Merry christmas

As I mentioned earlier, I spent my gift budget already and won't be getting you any presents or "something nice" from India. Partially the decision grew because of the sheer misery and poverty there and the fact that people are really struggling for even the basic needs like clean water and everyday food. It might sound a bit pious but buying some useless crap that looks nice for people who already have everything they need to live a good and happy life just didn't feel right after everything I saw back there.

So I bought a camel.

Technically I didn't buy it but our host at the camel safari, Mega, did. He was born in the desert of Rajastan some 37 years ago and has been doing camel safaris for seven years. He is illiterate but has managed to learn english by speaking with the tourists and gradually building up his vocabulary. All this time he has been working as just a driver for other people and making really lousy money from it as they really don't have a concept of minimum wage in India. His greatest dream was to found his own company to be finally able to support his family and truly work for himself but for that he needed a camel first. He is very experienced in the safari business and the whole experience was really great by all the food he made and all the stories he told. In addition to that he came through as a very humble and true person so the idea grew up on me during the night in the desert. We had been talking about the cost of living and the amount he makes and what it costs to buy a camel and it turned out that for him, a camel is about half a years gross salary. Of course he has to use that salary to support his family and himself so he had calculated that after three more years of saving he might be able to get one. For me the amount was something I might have spent on christmas gifts for my friends or during a bit more expensive night out. So I gave him quite likely the largest tip he has ever received on one condition: he has to buy a camel. So now he is the proud owner of Tikku (not sure how to spell it but you pronounce it like the finnish word for splinter). He is a three-year-old male and needs about a year of training and growing up before being fully able to do safaris and carry people and goods. After that he should have at least 6 or 7 years of mileage left so hopefully your christmas present this year has changed one persons life completely for the better.

Mega with a camel.

Be grateful of everything that you have got. If you are able to read this text, let alone actually own the computer you are reading this with, you are amongst the wealthiest people in the world.