#Servas

#Servas is the coolest organization you may never have heard of, but if you have any interest in opening up your world, you should look into it. Yesterday here in LA on a beautiful afternoon, thanks to Hani, friend of my dear friend May, I was invited to speak to the local chapter at a pot-luck meal….ironically about a place that's very difficult to visit and access (Bhutan.)

Basically, Servas is an international network of people who sign up to either host travelers, or travel themselves to distant lands.

Imagine: You are going on a trip to, say, Spain or Egypt or Denmark or…Los Angeles, and rather than staying in a hotel, you find a Servas member in the area and stay with them instead. For those not lucky to have an international network of friends, this is the next best thing.

Servas' roots are fascinating. It's all about peace-building, as you can read on their website:

"Servas is an international, non-governmental, multicultural peace association run by volunteers in over 100 countries. Founded in 1949 by Bob Luitweiler as a peace movement, Servas International is a non-profit organization working to build understanding, tolerance and world peace."

The idea was and is that if you see how other people live in other countries, rather than checking in to a hotel (or not going at all,) life-long friendships are fostered, the world feels smaller, and the notion that we are all interconnected becomes real.