Jim has been chosen for the remarkable people section for one main reason, his selfless nature toward humanity. He is a very humble guy who has traveled to approximately 60 countries in his lifetime. You would not know of his worldly experiences unless someone else clued you in or if you had the pleasure to chat with him long enough to hear first hand about his journeys. Jim is not the kind-of guy who goes to another country and sits pool-side at a resort. Instead, he opts to trek into uncharted areas and get to know native people in remote villages. Although there are many stories to tell about Jim’s humanitarian efforts, the ones that stand out are about his two trips to Indonesia after the Tsunami hit in December of 2004.

Jim’s first trip was in March of 2005 and he used almost six weeks of personal vacation time to go help with the relief effort. He spent the first two weeks on the island of Ko Phi Phi in Thailand and the remainder of the time on to Nias Island southwest of Sumatra.

Jim spent the first two weeks in the south part of Nias volunteering with a group of American Doctors. Although Jim witnessed a lot of selfless people helping out during his first trip, he saw problems within the overall relief procedure and decided to do things a little differently. Like all the other aid workers he was allotted money for accommodations by whichever organization he was volunteering with at the time. Rather than stay in a hotel costing up to $200/night, Jim felt that money could be better spent buying much needed supplies for the relief effort. He decided to ask a local family for a place to stay in exchange for food that he bought from local vendors. He understood that most of the aid workers had never even been to a third-world country, let alone one that had recently undergone such a catastrophic event and that they could not handle the conditions he was used to. Apparently, some volunteers were so horrified by what they saw that they were reluctant to come out of their hotels. Although these people had great intentions, the $1000.00 they spent on airfare might have been better spent as donations for supplies.

Another problem Jim saw within the relief effort was organizations not properly assessing the needs of a community and promising more than they could deliver. When a relief program entered into a new town, they would put up signs and hang posters claiming that everyone would get medical aid. Again, their intentions were good; however, they ended up upsetting people because more often than not there were not enough volunteers or supplies to help everyone. Jim said people would come to the medical stations by the thousands and the majority were turned away. One of his jobs was to pass out tickets to enter the station and it was upsetting to him to look into a crowd of approximately five thousand and pick who could or who couldn’t come in. Although he felt everyone deserved help equally, he saw empty promises being made and people actually being resentful instead of thankful. He understood that you cannot help everyone and felt a better approach was to “ask what they need and don’t bite off more than you can chew.” After working at the medical station for a few weeks, Jim decided to spend the last ten days of the trip on his own helping out predominantly Muslim communities that were not getting as much attention.

After six weeks of hard work, it was time for Jim to return home to Northern California. Just a few days after his departure from Indonesia, a massive 8.7 earthquake hit north of Nias Island. According to the reports over 10,000 were left homeless and 340 dead. Jim saw footage of a bridge destroyed that he had just crossed three days prior. His immediate reaction was that he had to go back and help the people he had recently befriended. Once family and friends learned of his intentions to go back, they donated over $6,000 to help buy supplies. Within 24 hours of the earthquake news, Jim was repacked, loaded up with as many medical supplies he could carry, and on a flight to Singapore.

Once in Singapore he was able to catch a flight to Medan and that was the easy part. Getting to Nias during a time of chaos and travel restrictions was the tricky part. Because of Jim’s travel experience and ability to partially speak the local language, he was able to find people to take him on the 150 mile, 10 to 12 hour journey across Sumatra where he would then need to find a fisherman to take him to Nias Island. When asked about the dangers of an American hitching rides in a third world country during a time of turmoil (let alone one with supplies and an unknown stash of over $6,000) Jim’s response was “you find a trusting face” and that he is “fairly good at sizing-up who is going to rip him off or not.”

Jim had a few tasks before departing to Nias. First, he needed to exchange his American dollars to the local currency. Again, when asked about his safety, he simply said, “you do your best to blend in and draw as little attention to yourself as you can.” He went to six different banks to exchange the money so no one person knew exactly how much he had. Jim then bought as many supplies that he could get on a fishing boat. The supplies consisted of kerosene, several kilograms of rice, boxes of Top Romen, and fresh vegetables. After loading up on supplies he found a fisherman to take him to the area on Nias where he had previously worked. The boat Jim was on was one of the first to arrive to the area after the earthquake hit. Within moments of Jim’s arrival he was greeted by a man he befriended on the first trip named Mon. Mon simply said to Jim, “I knew you would come back.”

Mon helped Jim find a truck to transport the supplies. Jim was amazed at the wreckage that had taken place since he was there a few days prior. Most of the multiple story buildings had been leveled. Jim quickly rolled up his sleeves and went to work administering first-aid, clearing debris, rebuilding, or simply passing out $10 and a bag of rice to every family.

One day Jim and Mon came across a little girl dragging a bag of bottles down the street. Jim did not understand her form of dialect so he had Mon translate for them. He asked to be taken to her mother and after a short walk they came to her home which was a complete shanty. The mother, who had lost what little she had in the earthquake, was single and had a few kids. She was holding an infant, which Jim could immediately tell was sick by the skin color. By this time an American medical ship was in the harbor and Jim was able to get the baby there for help.

Jim decided that this family could use a little more than $10 and a bag of rice, so he bought them a new house and helped the mother start a business. Although Jim wished he could do this for everyone, he knew he could not. He had to be very discrete when he took this woman down to the bank to open her an account. Jim also bought the little girl he initially met in the street a uniform and supplies to help get her back in school.

One thing Jim stressed during the interview is that this type of community service has to be done simply because you want to do it. He explained that it is very important to never expect anything in return. He said that what you do will probably never be enough, to never expect open arms, and don’t even expect a thank you. For example, on his first trip he bought a local fisherman a new boat because the fisherman had lost his old one during the Tsunami. When he saw this same man during the second trip the first thing the man said to him was, “I need you to fix my motor and I need money for gas.” Jim was by no means offended because he understood that the man was desperate and saw Jim as a solution. Again, Jim said to me, “you just do what you can simply because you enjoy doing it.”

Jim was only able to stay a few weeks during that second trip, but he plans to go as frequently as he can because there is “still so much work to be done.” In fact, Jim left for a third trip while this article was being written. He went to personally deliver a pair of shoes he had specially made for a young man who lost six inches off his leg during a surfing accident. Jim also wanted to see what really has been accomplished since his last visit. His plan was to look at all his old photos of infrastructure to determine the effectiveness of the relief efforts.

Jim Clark is a remarkable person and he exemplifies the World Minded Way because of his selfless nature toward humanity. Although, most of us aren’t equipped to do the things that he does because we might lack the travel experience or medical training, we should be inspired by the way he treats people to do what we can to help others out. There are numerous things we can do and even the slightest contributions can make a difference. Jim will always have the support of World Minded through out his endeavors. Thanks for all that you do Jim!