Why, if you have a comfortable bed and a good job and friends and family here at home, why if you have all of the comforts and conveniences of American life--why would you subject yourself to jet lag and disease, to water you know you can't drink, and to food you are not sure you want to eat?  Why would you exchange the Super Bowl and American Idol for an upset digestive system and living as a foreigner in a strange land?

For some people, it is the hope of helping others.  Rotary International has a goal of eradicating polio--a disease which has devastated humans since ancient times, unchecked until Jonas Salk invented a vaccine in 1955.  By the time the world becomes polio-free, Rotarians will have spent over $600 million to make it happen.  Over the last several decades, Rotarians have delivered the vaccine on camels and helicopters to the remotest places, and are excitingly close to seeing this disease eradicated from the face of the earth. 

For others, cultural exchange is one step toward understanding each other.  The purpose of Rotary's Group Study Exchange is to introduce people from one culture to another.  By staying in another country, or by hosting someone from another country, we challenge ourselves to look at the world in new ways, to look at other people in new ways, to look at ourselves in new ways.  We share stories and laugh together.  We may even discover that we have the same hopes and fears--that despite our different cultures, we are not as different as we first thought.

For me, it is a process of personal discovery.  A friend told me recently that she has vivid memories of visiting children in the Philippines--children in rags who were destitutely poor, but were laughing and playing and loving life.  She never looked at her American possessions the same way again.  If I ever play an active part in this world, no matter how small a part, a broader world understanding will only benefit me. 

By the time you read this, I will be in India--the land of elephants and Bengal Tigers, the marble Taj Mahal, the breathtaking Himalayan Mountains and Kashmir Valley, of Buddhists and Sikhs, the land of telemarketers and tech support. 

My purpose in writing is the hope that you can experience this new world with me.  That together our eyes can be opened with a childlike sense of wonder.  That together we can grow in our role as world citizens.  Then again, when I'm sick with a bad case of "delhi belly," the word "together" won't mean a thing, will it. 

Keep reading, and I'll see you when I get back.

 **-- Jeff Tidyman is an architectural engineer in McCook who is in northern India for a month with Rotary's Group Study Exchange program.