Perilous Journeys

We sometimes forget the great resources we have right in our own backyard. I live in Carlsbad, and the local library has a wonderful program of speakers. On a recent Saturday afternoon Marlene and I went to hear Karin Muller, a photojournalist, author and adventurer, talk about her travels.

Karin has experienced travels that I have only dreamed of. Starting with a stint in the Philippines for the Peace Corps, she has been all over the world, often to danger zones such as Chad, Sudan and Cuba. She as done specials for PBS and National Geographic. The experience that she talks about most fondly is her 1 year journey to Japan, completely alone. Prior to her going to Japan she studied martial arts, and planned to continue her studies in Japan. In addition, she wanted to learn all there was about sumo wrestlers. Karin has a firm belief that you must learn the culture of the people you are visiting, not look at a foreign culture from an American point of view and make judgements about them. She also feels strongly that you must learn the language. She often said during her talk that you must embed and shed. In other words, you must become embedded in the culture, then shed the preexisting notions you might have had about the people. Karin is one who jumps right in and becomes as much like a local as possible. She met strangers whose homes she stayed in, tried bullfighting at an impromptu bullfight in South America, and used her language skills to get her out of some pretty sticky situations in Cuba and Sudan.

The audience was mostly senior citizens, and I wondered why most of them were there. Surely they weren't planning on doing a trip like any of the ones she has done. Perhaps they were like me. Lovers of travel who will never do what she did, but might have when they were younger, if they'd had the opportunity. I don't think I ever would have gone away alone for a year or traveled to Chad or Sudan and visited refugee villages on my own. The closest trip I have taken to anything Karin talked about was a 10 day trip to Cuba in 2000 with my friend Elaine. We got a missionary visa, brought clothes from America to Havana and gave them to local churches. We had a wonderful time, met the locals, visited locals in their homes and really got a know the people in a different way than you would on a tour. Karin likes danger, and likes living on the edge. I am not a big risk taker, so I never would have done the things she's done. My fantasy trip is to spend a month in the south of France and northern Italy. I'd like to take a car, stop in a small village when I found a place I liked, stay for a few days, and then move on. I don't know if Ron would like this or not. He's a planner and likes to know where he's going, so this trip may never materialize. However, it sure is fun to hear about others adventures and plan your own.