To travel is to live

Curtis and friend

My nephew, Curtis, along with three of his friends, left this week on a four month trip to Australia, New Zealand and parts of SE Asia.  It's his first time traveling outside of North America and I couldn't be more excited for him!  As Hans Christian Andersen put it, "To travel is to live."

As I think about the extraordinary adventure he is embarking on, I can't help but reflect on my own amazing travel opportunities and how the richness of those experiences remains with me all these years later.

My most memorable travel experience was the trip I took to India at the age of 22.  It hardly seems possible to me now that I flew off to such an exotic location at that young an age.  What were my parents thinking as they waved me goodbye?  At that time, my mom had never even been on an airplane and here I was heading off to the other side of the world.  If my parents had any misgivings about letting me go, they never once voiced them to me.  Instead they sent me off with their blessings, allowing me the freedom to leave behind all that was familiar and to experience the rich adventure and independence of the unknown.

And what an adventure it was!  I clearly recall the pungent smell of curry on my fingers that summer as I learned to eat without utensils and often with a banana leaf as my plate; the musical voice of the tea vendor calling "chai, chai" as he elbowed his way through a crowded train; and of course, the unique skill of mastering a squat toilet which was really just a hole in the floor.  

I will never forget how it felt to be entrusted at the age of 22 with Christy, the 9-year-old daughter of our team leaders, the two of us riding alone in a rickshaw through the crowded streets of Delhi.  With the dilemma of getting 10 of us to the train station with all of our luggage, Christy’s mom had simply hailed a rickshaw, handed me 10 rupees and sent us on our way, saying "we'll meet you there."  It was so easily said and yet the confidence those words instilled in me stayed with me to this day.

I recall the incredible thirst of +40 degree days and the preciousness of clean drinking water which, until that point, I had mostly taken for granted. I recall the open-handed generosity of our hosts, the Indian pastor and his wife who lived on a fraction of what we spent in a day, and sharing in their loss as the monsoon rains rose several feet high inside their ground floor apartment, drenching everything including the pastor's books. 

I remember finding out that the night train we had been riding was now at our stop, but was only stopping for five minutes, and the thrill of rushing to gather up our belongings, throwing them out the train door, and then jumping from the train as it began moving out of the station.

We have no idea what adventures await Curtis over the next four months, but two things are sure -- there will be many and they will be memorable!   They will change his life forever.

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“Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

― Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky