Rickshaw Run

I'm not one of those people that operates well without some sort of a plan. Be it the choice of restaurant for dinner or where I want to move after school and start a career, I typically function much better when I have at least a preliminary idea of where I'm going, how long I'm going to be there, and so on.

This I why I have a hard time understanding people like my friend Alex.

Alex is a traveler. He is the kid that, after graduating from college, simply decided that he was going to move to Australia. On the way, he visited most of southeast Asia over the course of about three months, bouncing from country to country in no particular order and on no particular schedule. Unfortunately, three days after finally arriving in Melbourne, poor Alex managed to break his neck while wrestling around with some of his travelling buddies.

After spending six months in Boise with his family while wearing a hellish device called a halo, he had the itch to get out of the country. He and a friend of his, Ollie, soon stumbled across an intriguing option in India: The Rickshaw Run.

This crazy adventure essentially involves taking a series of those little three-wheeled taxis across the subcontinent of India, with the whole journey planned to take two weeks, stopping only for food, sleep, and likely the occasional drink.

The big idea behind this whole thing is that each team of two must raise $1600 U.S. for a charity of their choice, and Alex and Ollie settled on a good one. FRANK water.

FRANK water is a charity that operates on a water-for-water basis. They sell bottled water in the developed nations, and as a non-profit charity, with each dollar they make above of their operating costs, they fund sustainable clean water projects in Indian villages. Since its conception in 2005, FRANK water has already funded 30 sustainable clean water plants!

Definitely a cool charity, and big props to Alex and Ollie for supporting them. They still need help though. If you can donate even a little bit of money to their cause, I'm sure they would appreciate it endlessly. If they don't raise the $1600 by December, the whole thing falls apart for them. If you would like to make a donation to Alex and Ollie and to FRANK water, click here!