When we first started thinking about taking a year off formal work to travel and homeschool the kids, we spoke with a family about their experiences with a similar trip several years earlier when their two daughters were similar ages to my girls now. The one thing Rhonda, the mother, said (which really stuck with me) was that it was a great bonding time as a family and that they had really gotten to know their children during their year of travel together.
We have only been traveling for three weeks - shorter than the typical length of our annual home leave and holiday to USA and Mexico. Despite this, I feel like I've already gotten to know my daughters better than I knew them previously. I have learned so much about my girls in these three weeks!
Mira, for example, loves babies. I knew she liked little kids, but I didn't realize quite how much she loved them - and animal babies too. Where ever we have been, there have been lots of babies and toddlers. And plenty of baby animals. She never fails to stop to say a few words or play with them or pet them - whatever the species of babies!!
And Maya loves to eat and try new foods. I knew both girls were easy eaters, but I didn't know that Maya absolutely loves eating everything - no matter whether it is a new fruit on a tree we are passing, a spicy mystery dish in the back of beyond in Laos, or an insect that is considered a delicacy wherever we happen to be.
And humor. Boy do they have a sense of humor!! We spend more time laughing each day than most people do in a week! We laugh at and with each other, whether it's the mishap of finding ourselves in the red-light district of Pattaya, Thailand, or an unusual tattoo of a European backpacker, or one of us having a major cultural or language misunderstanding along our journey, or one of the girls tagging a total stranger while the family was playing tag while tubing on a Laotian river.
Both girls are incredibly easy-going. We've been hot and lacked sleep while we lugged backpacks on and off tuktuks, taxis, subways, buses, and trains. We've used the toilet in roadside bushes, less-than-clean toilets at highway rest-stops in the middle of nowhere, bug-filled latrines 60 meters up in treehouses, and the bushes in snake-infested forests deep in the juggles of southeast Asia. We've been woken by ants in our hair, had leeches latch onto our feet, and had mysterious bites on our legs in the middle of the night. We've eaten street food and furry fruit and insects. And yet, despite all of this, I have not heard a single complaint from the girls.
They are also empathetic and have a strong awareness of how lucky we are. Maya's recent blog is a good example - without us ever talking about it, she thought (and blogged) about being poor and living in a hut in a rice field. On our long bus rides and treks through the forests, Mira often raised the topic of "what if we had been born here" instead of in the privileged life that we have. She recognizes that our good life is a virtue of luck in being born where we were born - and nothing more! Both girls think and talk about ways in which we can contribute to a more fair and just world (and as our trip progresses, we will be doing service to work on this!).
My girls also have a lot of respect for other people. They know there are other ways of doing things (and that the "other" is also "right"). In these three weeks, I have seen Maya and Mira instinctively, with no prompting, learn and use the local greetings and expressions of thanks or gratitude. The girls are now in the habit, whenever we walk up to a person or a stall or into a shop or cafe, of pressing their hands together in front of their hearts, nodding their heads, and saying hello in the appropriate language - just like the local people - regardless of the socio-economic status of the person they are greeting. Incredible!
I find myself astounded by the girls on a daily basis. I am thankful to have this year to get to know my lovely monkeys even better.
Nadia
We have only been traveling for three weeks - shorter than the typical length of our annual home leave and holiday to USA and Mexico. Despite this, I feel like I've already gotten to know my daughters better than I knew them previously. I have learned so much about my girls in these three weeks!
Mira, for example, loves babies. I knew she liked little kids, but I didn't realize quite how much she loved them - and animal babies too. Where ever we have been, there have been lots of babies and toddlers. And plenty of baby animals. She never fails to stop to say a few words or play with them or pet them - whatever the species of babies!!
Mira loves little babies!
And any kind of animal, but especially little ones!
Maya eating the delicious and ubiquitous Thai noodle soup
She loves dragon fruit (but not bananas)
And humor. Boy do they have a sense of humor!! We spend more time laughing each day than most people do in a week! We laugh at and with each other, whether it's the mishap of finding ourselves in the red-light district of Pattaya, Thailand, or an unusual tattoo of a European backpacker, or one of us having a major cultural or language misunderstanding along our journey, or one of the girls tagging a total stranger while the family was playing tag while tubing on a Laotian river.
Both girls are incredibly easy-going. We've been hot and lacked sleep while we lugged backpacks on and off tuktuks, taxis, subways, buses, and trains. We've used the toilet in roadside bushes, less-than-clean toilets at highway rest-stops in the middle of nowhere, bug-filled latrines 60 meters up in treehouses, and the bushes in snake-infested forests deep in the juggles of southeast Asia. We've been woken by ants in our hair, had leeches latch onto our feet, and had mysterious bites on our legs in the middle of the night. We've eaten street food and furry fruit and insects. And yet, despite all of this, I have not heard a single complaint from the girls.
They are also empathetic and have a strong awareness of how lucky we are. Maya's recent blog is a good example - without us ever talking about it, she thought (and blogged) about being poor and living in a hut in a rice field. On our long bus rides and treks through the forests, Mira often raised the topic of "what if we had been born here" instead of in the privileged life that we have. She recognizes that our good life is a virtue of luck in being born where we were born - and nothing more! Both girls think and talk about ways in which we can contribute to a more fair and just world (and as our trip progresses, we will be doing service to work on this!).
My girls also have a lot of respect for other people. They know there are other ways of doing things (and that the "other" is also "right"). In these three weeks, I have seen Maya and Mira instinctively, with no prompting, learn and use the local greetings and expressions of thanks or gratitude. The girls are now in the habit, whenever we walk up to a person or a stall or into a shop or cafe, of pressing their hands together in front of their hearts, nodding their heads, and saying hello in the appropriate language - just like the local people - regardless of the socio-economic status of the person they are greeting. Incredible!
I find myself astounded by the girls on a daily basis. I am thankful to have this year to get to know my lovely monkeys even better.
Nadia
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