My parents have lived in the same house for the last twenty-three years. Before that, they lived in the same house for ten years. Neither of my parents has ever lived outside of California. They are definitely pro-traveling and always encouraged me to be open-minded about new places and experiences, but they nevertheless seem surprised that I move and travel so much. My mom, in particular, seems to consider Europe the only worthwhile international destination. She was really horrified when I decided to study in Israel and spent a lot of time trying to convince me to choose a nice European country instead. (She was, unsurprisingly, delighted that I ended up being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Europe, which was not my decision…I probably would have picked a Central Asian or Latin American country had it been entirely my own choice.)
I like to think my parents are getting cooler about it, but sometimes my mom still comes out with really crazy notions that leave me scratching my head. Like, I went to Colombia in February and when I told my mom about my planned trip, her first words were “to volunteer in a hospital?” Note to everyone: I have absolutely zero medical experience or knowledge. It was apparently inconceivable that I might want to go there just to tourist around; I must have some kind of humanitarian goal. (Which isn’t that crazy if you know me, but…okay, I’m still baffled by the hospital remark. What the hell hospital would want my help?)
Kyla, several of my college classmates spent a summer volunteering in hospitals in Latin America. We were studying Chemical Engineering and what they did was maintenance jobs. Apparently, you don’t need to have your ChemE degree before people decide that you’ll be fine as a whitewasher or plumber. A cousin of mine spent 11 years in Venezuela, as a “secular missionary,” doing social work: she interpreted between poor people and their government… with everybody speaking Spanish (an example: people who weren’t sending their child to school because he wasn’t registered because the papers to register a birth said “husband” and “wife” and they weren’t married because one or both of them were, in turn, not registered… because three generations prior somebody was born to someone’s Nth-woman; we joke with her that, given how many people she got “registered,” it’s her fault Chávez got elected).
The thing is that it was just completely RANDOM. Volunteering in a hospital? Why did she go with hospital? She could have just as well said “children’s shelter” or “school” or a million other things that would have actually made much more sense than hospital.
Partly for the adventure and the opportunity to see new places, but honestly, it was mainly for love. I felt that American guys were all wrong for me and that I could relate to Brits/Europeans better, so off I went.
Now I’m back in my home state, an hour from where I was born, and happily married to an American I met almost literally in my own backyard. Go figure!