A Year to Remember!

Jordan, June, 2015

Thailand, June 2015

Laos, July 2015

Indonesia, August 2015

Palau, September 2015

Singapore, September 2015

India, October 2015

Bhutan, October 2015

Myanmar, November 2015

Cambodia, December 2015

Vietnam, January 2016

Australia, January 2016

New Zealand, February 2016

Samoa, March 2016

Chile, March 2016

Mexico, April 2016

USA, May 2016

Lists

We have now finished our Big Trip.  What a year it has been!  And what amazing experiences we have had in so many countries.  Here is a sample:

Countries in which we have had bugs and infections:

• Thailand - ants crawling across my head while sleeping on a mat on the floor at a homestay in the hills above Chiang Mai
• Thailand - leech sucking my blood
• Thailand - Mira had a bad stomach bug
• Indonesia - I caught Mira's stomach bug
• Indonesia - lice, which everyone but Rob got them
• Indonesia - Rob had bedbugs
• Cambodia - Rob and Maya had a little stomach bug
• Palau - poisonous tree got Maya good (like poison ivy but worse)
• India - Rob had mites with super long antennas in his underarm
• India - Maya had a cold or flu
• Australia - we all had leeches sucking our blood
• California - Mira and I had bedbugs

Maya's legs after toughing beautiful Palau's ugly poisonous trees

Countries in which we ate insects:

• Thailand
• Laos
• Cambodia
• Mexico

Countries in which I saw friends (and location of where we first met that friend):

• Thailand - Billy, Kathy, and Khalid (Louisiana and UAE)
• Thailand - Dino and Helen (Rhode Island)
• Indonesia - Denise, Jay, Charlotte, and Jimmy (Rhode Island)
• Singapore - Ann, Michael, Demitri, and Thani (Rhode Island)
• India - Tony, Alicia, and Fran (Rhode Island)
• Bhutan - Nabil and Violet (Louisiana and UAE)
• Myanmar - Josh, Zoe, and Zack (Jordan)
• Myanmar - Jill and Roni (Jordan)
• Cambodia - Matt and Sheila (California)
• Vietnam - Reed and Ryder (Jordan)
• Australia - Megan (Canada)
• Australia - Dianne, Zekele, and Lindy (Zimbabwe)
• Australia - Mandy (Washington)
• Australia - Carolan, Tim, and Kirra (California)
• Australia - Lesley (UAE)
• Australia - Denise (Eritrea)
• New Zealand - Helle and Warwick (Eritrea)
• New Zealand - Liz (Eritrea)
• Samoa - Cedric and Suzy (Massachusetts and Fiji)
• Chile - Inaki and Meritxell (Eritrea and New York)
• Mexico - Kathy (California)
• Mexico - Holly (Washington)
• Mexico - Jeanne (Zimbabwe)
• Mexico - Lisa (Jordan)
• Mexico - Jane (Rhode Island)
• Mexico - Lessie (Mexico)
• Hawaii - Matt and Sheila (California and Zimbabwe)
• Hawaii - Paz (Rhode Island)
• California - Sandy, Anneke, and Marijke (Canada)
• California - Kathy (California)
• California - Edie, Jimmy, Mimi, Cici, and Tia (UAE and California)
• California - the Marsocci clan (Rhode Island)
• California - Laura (Washington)
• California - Dave (France)
• California - Dom and Joao (Rhode Island)
• Arizona - Kamal, Alia, Saif, and Azza (Egypt)

How to say hello and thank you in the 19 countries we visited (and Hawaii):

• UAE:  marhaba, shukran 
• Thai: swadi ka, kap kun ka 
• Laos: sawadi, kap chai
• Indonesian: slamat pagi tremakasi
• Philippines:  kamusta , salamat po
• Palau: alli alli, sulong 
• India: namaste, dhandivad 
• Bhutan: kuzuzangpola, karinchey
• Myanmar: maklava  , chezutamari 
• Cambodia: Suwa sudeh, awkun 
• Vietnam: Sin chao, com an
• Australia: G'dai, cheers or ta 
• New Zealand: hello, thanks or ta 
• Samoa: talofa, fa'afetai
• Santiago: hola; gracias 
• Easter Island: iorana; maururu 
• Mexico: hola; gracias 
• Hawaii: aloha, mahalo

- Nadia

Do Overs?

We are now exactly one year and six days into our one-year around-the-world trip, for which we quit our jobs, jumped off the cliff, home schooled our children, and traveled to 19 countries around the world.

We are about to fly to Rhode Island, where we typically spend our summer vacation with family and friends.  After that, we will move to Myanmar and get on with our "regular" lives of living in a foreign country doing humanitarian and development work and attending international schools.

As I reflect on our trip, and think about the big picture, and as we visit friends here in Southern California, I think about what I would do differently, if we were to start the trip over again.

I would:

1.  Go slower and visit fewer places.  Upon the advice of people who had already taken similar trips, we revised our trip itinerary several times, slowing it, and reducing the number of countries and places we planned to visit.  

I still think, however, that we planned too much and didn't allow enough down time.  

I would go at a much a slower pace.  Visit fewer countries.  See fewer sights.  I would plan more "rest stops".  I would allow time for us to just be in a city or town or village, to experience life in different places.  I would allow more time for processing all that we say and all that we did.  Time to just "be".

The Cara Mia off Catalina Island, where we spent four days with my childhood friend, Edie, on her gorgeous sailboat, lounging and catching up - a perfect "rest stop" on our Big Trip.

2.  Take school less seriously.  Except for math, we didn't need to take schooling so seriously.  As long as they were reading regularly, and writing regularly, the girls didn't need as much formal schooling as we did.  They learned so, so much from everything we did and saw.  By osmosis.  By doing.  By experiencing.  By participating in the planning.  By asking questions of our guides and our new friends and acquaintances.  By seeing and experiencing and becoming so accepting of so many diverse foods and ecosystems and people and clothes and cultures and religions and lifestyles and values.  There are so many ways to do things and the "other" is also "right".  This is what it means to be an world citizen.

3.  Take strong, well-made roller suitcases instead of backpacks.  There were very, very few instances in which we actually needed backpacks.  We always checked bags when flying (because we had toothpaste and shampoo and first aid gels, etc., etc.,  which exceeded the liquid limits found everywhere with carry-on bags).  And there were many time in which we would have had a much easier time (less sweat) had we pulled along a small suitcase with wheels.  We didn't need to "prove" we were travelers by carrying backpacks instead of suitcases.

4.  Plan side trips with part of the family, in various configurations, to separate from time to time.  Maya and I took a trip on our own at the beginning of the trip.  We left Mira with family friends at the end of our trip.  I took three different week-long trips on my own during our Big Trip.  Rob went off for a long boys' weekend for four days at one point while we were in Mexico.  These were fantastic breaks, but we should have planned time for more little side trips with two of us going in one direction while the other two went in another while we were on our Big Trip.  One year is a long time to be together 24 hours-a-day, seven days a week, for one year.

Photos of Rob and I during a rare four-hour period of being away from the kids while at the San Diego County Fair in Del Mar, California, USA

All in all, it has been an absolutely fantastic year!  We have learned a lot about ourselves, about each other, and about our relationships with each other.  But I'd do things slightly differently if I were doing it over again.  If I was making recommendations to other families wanting to take a similar trip, I'd suggest they do things a little differently than we did it.

None-the-less, I would absolutely recommend a trip like this to anyone and everyone.  Life is fragile and short.  You might not be here tomorrow.  Take a leave-of-absence.  Take a sabbatical.  Quit your jobs.  Travel with your kids for a fair length of time while they're old enough to remember the trip.  Take a risk.  Do it.  Experience new things.  Create memories.  Spend time with loved ones.  Carpe diem!

-  Nadia

Home...

Greetings from Baja, Mexico!  I feel at home - in heaven, back at one of my favorite places on earth, in the desert, on the Pacific, facing west and able to look for the green flash every sunset.

We will be in Baja for three weeks:  one week in a beautiful house on the beach of the west coast of Baja in the artsy town of Todos Santos, chilling out and having a "rest stop"; and two weeks in a villa in the city of La Paz on the bay side of Baja, where we will be kayaking and scuba diving.

I'm excited about these two stops because they're in Baja, but also because the stops are at least a week long and because they're homes, with kitchens and stereos and space for each of us to have a little space and solitude - all things we like and have been missing.

Like the homes we stayed in while in Bali and Phnom Penh, we are staying in this house (as well as one in Oaxaca City and one in Mexico City, both a little later during our two month stay in Mexico) through swaps for the little holiday flat we have in the Yucatan.  It's a great way to save money - leverage your home for one in another location.  We arranged a couple of our house swaps through friends of friends, but arranged the others through a website (www.homeexchange.com).  It's a great way to travel economically!

Nadia

Impressions of Samoa

Lush, tropical, and green
Colorful
Familiar friends
Coconuts and more coconuts
Devoted Christians
Heavy afternoon thunderstorms
Black volcanic rocks
Slow calm pace of life

Nadia

First World

We are definitely in the "first world".

There are the negatives, for example seeing homeless or people who live on the streets in such a rich country.  Or seeing signs full of rules in public areas (don't do this, don't do that).

But there are some wonderful positives too - public investment in art, safely sharing unpopular political views, and having clean, natural spaces within urban environments.

Nadia

Pou on transformational leadership, found along a nature walkway in Waikato

Waiting for the start of Marama, a political Maori and South Pacific dance performance we attended at the Auckland Arts Festival

Yet another reason to be a vegetarian (even if you love cheese)! 

Climbing down a municipal walking trail on Paritutu Rock in New Plymouth

The gorgeous view of Mount Taranaki and the Pacific, from the top of Paritutu Rock

Pristine and empty Centennial Park Beach, right in New Plymouth

Luxury in Australia

"It is a luxury to do something that serves no practical purpose: the luxury of civilization!"
   The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Steadman

Luxury:  swinging on a rope swing above Coffs Creek

Luxury: surfing at Park Beach on a weekday

Luxury: hiking Coffs rainforest with a friend

Luxury: rescuing and caring for orphaned or abused animals

Practical:  doing school work to learn and grow

Luxury:  doing school work in a lounge chair by a river in Tasmania

Luxury:  hiking with your family in Cradle Mountain National Park

Practical:  transporting family from one lodging to another

Luxury:  transporting your lodging (camper van) from one national park to another

Luxury:  sitting at a view point on top of Cradle Mountain

Practical:  washing sweat off your body

Luxury:  bathing in Crater Lake

Yet again, I am reminded of how lucky we are...

Nadia