【推荐1】The International Day of Happiness, March 20th, is a United Nations project which has a serious purpose. The UN thinks happiness will only be for everyone when the people of the world are equal.

On this date, the centre of the sun is directly above the Earth’s equator, which is called an equinox (春分）. On the equinox, day and night last for almost equal time all over the Earth. The equinox is felt by everyone on the planet, which matches perfectly with the idea behind the Day of Happiness. Since 2013, the Day of Happiness has been celebrated in all 193 United Nations member states. The United Nations invites each person of any age to join in celebration of the International Day of Happiness.

The idea goes back to 1972, when the King of Bhutan, Jigme Singye Wangchuck, said that they should measure a country’s progress by its happiness and not just how much it produces or how much money it makes. He called it Gross National Happiness (GNH). Again, it is more than just a nice idea. Bhutan developed a system to measure happiness based on things like people’s psychological health, their general health, how they spend their time, where they live, their education and their environment. People in Bhutan answer about 300 questions, and the results are compared every year to measure progress. The government uses the results and the ideas behind GNH to make decisions for the country.

In 2011,a UN adviser called Jayme Illien suggested the idea of an international day to increase happiness. His plan was accepted by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in 2012. Jayme was born in Calcutta, India, and he became an orphan when he was a child. He was adopted by an American nurse, Anna Belle Illien. She travelled the world to help orphans and she took Jayme with her. He saw children like him, but who were not as lucky as him because they were often escaping wars or they were very poor. He wanted to do something about it, so he worked in the areas of children’s and human rights.

The UN measures and compares the happiness of different countries in the World Happiness Report. It bases its report on social, economic and environmental well-being. The UN also sets goals for countries to achieve to increase happiness because it says happiness is a basic human right. Happiness should not be something people have because they are lucky to live in a place where they have basic things like peace, education and access to healthcare.

【推荐1】In the summer of 1965, Tété-Michel Kpomassie became the first African to explore Greenland. He was 24 on the day that he stepped onto the port at Qagortoq, on Greenland’s southern coast. But his arctic journey had actually begun some seven years earlier.

Kpomassie’s amazing life story starts with a bit of chance and a book. He was a teenager when he bought a book about Greenland in Togo. Immediately, the topic attracted him, and he knew that he must go there.

He traveled along the west coast of Africa, eventually crossing into Europe. There, he stayed for some time before leaving for Greenland. “I took my time to step out,” he recalled. “When I arrived, everyone stopped talking; all were staring. They didn’t know if I was a real person or wearing a mask. Children hid behind their mothers. Some cried, believing I was a spirit from the mountains.”

Kpomassie found his true home in Greenland’s northern reaches, where the Inuit culture that he’d read in a book as a boy was very much alive. Over the next 18 months, Greenland’s first African learned to ski, ice fish and hunt, and adapted himself quickly to the new environment.

He returned to Togo in late 1966 and adapted the journal he’d kept into a book. Kpomassie then went on to give lectures about his experience in halls and classrooms throughout Africa and Europe. And he settled down in Paris and raised a family, returning to Greenland on three occasions in that time. His book An Africa in Greenland was first published in France and has since been translated into eight languages.

“All the while I knew where I ultimately needed to end up,” he said. Now approaching 81 years old, Kpomassie is packing up his apartment and heading back to northern Greenland, where he intends to live out his final years.

【推荐2】Have you ever thought about traveling to new places, but you can’t afford it? If so, consider a work exchange program. Basically, you work a few hours each week in exchange for free housing. Both meals and other benefits are often thrown in. The jobs range from cleaning to computer work. Hosts around the world list volunteer opportunities through different work exchange programs.     1    

One-benefit of the more popular programs is that they assist you in different ways. For example, Workaway’s site lists more than 50,000 places to choose from. And Worldpackers pride themselves on their attention to safety and security.     2     They also provide a 24/7 support network for volunteers and hosts.

    3     You can gain new skills in creativity, leadership, languages and more. You can make yourself completely involved in a new culture. You’ll make new friends because you stay in one place for a while and work. Practically anyone at any age can join a program and travel throughout the year.

Your length of stay depends on your host. It can be from one week to many months.     4     This gives you plenty of free time to explore the area.

When it comes to work exchange opportunities, the sky’s the limit! You can help on a dairy farm in Ireland.     5     Or you might help at a South African surf camp. The opportunities are endless!

Consider a travel work exchange. It might be the most exciting trip you ever take!

【推荐2】When imagining libraries, a quiet, well-lighted, and clean surroundings will automatically pop out in your head. However, the list of libraries you’re about to see are absolutely out of this mold. Some of them might not be ideal places to read, but I would definitely enjoy visiting them.

The Biblioburro: Delivering Books Via Donkey — Columbia

Biblioburro (the name of the library) is being operated by Luis Soriano, a primary school teacher during his spare time. Witnessing kids wearing a genuine smile each time he visits their villages in rural Colombia would surely warm anybody’s heart. Using two donkeys, Alfa and Beto to carry loads of books, Soriano spends four hours on each trip just to reach those remote places.

Biblioteca Sandro Penna — Perugia, Italy

Nope, that’s not an alien ship you are staring at. It’s not a pink bubblegum candy designed by hello kitty, either! That’s a power house of books providing library services for the people of Perugia, Italy. It features rose colored glass walls designed to let sunlight in during daytime and at night it creates a rare glow. The Architect who designed it, Italo Rota, made the three-story disc to exude (显现) an appearance of an alien flying saucer.

The Kenyan Camel Library: Serving Nomadic Populations — Kenya

The camels carry books and some camping gear. Traveling librarians need a place to rest after a long journey across the desert. The caravan (露营车) caters to nomadic communities which are mostly illiterate due to lack of access to books. The Kenya National Library Service unleashed the program in 1985.

Epos Book Boat: Floating Books In The Fjords

In the Fjords, a book boat known as Epos travels to more than 250 small communities on islands every year between September and April. On board the vessel are some 6, 000 volumes, a couple of librarians, a cook and a captain. During summertime, the boat/library turns into a leisure cruise ferry. It all started in 1959, and is funded by the libraries of the three counties it serves.