Long trip with no money - level 3
"The idea of the peace pilgrimage was really to try and take the lessons I learned from the Dalai Lama when making the road to peace and put it to the test and see if kindness and love is enough that we can survive on in 21st century Britain. Doing a walk 200 miles (322 kilometers), without money, penniless, from London to Glastonbury to see if it was really possible to live through kindness. Would people take us into their homes, would we even find somewhere to stay?
When you meet somebody with a smile and you take time to understand their story as well, people come forward and they will naturally be kind. People automatically turn round and say, ‘Well what can we do for you, what can we offer?’
One lady came out the campsite one morning and just said ‘Oh, we're on a pilgrimage, you know, going walking 200 miles,’ and she said, ‘Oh, would you like some rice?’ And she said, ‘I cooked some rice last night I've got a load leftover. I can give you some!’
Where we stayed the first night was literally by the side of the road and we woke up to this guy walking his dog, and he's like ‘Oh, I'll come back in five minutes. You guys like a cup of tea?' and he turns up with a kettle, mugs, tea bags and the kettle with boiling water inside just making us all cups of tea!
It was probably the most drastic night where we didn't we didn't know where we're going to stay and one of the group, she got really sick and we were screening the film 'Road To Peace' in an arts centre that night and then somebody in the arts center said, ‘Oh, you can come in – you can come stay in our flat, here's the keys. Let yourself come and go as you please; it's actually across the road from the hospital.’
Giving somebody the key to your house, that four hours before you've never met and trusting them with that, I think there's something really special about that.”
Difficult words: pilgrimage (a journey, usually to a special place), penniless (without money), automatically (without thinking), literally (exactly), drastic (difficult), screen (to show a film).