Living life on the edge-of a tectonic plate

A big motivation for our journey was to expose our boys to different cultures, countries, languages, food, and people. While the boys try to do “school” daily (or as often as we have working WiFi) some of the best lessons so far, have come naturally. Whether it’s a new sense of awe at the ancient wonders of the world, like Machu Picchu and Petra or the extreme income disparity in places like Rio and Delhi, they are absorbing much, beyond the classroom.

We never know what will really make an impact…this is where Lucky comes in. We were riding elephants up to the Amber fort in Jaipur. There are many aggressive hawkers along the route trying to sell you their wares. There are men who take pictures of you and then print them out to sell them to you when you finish your tour of the fort. They are not allowed inside the fort. We had two guys take our picture. But Lucky stood out. He yelled to us, “I’m Lucky. Don’t buy from anyone else. I have best pictures. You don’t buy other pictures. You find Lucky. I am in parking lot when you finish”. I’m not sure he realized we would be more than two hours as we were having lunch at a restaurant in the fort after our tour. But somehow I knew he would be waiting for us. The first guy found us and managed to badger us into buying a couple of his picks but both Craig and I knew we’d have to deal with Lucky at some point. And true to his word he found us as we were getting in our Jeep to leave. His pictures were better but it was his tenacity (aggressiveness) that made an impact. He started by asking for 1000 rupees for the album. We continued to haggle. He simply would NOT give up. He hung off the back of our Jeep as we drove to our bus. Finally Craig held out 200 rupees and said 200 or nothing as we started to get on the bus. He wasn’t happy but he took it. As we were driving back to our train, Craig said to the boys, “if Lucky were in the U.S. and you were competing for a sales job who do you think would win?” Without hesitation they both smiled and said, “Lucky!” Later that night Hayden was complaining he’d lost his new earphones (replacements for the other ones he’d lost) Craig told him to check the room. He made a feeble attempt and said, he couldn’t find them. Craig then said, “what would Lucky do?” Hayden replied, “keep looking.” He did….and he found his earphones.

This is not a story about how soft our children are (well, not exactly…) more about how they need to work hard to achieve their goals and be the best at what they do…whatever that may be. Also, they need to value what they have because of where they’ve been born. They’ve done nothing to earn it…yet. If their encounter with Lucky makes them a little more tenacious, competitive and thankful for what they have, it will have been a good day at school.