Jul
British newspaper columnists have gone frothy mad over the Chugger explosion
Over food and drinks yesterday with book agent and mujer fabulosa Madeleine Morel, I learned a new word: Chugger.
Chugger, as Madeleine explained in her droll manner, a sweating glass of Sancerre in her hand, is what you get by compressing “charity mugger” into two syllables.
And, she added, a chugger is one of those people you constantly find on the sidewalks of Manhattan — and maybe also San Fran, Chicago and even L.A., if L.A. had “sides” where people actually “walked” — who stand around with clipboards waiting to mug passers by on behalf of some charitable cause. Thus, the slightly derisive appellation, Chugger.
I don’t find them too annoying, actually. Partly because I don’t find them too often, and because I live in Brooklyn, where fewer Chuggers roam the broken concrete in search of tax-deductible donations.
So thanks to Madeleine Morel at Bookhaven. That was a good one.
Almost as good as Gongoozler. Which the book, “Depraved and Insulting English,” by Peter Novobatzky and Ammon Shea, defines thusly:
Gongoozler. / gon GOOZ ler / a dimwit who stares at unusual things.
Come to think of it, I may frequently veer into gongoozler territory, myself.
By the way, this post has nothing to do with Roadmonkey, adventure philanthropy, or our upcoming cycling & farm-building expedition to Vietnam in November.
Be kind to Chuggers. They obviously believe in what they’re doing enough to risk scorn, abuse and, worst of all, indifference.
Paul
paul@roadmonkey.net
Jul
Vietnam 2008: Roadmonkey expedition co-leader Brent Wexler & new semi-friend.
When I launched Roadmonkey last year, some people told me to change the name. “I can’t see CNN or ABC News doing a segment about a company called ‘Roadmonkey’,” one person in the PR business told me.
Well, he turned out to be wrong.
But other people asked, and rightfully so, what “adventure philathropy” was supposed to mean. It’s a long, gangly phrase, after all, that combines two words that are well known on their own but not exactly comfortable when enclosed together in quotation marks.
Adventure philanthropy. It also doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue. Yet I named my company after this idea. Why?
Because, for one, I liked the idea of bringing the idea of old-school philanthropy – with its musty image of wealthy people sitting in parlors with fireplaces deciding how to dispense millions of dollars to charity – back to the common woman and man, where it belongs. As Roadmonkey expeditions to Vietnam and Tanzania have proven, anyone can become an adventure philanthropist, if they have the gumption, fortitude and curiosity to get out into the world and get their hands a little dirty.
Also, for-profit adventure travel companies were more or less invented in the 1960s, when no one knew if people would pay you to take them on ass-kicking adventures in foreign lands where – get this – almost no one speaks English. And by spring 2008, when I launched the Roadmonkey website, it was high time to push the adventure travel paradigm to the next level: Adventure philanthropy. I hope that in 20 years the phrase will be as much of a no-brainer as “adventure travel” is now.
Finally, can you think of a shorter word for philanthropy? If I could have, I would have used it. (Adventure Volunteering is even longer.)
But I’m open to suggestions, comments, criticisms, ridicule, derision, verbal threats, encomia and cheeseburgers.
More from the road, which will include Roadmonkey scouting trips to Nicaragua and Peru in July & August, soon.
- Paul
Jul
Roadmonkey Videos
Vietnam 2008 -- Cycling the northwest
Vietnam 2008 -- Building a playground at an orphanage
Jul
I’ll write more about this over the weekend, but the short answer is, adventure philanthropy is the brand of travel Roadmonkey offers to curious people interested in pushing their personal, physical and cultural boundaries on challenging overseas expeditions.
Adventure philanthropy means opening one’s mind and spirit to a new adventure with a small group of like-minded explorers.
Adventure philanthropy is Roadmonkey way of exploring a country by integrating ourselves into its daily fabric.
Adventure philanthropy means breaking the rules when necessary to thoughtfully help people in need.
Adventure philanthropy means getting your hands dirty to build something useful…and having fun doing it.
More on this over the weekend.
Paul
director, Roadmonkey Adventure Philanthropy
Jul
After climbing Kili for seven days, we took one day in Moshi to recuperate and do as little as possible, to recharge mentally and physically. After an 8-hour bus ride to Dar es Salaam, we began, on June 30, our four-day volunteer project at a small school for about 130 children in Mbagala, a village on the edge of Dar.
The school, known as Bibi Jann, after its co-founder, Jann Mitchell Sandstrom, comprises kindergarten through third grade, and a number of its students, radiant and lively and all from the rather impoverished local village, have been orphaned by AIDS. Bibi is the Swahili word for grandma, and a number of local bibis work at the school and with the children to provide a sense of community, maternity and good ol’ fashioned home cooking.
Roadmonkey team member Jolie Altman, right, with a local bibi, during our volunteer project at a school near Dar es Salaam.
Roadmonkey’s mission at the Bibi Jann school was straightforward: Our 10-member crew had four days to make the school a brighter, better, healthier learning environment for the kids.
Specifically, we would build 25 new school desks…
Work boots not required: Roadmonkeys Jo Ellingson (left) and Stef Levner, with George, Bibi Jann's English teacher, building desks on Day 1 of our volunteer work at the school.
…paint four classrooms…
Paintmonkeys: from left, Julie, Christine and Rollie, working with locally hired men from Mbagala village, painting the school's kindergarden classroom.
…add, at the request of the teachers, instructional murals and English words…
Bibi Jann English teacher George inspecting progress in one classroom.
…install natural gas cook stoves to replace the more expensive and environmentally destructive wood charcoal stoves the school used to cook kids’ lunches…
Two natural-gas stoves -- a waaay more environmentally friendly, and cheaper, way to cook school lunches than burning wood coal -- that Tanzania Roadmonkeys bought by collecting tax-deductible donations from their own social networks.
…and install a virtually maintenance-free purification system to provide the schoolchildren clean drinking water for the first time!
Roadmonkey Susan Patel with the A.J. Antunes UFL 420 system, bought by Roadmonkey through tax-deductible donations gathered by our expedition members.
In all, the 10-member Roadmonkey team raised more than $11,000 in tax-deductible donations to fund our volunteer project at the Bibi Jann school — a wonderful testament to the group members’ dedication, hard work and teamwork.
Women at Work: from left, Rollie, Julie and Susan, of the Roadmonkey crew, after a day of painting classrooms at the Bibi Jann school.
We took breaks, too, to spend time with the children, an energetic, welcoming and thankful group of people whom we were honored to have a chance to meet and work for.
Why we did it, part 1.
Why we did it, part 2.
After our fourth day of work, all of us were exhausted but gratified, knowing we’d given the school, the children, the teachers and Tanzania our best collective effort. What a way to spend your summer vacation…
Roadmonkey at rest: With Bibi Jann school teachers, construction workers, painters, plumbers and bus drivers.
