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Wheeling peace and friendship around the world
Melissa Atkinson
Editor
Divorced and directionless, Tom Smith dreamed of a
better life. Not just for him, but for the whole world.
It was the mid-1980s, and for Smith the days had slowed to a humdrum beat. With the TV
remote in his hand, images of the world flickered by on the screen.
He watched from his couch as musicians such as Bob Geldof fostered international goodwill
through music, and Rick Hansen wheeled his way into the hearts of millions with his
"Man in Motion Tour", and the face of global politics began to change with a
simple handshake between U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.
The dream of international friendship was taking shape not only on TV, but also inside
Smith.
"I had those altruistic feelings for the world," Smith writes in his 585-page
book entitled In the Long Run: A Hopeful World Odyssey that chronicles his world
adventure. "A firm belief that the magnificent but tattered tapestry of humankind was
still bound by common threads: love of life and the need for peace around and within
us."
In the spring of 1986, 33-year-old Smith put that altruistic dream into motion. A letter
writing campaign for sponsorship rewarded him with a Honda Elite 250cc, a bundle of camera
equipment from Minolta, camping gear, a plane ticket to England and a few letters of
support from local politicians in his hometown of Fort Erie, Ont. He sold everything he
owned to buy the rest of his supplies.
With more than 100 pounds of gear piled high on Melawend, a nickname created for his Honda
scooter after his two daughters Melanie and Wendy, the unassuming Smith was off for a year
to sow his own oats of goodwill.
As the nose of the plane tipped toward the sky, Smith watched Canada disappear from sight;
left in its wake a dead-end career as a real estate title searcher for a law firm and a
cold TV.
"I was tired of those things that went along with the acceptance of a lesser life. I
had said, "If I had..." and "Maybe someday..." too many times. Life's
unseen, unforgiving clock was always ticking away," he writes.
He arrived in England with $600 cash and big aspirations for his self-created diplomatic
mission he called Cycle for Life-World Odyssey. Travelling from country to country could
only be done if he could sell his role as an ambassador for peace to each nation. This
meant breaking out of his shy, ordinary self and boldly talking with embassy officials and
potential sponsors, asking for a helping hand to get him to his next destination. It also
meant taking odd jobs for a bit of cash-from baling hay in Wales to lecturing at a college
in Tokyo.
He wrote editorials about his travels, took photographs and sent them back home for
publishing in the Fort Erie newspaper. As his portfolio began to grow he used it to get
writing gigs in foreign countries, such as a travel piece on Singapore for a Japanese
journal, and a six-page spread in an American motorcycling magazine detailing where he'd
been.
He slept in tent parks and on the roadside, on the front lawns and in the homes of people
he met, offering what little they had to the stranger from Canada.
"I was broke most of the time," he says. "But I found there's so much
hospitality in the world." When Smith rolled into a country, he never knew how he was
going to find his way out. An accident kept him laid up in a campground outside Athens for
nearly two months. And it took him 42 days to get out of Nepal. Sixteen days were spent
bedridden in Kathmandu with dysentery. He lost 24 pounds in the ordeal. But through the
generosity of a Nepalese businessman who befriended him, Smith was given the funds needed
to carry on to Singapore. "People made the trip possible," he says.
As weeks turned into months, one year into two, man and scooter weaved a path throughout
Europe, into Africa, Asia and North America. Melawend became an "international
icebreaker" everywhere she went, a simple vehicle of diplomacy that brought the best
out of people she encountered. The scooter went through five tires, some inscribed with
friendship messages then given away to various national officials as tokens of Smith's
goodwill.
At the end of his 29-country adventure, he had clocked 57,000 kilometres on Melawend,
written 10,000 pages of journal and research notes, taken 7,500 photographs and hand sewn
dozens of flags on a windbreaker he called the "Odyssey jacket".
During his journey, Smith shook hands with the Pope in Italy, befriended a four-year-old
orphaned chimpanzee called Max at the Mount Kenya Game Ranch, and formed deep friendships
with people from different cultures who barely spoke English, if at all.
His goal of international friendship was not a sophisticated one, but rather grass
roots-just people from different cultures sharing a moment, a laugh and a helping hand.
"Of the larger world, I learned that the common bonds between people were much
stronger than I had realized. I learned that most people wanted to open up and share
something of themselves," he writes. "I found that despite all the widely
covered news events that were based on negatives that included hate, prejudice, vanity,
greed and so on, there was more uncelebrated good in people than I had thought."
His trip came full circle when he crossed the Peace Bridge from Buffalo and Fort Erie came
into view. He had spent his last few dollars on a hotdog and a buck's worth of gas, enough
to get him home.
The reunion with his daughters was tough. They had grown and changed into young women, and
the only regret Smith has of his trip is missing those two years of their lives. Shortly
after his return, Melawend was put in storage, a retirement of sorts after trekking across
deserts and battered roads.
Next came the arduous task of sorting through his notes and photos in preparation for
writing his book. As life settled into a regular beat, the book began to take shape, but
it would 12 years before the final words were penned, and the collection was bound.
From Fort Erie, Tom Smith moved to B.C. He remarried and has two more children, and says
he has no plans to tackle another world odyssey, only vacations with the family.
To order a copy of his book log on to www.melawend.com
The Lookout
CFB Esquimalt
PO Box 17000 Stn. Forces
Victoria, BC V9A 7N2
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Phone: 1 (250) 363-3014 |
