Monday Night Radio, an online worldwide talkshow, recently hosted a wonderful program with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, talking about his continued work and how people around the world can be the change they wish to see. I was able to call in as a guest and share a question with Mr. Gandhi which I have included here (you can also listen here to the audio clip):
Anne: The books look wonderful. Alright we are going to let Travis, calling in about the Peace Corps and his experience with the Peace Corps to talk with you have the last minute. Here you go. Travis, are you there?
Travis: I am here. Yes.
Mr. Gandhi: Hello, Travis.
Anne: Travis, you are on the air with Mr. Gandhi.
Travis: Hi, thank you so much for allowing me to say something here. I have been serving with the Peace Corps for two years. I have one more year that I have extended beyond the normal two years of service. I am in Mongolia. One of the things I have really noticed is that other people want to make change. They see needs in the community and people who are living very normal lives have extraordinary dreams that they want to come true. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, one of the things that I have seen is that it’s part of my job to help people see... (the connection here became difficult)
Mr. Gandhi: You are breaking up there, Travis.
Travis: Oh, I’m sorry.
Anne: No, don’t be sorry. It’s a long way to Mongolia. Can you restate your question?
Travis: Sure, sure. I’ve worked with a lot of people and helping people who are very inspired to change their communities. They don’t think they are capable of doing that themselves. I wanted to ask what your experience has been when you are helping people and when you are working with others and you are trying to inspire them and see what they are capable of. I think that is also what a great leader can do is help see people what potential they have to make change themselves and do simple things in their lives to help others. If you are trying to help others and be a leader and share with others what they are capable of doing, what kind of things have you seen that are really helpful?
Anne: That is a great question, Travis.
Mr. Gandhi: One of the things that I did was to study the people and find out what are their potentials. Even the people who are volunteering to bring about the change, they have certain potential and certain capacities and we need to learn about them and project them. Very often we are motivated through change but the person themselves they don’t know how they can use their own strength and their own abilities to help that change. We as the leaders of this group we need to examine this and find their strengths and make them realize those strengths and then use those strengths to help the poor people there.
Travis: Yes. I think that is so true.
Anne: Travis, thank you so much for the call. I’m sorry to cut you off, but we’ve run over.
Travis: Thank you.
Mr. Gandhi: Thank you, Travis.
Anne: Thank you for your service as well.
Travis: Thank you so much.
Anne's assistant was also kind enough to talk with me after the program to ask more details about my Peace Corps service, my recently published book the Unofficial Peace Corps Volunteer Handbook (which they mentioned at the bottom of the transcript for that night's program) and invite me onto the program in the next few weeks to talk about Peace Corps. We will see how that goes, but if it can help promote the work of Peace Corps, encourage understanding inside and outside of America and maybe even help encourage one more person to join this incredible organization, I really look forward to the opportunity.
If you'd like to listen to the whole program with Mr. Gandhi, you can find the audio available here on iTunes and the full transcript here at MondayNightRadio.com.
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