" A year ago I was
half the man I am today,
and for that I say
Thank You."

Drew, 2001

"One year ago I never would have thought I would be sitting on the 12th floor of the United Nations Building in Bangkok, looking out over the Parliament and Chitlada Royal Palace, watching the sun setting on the faces of the glass and concrete towers of Pahanyothin and Northern Bangkok. I never thought I would have used up an entire passport worth of travel stamps. I would not have anticipated having swum with a sea snake, danced with thirty Burmese schoolchildren, been a guest cook at a Bangkok food stand or sung The Gambler with a half dozen Thai university students. I could not have guessed I would have eaten a sow's ear, fried caterpillars, a pig's testicle, cobra, fried milk, raw frog or a beer containing five chillies. A year ago, I didn't have standing offers to stay with friends in Phnom Penh, Yangon, Auckland, Melbourne, New Orleans, Helsinki, Liverpool, Cologne, Bonn, Amsterdam, Lagos, Copenhagen and of course Bangkok. Today I've seen dozens of monkeys of many species freely in the wild. A year ago, every monkey I had seen lived in a cage or a suit.

All of this is possible because I was given opportunity to explore a new way of living and had the slight lapse in sanity to jump at it. I've worked very hard and grown tremendously as a person. I sincerely hope that organizations like CSIH and NetCorps continue to receive support from CIDA, Industry Canada and many others to give young people a chance to see the world and a different perspective. The benfits down the road are incalculable. A year ago I was half the man I am today, and for that I say Thank You."