Skip fireworks and support betterplace

December 30, 2010.

Hi everyone. Today we wanted to tell you about betterplace.org. We've been using them as our international online fundraising platform of choice for quite a while now and still we don't cease to be amazed of the outstanding support the betterplace team has extended to us. betterplace is not funded by your donations but by private and corporate supporters who believe in the purpose of it. Check out how you too can make use of their great offers or support them in any way:

• use them for your own fundraising events, e.g. you could transform your birthday into a fundraising activity to support a social cause of your choice. It's easy, a great add-on to facebook and a great way to manage your guest list


• buy gift vouchers as birthday gifts or for other occasions


• support one of over 1,938 projects in 109 countries by making a small contribution


• make a donation to betterplace.org when contributing to a project (possible when entering the amount you donate)


• spread the word about them

Or right now, you could decide to skip fireworks this year and donate instead! It's not too late yet. Ask your friends and family to refrain from bringing fireworks, champagne and presents to your party. Instead, ask them to make a small donation to the aid project you have chosen.

It's easy, it's safe and all donations made to aid projects are passed on 100%, no fees are being deducted. If the project of your choice is a charitable organisation according to German law, you even get a tax break ;-)

More info on http://www.betterplace.org

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

...to all our friends, followers and supporters around the world.

Where ever and how ever you celebrate this festive season with the New Year just around the corner, may you be blessed with exactly those experiences and teachers you're just about ready for.

Love to you all,

Wiebke + Kalyan

Temporary good bye to the village…

December 19, 2010

It's 7am and we're waking up in Abishek's house as we have forgotten the key to ours - once again. We came back late last night, so it didn't seem fair to wake everyone around us to break in.

Outside it sounds as if it's raining, yet the sun is shining through the cracks in the door. It's more of the sound of a waterfall, I realize then. But no, it's not that either. At the most, it's the 'local waterfall', one of the four water sources of the village just outside Abishek's house. It's such a waste of water but hey, as it turned out recently, it's pretty unsafe to drink anyhow. Lucky enough, of the 25 water sources in the panchayat with 3 villages, one (1!!!) is reasonably low in nitrate at least (and the other nasty stuff, especially the high fluoride content, can be resolved through the process as developed by Prof. Sudhakar Rao of the Indian Institute for Science (IISc) in Bangalore).

Before having a delicious hot coffee prepared by our ever so thoughtful host, we have to brush our teeth. The village slowly wakes up and the first kids have seen me or discovered Kalyan's car. I'm taking some snapshots of the village coming to life and within minutes I'm surrounded. There goes my idea of clicking through the morning. Now the kids are taking over the camera and some have gotten pretty good at it too.

By the time I make it to our house the local 'mechanic' (who also plays the flute wonderfully as well as performing the most acrobatic acts) has opened our door already. The family next door puts a bed outside for us to sit down in the sun but of course, there's not much sitting quiet with the kids around.

Kalyan 'Sir' sits down immediately to prepare for his trigonometry tuition with Harathi who has an exam tomorrow and has asked for his help. Abishek prepares a yummy egg curry breakfast for us and the neighbor next door makes the best ever chapatis to go with it. Everything as usual. And yet there is a difference. It's gonna be my last Sunday here for quite a while. Tomorrow we're going back to Bangalore, from there I'll leave to Goa for a few days and then the big 7-months journey starts.

Kalyan still has to make sure the clean water enterprise is taking off as planned before leaving ProtoVillage for such a long time. This humble but so important start-up is only  the 1st in a planned series of businesses 'for the villagers by the villagers', all focused around their the 12 dimensions needed for a life in dignity and adequacy.

Meanwhile, I won't lie idle either. I'll attempt to get our IT equipment ready, e.g. our stylish Sony video cam to cooperate with our laptops again. It just stopped doing so and there is a lot of photos and films to be backed, edited and uploaded. The photo gallery on our blog is playing up (has anyone noticed at all?) and there's my favorite subject: the research questions. No, they're not finished yet…

When Kalyan is finished he'll pick me up on the way to our first stop on our big trip: Mumbai. From there it's Central India for approx. 90 days as a first leg on the cycles.

So, tonight will be about picking what to take and what to leave behind, weighing it all out and then probably deciding on what else to leave behind… And so on repeating this process until I'm down to 10-15kg including laptop (2.1kg), all sorts of cables and rechargers (approx. 2kg), 1x of the cameras, accessories and tripod (at least 2.5kg), 2x phones (250g??), spare parts, tools and torches (2kg??). Ooops. That's already 8.75kg… No clothes, no toiletries, no shoes. No therm-a-rest mat (640g), no sleeping bag (close to 1kg). No food, no water. Oh nooooo, and no books!!! And the bags themselves weigh something too!! Aiaiai, I think we have to watch that video on packing again.

Thx to anonymous supporter

Wow, whoever has just taken action anonymously: thank you!!! Since we can't thank you via direct mail, maybe this reaches you...

We're thrilled to have found a new sponsor in you that's taken on a whopping 830km all by him- or herself. That's 830km more on our journey for adequacy and in total, we're now set for 1,560 km of the total of 12,000 km.

This is very encouraging and every contribution, be it for 1km or 830km, moves us to bits (I tend to cry more than tough cookie Kalyan, of course. After all, he's the man in the team ;-).

A Merry Christmas to you, where ever you maybe!!

Xmas fundraiser with Ortlieb

Hi everyone,
We've just created a fundraising event on betterplace.org. It would mean a lot to us if you take a moment to check it out.

With your help we've already been able to kick-off The Glass Half Full, which aims to shift focus from 'eradicating poverty' to creating the desired state: an adequate life for every community in rural India.

We have all the equipment for our 12,000 km and 210-day-long adequacy research journey through rural India together: cycles and cycling gear, tools, video cameras, outdoor equipment and our much beloved Ortlieb cycling bags. During our bootcamp in Nov/Dec we've also been trained in film, photography, 1st aid and wilderness survival, how to repair a tube and much more. All thanks to you!!!

With this timely Christmas fundraiser "Looking for that perfect gift?? Do good & win it!" Ortlieb Outdoor Equipment is the first one to support the project into it's next stage, ready to hit the road. Can you chip in too?

It's really easy and it only takes a couple of Euros/Rupees to support a great cause. Click now on this link or copy and paste the link below to find out more:

http://www.betterplace.org/groups/1km-for-an-adequate-world

Wishing you all a merry festive season,
Wiebke + Kalyan

PS: If you have any questions about the fundraising page, the donation process or the project that will receive the funds feel free to contact us anytime at info@the-glass-half-full.org

Our bikes – a long story with a happy end

December 1, 2010



Now that we got the bikes we will ride on for 12,000km through rural India, here’s a short story on how it all fell into place, and how so many friends helped us along…

First it was the amazing Flyer bikes from Switzerland, with battery assist… we test rode them in their factory premises, and liked them immensely, but we had to give up on the flyer dreams soon as regular recharging of batteries is a challenge given our route plan through rural India.

Then we kept trying with other companies for bikes that light and strong and that can take us through the Indian rural terrain… Then our friend Martin Brem (Thanks Martin!) connected us to Ulrike Saade the incredible, who almost got us the bikes in record time… the bikes were ready with all accessories including the racks, but that was also not to be, as we had a few logistical issues to deal with and we had very short time on hand, before Wiebke left for India… Ulrike went ahead and generously contributed to our fund raising efforts.

And then our bike pursuit started in India… We were advised to go for the Trek 7100 hybrids (Thanks Ravi Ranjan!), and once that end was tied, we started talking to the Trek/Firefox dealerships in Bangalore urging them to make their best offer… The good news was that no one said “no”! The bad news was that hardly anyone said “yes”!

It was a simple question – When will we get our bikes? Their responses ranged through the entire spectrum of probability. From “today or tomorrow, sir” to “the next two days” to “in the next few days for sure”, and finally to “grinnn… we are also waiting sir, they are in transit somewhere”… And consequently, we went through our own phases – from being sure, to being confidently hopeful, to being painfully doubtful, to being helplessly desperate… and just when we were about to graduate into being embarrassingly clueless, we were advised - Thanks Mayank Rungta! - to get our Bums On The Saddle(www.bumsonthesaddle.com)!

Having started BOTS, as a bike shop by bikers for bikers, Rohan Kini knew what we were going through. He made a commitment to get our bikes in 2-3 days, and offered a huge discount much beyond his own cost price. He proactively kept us upto date with the status of the bikes and went out of his way to ensure that we were always in the know.
On the other hand, we were busy getting restless about the delay in starting our practice rides, so we decided to pick the bikes up from any dealership with or without discount, by Monday, the 29th November.

By noon Monday, we got a message that read – Hey guys, your bikes are here, see you at 4pm – Rohan! After a few high5’s and high10’s and a few screams of joy, we set out to get our bikes.

BOTS terrace is a beautiful space, and Rohan and Sid form a great team and we had a great time being there while our bikes were being set up, and we got heaps of useful tips and hints for our journey. The best part – every word was honored, and we were extremely happy to have got our bums on the saddle!!!

After the night’s celebration at Santosh’s - our home in Bangalore - we set out the next day on our first ride… having started late, we only managed to do 78km by 5-30pm, and we decided to hitch hike the remaining 25km as the sun was going down faster than we were riding ahead. A small curious, helpful crowd informed about our dilemma stopped a lorry for us. Bikes on the back, us in with the driver, off we went. Reached home with sore bums, tired bodies but happy hearts… ate heavy and conked off!