By
Brad
Knickerbocker,
Staff writer of
The Christian
Science Monitor
SAN
FRANCISCO - When
Brad Newsham was
a young
backpacker, just
out of college
and on his first
trip outside
North America,
he had an
epiphany. High
up in the Hindu
Kush mountains
of Afghanistan,
he wrote in his
notebook:
"Someday,
when I am rich,
I am going to
invite someone
from my travels
to visit me in
America."
It
was a dream and
a declaration, a
promise to
himself and a
promise to,
whom?
That
was more than 25
years ago, and
Mr. Newsham
never did become
very rich,
although he
considers his
daughter, Sarah,
a treasure
beyond price. As
a waiter, a
construction
worker, a miner,
and - for the
past 15 years or
so - a cab
driver in San
Francisco, he's
never made more
than $35,000 a
year, and those
were the fat
years.
But
this week,
Newsham and his
guest, Tony
Tocdaan - a rice
farmer from the
Philippines
who's never been
outside his
country - will
set out across
the US in a
taxicab.
Over
the next several
weeks, they will
make several
stops before
winding up in
Washington for
the Fourth of
July, then drive
to New York
before flying
back to San
Francisco - all
paid for by
Newsham.
It's
a dream come
true for both of
them, a story
that begins 13
years ago when
Newsham hefted
his backpack for
"a
round-the-world
journey to
invite a
stranger
home."
That's the
subtitle of his
recent book
"Take Me
With You,"
a travel tale
documenting the
1988 trip
through Asia and
Africa that
eventually
brought Mr.
Tocdaan to
America.
After
a 12-hour flight
from Manila,
Tocdaan arrived
in San Francisco
a few days ago.
He's made a
short list of
things he'd like
to see and do in
America.
"Find a
good cowboy
hat," see
"even a
little bit"
of snow, visit a
dance club
(maybe even
overcome his
shyness and
dance a bit).
Before they take
off in a cab,
Newsham is
showing him
around northern
California.
On
a
postcard-perfect
day above San
Francisco Bay,
Tocdaan stands
quietly gazing
out at the
Golden Gate
Bridge glowing
in the bright
spring sun, the
sailboats
straining with
the wind in
quiet formation,
the stolid rock
that is Alcatraz.
"Now I see
it personally,
not just in
pictures,"
he says.
Farther
up the Pacific
coast, they walk
through the
enormous redwood
trees in Muir
Woods National
Monument.
"It's
really very
beautiful,"
says Tocdaan,
pausing to look
straight up at
the still, solid
giants. "I
will write all
this down so I
don't forget
it," he
adds,
remembering
Newsham's travel
journal that
made all this
possible.
A
TOUR GUIDE GETS
THE GRAND TOUR
Back
home in Banaue,
Tocdaan and his
wife, Rita (and
the oldest of
their five
children) tend
rice terraces
and grow
vegetables.
During the
tourist season,
they take people
for hikes and
backpacking
trips into the
mountains of
northern Luzon.
That's how they
met Newsham.
When
Newsham got home
from that trip
13 years ago, he
had a list of
about a
half-dozen
candidates -
some of whom
answered the
letters he
mailed off. By
the time he'd
written the book
- which took
four years -
he'd settled on
Tocdaan. Rita
and Tocdaan
talked it over
and decided it
would be OK to
accept this
startling
invitation.
But
it took another
six years to get
"Take Me
With You"
published. And
Newsham couldn't
send the money
for Tocdaan's
airfare, let
alone finance
the
cross-country
tour, until he'd
gotten an
advance payment
on the book.
"Keep
the faith, I'm
going to make
this
happen,"
Newsham wrote
Tocdaan,
although there
were times when
he had his
doubts. At the
time, Tocdaan
remembers,
"My friends
started to think
I was a
liar" about
the invitation
from this most
unusual
American. Even
when the
publishing
contract came
through, it took
nearly another
two years and
several
nine-hour bus
trips to Manila
for Tocdaan to
get a visa from
the US Embassy.
And even then it
looked doubtful,
until an old
neighbor of the
Newsham family
in suburban
Washington -
then
Undersecretary
of State Thomas
Pickering -
pulled a few
bureaucratic
strings.
INVITATIONS
FROM ALL OVER
In
his years of
travel (four
times around the
world), Newsham
has come to
anticipate and
sometimes count
on the kindness
of strangers,
whether it's a
night's shelter,
a family meal,
or the offer of
a job when funds
were dwindling.
Even before this
trip has begun,
many such offers
have come in
from people who
have heard about
"Brad and
Tony's excellent
adventure."
An airplane ride
over northern
California, a
river raft trip,
a night on a
houseboat, an
invitation to be
special guests
at the North
Carolina Apple
Festival.
Tickets
to Cirque du
Soleil are
waiting for them
in Las Vegas,
courtesy of one
of the show's
dancers. Doctors
in San Francisco
have treated
Tocdaan for the
eye he lost when
he was assaulted
several months
before he first
met Newsham.
Newsham's
publisher,
Travelers'
Tales, has
donated 100
copies of his
book, the
revenue from
which will go to
a special
account for
Tocdaan -
perhaps for a
motorbike he can
use to transport
tourists.
"I
just love the
idea that
generosity
begets
generosity,"
says Newsham.
Speaking about
their coming
trip, he adds:
"I think it
touches
something in all
of us - that
impulse to share
buried
underneath the
impulse to
acquire. It
resonates with
all those
feelings we have
once you get by
the survival
stage. It has
just lit people
up."
Touring
San Francisco in
a cab on
Tocdaan's second
night in town,
Newsham picks up
Will and Kelly
Goley from
Charlotte, N.C.
He immediately
introduces
Tocdaan and
tells the couple
about their
upcoming trip.
"I heard
about you on the
radio!"
exclaims Kelly.
Told
of the unusual
trip, another
cabbie, headed
with a fare for
San Francisco's
famous City
Lights
bookstore, says,
"That's a
great story....
Maybe it will
help improve the
image of taxi
drivers. So many
drivers are
artists - poets
and writers and
painters - yet
we get very
little
respect."
FIRST
IMPRESSIONS
Among
Tocdaan's first
impressions: San
Francisco, with
its many races
and ethnic
groups,
"looks a
little bit like
Manila."
"I thought
it would be just
whites and a few
blacks," he
says. And the
room in the
unfancy hotel
where he and
Newsham stayed
for the first
few days
"is as big
as a house for a
whole
family"
back home.
For
Tocdaan, this is
also a chance to
see the country
that helped the
Philippines
during World War
II. His
grandfather was
killed by
Japanese
soldiers during
the war, and his
father (who was
10 years old at
the time and had
to hide in the
jungle)
"always
talks about
loving
Americans,"
says Tocdaan.
For
Newsham, seeing
his friend after
many years seems
to have left him
with a permanent
grin. "Can
you imagine how
much fun I'm
having?" he
asks. But he
also feels
somewhat
overwhelmed that
it's finally
happening.
"I find
myself on the
verge of tears
all the
time," he
admits.
He's
also wrestled
with the idea,
as some friends
have suggested,
that he was
"playing
God" by
choosing one
person for such
a potentially
life-changing
gift. He
addresses that
criticism toward
the end of his
book:
"It
seems
unquestionable
to me that every
act a person
performs tips
the balance of
the world....
Share your
blessings and
the world is
instantly more
generous, more
friendly,
easier,
happier.... What
better way to
bring that about
than by giving
away the thing
that, so far in
my life, had
meant the most
to me - the
chance to
travel. At the
end of my life,
I told myself, I
would not regret
this act."