Community Corner

Discovering Childhood Joy, Meditating With Snakes, Eating Chicken Feet: Happiness Plunge Update

Adam Pervez left a good paying job behind to become a nomad volunteer in Central, South America and Southeast Asia all in the name of helping others and finding happiness.

After being featured on Patch a year ago, Adam Pervez has accomplished much of what he set out to do.

To catch you up, Pervez, who is a Strongsville High School graduate, was working a swanky job in Denmark and seemed to have it all. But he wasn't happy.

His solution: The Happiness Plunge, a two-year journey he calls the Happy Nomad Tour that will take him to six continents to learn, teach and help.

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We emailed him a few questions, which he answered from India on the 600th day of his journey. We also have a full gallery of photos from his adventures. 

Q: Since we last talked, about a year ago, how many countries have you visited? 

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A: I think we last talked when I was in Colombia, so since then I’ve visited Ecuador, Peru, the U.S., UK, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, The Philippines, Burma (Myanmar), Nepal, and India. Next week I’m off to Spain to give a speech, then Cyprus.

Q: What was the craziest situation you ran into? 

A: That’s a really hard question to answer. I think the more I travel and experience new things, the concept of what is crazy changes. Daily life in India is kind of crazy all by itself, where a colorful elephant may be pulling a cart of fresh vegetables down a busy city highway, a man with crude instruments offers to clean your ear canal of wax for a nominal fee, and a Mercedes drives past some of the most abject urban poverty on the planet.

I have had plenty of crazy situations though. I have been robbed three times. I was put on the wrong bus in Nepal and almost ended up in China instead of India. I’ve eaten everything from cow hearts to chicken feet to cow stomach to goat gizzards. I’ve been beaten up by 80 lb Cambodian women and told it was a “massage,” accused of theft in a Venezuelan store, pinched in the butt by a naughty Colombian grandma, rescued from homelessness by Costa Rican Indians on Thanksgiving, scared half to death by a hen in an El Salvadoran bathroom, and cried helplessly in public as my entire body was overcome by the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten in Mexico.

Q: What has been the most rewarding experience? 

A: As you know, volunteering is an important part of my trip. Each volunteering experience has been rewarding in its own way, from installing solar panels in Honduras, to selling bread in the street in Peru to help a kindergarten raise funds, to my own Crazy Hair Fundraiser for Wigs For Kids.

One of my goals when I started this trip was to try and understand kids better. For me they were like little aliens and I didn’t know how to relate to them at all. I volunteered at orphanages in Costa Rica and Ecuador. In India I volunteered at a home for prostitutes’ children, where they are fed, sent to school, and provided with essentials so they steer clear of the life of their mothers while still maintaining contact with them. Lastly, I volunteered at a Mother Teresa home for sick and malnourished children in The Philippines.

Q: What's next for you? 

A: I have a few days left in India. I’m going to Madrid, Spain to speak to MBA students at my alma mater just starting the same program I went through a few years ago. After Spain I’ll go to Cyprus. My roommate at Ohio State was from Cyprus and I visited him in 2006. You could say I fell in love with Cyprus then, so I’m heading there now to give living there a shot.

I plan to stay for 2-3 months. I need to take a break. I need to catch up on writing, work on achieving financial sustainability, start a business, and hopefully start putting a book together. 


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