourselves against supremely harsh conditions, (which we expect in this case will have a lot to do with traffic and trying not to get run over…oh yeah, and the water), but to undertake a journey such as this for those reasons alone might sound needlessly foolhardy.
So we’ve set our sights on helping Embrace. To be perfectly honest, prior to last Christmas none of us were familiar with the organization. One of our friends tipped us off to it during a cold night on the DC metro (after seeing a special on ABC News’ "Be the Change: Save a Life" initiative http://abc.go.com/watch/2020-/SH559026/VD55102823/2020-1217-world-health) and after doing some quick research we quickly realized that this was a project warranting substantial support; something we could really get behind.
Some of us have seen firsthand the effects of premature or underweight births, and it’s not a stretch to imagine how those effects are compounded due to conditions in the developing world, particularly where incubators are scarce. It’s not pleasant, and certainly isn’t a condition a Westerner would still believe exists in the 21st century, but it is still there. And it’s heartbreaking. The preservation of human life, especially in its most fragile state, is something worth going to great lengths to achieve.
The people at Embrace are trying to give lives a chance, lives whose impact on the world would never be known if they were not given the help to survive through the delicate period of infancy. No child should ever be resigned to a life of disability or disadvantage when the resources and the skills are available to prevent it. It is our duty to help those who are most in need of it, and this is what the team at Embrace is trying to do. And while we on the tuk-tuk don’t know a damn thing about human physiology, or how to build an incubator, we can help those who do. And that is why we’re raising money for Embrace, why we’re taking the great risks to do our part in helping save the world.
So by now though, you’re probably wondering how the lot of us even found out about such a crazy adventure in the first place. Well, we’ll tell you!
Roughly five years ago, the three of us were sitting around in a gym, ostensibly exercising (but mostly talking about video games), when Justin mentioned this crazy adventure he heard about online. It was called the Rickshaw Run.
After a brief explanation of the rudiments of the enterprise, any question of us having to do this was answered. It was supremely crazy, highly adventurous, and quite dangerous, everything we possibly wanted in a jaunt overseas. We immediately made an agreement to tackle this thing before we all turned 30. All of us being close in age, we had a pretty good time-window to work with. After a few years of graduate school, moving around, and finding jobs, conditions finally came together that made the Rickshaw Run possible.
We started seriously making plans in late 2009 to sign up for the next available Run. After some discussion of logistics, it was decided that the autumn 2011 event was our best possible shot. And so we took it.
But why? Why take the risk? Why absorb the expense? Why take on all of the stress associated with even the logistics of the thing?
For us, adventuring is still about discovery. Yes, while the blank spots on the map have long since been filled in and strange and exotic locations are vicariously accessible via the Internet, there is still no substitute for being there yourself, in a completely alien environment, and seeing if you can hack it. These undertakings are about personal discovery. While these parts of the world are ‘known’ writ large, they are unknown to us, and we have no idea how we will react to them. That is the challenge and the beauty inherent in efforts like these. It’s about finding something deep within yourself that you may have never known was there. Sometimes it may be rewarding and great, and sometimes you might not like what you find, but for us we would rather face that chance than live without knowing.
And so here we are, three young men strapping themselves to a glorified lawnmower for the love of wild adventure, and doing our bit to try and save the world. With enough people like us and the folks at Embrace out there, we think we can do it.
If you want to follow us, keep up on team events, or help contribute to our grand adventure, look us up on facebook and twitter at:
Or better yet, follow the live play-by-play on our website (we have a live blog)!
And just in case you’re the type that likes to get down to business, feel free to donate at: http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/3men1tuk/rickshawrun
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