Travel Tips

Periodically someone asks a general question on a forum (Most often the Miscellaneous Forum.) that triggers a serious and perhaps overblown response from yours truly. The response does not fit into Tips and is too serious for Travelogues which I try to use for what I consider to be at least mildly humorous stories of what has happened on my trips, so I have decided from now on to hide them here for later reference.
If you slip onto this "Album" do not expect any mention of the VT member who posted the original question, because that member should not be held in anyway responsible. The pictures I include may not be relevant to the discussion at all. I would rather you thought that the pictures were there to distract you from the writing, then to sucker you into reading it, but at least some of the time they will just be pictures I like and have yet to figure where else to place.

I am like a child, and I will enjoy the moment.
When I travel I feel freed to explore and interact outside my inherited provincial rules of behavior. I know no strangers and fear no evil. I have time and usually feel I can focus on the people I meet. I meet people from many different walks of life, and so many seem precious even though sometimes it is just because of a smile or a nod. On the other hand, when I visit a Chicago or Mexico City there are moments when I remember how small and really insignificant each human is in the grand scheme of things. Nature or an archeological site, especially when viewed in solitude, can have the same effect.
It is life affirming to be the focal point which can appreciate the awe inspiring natural world, the works of humans and the beauty of people themselves, but it is also humbling that you can never know everything that is out there. So ultimately, perhaps, it is curiosity about what I do not know that drives my travel. I think most VT travelers are tied by this curiosity that traveling nourishes or in some cases, perhaps, re-awakens.
Look to the children-- My wife has a charter school which focuses on struggling readers, and naturally when they first come to the school many of the kids seem dull, bored, disinterested, mis-behaving and depressed even though they are only elementary school age. But inevitably within a month or two they all seem to become sponges. Their discovery of the need to find out about the world around them seems to me to be the same thing that happens to travelers. And just like most travelers, these kids want to share the amazing things they see or experience.
Since observing this, I now see myself when I travel as being like these children. It starts with curiosity-- When I travel I see things and have experiences I want to share, but at the same time I feel inadequate to the task of sharing because it is not just the things we see and people we meet, but the feelings they engender that give value to the travel. When all is said and done following travel we must recognize that we all are just specks of dust with a brief moment to experience the incredible. Even if I am inadequate when it comes to being able to share these experiences, I will travel to enjoy the moment.

A question about "Cross Cultural Solutions" as an alternative to Peace Corps service lead to a VT member blast against the PC as being just a preparation of yuppie upper class Americans for a life of corporate exploitation. Resulted in the following response:

Much of what Peace Corps does is provide teachers where they are needed. The people who serve are generally educated, motivated and to a degree altruistic. Unless they become lawyers or politicians, I would doubt seriously their success in the exploitive world economy because generally they have the wrong attitude. Most volunteers would laugh at the idea that the Peace Corps could be a 'solution to poverty and ignorance in the world'. Volunteers carry skills and information but no money, so the impact has to be on a personal level. Most former volunteers would tell you that the benefit is mutual. My wife and I are both former volunteers.

Visiting someplace with a meaningful purpose is a good thing and inspite of the overblown idea of "solutions" implied by the name of the organization mentioned above, it could be OK. I do not know this particular organization, but a word of caution. It is easy and not uncommon for businesses in the area of international teaching to take high sounding names as marketing tools. They may even include the opportunity for volunteer service in their cultural programs, but as is often the case when trying to understand an organization, the question is from where do they get their money? This also must be considered when evaluating charitable organizations with orphanages, etc.

My youngest son while involved in the long drawn out process of applying for Peace Corps decided that since they wanted him to teach English and he wanted to teach English, that he might as well just go and do it. He got Celta certification and then had multiple job offers from China. Two weeks later he was off to China to teach at a high school in a city where there is one English speaker for every 100,000 people. His China situation is harder than most Peace Corps assigments because there is less organizational support and no pre-arrival cultural or language training, but he is happy and now feels that it is unlikely that when the Peace Crops finally gets around to offering a specific program that he will be disposed to accepting it rather than extending his China contract.

He was lucky or smart, because it seems that he saw through many of the "cultural . . ." organizations that were really just in the language school business. He did a lot of internet research and made calls and asked lots of questions until he found what he thought was the right type of organization. So far, so good.

What the "right" way to offer a donation is, of course, a matter of opinion. Here is mine:

First) I would say do not take candy or anything that could be potentially harmful or that is readily available in the country to be visited. (In most countries you can probably buy more school supplies for less money locally than you can in the US, Canada or Europe without the hassle of carrying them.) If you just mean a single item gift for an individual child, I can say I find carrying a couple extra pens in my pockets useful. After talking to a child for awhile who is a student, I can give a pen with the encouragement to keep on studying.

Second) Do not attempt any street distributions. You could be creating a problem somewhat like throwing money into the air in a crowd. Either make your gifts personal (one on one after some special interaction) or to organizations that know the needy.

Third) Do not give things to children without their parents' consent, especially food items. And if you want to give of food you just bought or happen to be carrying, offer to share. This can be considered basic politeness and allows acceptance or rejection without embarassment. An example, might be to buy too much fruit for yourself and offer pieces to the people sitting next to you on a park bench.

Fourth) Consider whether you are lucky enough to have the time to be visiting schools, orphanages, families, or charitable church organizations. Do you know how to contact one that you could trust to make good use of a donation? If you could identify the organization before you left on your trip you could be able to just drop off what you brought without using vacation time searching (and the organization might have a specific need you could satisfy).
If you do not have the time to identify a reputable organization that does work in these areas before your trip, I would suggest that you dedicate some money to be given to an organization you find, and you make it one of your little activites to find this organization. This can give you a meaningful experience that most tourists miss. Do not be afraid, if you do not speak the country language. Someone will help.

Fourth) Plan on how much you can afford to donate. This does not have to be alot of money. Any donation can be valuable. Personally, if I was going to donate around $20 US I would just put it in donation boxes I found along the way. But for more (50, 100 or a couple hundred dollars) I want to see the eyes of the person receiving the money in front of witnesses. Considering how much you may pay to see the tourist sites, I think giving something more than $20 going as directly to needy children as possible should be easy to justify. By depending on honest local people and organizations you can maximize the benefit.

For me this beats any random street charity.

Have you ever received a call out of the blue that brought back good
memories?

Two calls out of the blue have recently shocked me:

A couple months ago, I received a thank you call from a Liberian (West African) whom I had taught science as a Peace Corps volunteer over 30 years ago. Somehow years ago he had survived the Liberian civil war and escaped to Washington, DC with his wife and children. Prior to that he had gotten a scholarship, become a forestry expert and has most recently moved into medicine. As he talked, I remembered him as a young student and myself as a young teacher.

A couple weeks ago, I received a call from a teammate of a baseball team I was on at age 13. The former teammate was coaching young boys who found his claim to have been on an undefeated team hard to believe. This had lead him to start a search for memories of that magical summer. His call made me remember how I was new to the city and how much baseball meant to me at that age. A few of the players had been on the team the previous year and they had lost most of their games. I personally had never been on a winning team. Oddly, none of the players on this team went to my junior high school or high school, so this was a call out of the blue attached to memories of one summer of baseball long ago.

Although certainly appropriate for Miscellaneous, I am puzzled as to how express why the question herein addressed seems to me so appropriate to VT. It has something to do with life as a journey and the importance of memory. Can anyone help me out?

I have been developing a little theory about levels of fluency as related to travel.

The basis of the theory is my experience that I can be completely fluent in one situation and utterly lost moments later in another. Although I can understand how absolute fluency may be the ultimate goal, this is not a goal I can expect to achieve. I must strive for obtainable situational fluency.

Level one: 60 words and a lot of gestures. (You can go most anywhere with this level as long as you have money.)

Level two: Several hundred words and phrases that can be recalled and said easily while carrying a phrase book or calculator. Hoping for yes/no responses.

Level two B: The same as level two, but the phrases are said so well that the listener thinks you actually speak the language and responds in rapid long responses that you find completely incomprehensible. (Functionally. this may be more frustrating than a simple level two.)

Level three: Language skills have extended beyond pure travel necessity and greetings to a little social conversation and what I call "Taxi fluency". You can ask social and personal questions of a taxi driver and understand the basic responses within the time limits of a moderately long taxi ride.

Level four: You do very well with children. At least it seems that way because they do not laugh maliciously and they seem to understand what you want.

Level five: You are developing more and more situational competence. You may sound fluent with common situations but if the topic is unusual you are at a loss. When under pressure you may still regress to total incoherence.

Level six: You start bemoaning the fact that you understand a lot more than you can speak. The critical word here is "bemoaning". You feel that you do better with technical or political topics, but whereas in fact you do understand them better, you can not make subtle points in conversation.

Level seven: You believe you are much better speaking the language when drunk and you might be correct. (Before you reach this level, you just think you are speaking better.)

Level eight: You start to dream conversations in the foreign language in which you are indeed fluent. This is different than just dreaming that you are fluent.

Level nine: You overhear people speaking in your own language and think they said something complete understandable in the language you are learning.

Level ten: You can understand drunk people when you are sober and old people with no teeth.

Level eleven: You are comfortable talking the foreign language on the phone for important conversations.

Level twelve: You hear a song for the first time and understand the words. (Can you do that in your native language?)

Level thirteen: In conversations with native speakers who switch in and out of English and the language you are studying, you switch back and forth like a native and do not even notice that you are doing it, but there is no confusion of which is which.

As you can see, this still needs some work. I am not sure, for example, where I should put the level where you do well until flustered and then mix 4 languages in a single response so people think you must be German. Recently in the Amazon I had conversations in which I got my Portuguese so mixed up with other languages that the people I was talking to had no idea what I was trying to say, and I really did not know either.

I am also not sure whether levels 5,7, and 8 are properly ordered. Do you have suggestions or ideas for more situational levels?

Absolutism as in "environmental absolutism" is absolutely unrealistic, and feeling guilty about "the damage [you] are responsible for when you chose to travel" is a mis-guided emotion, unless it makes you do things differently that makes you happier. It calls to mind a lession I learned--- Either refuse to do what your parents tell you to do, and feel guilty; or do it and suffer the consequences. If you substitute "environmental absolutists" for parents you can see the connection. As well meaning as the "parents" may be, the consequences are often unpredictable.

For example, my parents once insisted I stay in an relatively expensive hotel in Washington, DC for my safety and their piece of mind. Should they have felt guilty that it turned out to be a center of high class prostitution, should I?

I am sure that there are experts who think that they can tell you absolutely whether it is better for the environment to travel NY to LA by bus or by jet. Others might even suggest that it is best for the environment for you not to travel at all. Should you feel guilty if you decide to not follow their advice due to safety, cost, time or other personal factors? Should you feel guilty if you follow their advice only to learn that later analysis with full consideration of all the factors involved 'proves' that the 'facts' were wrong?

As VT posts often show, applying ethics to your own travel is not impossible as long as you allow yourself to be practical and realistic. You can even take comfort in a choice not to personally intentionally harm the environment, and the effect that your personal appreciation of the environment can have on countries that need your tourist dollars. Just do not expect it to create a balance sheet cancelling out some sort of imagined personal responsibility. Our potential for feeling guilt is infinite, our power to eliminate the causes finite.

You are not responsible for the exhaust of the old beatup truck without pollution controls you have to take to travel from point A to B. All you can do is relax and enjoy the bumpy road. And you are not responsible if they fix the road giving it a greater on-site impact on the environment, but saving gas, tires and lives, even if it was done to promote tourism. We are individually not responsible for what we can not control. For me, the alternative of chosing not to travel is out of the question.

Hopefully if this issue has been worrying you, this note will help you sleep. better.

I have wandered through many "slum" areas in the world. I can not recall ever being badly received or treated as if my visit was an insult to someone's dignity. Although I do not like the negative connotations of the term 'tourist", I admit to myself that is what I am. I am only there to see and to learn. And, of course, in the eyes of the people I meet, I am wealthy.

When learning about the poor and perhaps less beautiful aspects of the world is part of what draws some people to travel, I think this is a good thing. Unfortunately, obtaining this type of experience on your own is sometimes said to entail intolerable risk. Often I have ignored this risk, (and so far have never suffered) but other times even I could not ignore the warnings. Under these circumstances a group tour would seem to be the only reasonably safe and cost effective alternative. For many other people, especially when language is an issue, any excursion into an untraveled area would require a guide and group security. This makes sense; I can not object.

I am sure that no one would claim that seeing a problem is more important than doing something about it, but tourism is about seeing and learning, not about fixing. I am skeptical about whether any significant money is generated for needy people by these tours, but I do believe that the experience does touch the hearts of some, and therefore is a good thing.