Carlos

Between bouts of giardia and other 'eas on the 36 hour bus ride from Hanoi down to Saigon, I met Carlos, a Spaniard making his way around the world in 7 months who I think is missing his wife and kids very much.  Between my halting Spanish and YuppieNomad's French and his accented English, we were able to weave together stories of our individual experiences.

Carlos is traveling not just for leisure, but through a private grant and the Spanish government's involvement, he and 4 other friends are cobbling together a series of taped and filmed interviews around the world on different initiatives, hoping to shed light on such problems as:

• child hunger and development in Africa
• diversity awareness in Israel/Palestine
• education in Vietnam
• environmental conservation in S America
• and more.

Carlos and friends have been robbed at knifepoint in Algeria, stayed with missionaries in Ethiopia (apparently a muy bien experience), and eluded difficulties in Syria. Check out their attempt to string together global communities  at: http://www.elsrodamons.org/ (rodamons means vagabond in Spanish).