Travel Tuesdays: A Sense of Place

I've been thinking a lot about how my sense of place affects me when I travel. When I first arrived in Niamey, Niger, for a few moments, my physical surroundings overwhelmed me. I found myself searching for something familiar-anything similar to something I knew.

Within a short period of time, I found it. I noticed that the buildings had a similar shape and construction to many buildings in the Philippines (where I once lived). Most of the buildings had a cube-shaped, low profile and were made of blocks. In the Philippines, many buildings have a similar shape and are made out of cinder blocks.

We also passed several piles of burning trash along the road. As that smoldering smell reached my nose, I felt myself relax a little more. I know that may sound weird, but to anyone who's lived or traveled in the developing world, roadside piles of burning trash are commonplace. I had lived in the Philippines long enough to make that landscape my own, so while I hated the burning trash when I first arrived in the Philippines, it had become weirdly comforting- a reminder of my second home.

Erg Zhigaga, Morocco

Certainly places that inspire awe in us can make us feel somehow more calm. But not all beautiful scenes do that for me. The giant rolling dunes of the Sahara are certainly beautiful. I know our friend who grew up there feels serene in the desert. But for me, as much as I enjoyed the beauty, I never felt the sense of serenity that I feel in landscapes that are more similar to the one where I grew up.

After leaving those giant sand dunes of Morocco, we headed toward the coast. About 30 minutes before we reached the shore I looked at my husband and said, "Ocean! Did you feel that?" We could literally feel the moisture in the air and knew the ocean wasn't far. Until that moment, I didn't even realize I had that ability.

When we eventually reached Essaouria, I instantly loved the place. I mean, I really loved it. And what made me love it? For starters, the ocean runs right up against the town, just steps from our hotel. The town, which is known for it's blue doors, also employs a major fishing fleet. You can watch them come in at sunset every night.

For someone who grew up in New Bedford Massachusetts, a city that hosts one of the largest fishing fleets in our country, that's a familiar scene. The circles of gulls overhead waiting for scraps. The slightly unpleasant odor of fish being off-loaded or cleaned. While I might call parts of that unpleasant, they're also comfortable and familiar.

Hyderabad, India

But here's what I've also learned. My most transformative travel experiences are those that happened in places where I felt the most uncomfortable, or downright uneasy. I was overwhelmed when I first arrived in the Philippines. I was living in the city of Cebu. I had grown up in the country surrounded by trees and farmland and lakes. But that experience was easily the most transformative of my life.  The city of Hyderabad, India completely overwhelmed me, too. Yet I can barely put into words all that I learned and gained from that one short trip.

For me, overcoming the barriers of culture and language are not as difficult as overcoming my own internal discomfort in places that are so physically different from where I grew up.

How about you and your kids? What kinds of travel are most transformative for you?

You Might Also Like:
Travel Tuesdays: Morocco
Travel Tuesdays: Awakening in a Strange Place
Travel Tuesdays: Pack Your Sense of Humor
Travel Tuesdays: India

Travel Tuesdays: Music and Travel

Not a night we saw Image Band, but friends and location are the same

This weekend, as I was driving my son to a birthday party, the song "Tenderness" by General Public came on the radio. I know I'm dating myself, but I heard the opening lick of that song and I was no longer driving down route 195 in Westport, MA. I was sitting in the lounge in Cebu Plaza hotel with my friends in Cebu, Philippines. The song had gotten popular in the US the year before I left to be an exchange student in the Philippines. By the time I arrived, our favorite local band, "The Image Band" was covering that song regularly at Cebu Plaza. When I hear the song, I'm instantly 16 again- I experience all of the feelings and body sensations I experienced back then- the excitement, the angst, the freedom, the fear, the anticipation- all of the intense emotions teenagers feel.

I'm sure you know what I mean. Many people have similar experiences. There are many songs that have the same effect for me- I can usually name the year they were popular and what I was doing during that time.

There's something about travel, too, that can freeze a song in your mind. Tenderness is one from my year in the Philippines. That same year, Shout by Tears for Fears, Crazy for You by Madonna, and Smooth Operator by Sade were also popular. Then there are the Filipino performers like Gary Valenciano and Apo Hiking Society. These songs/ groups forever take me to Cebu.

Other songs or bands conjure up other trips. For our trip to Peru, bands like Inca Sun forever bring me to Machu Picchu. There's a particular song we called "The Hankie Dance" while in Niger that will always remind me of our first night in country dancing with the locals. And, as I've mentioned here before, Marrakesh Express, Midnight at the Oasis, and Riders on the Storm will always remind me of our camel trek in Morocco- not because those songs were popular in 2001, rather, they were part of our personal "soundtrack" for the trip.

All of this got me reflecting on music and travel. A quick google search lead me to this blogpost over at Rolf Pott's Vagabonding.  It was interesting to read others' thoughts about the role music plays in their travels.

Which lead me to yet another thought... I've been toying around with the idea of using my experiences as an exchange student in the Philippines to write a book for young people. I'm not sure where this seed of an idea will take me, but my first step will be creating a playlist of every song I can remember that was popular or important to me at that time. I'll be able to get into my teenaged emotional brain in no time flat.

How about you? Do you have a soundtrack for your travels? Is it always the same or does it vary with your location?

Related Posts
Travel Tuesdays: Pack Your Sense of Humor
Travel Tuesdays: Exchange Students
Travel Tuesdays: The Philippines: "Growing Up"

Travel Tuesdays: Awakening in a Strange Place

"To awaken quite alone in a strange town is one of the most pleasant sensations in the world. You are surrounded by adventure. You have no idea of what is in store for you, but you will, if you are wise and know the art of travel, let yourself go on the stream of the unknown..."
                                                   ~Frey Stark, Baghdad Sketches


This has happened to me many times during travel- awakening in a strange town (or place)- but the place that always comes to mind when I read this quotation is Marrakesh, Morocco. My husband, our two friends, and I had been in Morocco for roughly a week on the day in question. We had been suffering from a bout of "Traveler's D" and were all a bit wrung out. We turned in early.

We were awoken at dawn the next morning by the Muezzin's call to prayer, "Allahu Akbar." This wasn't the first time I'd heard the call to prayer- we had been in Niger before our trip to Morocco and had already heard it in country. The difference was the fact that I was in a dead sleep when the call came loud and clear from a speaker in the Mosque across the street.

It was loud.
It was disorienting.
Then, as I processed my surroundings and realized where I was, it was pleasant. I'm not Muslim, so I wasn't called to pray, but I felt the significance of that call- the ceremony of that call. I felt peaceful there in my bed listening to the city coming alive.

This day turned out to be an important travel day for me- the day we met Mokhtar- the man I blogged about in Travel Tuesdays: Morocco.
The man I shared stories and laughs with in the back of a Land rover.
The man who guided us on our camel trek.
The man who gave me the Muslim name we later gave to our daughter. 

So it's true... you have no idea what's in store for you, but if you let yourself go on the stream of the unknown, wonderful things can happen.

Have you ever had the experience of awakening in a strange town? What unexpected events happened that day?

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Travel Tuesdays
Travel Tuesdays: Morocco

Travel Tuesdays: Pack Your Sense of Humor

Most people put time and care into packing for a vacation. As you pack your clothes, camera, shoes and other items in your suitcase, take a moment to toss in your sense of humor. Because- let's face it- travel can be stressful, and humor can help get you through.

Take, for example, our trip to Morocco. The day before we left, I was stung by a bee-on my foot- which swelled up to an unbearable size. It was so fat, I couldn't fit it in a shoe. So what did I do? I did my best to laugh it off (maybe I should say limp it off?) and took a photo of it for all to see.

Later, all four of us came down with a bad case of what's known as Traveler's D. (Or perhaps you've heard it called Montezuma's revenge if you've traveled to Mexico).  I've had this particular ailment before. While my case wasn't as bad as the time I had to be hospitalized in the Philippines, it was a tough case, my friends. Now imagine four friends on a train from Fez to Marrakesh suffering from Traveler's D and the only facilities on board consist of a hole in the floor with a toilet on top. Yep... your business runs right out onto the tracks. Not fun. What did we do?

Back at our seats, we began singing our imagined soundtrack for our trip.  You guessed the first song, right? It's so obvious...Marrakesh Express. Later, as we rode our camels into an oasis we sang Midnight at the Oasis and laughed. I know it's corny, but when you're hot, tired, and dry... so very, very dry... it's hysterical. Trust me.

The comedy highlight had to be the day we began our camel trek, though. We rose early and started riding at about 7:30. We stopped for siesta at about 11:00am in a make-shift shelter with walls made of reeds. This siesta lasted until 5:00 pm because it was too hot to be out. A 6 hour siesta! We were still rough around the edges from our stomach ailment (we traded a hole in the train floor for a nice private spot behind a sand dune) and were, quite frankly, hot as blazes. We had our journals and books to read, but really what we did was lie around, too lethargic to move. The Sahara is seriously hot in July, let me tell you.

The only writing we did that day was to complete this brief journal entry in my friend Christina's journal (we all contributed):
 We wish for: (edited slightly for brevity and correctness- who can spell when her brain is melting?)

1. cold Sam Adams beer
2. watermelon
3. virgin strawberry daiquiri
4. lemonade
5. COLD water
6. bathtub full of crushed ice
7. swimming
8. rain
9. Cape Cod summer breezes
10. Frozen underwear

And you know what? Despite our overwhelming lethargy, we laughed like crazy while making it. Then we got back on those camels and rode off into a sandstorm... Riders on the Storm.

Related post: Travel Tuesdays: Morocco

Travel Tuesdays: World Music

"Cultures are very powerful forces. We get used to being  certain ways. The music you grow up with becomes deeply a part of who you are and your identity. It takes a desire to learn and communicate with others in order to adjust to the sounds of another culture's music."

-Michael Tenzer, Ethnomusicologist as heard  on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook 'The Roots of World Music' February 22, 2010

Before setting out on a trip, I like to learn something about the place I'll be visiting. I especially enjoy listening to music from the country I'll visit. In the past I had to search high and low to find good world music. Nowadays, this task is easier than ever with music from nearly ever part of the globe available for purchase on CD, from iTunes, or on YouTube.

Back in the mid-nineties, I was the local coordinator for a group of exchange students from France, Germany, Belgium, Spain, and Morocco. One day, while out on a field trip with the students, I saw a CD of traditional Moroccan music called Morocco: Crossroads of Time. I was already interested in world music by that time, but I was uncertain if the music I was getting was authentic. On this day, I had a great opportunity. I asked Mehdi, a student from Casablanca, Morocco (the same man I mentioned in my Travel Tuesdays: Morocco post) to listen and give me his opinion. When he started singing along, I knew I had the real thing.  I purchased the CD.

In June of 2001, shortly before our trip to Morocco, I prepared a Moroccan meal for my husband and the friends we'd be traveling with. I played the CD while we ate dinner. We shared a meal, prepared for our trip, and allowed the music to transport us to Morocco. Later, while in a medina in Morocco, I noted my familiarity with some of the sounds I was hearing because I had listened to "Ambient Sounds" (at Marrakesh Medina).

For those of you who are unable to travel, music offers another way to expose your children to different cultures. In my classroom (and now in my home) I played music from all over the globe. In the beginning, some students would make faces or mock the unfamiliar sounds. After a year in my classroom, however, those different styles of music seemed more common place and the mocking had stopped.

My kids have listened to world music since birth. We started with world lullabies and moved on from there. I'll never forget the day my then 4 year old son asked me to change the music I was playing in the car. He asked, "Will you play the Arabic one?" My kids' current favorite world music is "Basement Bangra." I love that my children listen to all kinds of music with the same open-ness. With a little exposure, your kids will, too.

Unlike the adults I believe Michael Tenzer was referencing in the quotation that opens this post, children are far more open and adaptable to new sounds. I believe Mr. Tenzer is correct about adults. We need to work harder to acquaint our ears to unfamiliar sounds and eventually learn to appreciate them. Kids make that leap far more quickly.

Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting examples of my favorite world music on my "Michelle Cusolito, Writer" Facebook page. If you haven't "liked" my page, yet, please consider doing so. Just click the "like" button on the right side bar.

What's your favorite world music? Please share it in the comments.

Related Posts

Travel Tuesdays: Morocco

Gifts for Babies

Travel Tuesdays: Morocco

When my husband and I traveled to Morocco with friends, we visited some of the usual places. We toured Hassan II Mosque in Casablanca, navigated the medina in Fes, and rode the Marrakesh Express from Fes to Marrakesh. We also visited the neighborhood where my great-aunt lived before she married my mom's uncle and moved to the States.

Toward the end of our trip, a guide picked us up at our hotel in Marrakesh and drove us over the Atlas mountains, through the moving making- town of Ouarzazate (Movies such as The Mummy were filmed there) to the village of M'Hamid. We ate a late dinner, then loaded up a land rover and drove to our campsite in the Sahara Desert.  After sleeping on blankets on the sand, we packed our bags and set out on a camel trek. Exciting stuff, right? Sure enough. The stuff of great stories (Can you say runaway camel?) But here's the thing. The stories I most like to tell folks who want to hear the more intimate stories of Morocco involve moments of connection with the locals or my friends and husband, not stories of high adventure.

We made a point to get to know our guides. One guide was deaf, so we watched the signs they had developed to communicate (no ASL there) and did our best to communicate with him. One night after dinner, our guides gathered around a campfire a distance from us. One man had improvised an instrument- he was drumming on our water jug while the others sang along quietly in Arabic. We asked if we could join them. After a while, we shared that our friend used to be a drummer so he played some of his American rhythms on that same water jug. We also bonded with our friends while suffering from “Traveler’s D.” I know that sounds weird, but it’s true. Working through some level of adversity together can bring people together. I also reconnected with an exchange student who had lived here in Massachusetts 6 years before. My husband and I visited his home and met his wife and daughter.

One of my favorite moments, however, happened on our drive back to Ouarzazate. Our guide, Mokhtar, and I opted to sit in the way back seat of the land rover. Working with a mix of English, Arabic, and French words, we began telling each other our cultural stories. I wish I could remember all we shared that day. What I do remember is that it went something like this…

Mokhtar told a story. I said, “Oh! We have one like that!” and I told him a fairy tale from my childhood. Which lead him to a story from his childhood and so on. We went on like that for at least half an hour. It felt like time simultaneously raced ahead and slowed down to a crawl- what experts call “flow.” The storyteller in me was reinvigorated that day, for sure.

Mokhtar still has a special connection to our family. The night of the drumming, Mohktar gave us and our two friends Arabic names. The name he gave to me is the name we gave to our daughter. (People who know me personally, please note that I do not share my children’s names on this blog for safety/privacy reasons. Please don’t put it in the comments. Thanks.) 

Mokhtar started as our guide but became a friend. For years, we communicated via snail mail and email. Now we message or IM on Facebook.

So here’s my point. Sightseeing is nice, but don’t get sucked into the trap of racing from one attraction to another. We saw lots of tourists in Morocco. They’d arrive on giant tour buses clutching their purses, fearful of pickpockets, only to be herded from one site to another. I’d venture to say they left Morocco knowing no more about the country than when they arrived.

Slow down. Stop and meet the locals. Ask about what’s important to them. You’ll likely find their desires are the same as yours.

How about you? What stories do you have to share about meeting the locals in your home town or from across the globe?

Travel Tuesdays

For Earth Day, I posted some favorite photos I've taken of natural places around world. Response to that post was positive and several people asked me to share more of my travel experiences.

I initially liked the idea, but upon thinking about it more, I couldn't see how sharing my experiences would fit with my blog's mission. Sure, I enjoy sharing my travel experiences, (Who doesn't?) but I don't want this blog to be about me. Rather, I want it to be a place for you to get ideas for things to do with your kids or students. I also don't want to send a message that you need to travel to all kinds of far away places to apply some of the lessons I've learned through my travels. I strongly encourage you to travel outside your home country to gain a broader perspective, but that may not be possible. You can be a traveler in your own state or region. That's the kind of traveler I was this summer.

After much contemplation and reading over the summer, I finally found a focus. This quotation clinched it for me:

 "Remember that many would love to travel to gain a broader perspective, but cannot. Find creative ways to bring home the value of travel by giving presentations to groups of curious people not likely to have passports."

~Rick Steeves, Travel as a Political Act p. 202 

This blog offers a nice forum for me to share. Next week will mark the official start of my new series, Travel Tuesdays. In this series, I'll share a photo, story, or anecdote about my travel experience.  I'll also share a lesson I learned from that experience and offer ways it might inform your work (and play) with children.

I hope you'll join in the conversation. Share your thoughts about travel. Ask me questions. Suggest future topic ideas. If you've traveled and have a story to share, let me know. I'd love to welcome you as as guest blogger.

Happy Earth Day 2011

This year, in honor of Earth Day, I scanned some of my favorite images from various places around the world. Yep. Most of them are old-school prints I had to scan.

Erg Zhigaga, Sahara Desert, Morocco. We slept on bedrolls in the open air during our desert camel trek.  From here we went to an oasis where we watched with jealosy as a dog cooled off in a little trickle of a stream (It was 120 degrees in the shade). After the oasis... sandstorm.

Elephants in Parc W, Niger, West Africa

We traveled from the capital city of Niamey to the park in hopes of seeing wildlife. Nature did not disappoint. The night before I took this photo, while sleeping in a tent, we heard lions roaring. They sounded like they were right outside our tent. We were assured they were miles away, but we didn't sleep much that night.

 Rice Terraces, near Marinduque, Philippines. I lived in the southern Philippines, in Cebu, but I took a trip up north with my host family. Rice terraces like these are common in rural areas of the Philippines.

Machu Picchu, Peru. We hiked about 30 miles along the Inca Trail, crossing a mountain pass at 14, 000 feet, to reach this ancient city. I loved the tree in the middle of the open area. I spent some time sitting beneath it writing.

 

Water Spout, off the coast of Cebu, Philippines. My host dad owns a seaweed farm that grows carageenan. The farm is a large building set on stilts in the ocean. Divers harvest the seaweed and dry it on large bamboo racks before shipping it. During dinner one evening, everyone raced to one side of the building looking out over the ocean. I was shocked to learn that this is what they were watching. We had no choice but to watch it and wait, seeminlgy forever. It came straight toward us, then eventually turned and went exactly the opposite way it had come.

Aldea Salamandra, Near Puerto Quito, Ecuador. I was a volunteer headed for Bila Bilogical Reserve on an Earthwatch Expedition called Ecuador's Rainforest Butterflies. We stopped here for an overnight on our way to Bilsa from Quito. I found my cabana in the chiparo tree quite comfy.

Happy Earth Day, everyone. I hope you can get outside and enjoy it a bit today.