The guy who stood up from his computer and went to Asia (ELLE magazine)

Balu and his teammates on their 3 months travel period. "During the next 3 months we'll experience Russia, China, Turkey, Iran, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand. Our goal is to discover their culture and how they challenge the common problems of poverty and environment degradation. Here is a map of our 3 months travels and the final destinations in India and Zambia, where we'll work in development projects. We'll keep you updated."

This interview was made by Elle magazin with one of our volunteers. Click here to see the original one.

Balu Ertl world-traveler. His whole life fits into one bag and he goes against the slothfulness of the Y-generation. Two years ago, he decided to leave everything behind in order to - through Moscow, Malaysia, Thailand and Peking - go to India, where he would be educating elementary school teachers and teach girls from local villages how to use a computer and what the internet is.

Tell me a bit about yourself. Who is is Balu Ertl?

I don’t think I’m alone with this, but when I register on a new website, it takes me several minutes to figure out the introduction part about myself. On Twitter, I managed to write “an online guy, who stood up and decided to go to Asia to teach the poor about using a computer”.

What is this program exactly, that you are taking part in?

For many people, being a volunteer is narrowed down to getting food and a place to stay in exchange for working for free.  They would be the most surprised to see how much more experience, personal development, language skills, trainings, career opportunities, friendships, and even a relationship, not to mention literally seeing the world this program means. There are many opportunities for Hungarians wanting to volunteer, but I chose DHR Norway and its 2,5 year-long program. We spent the first year in the hotel of the organization in Norway, where we were collecting the used clothes, which is a huge business there, due to the overspending lifestyle of developed countries. Working along with one of our partner institution, in half year we earned all the money to cover our expenses for the remaining 2 years. The next half year was about learning; staying in a residential home, we learnt about global affairs. After the successful preparation and a 3 month-long period of pocket money earning, the travel began. We needed to reach the destination country, which was India in my case, throughout a route which was designed by us.

Why travel for three months when you can get there with one flight?

According to past experiences, arriving like that only increases the culture shock, which was a problem for many people before – while travelling for three months makes the transition a lot smoother. This way, we could also do some sightseeing in Malaysia and Thailand, as well as I would have never imagined before, that I would be travelling for one week with the Trans-Siberian Express! But we did do the Moscow-Peking distance by train throughout the icy land and the desert of Mongolia.

Norway

View from the Trans-Siberian Express

Arriving to Shanghai

What goes through the mind of a twenty-something guy, who decides to become a volunteer? Was it a sudden decision or had it been on your mind for a while?

Committing yourself for such a long time – even the hot-headed think twice before signing a contract to do so.

Was there anyone, or anything, a movie or any idol that inspired you?

Naturally, I needed something to “launch me”. Two years ago, I was in a position to decide about my career; although it wouldn’t have been hard to find a new job, I started to think. Do I really want to stare at my monitor at another company’s air-conditioned office? This is a reoccurring topic with my friends: is this the good life? Macbook on my desk, iPhone in my pocket, liters of coffee during the days and beer during the nights, getting an okay salary at the beginning of each month, eating what mummy cooked for us? Being in the online business is really fashionable now, like marketing was ten years ago, but how long does this trend last?

When thinking about these, I stumbled upon some statistics about the internet coverage of the world. Never did a pie chart struck me so much, than that day when I realized that everything we are working on, everything we are talking about at fancy conferences only affect one fifth, or according to the most optimistic statistics,  one quarter of the world.

To go on such a long journey requires a lot of preparation – what did you do?

We are working within a global non-profit umbrella organization, so whichever country we are travelling to, our colleagues with whom we are co-operating are already there, and they help us to get along.

What is it exactly that you are doing now?

I am teaching future primary school teachers from the rural, less developed parts of India, how to use a computer and the internet  (through the CSR project of the computer company Dell and Humana, a non-profit organization). We are teaching them because women are more likely to share their knowledge with their family: if the girls know and understand the usefulness of a computer, there is a higher chance that the family will have a shared computer. Another reason is that the head of the school (who is a woman, the only one amongst a dozen of our schools) is concerned about letting guys in, as it is more likely to lead to robberies during the night. I am not sure if this is a real threat, but it tells a lot about gender conflicts.

Which was the hardest moment during the trip?

The first few weeks in India “shocked me down”; it was shocking even compared to other types of poverty we had witnessed before during our 3 month-long trip. In some parts of India, they are not only poor in terms of physical things, but also in they are also behind in their emotional development. You can get used to or learn to handle every other thing, as the toilet being a whole, the over-spicy foods, the continuous honking on the street or the nonstop touching of same gender people. Hinduism forbids the public touching of opposite genders (it’s rare in the capital which is more modern and Western-like, but in the country side, these traditions are still strongly kept), so the natural need of people to touch each other is limited only to the same gender. Accepting the absurdity of human relationships here is the hardest part for me now.

It sounds like the right expression “shock me down”. But what exactly was the most astonishing?

Although not far from the capital, but I live in the countryside. The Indian society, similarly to the Chinese, is struggling with an overwhelming inequality, which is clearly visible in the everyday life. The government completely ignores the most basic needs of the citizens, therefore the public services as transport, especially trains and road traffic, as well as utilities have an incredibly low standard, but you still have to pay for it. This is the reason why households are trying to be self-sustaining: every building has a water tank on its top, where they pump up some water in the morning, when the water pipes are still working, to save it for later. There is no electricity during storms, but even when the weather is fine, having a shortage for a few hours every other day is completely normal.

What’s the gaiety in the gloom? / What’s the good in the bad? Do you have a favourite story?

When we are done with the morning teaching sessions and our students go back home, the kids from the village can come in for our beginner’s course designed especially for them. Yesterday, one of them said there is no room for her right hand with the mouse because of the left hand of the 8-10 year-old girl sitting next to her.  I asked the girl to put her left hand down so the other girl can use the mouse, but after 10 minutes, it was there again: she unconsciously hugged the laptop with her left hand again, as she was trying to type the given task. This is such a big thing for them, they could have never dreamed of anything like this.

Would you stay for long-term?

I have learnt a lot of lessons about life and people during this time, one of it being that as our personality and circumstances change, we always want different things than what we have. Back in the time when I was staring out of a glass office, I wanted to be far, far away.  After being away for 2 years, every now and then I find myself dreaming about the old routine of work-sleep-work. Knowing this, I am careful about my expectations of the future. Although everyone keeps asking me about what’s next, which is understandable knowing the high level of uncertainty people at our age have to deal with, but I still say everything happens at the right time. Once I wrote on Twitter that “Teaching the web in the morning, programming the web in the afternoon, gardening during weekends. Every day, and I would never get bored of it. #thisisthedreamnow.” It still is.

What would you say to someone preparing to go abroad?

·        About prejudice: it doesn’t matter how many times you hear it, it is still true and I had to learn my lesson, so this is the number one advice. The stereotypes, frames and prejudice that got imprinted in our mind from our surroundings seemingly make the world more understandable, but on a long-term, they stop us from experiencing life-long memories and positive impressions – if we hold on too strong to what we believe is right.

·        Being open: perceiving without prejudice, seeing without evaluating. There is no need to put a label on everything, and then put that into a category, as there is no way to cover the million colours of the world.

·        Honest self-expression: language is just another barrier in effective communication. Whenever it is possible, speak simply, openly and get to the point. We can rely on other people’s intention of understanding, but don’t challenge them unnecessarily with Shakespearian expressions and complicated sentences.