Big Ups to Teachers: The Balkans

As I travel, I see more and more families with young children, backpacking together and learning about history, art, language and working with people from all walks of life by exploring countries foreign to their own. Of course, they are typically non-American and typically Caucasian; regardless, I find myself both envious and hopeful that one day when I have children of my own, I will have the wherewithal to expose them to other cultures through travel.

St. Alexander Nevsky Cathedral  - Bulgaria

When my mother was traveling with me, I asked her why she and my dad never thought to take me and my brother to countries outside of North America and her answer was that they simply didn’t know that these things were possible. The thought of packing up your family and going someplace like Vietnam was so foreign that it wasn’t even a thought. It occured to me that at times, parents can only teach their children the extent of what they know.  However, good parents, like my own, will always try to make sure that their children grow to know, see and experience more than they did.

Statue of Skanderbeg - Albania

I can recall getting signed up for everything under the sun, when I was a kid. I went to pottery classes, clarinet and piano lessons, taekwondo classes, the Math Olympics, 4-H, and Girl Scouts. When you’re a kid, you don’t appreciate these things. I just wanted to watch Thunder Cats, collect Garbage Pail Kids cards, and play with my brother’s Castle Grey Skull and that’s it! Now that I’m older, I recognize that my mother understood that you have to enlist the help of good neighbors, knowledgeable friends and family, and more importantly effective teachers in order to erect a solid base for your children to stand on. Without knowing the word for it or having studied the concept, my parents were practicing synergy. Synergy is the idea that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; it’s teamwork.

So, when people learn about my trip and say, “Wow, who told you that you could do this?” or “Who gave you the idea to travel like this?” I can’t say, “Oh, I grew up traveling. My parents took me on excursions through South East Asia as a kid.” However, I can point to the multitude of people who my parents introduced me to and who at one point or another poured into me. 

Kale Fortress - Macedonia

It was my mom’s friend Shari Hamilton, who was very passionate about doing the things she loved and would quit her job in a heartbeat to follow her dreams. She was the first black woman I knew personally who fearless, worldy, well read, and well traveled.

It was my elementary school teacher, Marty Richardson, who taught me what stereotypes were and systematically tried to break them by exposing me to Homer’s Iliad, figure skating and the wonders of Folk music. “You can like what you want. Do what you want and be what you want. You are not a stereotype,” she would say.  

The Prizren Hammam  - Kosovo

It was my middle school geography teacher, Mr. McCord, who made us listen to Pink Floyd and watch slides of his adventures backpacking through foreign countries. He jump started my wanderlust. It was a high school economics teacher, who taught me about Adam Smith and the concept of making choices and accepting consequences. 

It was my Aunt Johnette, who would pull me to the side, give me a dollar or two and whisper, “It doesn’t matter if you are married or single, a woman should always put aside some money for herself.” All of the people worked like a team with my mom, who along with our prayers would make my brother and I recite “when I grow up I want to be self-sufficient, independent, and very intelligent.”

Memorial House of Mother Teresa - Macedonia

Teachers, both formal and informal, are the greatest resources in the world. Period. Hands Down.

So, I’ve written this entire diatribe and you have to be wondering where this is all coming from…. Well, Chad and I just finished traveling through major cities in a good part of the Balkans (including: Greece, Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia and Bulgaria) and my mouth is on the floor!

Let’s be honest...We ate our way through many of these countries. So my mouth could literally be on the floor because it’s exhausted from chewing big hearty meats, enormous vegetables and ridiculous amounts of bread. Side note: I have never in my life walked away from a table and while trying to keep my tights from automatically rolling down, longingly wished for the prospect of diarrhea. Yet, I did this almost nightly.  Great food!

Where was I?

Changing of the Guards (President's Office) - Bulgaria

Yes, my mouth is on the floor because I am seeing and walking into places that I only learned about from teachers and it’s absolutely surreal.  I’m looking at castles in the countryside of Albania and Kosovo that once housed the Kings in the history books my teachers taught from; ruins in Greece and Bulgaria that were the backdrop to stories teachers introduced me to; stomping grounds for Jesus, Paul and all of them that preachers use teach me about; and massive and old churches and cathedrals that were built before them. 

For example, we walked up on a statue the other day and I asked Chad, “Who is that?”  “Alexander the Great,” Chad responded. “I thought he was Greek,” I said. “Nope. Macedonian. Do you remember when…” he continued in a history lesson that I recalled having learned in school. This was another, “Holy crap! That happened right here!” moment and I was feeling really overwhelmed; overwhelmed by my surroundings; overwhelmed that I was getting the opportunity to see these things first hand; and overwhelmed by my journey. I am immensely grateful and God is so awesome that it’s scary sometimes.

 Czar Samuil Statue - Macedonia

I know I write these “I’m so grateful” posts often and it can get tiring, but please bear with me, there’s a purpose.  First, I have to pinch myself sometimes to realize that I’m actually doing this, that I’m actually here, and writing it down is the best way I know to make it concrete. Secondly, I think it is vital to expose yourself and your children to international travel and all that can be learned from it (especially black folks). Again, writing it down and sharing it is the best way I can express the emotional and social impact this trip has had, in hopes that others will take the leap. Lastly, I am nothing but a dwarf standing on the shoulders of giants, so I absolutely need to pay homage and say thank you to any and every teacher who has poured into me. I am in the midst of living my dreams and it would not have been possible without the teachers in my life.

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

War Memorial - Kosovo

Partisan Statue - Albania

Ivan Vazov National Theatre - Bulgaria

Alexander the Great - Macedonia

Sunset - Patras, Greece

Ampitheatre at the Acropolis - Greece

St Alexander Nevsky (Daylight) - Bulgaria

George W. Bush Street (He is loved in these parts) - Albania

Millenium Cross - Macedonia