[car door slams]
[dinging]
- My whole life, I just try to fit in,
Try to fit in, you know,
And it's like--
It's like, you know, you do that for a--
You do that because--
I did it because I didn't get--
You know, I felt like I didn't fit in at home,
In my own very-- my own house, you know?
And it's like,
I didn't have that sense of security
And the love that I needed from both parents.
And it's like, that took an effect on me,
So it's like,
I'm trying to search myself in some sense, some way.
Things I don't know about myself,
I learn through life,
But I should've learned it when I was younger.
But I couldn't
'cause of my situation back home.
So now I feel like... I don't know.
I feel like this gives me an opportunity,
A chance to-- I don't know--
To really just...
To really get to know who I am, I guess, you know?
[dramatic vocal music]
♪
[sweeping orchestral music]
♪
[people shouting]
[gunfire]
[man screaming]
[gunshots]
♪
- Here in the parking lot.
And they had nothing on whiffle ball.
So we could take them out too, you know what I mean?
- Want a little bit? - Yeah, a little bit.
Thanks.
- Oh, on Thursday.
- He turns 21 on Saturday.
Wow.
Yo, you know what that means, don't you?
[belches]
[laughter]
- That's brotherly love.
- So that's my brother, cliff.
He's a real character.
We're seven years apart.
And that's matthew, who, not by blood,
I still consider my brother.
And sitting next to me is mike.
We live together here in brooklyn, new york,
At a place called the st. Francis house.
People come here for all different reasons:
Orphans, family problems, economic problems, drugs.
What can I say?
Some call it a halfway house or a group home.
We just call it home.
- I live right now at the st. Francis house,
Which has given me a second chance at life.
I mean, we came from some pretty real backgrounds.
I grew up poor.
I grew up with my family not really being around.
We're a family.
- For most of us living here,
Life wasn't all that easy growing up.
It tends to leave you
With a lot of unanswered questions.
You ask yourself all the time,
"where are we going, and why?"
- Two and two, two and two.
Here we go.
- It's something that I wasn't used to, was a family life,
Giving me the life that I never had
That I always wanted.
- Yo, come on. Let's not waste daylight.
- Let me pitch. - Yeah, come on, no, no, no.
Seriously. - Come on, please?
Let me pitch. - Give me the ball.
- Let me pitch. I want to pitch.
I'm a good pitcher.
- Back off. Get out of here.
- All right, all right.
Oh!
So three months ago,
Cliff and I wanted to experience something new and unusual.
We had a desire to see the world through someone else's eyes.
The desire would eventually take us around the world,
Meeting new people with new ideas
And new philosophies
And pretty much every race, religion, color, and creed.
For our first experience,
Cliff and I decided to join the thousands of people
Who would spend their winter sleeping out on the cold,
Brutal streets of new york city.
We would live homeless in new york
Without money or food and try to experience life
And attempt to find hope amidst the city's most hopeless.
As it would happen,
Our adventure would begin right in our own backyard,
The concrete jungle.
[bob marley's concrete jungle]
[funky reggae music]
♪
We have an opportunity to put ourselves
In a homeless man's shoes.
And the only way to do that is to actually do it.
We've got a long night ahead of us,
And I think it's going to be a cold one.
♪
- ♪ I said darkness has covered my light ♪
♪ and has changed my day into night, yeah ♪
- My ass is freezing, dude.
I'm freaking shaking here, just sitting.
And I'm not even here, like, half an hour yet.
- For me, everything's an adventure.
You know, if a car breaks down on the highway
And we got to, you know, change a tire or fix it,
That's an adventure for me, you know?
- I'm shaking right now, and I'm awake.
I can only imagine when my body slows down
When I'm trying to sleep.
- I don't mind being a little cold.
You know, it's just a little sacrifice.
- I got nowhere to go right now.
I got nobody to see.
- A little sacrifice just to get some wisdom and knowledge
And to, you know, just be thankful
For everything I've got.
- I'm bored, I'm uncomfortable, and I'm cold.
- I will definitely help my brother out if he needs help.
And we're going through this together, you know?
- [scoffs] I'm ready to call it quits.
- Well, as long as we're going through it together,
We'll...
You know, it'll be easy.
- Overall, I know it's gonna be quite an experiment
And quite an experience.
- What keeps them going?
Why is it that they wake up every day?
What's their reason for living?
[operatic singing]
♪
- To feel or experience for a couple of nights
What it's like to be homeless,
You have to prepare for it.
You have to have your box.
You have to have your blanket.
You have to behave just like a homeless person.
The best place to sleep in the city
Is by a church.
It's safer there.
If I go by that man's house and sleep,
He's with society,
So he's going to call the cops.
Oh, you want to understand what homelessness means?
You have to live it. You know what I mean?
You see homeless people on the street.
You see homeless people everywhere, you know?
You have to live it. You have to feel it.
You could be living in an apartment now and enjoying life,
And the next day, you're out in the street.
How are you going to handle that?
It's a very rough transition.
- It's not the royal palace, but it'll have to do.
- Hope it's a warm night.
This is definitely a different experience.
- We're in a community with all these guys,
With all these homeless men
Sleeping in cardboard boxes.
And, you know, it's like,
You don't know where they're coming from,
So you have to be careful.
You don't know who you're sleeping next to.
- I know the streets of new york city,
But to actually sleep
Out in the streets of new york city
Is a whole different experience.
You learn a lot when you travel.
You learn how people live.
Everyone survives differently.
I grew up in a very abusive house.
And my dad was an alcoholic...
A drug addict.
He was very abusive to me and to my two older brothers
And my mom as well.
I was kind of a--
I was a surprise baby.
I was a surprise.
I wasn't intended.
You know, my mom didn't plan on me.
I wasn't a planned baby.
I did have my fun times as a kid, you know?
I wasn't close to my father,
But I do look back, and I say to myself,
You know, "he did-- there was good times."
July 4th was, like, my dad's day.
That was his day.
He would get, like, the best fireworks,
And the whole block would be involved.
And we'd light fireworks,
And it would go on for hours.
It'd be from-- as soon as that sun went down,
Just start lighting fireworks, you know?
Everyone loved my dad for that.
There'd be a firecracker belt,
And it'd just stretch out from one end of the street
All the way down to the other.
And it was just great, you know?
That was-- I look at those.
You know, I look at those memories.
I look at those moments.
Everyone lives differently.
When you go somewhere out of your own comfort zone,
Out of your own realm,
And you enter someone else's,
That's learning.
- It's going to be a cold one, so dress warm.
This is the kind of weather
That makes you want to stay home.
There we were.
We were taking part of that lifestyle.
Your whole perspective changes.
I mean, you're there.
You're amongst the people.
We're sleeping with maybe seven others guys in cardboard boxes.
And you're taking part of that feeling of being homeless.
You know, it was a wild trip.
[melancholy rock music]
♪
- ♪ sweetly sleeping in an empty street ♪
♪ as if the city was meant for me ♪
- God has a purpose for us all.
If he didn't have a purpose for me,
I would've been gone a long time ago.
I really believe that.
I've been in situations where I should've been shot,
Ran over, overdosed.
I should've had aids, but I never caught it.
I was exposed to it I don't know how many times,
Sexually.
But god, for some reason,
Has got some kind of purpose.
He's got something for me to do.
I believe that.
- Every person should experience this,
Because people take everything for granted in life.
And I think every person should experience this
For a few weeks,
'cause people don't appreciate what they have.
- We living in the greatest city in the world.
It should not be no reason why so many people
Are homeless on the streets.
- You know, people walk around, and I look around,
And I see people in wheelchairs,
And they're sick.
And there's a lot of people more worse off than I am
Than just homelessness.
- I mean, you have an opportunity right now
To tell a lot of people
What you may have been wanting to say to them for a long time
Or just the public in general, society.
What do you have to say to them?
- You know, you can't say everyone is bad.
We all have something happen to us.
And if you don't have a good family or friends
To support you, then you're in a lot of shit.
[chuckles]
'cause it's family and friends.
And, you know, this is life.
When this first happened to me,
There were four dogs on the street,
A dog.
And everyone was on their cell phone, going,
"I'll take this dog," and, "we'll take this dog."
And they all helped the dogs.
They all helped the dogs.
They took the dogs home
So they wouldn't freeze to death.
And they let me stand there.
- How'd that make you feel? - You're my brother.
I'm jewish.
I had a rabbi
Who said, "that's your brother,
"and that's your sister.
"and if you see your brother or your sister in trouble,
You help them."
[sparse orchestral music]
♪
- If you treasure your own life,
You should treasure others' lives.
And you should live with the sensitivity
That you know you have
And, therefore, that others have.
- Find those things that are universal to us all as humans.
Find those belief systems,
And then let's experience it.
- I think we can find at least small examples, right,
Where ordinary human beings can talk
About deeply transformative experiences.
- Well, we just got kicked out from where we were sleeping.
It's 5:30 in the morning right now.
It is really, really cold.
- This is just life on the streets, pretty much.
You know?
- We had to move, so we moved.
And now we have to get warm,
So I guess we're gonna walk around and try to stay warm.
- How you doing, sir?
I'm homeless right now.
If you could help out by, you know,
Maybe a doughnut or something,
And I was wondering if you could help me with some food,
Something hot to drink or a hot chocolate,
You know, something to eat, something small,
Even a little piece of bread.
It doesn't have to be big, just anything.
[lilting music]
♪
We just walked up to a concession stand.
The guy wasn't so willing to give us any food at first,
But after talking to him, you know, he just was kind
And gave us a few bananas.
You want a banana?
I like it when they're a little bruised too.
My hand is freezing.
- You know why the people from the outside see us as bad?
Because they're not living it, man.
They're not experiencing this shit.
They go to starbucks and buy a coffee for $5.
You know what I mean?
Buy them a doughnut for $3.50.
I can't afford that.
[record scratching]
[thumping hip-hop music]
♪
It's honesty.
You know what I mean?
People see that I'm real, you know?
I mean, I don't want your money.
Hey, I need something to eat.
- ♪ it's the message in the song that makes you rock on ♪
♪ some people go to places where they don't belong ♪
♪ whether wrong or right
- So I'm homeless, and I'm happy.
And a lot of people talk to me. You know what I'm saying?
I got girls talking to me.
I got old ladies talking to me.
I got all kinds of people talking to me.
You know what I mean?
Because the happiness is your strength.
You got to come up with something; you know what I mean?
You got to make it unique,
Because you can easily fall apart,
Mentally, physically, spiritually.
A lot of times, people don't believe
That they can get out the street.
But I believe that I will be able to get out.
- Why is life worth living?
One thing I realized very early in my medical training
Is that no matter how bad off a person is--
Handicapped people with really bad deformities,
Even people in pain--
For everybody, their life was a treasure to them.
And they wanted us to take care of them with a tenderness
And a concern for their good.
Life is worth living because it just is.
People know that.
People know their own life is worth living.
Some people get depressed
And they lose the sense of their life being significant.
But usually, that's because the part of them
That sustains hope is broken for the moment.
And if you could just get them through it,
Most of them would then reaffirm that their life is worth living.
I talked to a guy who jumped off the golden gate bridge.
He said, halfway down,
He realized he wished he hadn't jumped.
He was all broken up, but he lived through it.
But it's not the nature of life to be despairing.
The nature of life is to be hopeful.
- Strange, isn't it?
Each man's life touches so many other lives.
When he isn't around, he leaves an awful hole,
Doesn't he?
Are you sure this is bailey park?
- No, I'm not sure of anything anymore.
All I know is, this should be bailey park.
But where are the houses?
- You weren't here to build them.
Your brother, harry bailey, broke through the ice
And was drowned at the age of nine.
- That's a lie. Harry bailey went to war.
He got the congressional medal of honor.
He saved the lives of every man on that transport.
- Every man on that transport died.
Harry wasn't there to save them
Because you weren't there to save harry.
You see, george, you really had a wonderful life.
- Here's your one tray, please.
- Thank you.
- Life is other people.
It's just that simple.
And if you view each of the other that you meet
As being a component of yourself,
It can change the way you see things.
- What is your meaning?
Like, what's your outlook on life?
What is the reason for living?
- I'm not on this planet for nothing.
I'm here for a purpose.
I don't know what that purpose is.
Like this gentleman said, we all have our faults.
We all did our things.
So if our purpose is to make mistakes
And learn from our mistakes,
That's gonna help us to be a greater
Or less of a greater individual along the way.
We meet people through our life.
So my main focus is, why my existence here
Is to help other people and, as well, ask to get help.
- I try to keep a good outlook.
With that, I can have my hope and my dreams.
And I don't have to give--
I do not have to give anything, including my dignity.
[stirring orchestral music]
♪
- Forget about the part that you have a home, okay.
Let's not acknowledge that.
But what did you experience
By you taking this leap of faith?
- I felt very vulnerable, you know, vulnerable,
Easy to be attacked by anybody.
- It's a bunch of emotions. - It's a lot.
- I felt, at times, a little humiliated, embarrassed.
- Yeah. - You're not secure.
- You're definitely not-- you're not safe.
- To get to know some homeless people
And to get to see some of that commonness of humanity,
How very similar we really are.
- I congratulate you.
At least you got balls enough to come out here
And really sit around us
And understand what we go through.
Most people say, "oh, they're not human."
No, we're not automatons, either.
Okay, you know, we have blood.
We have a heart.
We have a mind, a spirit, and a soul.
♪
- As we get more days, more experience on the street--
I don't know-- you become more humbled.
You become more--
You can feel the humility that the homeless people go through.
And I don't know. It's different.
Like, I don't know. My whole heart feels different.
♪
- Really, it doesn't matter who you are,
What your background is.
You can converse on that experience.
And that is what makes us human.
That's a beginning of a human community.
- Experience can be a generous teacher
Or a cruel teacher.
And it depends on those experiences in life.
But whatever experience we have,
Whether it is good or whether it's bad,
We can always remember it and learn something from it.
- And it's those moments, you know,
When something touches you, something opens up,
Something that you didn't realize before,
You hear a longing, you know, that you never felt before.
Those human experiences that define how you communicate
With your spouse,
How you communicate with your children,
How you communicate as a teacher.
You know, I think it defines how we communicate, period,
As a society.
- And when you experience those things,
It brings growth.
And so you won't get caught up in the facades anymore,
The little differences that they talk about
That become big things.
You won't buy that anymore.
You know, and if you don't buy it anymore,
They can't sell it to us.
- We can talk about ideas forever,
But ideas are simply that.
They're thoughts. They're abstractions.
And until these ideas are rooted in reality,
In the reality of my own life, my own experience,
They can't be tested.
They can't be known to be true.
- Wil kinnane is one of my heroes.
The story goes, he was taking a road trip
With his brother to new york,
And his brother asked him
What he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
Wil answered, he wanted to surf and help people.
And surf for the cause was born.
The idea was a group of surfers traveling the world
In search of the perfect wave
And giving back to the communities
And the people who call these beautiful beaches home.
So cliff and I found ourselves along for the ride
In a van full of surfers
Traveling down the pan-am highway
Somewhere in south america.
[upbeat latin music]
♪
I was told not to drive at night by the surf guide.
"do not drive at night."
And here we are at night, driving.
♪
- After driving all through the night,
We finally start to smell the salt in the air.
As soon as the guys got their first look at the ocean,
They were out of the van and surfing
Before I had realized what was happening.
[funky rock music]
♪
I'd never been surfing before in my life,
And I wasn't too sure that the big waves of peru
Were the best place to learn.
♪
So after a great surf session for the guys
And a couple of hours of me getting my butt kicked,
We packed up the van and headed to the children's home,
Where surf for the cause was scheduled
To volunteer for dr. Tony and his staff
Helping the lost and abandoned children of lima, peru.
What we do is, we receive children whose parents
Cannot afford medical care.
If the conditions in the home are not such
The children can be adequately cared for
As an outpatient,
Then the children come in to the home,
And they stay with us until they're well,
And then we send them back to their families.
I went to india on a vacation with several colleagues.
We landed in calcutta and were simply appalled
By the poverty that we saw,
The horrendous conditions of the children in the streets,
Some of whom had been mutilated by their families
So that they could beg
And be more effective as a beggar.
I was in charge of a neonatal intensive care unit at emory,
And I contrasted that with children
Who just needed basic needs
With the kids that I was taking care of
Who were, you know, getting the latest in care.
The idea sort of germinated, "well, maybe--
"you know, you should be doing something else
Rather than what you're doing now,"
Because anybody could do what I was doing at emory,
But not many people would be doing what needed to be done
In places like india.
It took me about maybe a year, year and a half
To make the final decision, because it was a good job.
I loved what I was doing.
I was teaching fellows, interns,
Residents, medical students.
I had a nice house and a nice car.
So it took me a good while to make the decision,
But then finally, I decided, if I didn't do it,
Then I would regret it for the rest of my life.
- I didn't realize some of the backgrounds
That some of the children had,
And it was quite hard to think
That these children have been through this.
But to see them now, they're so happy,
And they're just such gorgeous children.
- You kind of forget these kids are even ill.
I mean, you kind of forget that,
Oh, victor's just got one leg.
That's the only limb he has.
And he's using his foot to eat and draw,
And you kind of forget that that's not really normal to us.
- Coming into it, you're just thrown into it completely.
You're not, like, told anything,
And the first few days we were tricked completely
By pretty much every child.
- Not really doing anything that special.
You're just kind of helping them in their everyday lives.
- Of course, most of the people, they come here,
When they see how the children are so happy,
Despite their infirmities,
I mean, they can't understand it.
- Just in February, we were homeless
In the streets of new york city.
And it was, like, you know, five degrees fahrenheit,
So it was, like, really cold.
And we slept with the homeless people.
- There was a community.
- There was a--yes, a community of homeless people.
So we slept with them.
We begged for food. We begged for money.
We slept out in the streets, you know, and--
Because we wanted to know what it was like
To step in the shoe of a homeless person,
To live their life for a few days.
- Through human beings in peru, in new york city,
Wherever we go,
We try to find out what life is
Through their experiences.
- And you see her foot there.
When she came to us, it was completely bent like that.
Couldn't have been straightened up.
That's from all the bad treatment
She got from her father.
I think she's been with us about two years now, yeah,
About two year.
She's six, six years old.
- They come in.
Sometimes they come in with a diagnosis,
And sometimes they don't.
They're just ill and need a diagnosis.
So I sort of triage them here.
Very simple things I can take care of here,
But if they need subspecialty care,
I have to send them into lima.
- Hurry up, because we're late. We're late.
- Do we have someone in this car?
- No, I'm going in the front.
- You got to go.
[kids shouting playfully]
[horn honking]
[tires squealing]
[crash]
- Everybody okay?
Isn't he supposed to stop, that guy?
- Yeah, he's supposed to stop.
You got the license plate?
Yo... [speaking spanish]
[all speaking spanish]
Everybody doing all right in here?
- [speaking spanish]
- All right, see this? [speaking spanish]
You were too close.
That's it.
So we're all in agreement
That it was the white nissan that totally cut us off.
- He wants us to pay him.
He's not gonna get a dime, man, a dime.
- Just getting the kids to the hospital
Is the main thing right now, you know.
[both speaking spanish]
- [speaking spanish]
- When you have those questions in your head,
Whether your own father doesn't love you or not,
That takes a different toll on you.
You know, life is completely different.
You know, you don't look at the world so nice, you know?
The way I looked at my own home,
Being violent, aggressive, and, you know, very abusive
Is the way I perceived the world.
That's the way I perceived it.
And that the world was violent,
That the world was someone that will stab...
You know, watch out for the ones closest to you,
Because they'll stab you in the back.
That's the way I saw the world,
Because I had my father that was not so kind to us.
So when you have your own father in your own home
Not loving you the way a father should
And he's the one hurting you
And that's the one you're supposed to love the most
And the one that is supposed to love you the most,
I mean, a complete stranger,
You have no consideration for whatsoever.
You know, someone could die
Right on the street in front of you,
And, you know, it's like, "yeah, whatever."
- [crying]
[melancholy guitar strumming]
♪
- ♪ moon river
♪ wider than a mile
♪ I'll be crossing you in style ♪
♪ one day
♪ oh, dream maker
♪ you heartbreaker
♪ wherever you're going
♪ I'm going your way
♪ two drifters
♪ off to see the world
♪ there's such a lot of world
♪ to see
♪ we're after
♪ the same
♪ rainbow's end
♪ it's just around the bend
♪ my huckleberry friend
♪ moon river
♪ and me
- Oh, my god.
They're gonna do my little angel like that.
They're gonna have to bring her in.
Have to go find her.
Yo, willy, you know where they put angela,
The little girl in the pink?
There she is.
That's it.
Her exercises were for her fingers.
I'd say she's done. Yeah, thank god.
No tears in this one, right?
[chuckles]
It's tough to hear, you know, with a girl--
With a little girl like that,
So innocent and so vulnerable,
And somebody to take advantage of her
And abuse her the way her father did.
I'm glad that she's away from her father,
Somebody who was abusing her like that,
And she was able to find someplace
Where she's able to stay safe
And--you know, and to move forward,
I mean, to get away from that madness.
- When she was born, her father didn't want her,
Because he wanted to kill the little one.
Many times, the mother find--
The mother, when she comes home,
She found her nearly dead, tied down.
- We have volunteers here now,
This is their third time with us.
They keep coming back.
It's a life-changing event.
They see children. They come in quite ill.
They may even see one of our children die.
And they contrast what these children have
And what they've been through with their own life experiences.
- It's not what we gave them; it's what they gave us,
Because they gave us the reason to live.
- [laughing]
- Kind of felt with victor-- I don't know.
Just a little--just every day,
There's the same routine that we do,
But that he--I don't know--
He's just like a little buddy.
- Victor was abandoned by his parents,
Because when he was born, he didn't have any arms,
And he only had one good leg and half a leg.
And it was the nuns that brought him down here.
I think they found him.
You know, he was really badly nourished
And just abandoned like that.
And the joy of living, this is what the kids here have,
The joy of living,
Because they want to live,
So they don't mind how painful it is,
As long as they get well and be able to go home.
[laughter]
But then when she came to us, well,
We did everything we can for her.
And she's--she can have a prosthesis afterwards,
And she'll be able to walk.
- People need to learn
That people need to get out of their--
Their little box, kind of see the world
And realize what else is out there,
How many other cultures are out there,
And just--I don't know-- open their eyes a bit.
- When you see children, you know, I mean, it's great,
Because everything that you know about life
And all the suffering, all the pain
That you might be experiencing even then,
It kind of reverts to how fresh, you know,
And how precious innocence can be.
- The tears of one child, of one innocent child,
The tears or a cry
That is bigger than all universe together,
With its matter and antimatters and multiverse stuff,
All multiverse--
Everything, to me, is questioned
By the tear of suffering in an innocent child.
So why that strong demand for justice?
Where is it coming from?
I don't ask the question,
What is the meaning of life or the purpose of anything?
I ask the question, who are you?
- In the west today,
Many young people do not have a meaning
And purpose to their life.
Their looking to say, does my life matter?
Do I have a unique contribution to make?
- Every human being thinks about it,
Is looking for meaning.
They're looking for answers
To the most elementary questions.
Who am I?
How did I get here?
What am I supposed to do?
Does it finally make any difference?
- In developing nations, this is much more clear
For these young people.
While they may be in a direct situation of conflict
Or insecurity, for them, it's clear.
I need to survive.
I need to get an education.
I need to get a job, because someone needs me,
And that someone can be their family
Or their friend.
And in a larger way,
That person or that entity who needs them
Is also their country.
- And the more reflective we are,
The more thoughtful we are,
The more questioning and filled with wonder we are,
The larger and the more urgent the questions become.
- When you recognize that you have a real mission,
An indispensable contribution to make,
Then you embrace life,
You celebrate life in a completely different way.
Many people today are very aimless.
They don't really know why they're here,
So they do what's necessary to survive,
Pay the bills, all the necessities.
You have to eat; you have to sleep;
You have to shop.
But there's no underlying passion.
Why am I really doing all of this?
- And this is an extraordinary gift
And advantage that they have
Over many young people in the west today
Who are told the opposite.
"you don't matter.
"there's a million people waiting to replace you.
We can get someone to do your job better for less money."
This translates, I think,
Into a cultural question that we're facing,
Where many, many young people today
Are saying, "I need to experience in some sense
That my life matters."
- The more mature person is not the person
Who has all the questions settled.
No, the mature person is the person who enters
Ever more deeply, ever farther and farther
And farther into the mystery and into the wonder.
- If life is not lived at this level,
Then it is lived at superficial level.
And then whoever has the power
To control your superficial levels
Will rule over you.
- And the world is out of kilter
Because people aren't allowed to exercise their purpose,
Meet and pursue their purpose.
Sure, everyone has a purpose.
They're born to do it.
[sedate rock music]
♪
- Have you ever had a moment
Where you feel like everything is just right in the world?
Time stops, and the stars are in line.
It was the first time in a long time
I could feel peace in my heart.
♪
- Just like playing music,
Each of us has our musical note that we have to play.
And if you know that's your note,
Then no one can play that music.
The whole composition is waiting for you to play your note.
There's a good reason to wake up.
- Everybody's on a journey,
Has been given a purpose for their life,
And they can fulfill that,
No matter what their beginnings were.
People who were abandoned by parents, you know,
And lived in orphanages or lived in, even, abusive homes
Can go on to live very full lives
That, because some parent might feel like,
"I don't want the burden of this child,"
The beginning is just the beginning.
And then there's a long path of development.
And where there's life, there's hope.
- So we experienced living homeless in the concrete jungle
And the happiness of the lost children of peru.
Our stories interested mike especially,
Who was a freelance writer.
He told us he was planning to research
A remote leper colony across the ocean.
And matt was already going with him.
So, thirsty for our next adventure,
Cliff and I decided to join.
- Broken glasses. - Broken sunglasses.
You don't know what this means.
No, just one piece was broken off.
It was on its way out.
- When I hear "milano," I think of those cookies.
- Yeah.
- I haven't seen one cute girl yet.
- You missed her. She just walked by.
You know why they make you wear your seat belt
When you go to sleep on a plane, right?
- You have to wear your seat belt?
- Yeah, you know why?
Sleepwalkers.
Yeah, maybe I will. I'll get the explicit ones.
- Yeah, you'd look good in those.
- Dolce gabbana.
- We're leaving?
- Yeah, we're going.
- All right.
Nothing could prepare us for what was coming next.
[dramatic percussive music]
♪
- In our culture, life is always a treasure.
There cannot be anybody without a father or a mother.
If your father dies, we will give you a father.
The family will give you a father.
If your mother dies,
The family will give you a mother.
So there is always meaning to life.
You always find something or somebody to lean on
And feel fulfilled.
I think that this is also at the root of the joy
That permeates our life.
- Second fastest.
If they run after you...
- Ah.
- They're the second fastest animal on the planet on land.
- What?
- I think the cheetah is number one.
Right? Cheetah?
[stirring orchestral music]
♪
[cows mooing]
[man singing in an african language]
♪
[indistinct speech]
- So my allergies are gonna kick into overdrive.
I'm already sneezing.
- These bugs were huge, and I'm not a big bug guy.
Not into the bugs.
- Stand in the center there with all of them,
Conquer your fear of them.
That's what I realized.
- They had a wingspan-- I don't know what.
They look like small birds here.
Hold the door.
- It smells really bad.
Oh, my gosh.
- The flies are everywhere.
The flies are everywhere.
[laughter]
- [laughs] - yeah, all right.
- Okay, I just want to say to the camera
That in second grade, I had a teacher,
And her name was miss katsman.
And miss katsman got mad at me
Because I couldn't color in the lines, okay?
And she told me that I wouldn't amount to very much.
Well, miss katsman, I just want to tell you,
Hi from africa, and where are you?
You're still in the [beep] elementary school.
To miss katsman.
[laughs]
[upbeat music]
♪
- Hello.
- Oh, I just got beaned in the head with beans.
Free samples.
Get your free samples.
- [whistles]
- It's pretty cool, man. I like this.
$35.
♪
- Discount.
35.
- We got ourselves some swords.
- We got a machete, and it ain't for cooking.
[laughter]
Timber me. - There's another one.
[frenetic percussive music]
♪
[men singing in an african language]
♪
- As a muslim, we believe that the great thing
To have in this world is to have god in your heart.
If you have god in your heart, you have everything.
No material possession can make you be greater
Than any other thing than having god in your heart,
So as a muslim, if you have a very strong faith,
You have everything in the world.
- Life is bigger than what we see.
Think, all human beings intuitively know that.
You know, there's more going on than what I can see.
Even though you have such great diversity
With how people have, you know, related to god
And particularly religious rituals
And how they develop so very diversely throughout the planet,
But there is underlying
Some kind of sense of the transcendent,
And man's desire and need to be in relationship with that,
You know, is not to be ignored.
I think it's very significant.
[mournful singing in an african language]
♪
- Well, today we're gonna be doing some interviews
With people who are dying of aids.
And on a personal level, when I was nine,
My mom passed away of aids.
It's gonna be a little hard for me, you know,
To actually speak to them,
Because I never had a chance, you know,
To actually speak to my mom before she passed away.
- When I was younger, I got my blood tested,
And it was the most horrifying moment of my life.
- And I'm hoping that through them,
They'll find peace, I'll find peace.
[sweeping orchestral rock music]
♪
I still miss her.
It's never gonna change.
It never gets easier.
♪
You can replace it with anything you want,
But you can't replace a mother's love.
- Suffering is a journey deeper into the heart of life.
You can't make a superficial description
Of the meaning of life
As though it's oriented around pleasure or beauty
Or, as I said earlier, fun.
It's obviously gonna be full of pathos,
Full of struggle,
And indeed, for many, full of terrible suffering.
- Even in the deepest suffering, there is significance.
There is a meaningful process of positive possibilities.
[ethereal vocal music]
♪
- We have to recover the language of humanity.
We cannot understand suffering without it.
- When we suffer with a friend, that friendship is deepened.
When we suffer with a nation,
A great love for that nation is developed.
- There's this struggle in life in every class of people.
It's part of life.
It's what we do with it that matters.
- Facing death every day, you know,
How do you deal with it?
- Because I never had a chance, you know,
To actually speak to my mom before she passed away.
What would be some words that you would leave with your kids
To always remember you?
- Hmm.
- [speaking an african language]
- They should trust in god.
And to be-- to observe the rules of god.
They should walk according to--
When you walk according to what god said...
God will let you prosper in all that you do.
That will be the only thing I will tell them.
- I think the suffering of the earth
Is only understandable in the context
Of some kind of a cosmic spiritual conflict.
- There was this whole tradition of lament
That the jewish tradition still has
But we lost as a culture.
We don't know how to lament.
- The bible is not what's called a theodicy,
An explanation, a rational explanation of evil.
It's a religion.
♪
The crucifixion was the culmination
Of the drama of suffering and the drama of love.
Death and love brought together at the crux point
Of all of history.
- Where there's your deepest suffering,
There's also always an opportunity
For great compassion.
- You know, there is peace on earth,
But we have got to work for it.
It's not gonna just be handed to us.
They got those who suffer are leading the army to peace.
[thunder rumbling]
[thunder booming]
- [gasps]
[flies buzzing]
- I didn't even know leper colonies still existed.
[low vocal, percussive music]
♪
- [speaking an african language]
[child cries]
♪
[child cries]
- [speaking an african language]
- What do I know about africa and diseases?
Aids, that's the first thing that comes to my mind,
Not a leper colony.
And here I find myself on my way to visit a leper colony.
I didn't know what to expect when I got there.
I had no idea what I was going to see,
How repulsed I was going to be.
I really didn't know.
We find out that it's kind of almost looked upon like a curse.
Your family and friends kind of desert you,
And you're looked at as an outcast.
And you're actually sent to live in this colony
Almost like, you know...
Segregated from the rest of the population.
- They obviously don't live normal lives,
So how do they cope with living?
- Why do they bother getting up in the morning?
- Here this man is.
He tells me he's got no feet.
It's difficult for him to walk.
He's been abandoned by his family.
His son doesn't look at him like his father anymore.
All these problems, and he's explaining to me
That he's happy because we're here.
♪
- I look at-- I look in the mirror.
I have a zit, you know.
In new york, people are gonna look at you differently now,
Because they're gonna just focus in on that one imperfection.
I go to this leper colony, and I realize--
I'm introduced to people who are missing fingers,
Missing legs, missing their limbs.
They're slowly decaying,
And they're missing everything on the outside.
But on the inside, they have everything.
- Whoever's watching this is gonna see, you know,
One of these guys with no feet, no hands, you know,
No teeth, you know, blind in one eye,
And they're gonna go, "aww," or they're gonna go, "ooh,"
And they're gonna make all these sound effects.
They're gonna look at this guy like he's a monster.
I just hope that they don't miss what he has to say.
[laughter]
- I was born, my left arm is shorter than my right arm.
No matter what people say, no matter what people think,
People don't really know unless you walk in somebody's shoes
What it is that they're feeling.
- And then you go there;
I'm shaking people's hands who are missing fingers,
And I don't even care.
You know why? Because they're smiling.
They tell me I'm welcome.
- You know, the ghanaian people,
They have an idea of what true relationships are about.
- They want to know what's on the inside.
- And it's not what's on the outside that matters.
I mean, his mind-set is the person,
The human person.
What is going on inside?
What is this person really made up of?
It was a human relationship that was starting to be formed
That was based on reality
That I had never experienced before.
- You guys. - He's a heavy guy.
Look at them all.
[stirring vocal and percussion music]
♪
- Here is innocence, purity.
Here is peaceful, love, faith, family.
Family life here is very important.
- The african people know how to live life.
- We see life more as a celebration.
We celebrate life.
- I wasn't the same skin color as them.
I wasn't the same culture as them.
You know, there was more differences
Than similarities, but the one thing that united us
Was the humanity.
♪
I was a human being,
And that's all that mattered to these people.
They accepted me because I was a human being.
- And it's just a simple life.
You don't need the fancy car.
You don't need the big house.
They're happy.
- No, over here is real.
♪
- By temperament, I think that we are joyful people.
Despite economic problems, we are happy people.
Our people value life.
- Well, I made it this far at 20 years old
With the people with-- you know, living life,
Meeting people, getting to know them.
You know, because I'm always concerned of
Who dislikes me, who hates me
Or what people think about me or how I feel
Or what people feel towards me.
Those who have both parents, it's--
They don't know.
They don't know that, you know--
They will have, like--
You know, that they'll just do certain things.
You know, they'll be strong in certain situations,
And they'll do things.
And it's because they have that backup love from their parents
That no matter what they do,
They know that they're still gonna be loved, you know?
As of me, on the opposite hand,
It's like I have to be cautious of everything, you know,
Because I don't have that backup love.
I don't--you know, I have one end, you know.
And like, my mom-- like, I don't even know my mom.
You know, it's like, right now, I'm going through a thing,
And it's like, I don't even know it, you know?
As long as you have both your parents loving you,
As long as you have a strong home, household,
It's like nothing else matters,
Because you already have the love you want,
The love you need,
And that's from both your parents.
It's great to have that backup, to have that backup love,
To fall back on something, you know,
To have a safe zone where you can be safe.
And, you know, you can go out there in the world
And get destroyed,
But then you can always come back
And rejuvenate and to recuperate
And to get healing back at your home
And that your parents will always love you,
But I never had that, you know?
- The family is the project of the human person.
The family is the space in which human life begins,
In which human life is nurtured and cherished,
In which an individual first learns
What it is to be loved by being loved,
What it is to have dignity
By having that dignity extended to them.
The family stands as a very unique institution worldwide.
All other institutions are essentially there
To support the family.
- ♪ all day
♪ since your haircut in the morning ♪
♪ you have looked like a painting ♪
♪ even more than usual
- That was really drilled into us.
Everything was family, extended family.
- Community is where you can find kind of where you fit.
By giving yourself, you find yourself.
- ♪ seems to know I miss my dad ♪
♪ and he smiles through the limbs ♪
♪ we talk easily with him
♪ until the rain begins
♪ this is the brotherhood of man ♪
- In this sense, I think the family is critical,
Because the family not only forces but provides
This extraordinary place which is our first experiences,
Which is our strongest experiences,
And which has been the environment
In which we have come into the world
And first experienced ourselves and the world.
- ♪ at the airport on my suitcase ♪
♪ a girl traveling from Spain
♪ became my sudden friend
♪ though I did not learn her name ♪
♪ and when the subway dimmed
[children shouting playfully]
♪ a stranger lit my way
♪ this is the brotherhood of man ♪
[soft acoustic guitar music]
♪
♪ I never can say what I mean
♪ but you will understand
- The family sets up boundaries that are very different
From any other relationship in the world.
Whether the family has been a place of security
Or insecurity for us,
It is a place that we continually have to turn to
To know who we are and to, in fact,
Try to figure out how to know these others.
- I'd like to know what's new in his life.
And I would love to tell him what's new in my life.
You know, I'd love to exchange that.
You know, I want to share my life.
He is my father. I respect him.
And you know what? I still love him.
[subdued orchestral music]
♪
No gray hair. How old are you, dad?
- Well, I got it over here.
- Yeah, a little bit. - A little bit.
I don't use nothing.
- Wow.
- It's been ten years.
- Yeah, ten years.
- Ten years, my little--
My little jeff.
Abooga boogoo.
- Oh, man.
- What do you do now?
- I work at restaurant right over here.
It's called manetta's, and...
[sighs]
Just living life.
I missed you, dad.
- What do you mean?
- I still love you, you know?
- I know.
It's all right, my son.
- Yeah.
- I do the best I can, but that's a part of life.
Something happens, you see--
I'm running with your mother how long?
21, 22 years ago. I made it for 20 year.
- No, I mean, dad, I forgive you, you know?
- Thank you, my son.
- That's the life.
- It's about the human experience.
And it's about-- it's about the beauty of life,
Like, all the good things in life.
No matter what you went through, no matter what happened,
You know, no matter what happens in life,
Like, life is still good.
Life is a gift.
- My little jeff.
[dramatic orchestral music]
♪
- The breathtaking reality
Of a new, unrepeatable,
Unprecedented adventure of a human life.
[music swells]
♪
[soft orchestral music]
♪
- ♪ you must remember this
♪ a kiss is still a kiss
♪ a sigh is just a sigh
♪
♪ the fundamental things apply
♪ as time goes by
♪
♪ and when two lovers woo
♪ they still say, "I love you"
♪ on that you can rely
♪
♪ no matter what the future brings ♪
♪ as time goes by
♪
♪ moonlight and love songs
♪ never out of date
♪ hearts full of passion
♪ jealousy and hate
♪ woman needs man
♪ and man must have his mate
♪ that no one can deny
♪ it's still the same old story ♪
♪ a fight for love and glory
♪ a case of do or die
♪
♪ the world will always welcome lovers ♪
♪ as time goes by
♪
♪ the world will always welcome lovers ♪
♪ as time
♪ goes by
♪
[melancholy guitar strumming]
♪
- ♪ moon river
♪ wider than a mile
♪ I'll be crossing you in style ♪
♪ one day
♪ oh, dream maker
♪ you heartbreaker
♪ wherever you're going
♪ I'm going your way
♪ two drifters
♪ off to see the world