Many years ago, while in my early twenties, my brother Jeff, changed our lives by going on a University six month travel abroad program to Colombo Sri Lanka, against the wishes of our parents. When he returned, he looked happier, more relaxed, though, saying crazy things like, “We have a mother and father in Sri Lanka, as well”. So, … while I thought that what he was saying was a bit off the mark, still, as I was at the time in the midst of breaking free from a long term relationship, I did not hesitate, when the chance for me to travel to Sri Lanka appeared, as Jeff was eager for the two families to meet.
Upon my return, from Sri Lanka, of two months, I was thought, even crazier than Jeff, by our other siblings, as I was confirming that, indeed, we do have a mother and father, Alma and Tata, in Sri Lanka. Jeff, at this time was planning a year long trip to Mexico, and I immediately began preparing a short back-pack trip to Paris France, to see some of the art first-hand that I had studied about in my University degree program. Alma and Tata, have visited our home numerous times, as the families comfortably travel back and forth, and to this day, have remained close.
So, as my life literally changed, still feelings remained. My close friend of many years, and I, eventually became comfortable in realizing that we were not breaking up, we were just trying to accept that we had simply grown apart. Within the next few years, we continued to see each other, though sparingly, and eventually, our separation proved positively amicable.
My travel abroad to Sri Lanka was so enlightening for me in so many ways, I mean, I was living within the milieu of old money, and new money, and learning the culture of just what that was about. I mean, in the evening we are frequenting five star events/gatherings, and I was never seeing money pass. While during the day, it was not uncommon to find me relaxing, on the back of a wooden, dusty truck, with the young servant woman, enjoying our ride to the market, as Alma and Tata, wanted me to see the full side of Sri Lanka.
Because Tata was a successful businessman as well as held a high position in relation to Buddhism in Sri Lanka, I was entering places that few US Americans could go, such as weekly studying Buddhism in the classroom with the young servant woman who would leave food and drink upon our leaving. I was talking with these Buddhist young men as comfortably after class as though I were in an American classroom setting, I did not know that they were free to speak with women. Everyone was dressed in an orange robe, except the young servant woman, the teacher, and myself.
So, as I, being a very shy introvert, had mostly relied on my younger twin ‘extrovert’ brother of five minutes to speak for me. I never took my studies seriously, as I was at University because that was what my parents did, and my siblings as well. I mean, I failed the seventh grade, thus heightening my already low self esteem, I certainly never felt as though anyone was interested in anything I had to say.
This all changed, as while in Sri Lanka, I was for the first time being confronted with direct questions from my Sin halese friends. My Sri Lankan friends were asking me questions that only I could answer, as I was the only US American present. It surprised me as they appeared to wait, as if with, bated breath, for my answers. I had never been asked many of these questions before. They were sometimes questions that caused me to reflect and look directly at myself, with careful thought, before eventually delivering an answer. I learned as they learned, as these questions often invited interesting debate. They were educating me as I educated them. Via reflection I saw here where an area of learning is to be found in travel abroad, as well as gained an understanding of what being an ambassador of ones country entails when traveling abroad.
Also, while in Colombo Sri Lanka, I traveled on a two-week Safari Tour owned and arranged by one of our Sri Lankan friends of the family. Among one of the frequent stops to share money or shop, was a nice neighborhood, looking comparable to a well kept safe lower middle-class neighborhood in the U.S. Instead of shopping for trinkets I left the tour van of where I pleasantly was the only rider among a kind much older German couple. I detoured, and crossed the dirt road to talk with the casually western dressed younger Sri Lankans along side the white hanging picket fence amidst a dusty dirt road at the end of their property. As I and this group of young Sri Lankans close to my age talked, I realized that it was as casual a conversation as though I were talking and meeting some new friends in the U.S. I found their conversation interesting and intelligent. Eventually, I realized their often reference to my, as a US American, having so much access to opportunity. I finally addressed this redundancy as they moreover informed me that, although a dream of theirs is to attend formal schooling, they only have a few books of which they continue to read over and over. They eventually concluded, thus informed me, that, they didn’t have the opportunity to go to University, and never would.
Needless to say, my interest in my university studies switched, and became a focus, with a sincere appreciation that I had never thought possible. In Sri Lanka, I gained an Idea of what I wanted out of life, though I was still not sure, but I knew that the University was a solid platform of where it could branch. Immediately upon my return to University, I, who had to repeat the seventh grade, began to accept nothing less than an ‘A’ in all of my classes.
So, after living abroad for more than four years, Antigua Guatemala, two years, and Tokyo Japan, two years, I decided to return to the US and see how this travel abroad might unravel within the milieu of graduate school. I completed my M. Ed in international educational at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. I lived, and studied in Amherst Massachusetts for more than ten years, of where my studies were focused in the area of Diversity, Multicultural Education, and Language Literacy and Culture.
I am a firm believer that formal education, goes hand in hand with travel abroad, as travel abroad, should be a mandatory mandate, upon the completion of one’s studies, in relation to the appreciation of diversity.
I have since redefined myself as an educated introvert, with extrovert tendencies.
(My prior two Bachelors degrees, are, Hospital Administration, from Fisk University in Nashville TN, and Art Design, from A&T State University in Greensboro North Carolina).