Has anyone read the blog Going Anyway? It shares the adventures of a slow traveling Australian family of seven around the world. Among their brood is their daughter Sparky who has cerebal palsy and requires a wheelchair for mobility. This is a real intrepid traveling family and one that causes me to question my own style of travel since I had children. The Going Anyway clan have stayed in backpacker hostels, caught a train across India in a space meant for only 2 people and ridden horses in Mongolia. Their family travel is far grittier and immersed than our own.
For better and for worse the birth of my first son transformed my former life including the way that I travel. That I continue to travel with my sons is my way of retaining a glimmer of my previous self – even if I do travel ever so differently than before. If blogging is a means to self reflection than this is mine. Here are some differences in my traveling style since having children.
Before having children
I taught medical skills to barefoot doctors in a Burmese refugee camp.
I rode in an open truck with a group of Karen villagers on their way to perform at a festival.
I spent the night in grass huts.
I worked in a southern USA restaurant that served amazing fried chicken.
I was guided down a mountain by a West Irian tribesman shyly holding my hand to ensure I didn’t fall.
I danced with African church goers.
I greeted patients in East Timor transferred by helicopter.
I stopped a mob of people in Cameroon beating a woman for being mentally unwell.
After having children
I rely on my own medical skills to manage my son’s sometimes dangerously severe asthma while away from home.
I meticulously organise car seats to ensure my children are safe on the roads.
We have only ever stayed in three star accommodation or higher.
I rejoiced when my son tried fried chicken when visiting the United States of America -finally a source of protein and iron that we could add to the tiny list of foods he will consume.
I have tightly held my son’s hands as we cross Shanghai roads to ensure they are not hit by a motorbike.
I have danced at Disneyland.
I was transferred by helicopter off a Whitsunday island in pre-term labour.
I break up inter-brother violence on a daily basis.
Ambivilent? Just a little. But by traveling with my little boys I have witnessed Creation anew. Together we have swum in rainforest streams and enjoyed animal encounters – fish, tigers, birds, kangaroos. Traveling with my boys has taught me to embrace the morning and the night – wherever, and in whatever timezone we are.
Bless the Going Anyway family for reminding me to relax my tight gripped hold over our travels and life with my boys. Bless my little boys for reminding me to relax my tight gripped hold over what I thought my life and travels would and should be like.
