Me, jumping from excitement in Greece about you maybe winning this contest!

A thrilling opportunity to support the dreams of teachers has appeared, so join in and spread the word!

Between now and June 10, 2012, you can enter this contest, below, to win a $50 gift certificate to fund your Donors Choose project!

If you don’t already have a Donors Choose page, you can set one up here.

It’s a great way to fund your classroom dreams, and if you win this giveaway, you’ll be on your way!

Follow the directions, below, to enter, then even earn “extra tickets” up until the prize drawing on June 10.

Best of luck, and thanks for joining in this game!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Want to read more about the Greece Teacher Travel Tour I was on when I took that lead photo? Click here!

Related Posts:

• Join the Education Bloggers Facebook Group and Twitter Chat!
• Free Money to Pay for Your Latin America Travel!
• 9 Great International Travel Scholarships for U.S. Teachers

Teachers: Win $50 in Money to Fund Your Classroom Projects! originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Claire and Iain with Tibetan nomads in the hills around Shangri-La.

Teaching Traveling: Readers, are you interested in how to combine epic world travels with volunteer teaching abroad? Iain and Claire of Old World Wandering Travelogue will inspire and assist you in this dream by sharing their unbelievable story.

Iain and Claire, tell us a bit about your background.

Iain: Claire and I are both South African, but for the past eight years we’ve lived overseas and travelled for long stretches. We started off in London, straight out of university, managed a pub in the English countryside a year later, and spent eighteen months making our way from there to Shanghai overland. China sucked us in for three years; if we hadn’t wanted to travel again – to explore as much as we could between A and a distant B – it might have sucked us in for good, but last year we packed up our Shanghai lives and started on another overland journey, this time to Cape Town, which we still call home.

The Shantang Canal in Suzhou, near Shanghai, China.

We resuscitated our travelogue when we left. Both of us were lucky enough to publish books while we were in China and writing about our journey has become as important to us as the journey itself.

TT: Tell us more about your journeys!

Claire: In January 2011, Iain and I packed our backpacks, gave away everything we could and began an overland journey to Cape Town. Although we were excited to travel along the route we’d planned, India was calling and, instead of leaving from Shanghai’s train station, we made a beeline for Mumbai, to bathe ourselves in the steaminess and spice of a country that has us both smitten.

Three months later, with our appetites sated, we flew to Bangkok and waded through the damp monsoon heat of Southeast Asia’s mainland, zigzagging for a few months before entering China from north Vietnam.

Claire and Iain after Holi, India's festival of colors.

China’s MSG-seeped food, its modern lookalike cities, its people with their regionally-accented Mandarin, and all the little idiosyncrasies that we’d grown to love or hate during our three years there came rushing back as soon as we crossed the border. It was a flood of China, ready to sweep us up in its current and carry us through a country that we knew well, but had explored little. And for thirty days we did explore; through Yunnan and Sichuan and Chongqing, until our visa required us to do a border run before returning. We exited at Hong Kong – China, but not China – and ended up staying for six instead of two weeks, thanks to the hospitality of friends.

Excited to get back to the mainland, we went to Hong Kong’s border with Shenzhen, where China – and a friend – were awaiting our return. But it was not to be. Our visas – despite having nothing besides an ‘Enter Before’ date, with which we’d complied – had long since expired.

Sunset in beautiful Luang Prabang, Laos.

Back to Hong Kong we went, heads hanging. Our friend was understanding and crossed into Hong Kong, but Chinese immigration was not so kind. When we arrived at a Chinese government-run travel agent, we discovered that, as South Africans, we would not be granted more than seven days in the mainland: too short for anything but scurrying back to Southeast Asia on almost non-stop buses and trains. Defeated, we bought the cheapest available plane tickets to anywhere that wasn’t China. It happened to be Vietnam.

Having circled and looped through Southeast Asia for five months already, we were compelled to begin doing so again. It wasn’t just China’s visa policies that were against us; the seasons were too. It was already November and, while most of China was still mild, our exit point – Kyrgyzstan – would be frozen over by the time we reached it. So Southeast Asia it was, at least until Central Asia’s snow thawed.

Vietnam’s sticky humidity had left, and Hanoi was cooler than anywhere we’d been that year. We stayed until our month-long visas expired, and headed south to “The Most Beautiful City in Southeast Asia,” Luang Prabang, Laos, where we found the peaceful pause we needed after a month in hellish Hanoi. Winter turned to spring, but still we stayed in Luang Prabang, and seriously thought about putting down roots – right there. We might have let ourselves stay even longer than three months, but Iain’s father announced that he was going to Thailand and we went to meet him.

Claire with her students: Tibetan refugees who live in McLeod Ganj, India.

Central Asia’s snows have long since melted and we’ll cross China’s borders again in about a month. It has been a strange experience, planning our return to China; planning, delaying and building it up all at once. It contains some of the apprehension of going home, but is in fact closer to the reverse. From China, our journey really begins: a journey that moves West along a progressive route, not through a series of circular paths. All the water treading of the past year will end, and we will commit to the challenge we first undertook, by going west through Central Asia, Iran and part of the Middle East. A ferry between Jordan and Egypt will mark my return to a continent I haven’t seen in close to three years. We’ll follow Africa’s east coast, crossing the equator in Kenya, and continue south, until we reach the continent’s tip at Cape Point. Then, we imagine, we’ll finally be home.

The amaranthine cremation ghats of Kathmandu, Nepal.

TT: AMAZING! How did you find the money to fund your trip?

Iain: We work on the road, writing for two financial quarterlies based in Hong Kong. Work has transformed the structure of our journey: we live in places as often as we pass through them, carrying some of the expatriate habits we picked up in Shanghai around with us. This is both good and bad. We have more time in every place, to build relationships and sample food, but deadlines limit how much we can explore and sometimes prevent us from being completely spontaneous.

TT: How did teaching come in to your travels?

Claire: The two months in 2007 that we spent as volunteers, teaching English to Tibetan refugees in McLeod Ganj, was among the most memorable periods of my life. McLeod Ganj in northern India is home to the Tibetan government-in-exile, and spending time every day with its community gave us a real sense of Tibet’s difficult history. It wasn’t the best introduction to China, of course, but we valued being able to hear the Tibetan point of view before being bombarded with propaganda in China.

Claire with an eccentric shepherd in Aleppo, Syria.

Knowledge and experience, though, were only second to the relationships I built with my students. Remembering standing in the classroom on my last day with a pile of white silk scarves hung around my neck – a Tibetan symbol of gratitude and respect – still makes me teary-eyed today.

TT: How has teaching had an impact on the way you travel?

Iain: Claire and I both taught English to adults in Shanghai. Teaching was an excellent introduction to the city; it gave us security, colleagues and a room full of students, who helped us understand China. We worked full time at different branches of the same English school for a year and a half. When we left, to devote our time to writing, we missed classroom interaction and began teaching private students.

A few of the most rewarding relationships we built in China started in a classroom, but teaching also made listening to clichés about China, struggled over by beginners, feel like work. Some of that impatience has carried over into the way we travel now. We’re easily annoyed by people who talk at us, feeding us patronising titbits about their own culture without listening to our questions or opinions. Although we’ve done it ourselves, while studying Mandarin, we’re also not as understanding as we should be when somebody wants to use us like talking dictionaries, to practice their English.

A monastery on the grasslands of Tagong, in Sichuan, China.

Despite our impatience, I think a genuine interest in communicating always shines through, and then it helps to speak broken English fluently, which we learnt to do in Shanghai.

TT: Thanks so much, Claire and Iain!

Readers, for more on this world-traveling couple, check out their Facebook Page, and find them on Twitter at @clairevdh and @iainmanley. Now, what questions and comments do you have?

Related Posts:

• Elise: Positive RTW World Travel of an Australian Teacher
• Adam: From Corporate Tool to Nomadic Volunteer Travel Idealist
• Mike: PowerKicKing and Teaching English Around the World

Iain and Claire: Epic RTW Travel and Volunteer-Teaching Tibetans originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Chelsea, jumping for joy at the Taj Mahal, India.

Teaching Traveling: Have you been seeking a way to connect your children or students to the world without leaving home?

Read about how Chelsea Rae Schmidt’s Big Earth Explorers can do just that!

Chelsea, first tell us about your background and how you got interested in Global Education.

Chelsea: I’m just your average young, unemployed, college graduate… except that I gave up the job search in order to live my dream and travel.

When I started college in 2006, I hadn’t been anywhere except just over the border into Mexico (back when you didn’t need a passport).  In college though, I was determined to study abroad and after a lot of searching I settled on what I feel is the very best study abroad program out there, Semester at Sea.

In the fall of 2008 I sailed literally around the world on a floating campus with some of the greatest people and some awesome professors.  We learned about apartheid while exploring South Africa, visited a Brazilian favela and spoke to the people about their struggles, saw the wonders of ancient and modern Japan mix in Tokyo, and experienced all the intensity and wonder of India.

Chelsea "Livin' the dream" in Machu Picchu, Peru.

It is an expensive program (obviously) but they offer some incredible scholarships and for me personally the trip of a lifetime around the world only cost $3000.  If anyone knows someone in college, suggest the program.  They also accept professors from around the U.S. (universities and community colleges) for paid teaching opportunities and also hire a head librarian each semester.

Semester at Sea was more than an amazing trip though; it was the turning point and a vision changer.  I graduated college with a degree in Anthropology two years later but instead of getting a job, I took my savings and left the country… and I haven’t been back since.

TT: Tell us about the fascinating Global Education venture you do now.

C: While traveling has become part of my life, it obviously isn’t my career.  Oh how I wish I could find someone to pay me just for traveling!

Check out Big Earth Explorers!

Instead, I decided to seek out a way to support my traveling fund while also doing something worthwhile and meaningful.  The idea came more from habit than anything else.  Throughout my travels I have always made a point to send postcards home, not only just to my family but also some friends I know who are teachers.  They loved the postcards and I always wished I could send more to their classrooms but international shipping can be harsh on a traveler’s budget.

I started to research the options and realized that no one was really providing a service to teachers to allow them to bring the world into their classrooms through physical and technological materials.  It is a needed service too.  Children in the U.S. score as some of the lowest on international geography tests and exactly $0 of the (failed) No Child Left Behind budget was devoted to geography.

After a bit of surveying, brainstorming, and product testing with teachers I knew… Big Earth Explorers was born!

Big Earth Explorers: Delivering postcards from around the world.

We offer fun educational postcards, packages, and online materials from countries around the world each month to bring global education into the classroom.  You can check out our website to see what we do.  Let us know what you think, too!  We just launched and really appreciate any and all feedback.

Ideally we would like to apply for non-profit status in the future but before investing in that timely and costly process, we want to be sure we have a service teachers want.  Right now we also have a limited number of sponsors so check out our website if you would like to be sponsored.  Parents and homeschooling families can also make a purchase.

TT: Fascinating! How have your travels and international connections impacted you as a person?

Connect with kids like this girl in India through Chelsea's site!

C: I grew up in a tiny little town in the middle of nowhere USA.  Everyone in my town was white, Christian, and conservative. “Diversity” was singing a Jewish song at the Christmas concert.  My mother though, she realized the value of geography and I still remember summer days sitting with my globe, spinning it, dreaming about all the places I’d go.

My travels have brought me face to face with realities that I could have never dreamed of back in my small hometown.  I have met incredible people, make lifelong friends, seen history in person, and history in the making.  Traveling opens up the world but it also opens up your mind.  I can now understand the passion of a “freedom fighter” and the dreams of a poor Indian child.  I seek to travel but I also seek to connect with people so different from me and yet so similar.

Travel has no doubt made me a better person.

TT: What advice do you have for others who are dreaming of travel and connecting with the world?

C: Stop dreaming; just do it!  No, really!

Big Earth Explorers partners with local teachers around the world to support education in other countries as well.

Sure, you might not have the money to visit Europe, but set your sights on somewhere else.  The cheapest places in the world are often the most exciting.  I can personally attest to the fact that you can live comfortably on a beach in Cambodia for $5 a day.  Try “travel hacking” for the plane ticket.

Seriously though, if you want to go, buy a plane ticket and don’t back out.  Don’t wait for friends who wont ever have the time and don’t wait until you have “enough” money.  Use Twitter and Couchsurfing to find new friends before you go or just plan to stay in hostels.  You will meet more new friends than you can even believe in a good travel hostel.

But please, if you do get to follow your dream and travel, send a postcard home to a child you know.  The travel bug is a disease worth spreading!

TT: Thanks so much for your travel advice and for telling us about Big Earth Explorers! Readers, what questions or comments do you have for Chelsea?

Related Posts:

• A Free Program for Kids Age 14-18 to Learn Travel Blogging!
• Sara: Global Teacher and Balloon Artist Tells You Ways to Travel
• Nikki: Teaching ESL and Teacher Training in Cambodia After China

Chelsea: Global Education for Kids With an Online Program originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

The view outside Elaine's classroom in the Canary Islands. Wow!

Teaching Traveling: Want concrete examples of how to find a teaching job abroad that helps you travel the world? Read this interview with Elaine Thatcher, the “Runaway Brit!”

Elaine, tell us about your background.

Elaine: I’m from the UK and I have been teaching since I qualified in 2002. When I was studying for my PGCE I had no idea that I would end up teaching in Japan, Vietnam, and Sweden during my career. I teach High school English so term time is very busy and I work a lot of hours, but the holidays are definitely worth it if you like to travel. When I worked in the UK I visited China, India, Tunisia and Greece in the holidays but it was teaching internationally that really allowed me to see the world.

I started a teaching post at an International school in Vietnam in 2007 and spent the next three years travelling around South East Asia, an area of the world I had long wanted to explore. What’s more, I had the money to travel exactly the way I wanted to. Even though I remained a strict budget traveller, it was nice not having to worry about running out of money.

Students in a Vietnam International School studying very seriously.

TT: Brilliant! Tell us more about your travels.

E: After teaching in Stockholm for a year, I decided to take a year out to travel around South America. This was pretty exciting for me as, up until then, I had only travelled during school holidays, meaning the longest trip I had taken was 7 weeks in India. This time it was just me, my boyfriend, our backpacks, and no fixed itinerary.

Our trip was amazing: we visited Uruguay, Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia, Panama and New York. Unfortunately, without money coming in, I started to panic about decreasing funds. So we went to Tenerife in the Canary Islands to find work! We’ve been here for three months now while we plan our next move. This year has allowed me to reflect on the way I like to travel; although I have enjoyed the freedom of unlimited travel, I like the stability that teaching gives me. There are not many careers that give you 15 weeks to travel!

Elaine's Halloween lesson with her class in Sweden.

TT: I completely agree with you! Because of my teacher schedule, I’ve been able to travel to Spain, China, and Greece in the first half of this year alone!

Tell us how you found your travel opportunities.

E: I have many friends who have travelled in South America, they were full of advice about where to go and what to do, and of course there are plenty of travel bloggers out there who I talk to regularly using the #TTOT twitter hash tag. We booked a one-way ticket to Montevideo, Uruguay, and just worked the rest out from there.

TT: I love it! How did you find the money to fund this travel? 

E: All my travels are funded by savings. I was given a healthy bonus at the end of my contract in Vietnam and then I saved during my year in Sweden. I try to save half of my salary every month, it’s not easy but it is possible. When I am saving, I cook at home and avoid alcohol completely. For me, the prospect of travelling is far more appealing than a fancy dinner or a night of cocktails— especially in Sweden, which is expensive.

A student's caricature of Elaine!

During my year teaching in Sweden I saved half of my teaching salary and still managed to visit Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, Saint Petersburg, and the Arctic Circle. If you prioritise travel, you can make it happen.

TT: So true! Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly powerful.

E: There are so many moments when you travel that are powerful but the best ones are in the generosity of strangers, like the man who shared his oranges with me on a train in China that turned out to be a 30 hour ride when I was expecting 17, or the lady in Japan who saw me standing at the bus stop during a Typhoon and stopped to give me a ride to the train station and then insisted I take her umbrella. I sometimes wonder if visitors to the UK have similar stories about the kindness of strangers in my country.

TT: Beautiful. How have your travels impacted you as a teacher (if you went back to teaching) or in your current career?

E: Travel is an ideal companion to teaching English, particularly Literature. As a teacher, I draw on my travels in the classroom all the time as travelling opens the mind and introduces new ideas— just as reading does. When I teach ‘The Merchant of Venice’ I show my photographs of the Jewish ghetto in Venice, or I can talk from experience about how communism affects a country after visiting China and living in Vietnam.

I love it when a student is inspired by my travels; I was recently mentioned in a Tweet by a former student which said: “I’m am proud to say that @RunawayBrit is my old English teacher! One day, I will travel as much as she’s doing right now, I hope! ” It made my day!

Elaine on a school trip in Vietnam, taking kids to the countryside.

TT: So wonderful. How have your travels impacted you as a person?

E: In so many ways, you don’t always realise. I have a greater awareness of different cultures, values and opinions, and I try to be aware of what is going on politically in other parts of the world. Travelling makes you appreciate what you have; such as health, wealth, education, and good job opportunities as huge parts of the world are not lucky enough to have the experiences that I have. Being able to quit a stable job to travel is a luxury that many people can’t afford.

In my day-to-day life I tend to weigh up the cost of things against what I could do with that money overseas, so a night out in Stockholm might cost £100, which would easily pay for a few week’s accommodation, travel, food and drinks in Cambodia, or a flight to a European city… This helps hugely with saving!

TT: What advice do you have for other teachers who are dreaming of travel, or travelers dreaming of teaching?

E: Teaching is the perfect vehicle for travelling as you can either utilise the holidays for your trips or you can teach overseas. If you are a qualified teacher then you can work in an International school. I always find my placements on the teaching website www.tes.co.uk which also has a useful overseas forum.  Another good place to look is www.cois.org which has information about recruitment fairs that take place in London and the states. Teaching internationally is very rewarding and there are some great incentives. There are some amazing schools out there, but there are also some pretty bad ones so always use the forum to ask questions from the people already out in the country.

In the words and pictures of Elaine: "Travel has its rewards!"

If you are not a qualified teacher then you can take the TEFL/ESL route, but I would always advise that you complete a CELTA training qualification beforehand. It’s not cheap but it has more credibility overseas than other ESL/TEFL qualifications. Don’t even think about doing a course online; you need classroom experience. Teaching is not as easy as people think! With a CELTA you will get work in better schools with better conditions and pay. Some positions don’t require any qualifications other than a degree certificate (in any subject) and that you are a native English speaker. And www.daveseslcafe.com is a great resource for ESL teachers.

Above all, don’t be afraid. There are many other teachers out there already doing it and by taking an overseas position you will have an immediate social circle so you will not be alone. Trust me; you will have the time of your life!

TT: Thanks so much for this fabulous advice, Elaine! For more about her, check out her website, www.RunawayBrit.com. Readers, what questions or comments do you have for this teacher-traveler?

Related Posts:

• Baz: Teaching and Travel Around The World With TEFL Certification
• Steve: Teaching and Volunteering in Korea, Cambodia, and Ukraine
• Mike: PowerKicKing and Teaching English Around the World

Elaine: How to Travel the World By Teaching Internationally originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Chris in Bangkok at a Buddha factory outlet!

Teaching Traveling: Want to know how to travel the world for cheap during your teacher summers? Chris Willard will share his tips!

Chris, tell us about your background.

Chris: I grew up in the Boston area, and did some traveling with my family growing up, and a little bit in college. It wasn’t until a few years after graduating from Wesleyan, about ten years ago, however, that I discovered how easy and cheap it was to backpack around anywhere in the world.

I’ve since been through 14 countries in Latin America, and the same number in Asia, and have become, well, rather obsessed with traveling and/or planning trips.

A street scene from Chris's Cambodia travels.

These days I’m an author of books about meditation with kids and teens, clinical psychologist and private tutor working primarily with adolescents and college students, although I started out as a teacher in a special education school.  I really appreciate the perspective that travel brings to my work: how it helps in thinking about what is universal in the human experience, and what is cultural and contextual.  Plus, I love encouraging and inspiring students and professionals I work with to travel more.

TT: Explain one (or more) interesting travels you have undertaken.

C: Wow, just one!?  I think I’ve loved every trip I’ve taken in a different way, whether it was scaling 20,000 foot mountains in the Andes, biking through monsoon rains to Burmese ruins, or quietly contemplating nature at a meditation retreat in northern India.

At Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's grave in Potosi, Bolivia.

I think the absolute best is to be able to take a month during the summer and really get into travel in depth in a particular region.  That’s what I did throughout graduate school, and still today which I can do with summers off. I work in higher education.

TT: How did you find these travel opportunities? 

C: I just always wanted to go!

TT: How did you find the money to fund this travel? 

C: You know how you hear about those people that are frequent flyer crazy?  Like sign up for things and cancel to get miles?  It’s hard to do without paying more than it’s worth, but I’ve worked out a formula and I almost NEVER pay for flights. That includes four trips to Asia where I never paid for a ticket! Also, if you find somewhere cheap and are careful about spending, you can really stretch your money out. Asia and Latin America (with a few exceptions) are best for this.

Girl selling tarantulas in Cambodia. Oh my!

TT: I agree! My budget including EVERYTHING for Asia travel was $30 a day! Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly powerful, interesting, or funny.

C: Again, where to begin… Local college kids show me around town on their motorcycle and getting chased by the police in India, sleeping in a tent next to a stove that burned yak-dung at the base of Mt. Everest, and surviving monkey attacks are all amusing stories. Staring genocide in the face in Cambodia, visiting Vietnam’s “museum of American war crimes,” or seeing the poverty and working conditions of the indigenous people in the mines in Bolivia are each powerful and heartbreaking.  Still, my favorite moment had to be falling asleep by myself on a train full of strangers somewhere in central India.  Not exactly sure where I was going, not knowing a single person for thousands of miles, but feeling so unbelievably free.  The only thing to think about the next day being where my next meal and bed might come from.

Chris at The March for Indigenous Rights in La Paz, Bolivia.

One special trip is one of my most recent, in part because it involved getting paid to travel and gaining recognition for my passion as a teacher and child professional.  I was invited in January to give a few lectures in Finland about bringing mindfulness meditation young people.  I spoke to a some groups of teachers, therapists and professionals about a topic that is my absolute passion, got all my expenses covered in an amazing new country, met amazing and passionate people from around Scandinavia, and got paid for it!  If I can continue to make that work somehow… I’ll be living the dream!

Also, while I was there I also got to tack on a few days visiting more of Finland and seeing St. Petersburg, Russia, which has always been a place I’ve wanted to go, even if Russia in February was -16F, and the sun didnt rise till 10am.  I’m heading back to Finland this summer as well, and looking forward to exploring more of northern Europe in addition to working with Finnish professionals on bringing mindfulness into the classroom in the Finnish school system.

Chris in the Cu-Chi tunnels in Vietnam from the war.

TT: How have your travels impacted you as a teacher?

C: I love the perspective I get, and the ability to teach from direct experience- telling kids what it’s actually like to be in those places and talk to the people, or funny idiomatic quirks about Spanish slang in Bolivia.  I also love learning about other cultures, and that is very important to my work, as I work with so many people of different backgrounds.  I just feel like I have so much more of a broad perspective on things now.

Also, as an author of books about meditation and mindfulness with kids, it’s helpful for me to talk to locals who have experience with meditation in their culture, or may have interesting perspectives and anecdotes, so I can bring that back to my writing process as well.

The world's highest road, Ladakh, India.

TT: How have your travels impacted you as a person?

C: I have a deeper appreication for human struggle: poverty, trauma, health issues… I take many fewer things for granted than I used to, and have a lot more gratitude for what I do have (including the ability to travel)!  I also just want to share my passion for travel, and have loved doing my own writing about the places I’ve been, if only for myself.  Of course, I am hoping to write a book about traveling in Buddhist countries someday, but then, isn’t travel writing everyone’s dream job?

TT: What advice do you have for other teachers who are dreaming of travel? 

Chris in Angkor Wat, Cambodia.

C: Just do it.  Start with a well-traveled country with a friend or partner, like Thailand or Costa Rica, and see how easy it can be before you move on to someplace more challenging.

At least some of the time travel alone. You meet SO many more local people, meet other travelers, and are so much more likely to have amazing and unexpected adventures along the way.

Don’t forget you can also ACTIVELY learn. Not only can you do community service on trips, but you could take courses abroad: learn Spanish in Guatemala with a private tutor for a few bucks an hour (and maybe even tax deduct your trip!), take a cooking course in Vietnam, learn to meditate in India, a tango class in Argentina, or practice martial arts in Brazil or Thailand!

Find a local or an expat to take you around, even if it’s a friend of a friend of a cousin, expats living in foreign countries often are happy to have visitors, and you can get the insider experience.

Talk to other travelers to get ideas, read some inspiring travel books (I love Paul Theroux), get into a conversation on the Lonely Planet Thorntree Forum, think about WOOFing, find grants, learn about tax deductions or course credit, and save those frequent flyers!

Chris with new friends during Tibet travel.

TT: Thanks for your inspiration and advice, Chris!

I love how you combine mindfulness, writing, teaching, and extensive world travel.

We have much to learn from you!

Readers, feel free to check out Chris’s websites, drchristopherwillard.com, and his site, “Eat More Books.”

Now, what questions or comments do you have for this Teacher-Traveler?

Related Posts:

• Baz: Teaching and Travel Around The World With TEFL Certification
• Alisha: Teaching in Chile, Travel in Thailand, Tips, and More!
• Shasta: Learning to Teach in Honduras and South Korea

Chris: Cheap Summer Travel Through Frequent Flyer Miles originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

My students in Ghana reading a blog article I wrote about them!

I had just finished a presentation on Global Education during the EdCamp Boston Conference, and was happily schmoozing in the Education Bloggers discussion group.

As we sat in our tight little circle swapping ideas, we realized: there are a LOT of Education Bloggers out there, but we hardly ever converse or share ideas.

What an amazing impact would come from finally uniting forces!

At that point, the Education Bloggers Facebook Group was born. Please help spread the word about this new group to anyone, anywhere in the world who either runs or regularly writes for education-related blogs! Education bloggers of all levels and followings are welcome. Find and join the group by clicking this link: http://www.facebook.com/groups/EducationBloggers/ and then requesting to join.

Join us, oh Education Bloggers of the world!

The purpose of the EdBlogs group is to unite Education Bloggers so we can connect, help each other grow, and share ideas. We are using Facebook because:

1) The majority of folks are on Facebook anyway, and…

2) Facebook Groups have an advantage over Pages because they have the option to send emails to all members whenever a new post is created. This facilitates a tight-knit, in-touch community.

I modeled this group after the wildly successful Travel Bloggers Facebook Group which has nearly 1,400 members, and has made a GIANT positive impact in improving the unity, skills, knowledge, and blog traffic of its members. The potential of our Education Bloggers group is massive.

To further enhance our community, we have also launched a weekly Education Bloggers Twitter Chat on Thursdays at 8pm-9pm EST using the hashtag #EdBlogs .

Thanks for helping spread the word. Let’s work together to amplify the voices and enhance the toolkit of Education Bloggers around the world!

Note: The first photo in this article is from the three months I spent volunteer teaching in Ghana. To read the blog article about the writing project I did with the students in Ghana, click here!

Related Posts:

• Teachers: Win $50 in Money to Fund Your Classroom Projects!
• Will: Teaching ESL in Vietnam and Travel in Southeast Asia
• 10 Ways Travel Enhances You as a Teacher and a Person!

Join the Education Bloggers Facebook Group and Twitter Chat! originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

A gorgeous view for an afternoon lunch at Coral Beach, Paget, Bermuda.

Teaching Traveling: Welcome, Lindsey Lehman! Tell us what led to your remarkable teaching position in Bermuda. 

Lindsey: I was born and raised in Southern New Jersey and had a very typical upbringing with my two sisters. My parents, who were amateur history buffs, raised me. Every summer we would pile in the car and drive all across the U.S. to visit every battlefield, national monument and famous person from history’s childhood home. There are countless pictures of my sisters and me standing in a field in some state where an important event/battle/signing of a document took place. As much as I’m sure I complained about the heat/bugs/dirt/siblings I was grateful that my parents took me on those trips. I spent important, significant time with my family and saw most of the U.S., which was more than I could say for a lot of my classmates.

I graduated with honors and a double degree from Holy Family University in Philadelphia, PA in 2007, and went straight into teaching. I taught for a year with younger children and then taught special education, which is my passion, for 3 years in a small non-profit school that specialized in educating children with multiple disabilities. I loved my students there; they made me laugh every day… but I knew I needed a change. I felt that I had outgrown that placement so I accepted a position as a Para-educator in Bermuda in the spring of 2011.

Lindsey and her mother at Fort Saint Catherine in St. George, Bermuda.

Instead of a classroom full of students as well as a full staff surrounding me, I am a private special education teacher for a family who resides on the island. It was an adjustment for me but one that I am grateful for. It sometimes is challenging to only have one student but I feel that I am making a big difference in her achievements, being able to focus just on her.

TT: How did you find this travel opportunity? 

L: It was the first morning of my Easter break from school and I was on Craigslist. I spent about 2 hours looking through every listing in the Philadelphia area except Education. I was just looking for something different. I knew I needed a change but I honestly didn’t know how to go about finding it. I eventually, I clicked on Education and there was an ad for a “Para-Educator – Bermuda”. Wanting to see if it was a joke I clicked on it and found it to be, surprisingly, not a joke. I contacted the ad and sent a resume. Sure enough, I received an email back from my now employer. I remember running into my sister’s room (we were roommates) and excitedly telling her I applied for a job in Bermuda! The idea still seemed crazy at the time.

The view from where Lindsey lives. She writes: "I never get tired of the colors here!"

TT: How did you find the money to fund this travel?

L: I was very fortunate that my employer covered my moving expenses. They paid for my plane ticket, my luggage, and when I leave the island they will cover those moving expenses as well. This is pretty common practice in Bermuda for companies to pay moving expenses. In terms of moving my apartment and settling loose ends back in the States, that part I paid myself. There was a lot to purchase leading up to moving, including a passport! I had left the country to travel to Canada several times in my childhood and since a government issued I.D. was all you needed, never a passport, I had to purchase that in preparation as well.

TT: Tell us one moment from your travels that was particularly powerful.

L: One Sunday morning, 5 weeks after I moved to Bermuda, I was feeling particularly homesick. With all of the technology we have available today I hadn’t been hit with homesickness at all, practically. I Skyped my parents, friends and my sister Torey who is literally my better half, so I hadn’t felt very far from them. But this one particular day it really hit me that I was living in a foreign place, 800 miles from home with not one single friend. I jokingly refer to this day as “Lindsey’s Dark Day”.

View from the top of Gibb's Hill Lighthouse, Southampton, Bermuda.

After video chatting with my sister, Torey, I confessed to this awful feeling and she basically told me to get out. Literally, get out of my apartment. She told me to go to the beach, put on my swimsuit and go. Even if I didn’t know anyone just go! So I did, I got on my scooter and went. And it turns out, that was the day I met my friend Kelsey, at the beach, who was in a very similar situation as myself. Moving away from every single person you know is extremely challenging and there are new challenges you never even think to prepare yourself for. Days like that happen when you move, but luckily for me I had my sister to motivate me.

TT: How have your travels impacted you as a teacher?

L: Traveling has impacted my teaching style in a very strange way. It had made me more resourceful. Living in Bermuda sometimes it is very difficult to obtain common teaching items that we take for granted having at our disposal or they are sold at an extremely high premium. I miss having places like Becker’s, Lakeshore and the dollar store. You could just run in and grab whatever you needed but living here has taught me to forage for items in an unconventional manner.

TT: How have your travels impacted you as a person?

Lindsey at the beach with sun hat on. She writes: "You can get sunburned very easily here so wearing sunscreen and a sunhat is important. Learned this the hard way!"

L: Moving here was such a mental break in a way for me. Before I moved here I was over-scheduled and was overextending myself and it became too much. I also was contending with the fact that I wasn’t 100% content with where I was in my life and needed a change. When I moved here I became aware for the first time how much I needed a break. Because of this newfound feeling I also became more relaxed. It’s very true that Bermuda is another world.

TT: What advice do you have for other teachers who are dreaming of travel?

L: One of my favorite quotes (and favorite women) is Heller Keller who said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.” Moving to Bermuda was a huge step for me both personally and professionally. I quit my job, packed my apartment and got on a plane with 3 suitcases. I moved 800 miles from the only life I had ever known to live on a 21 square mile island where I knew not one person outside of my employers. It was the biggest step I have ever taken, but 100% worth it. I was so grateful for the support of my family and friends. My mom likes to say she was “born with a suitcase packed” and raised my sisters and me the same way. So just say yes, pack your suitcase, and go.

TT: Thanks so much, Lindsey! Readers, what questions or comments do you have for this traveling teacher?

Related Posts:

• Elaine: How to Travel the World By Teaching Internationally
• Whitney: Raising a Young Son and Teaching in Taiwan and Korea
• Alexa: A TEFL Course in Peru for Korea Teaching and Asia Travel

Lindsey: A Private Special Education Teacher in Beautiful Bermuda originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Sara with her balloon animal creations and host family in Mali!

Teaching Traveling: Welcome to world-traveling teacher, Sara Krakauer!

Sara, tell us about your background. 

Sara: First and foremost, I’m a teacher.  In the United States, that word alone doesn’t sound so glamorous, so I’m tempted to add something to spice it up and call myself a “global teacher.” In Nepal, the word for teacher is “lama” which sounds much more important. In fact, Nepalis have great respect for their teachers, and it’s considered a very prestigious job. Despite the lack of prestige in the States, I am committed to staying in the classroom.

My first job out of college brought me to Nepal, and then to Thailand, South Africa, Pakistan, and India.  I was a private teacher for an American family that was traveling around the world.  I traveled with them and taught their first and fourth grade students.  THIS was a job that sounded very impressive.  In fact, when I told people that I was getting paid to travel, they treated me like a celebrity and asked me a million questions.  The most common one was how in the world I got this job.  Since I just answered an ad in the Boston Globe, it seemed somewhat equivalent to winning the lottery.

The actual ad Sara answered in 2000, launching her as a “Teacher Traveler"

In fact, the job was extremely challenging.  I was a first year teacher isolated from all resources and mentors. Eventually, I left the job in India when my boss kept changing our itinerary, hours before flights, and expecting me to do anything on his whim.

I stayed a few months and created my own version of the study abroad program that I never did in college.  I studied Buddhism by attending the Dalai Lama’s public teachings and then volunteered at a Buddhist School in the lower Himalayas.

I went from staying in fancy hotels to cramped rooms with no running water.  I didn’t mind the difficult conditions because I was surrounded by warmth and caring. This experience really made me the teacher I am today.

In Sara's classroom, students design their own projects, like this peace rock garden.

TT: So, what do you do now?

S: It’s hard to believe it, but this is my 12th year teaching. Trekking through Africa and Asia with a bunch of textbooks made me realize that I wanted community as much as adventure. So, I came home to Massachusetts, where I’m from.  I spent a few years exploring different kinds of schools, and found my way in 2003 to my current job – teaching Social Studies to 5th and 6th graders at a school in the Boston suburbs: Innovation Academy Charter School. It’s not an expedition-based school like the one that I worked at briefly after my return from my travels, but the school focuses on project-based learning and fits my teaching philosophy very well.

TT: Do you still travel?

S: My passion continues to be experiential learning (especially when it involves service and/or learning about other cultures).  I use my summers as opportunities to travel and do service learning work.  I’ve spent several summers on personal explorations – Germany, Poland, and Hungary in 2004, Peruvian mountains and jungle in 2005, and British Columbia in 2010.

Getting to know the culture in Nepal, while traveling as a private teacher.

I’ve also spent several summers creating my own professional development or service-learning experiences.  In 2006, I studied Spanish and volunteered through a language school in Panajachel, Guatemala. The school took care of all of the logistics for me, all for $150 a week. In 2007, I organized my own volunteer opportunity in Mali, in West Africa.  I connected directly with an organization that does alternative education work, and stayed with the family who runs the non-profit in exchange for work with their students and teachers.  In 2011, I went on a study tour to Southern Africa with GEEO, exploring South Africa, Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique with a group of teachers. Since I started doing these trips, I developed a side career as a balloon artist, and so, in addition to sharing other talents, I also give artistically.  My website, www.globetwisting.com, highlights this aspect of my work and answers the question, “What happens when a world geography teacher becomes a balloon artist?”

Finally, I’ve spent a few summers and other breaks leading programs for high school students to engage with the community and do service-learning themselves.  In 2008 and 2009, I led programs in San Francisco and Chicago with an amazing organization called the Civic Education Project. It’s an amazing program that really opens up students’ eyes to the realities of our world and how they can contribute.  This coming summer, I am thrilled that I will be working with Global Leadership Adventures as a staff person on their China programs.

TT: It sounds like you’ve done a lot of travel!  How do you fund all of this?

Sara with lions at a conservation program in Zimbabwe through GEEO

It’s been different for each trip. I definitely save up by having a frugal lifestyle.  I live in a co-op and carpool to work, for example.  I do these things because I love doing them, but the side benefit is saving me more money for travel.

I’ve also found ways to make travel cheaper through volunteering and working.  For example, in Mali, I got free room and board in exchange for my work with the organization.  And I’ll be working in China this summer, mentoring high school students as they experience that culture for the first time.  Making travel a part of my life is essential to my own learning, so I just make it work however I can. In addition to doing what I love, when I volunteer or work abroad, I get to share my passions with young people.

The result of Sara making friends with balloons in Guatemala.

TT: So, this is why you call yourself a “global teacher?”

S: Yes, I like to think of myself as a “globe trotter” of sorts, and a “globe twister” because I bring balloons everywhere I go.  It’s a great way to connect across cultural and language barriers.

More recently, I’ve been more seriously thinking about how to use my travel experience to enhance my teaching.  Actually, I am writing this from Ukraine, where I am participating in a fellowship called Teachers for Global Classrooms. The program is sponsored by the federal government and a non-profit called IREX. I applied last spring and here I am in Ukraine now! The program is so much more than just travel though.  I’m part of a cohort of 68 teachers from across the country and we are studying this idea of global education. We participated in an online course in the fall, and then attended a symposium in Washington D.C. where we met in person. The whole program is fully funded, and they even flew our administrators down to D.C. to support the work that we are doing.  The goal is to be leaders in our schools so that we teach about the importance of building global competencies in our students.

Before I did this program, I didn’t even know what global competencies are! Now, I am learning about how important it is to prepare students to operate on a global stage. In order to be successful in the 21st century, students today need skills that weren’t as important for adults who are living today.  Cultural sensitivity, use of technology, and flexible thinking are more important than ever because of the world we live in and how it is changing so rapidly.

Sara's Teachers for Global Classrooms Cohort.

TT: So, what are you doing in Ukraine?

S: The Teachers for Global Classrooms program is sending teachers all over – to Morocco, India, Ghana, Indonesia, Brazil, and Ukraine.  My cohort of 11 teachers just finished intensive training in Kyiv, where we met with teachers, U.S. embassy leaders, administrators, and more.  Now, we are spending a week at schools all over the country, working in pairs.  I am in a city called Zaporizha, where I’m visiting a classical lyceum. At this school, every student studies music as part of their program.

Even more important than what I learn is how I bring this work back to my school.  I used to just travel and then do a presentation here or there about my experience. I’ve recently been working on further integrating my experiences into my classroom work, and helping students to have connections even if they can’t leave the classroom.

Sara's host family in Mali showing the size of Sara's balloon art!

TT: How do you bring your travels into the classroom?

S: In my Social Studies class, students have always learned about different countries around the world, but this year they sent penpal letters through email.  We’ve always talked about the idea of global citizenship, but this year, each class designed their own project to actively work towards a better global community.  One class made a peace rock garden for our school. Another class chose to make a video to educate people about child labor.  You can read about their project on my global citizenship website, Innovation on Earth.  I’m using this site to blog from Ukraine, and will also write from Turkey and China in the coming weeks.  In this way, my trip is not just for me, but also for my students.  I’m videotaping what I see and posting the videos every day, and some posts even have questions for my students back home. Through the site, they are interacting with students in other countries as I travel.

TT: What advice do you have for other teachers who are dreaming of travel? 

A class in Zaporizhia, Ukraine with Teachers for Global Classrooms.

S: The most important thing is not to let anything hold you back – money is a challenge, but I think that fear is often even more powerful. If you do your research, there are so many resources out there to help teachers travel, and there’s a community of people who would be thrilled to help you out.

I would also suggest thinking ahead of time about what you want to get out of the experience.  A lot of times, people just go abroad wanting to learn.  Your trip can be even more valuable if you keep an open mind but focus your thinking on particular questions that you want to answer. Also, talk to people who have been places that you want to go, and follow in their footsteps.  If the world is our classroom, we need to figure out the best ways to learn in it.

TT: Thanks so much, Sara! Readers, what questions or comments do you have for this amazing world-traveling teacher and ballon artist?

Related Posts:

• Kim: Summer Volunteer Technology Teaching in Ghana
• Michael: Travel With Global Exploration for Educators Org. (GEEO)
• Chelsea: Global Education for Kids With an Online Program

Sara: Global Teacher and Balloon Artist Tells You Ways to Travel originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Whitney with her son, Preston, and Taiwanese colleagues.

Teaching Traveling: Welcome, Whitney!

Tell us about your background.

Whitney:  When I was younger, I traveled so much, but only in my imagination.  My favorite books growing up were set in other countries and other time periods.  For example, when I read about Sherlock Holmes, I so badly wished to be in London, in the Victorian era (I love how much a geek I am!).

I longed to be part of an adventure that would take me away from my hometown of Virginia Beach, Virginia!

At first, I found a way to “travel” through history by being costumed historic interpreter in several museums and historic sites throughout Virginia.  I enjoyed it, learned a lot, and connected with so many people; yet, the restlessness was always there.  I wanted more!

Whitney's husband, Chris, enjoying the view in Capri, 2011.

In 2006, which began a period of stagnation and poor decisions, I was surfing the Internet and found opportunities for teaching English abroad.  I was stoked!  I was passionate about education, even though my experience was not formal classroom teaching, and I wanted to see the world.  But I hesitated at the time, because the opportunities I saw were looking for TEFL/TESL/TESOL certification, and after struggling to pay rent, bills, and daily needs, I couldn’t afford to take the classes.  However, he seed was planted, and over the next three years, I kept revisiting the thought, “You know, you could try teaching English overseas…”  I mean, I had traveled to the British Virgin Islands while in college for an archaeological dig, and I spent a year in Philadelphia on my own for graduate school.  Maybe I could do this….

Finally, in 2009, I just decided to go for it.  I had the support of my family and friends, and I found a TEFL certification program that was affordable and online.  I found a great TEFL recruiter, and by May, I was off to Korea!  Currently, I’ve been living in Taiwan since 2010, where I continue to teach English, write, and take care of my amazing one-year-old son.

Whitney, chilling on a Parisian bridge in 2011.

TT: Wow! Tell us more about your travels!

W:  Some people think that I am traveling, but in reality, I am just living day-to-day in another country.  I like to think of Taiwan as my “home away from where my home will actually be one of these days!”  My husband, my son, and I still have opportunities to travel at least twice a year.  My son has traveled back and forth between Taiwan and the United States twice since he was 3 months old (and about to go again in July!).  July 2011, my husband Chris and I decided to take our overdue honeymoon to Europe.  I was beyond ecstatic, because our destinations were Paris and Capri, Italy!  We left our son Preston for some massive spoiling time with his grandmother and friends in the States.  Even though it was only for a week, it was a slice of heaven.  Paris is truly a magical city, more special than tourists realize, if you peel past the great landmarks and just take your time to fall in love.  Capri’s landscape is incredible, and the scope of history there is a tangible force of nature.

TT: Tell us a particularly powerful moment from your travels.

Whitney re-creating a photo of her father in Pompeii, 2011.

W: It’s difficult for me to choose out of so many incredible moments since I embarked on my teaching travels.  If I had to choose just one, it has to be when Chris and I went to Pompeii.

I had always been fascinated by the story of Pompeii, and at last I was there walking through those ancient forums, homes, and public baths, frozen in time.  This place was meaningful for me in a very personal way because about four years before, my parents went to Pompeii and my mother took a very haunting photograph of my father standing in an alley with Mount Vesuvius looming in the background.  Not a single soul was around; my father was standing alone.  My father died suddenly a couple of months before I left for Korea in 2009.

When Chris and I got to Pompeii, I had a copy of the picture of my father because I wanted to emulate it as much as possible.  I showed it to our private guide, and he knew exactly where to go!  I stood exactly where my father stood, and I knew he would have been thrilled that I finally got to Europe and that my dreams were coming true.

Two of Whitney's wonderful Taiwanese students, 2012.

TT: How has travel changed you as a teacher?

W: Teaching and traveling have taken me beyond all that I thought possible.  Many people testify that teaching abroad gives someone global experience, independence, adaptability, among other stellar qualities.  All true in my case!  Yet, I must consider how much of a difference I have really made with my students and colleagues, just by being present and caring about what I teach.  No matter where one lives in the world, teaching is hard work, and sometimes pressure builds with every little frustration.  But I am learning that I can thrive as a teacher and deal with cultural prejudices, language barriers, and different organization styles.  When I lived in Korea, my favorite parts of my job were my students and being able to create whole classes based on my passions and experiences, including classes in United States History and Interview Skills.

Here in Taiwan, my colleagues give me free rein to create meaningful lessons as I will, which has led me to develop lessons involving anti-bullying.  I feel great being able to create and implement ideas not only related to language development, but also that are relevant in the world.  Again, I love my students, who are equal parts driven and big-hearted!

Whitney and her husband, Chris, in Suwon, Korea, 2009.

I feel that traveling as a teacher gives me all the experiences that I can use in the classroom to share with my students and to bring lessons to life for them.  I’ve learned that language, information, and communication are universal.

TT: How has travel affected you as a person?

W: I talk to my mother via Skype quite often; I’m very close to her and she loves watching her grandson in action.  She commented that she has never seen me so happy and contented with my life.  Teaching and traveling has truly made my dreams come true.  I’m doing something I love and want to develop.  I’m surrounded by wonderful people and beautiful scenery.  Coming abroad has helped my confidence grow.  As I work on learning different languages (i.e. French, Spanish, and Chinese), I learn more about patience and persistence.  I learn to be grateful for any help and kindness that people show me and try to pass it on.  I count my blessings, because never has my life been so rich!

Whitney's son, Preston's Chinese Style, 2012!

Most important to my personal life, I met Chris while in Korea and we have been happily married for about three years.  We get to work at the same school; how great is it to work with your spouse!  We both love being out in the world.  We believe this is an important legacy to instill in our son, who was actually born in Taiwan and is soaking up Chinese as we speak.

What a great opportunity for Preston, for us, to be more than just travelers, but citizens of the world!

TT: What tips do you have for aspiring teacher-travelers?  

W: Do your research, plan well, and when you see an opportunity, don’t let anything stop you.  I think fear can hold you back from so many wonderful adventures.  Don’t always force your travel adventures into possible lesson plans; sometimes pleasure and relaxation is all you need.  Keep it all in perspective, because sometimes things just happen that are beyond your control, and people are people no matter where you go.  Sometimes, you just have to laugh or cry!  Above all, follow your joy!

So on that note, here are some helpful links:

• Reach to Teach Recruiting:  www.reachtoteachrecruiting.com (They used to have teaching opportunities in Asia only, but now they are extending out to Eastern Europe and Chile)
• Bridge TEFL Online:  www.teflonline.com (I used this program for my TEFL certification)
• Travel Store:  www.travelstoreusa.com  (We used this company for our trip to Paris and Capri.  If you live outside the U.S., they’ll even work with you via Skype!)

TT: Thanks so much, Whitney! Readers, what comments or questions do you have for this great teacher-traveler?

Related Posts:

• Alexa: A TEFL Course in Peru for Korea Teaching and Asia Travel
• Elizabeth: Wise Advice on Finding an ESL Job in South Korea
• Baz: Teaching and Travel Around The World With TEFL Certification

Whitney: Raising a Young Son and Teaching in Taiwan and Korea originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .

Tim having breakfast with new friends in Costa Rica.

Teaching Traveling: Today we have a different kind of traveling teacher: a pastor who’s seen the world!

Tim first made contact with me after reading my article about liminal spaces in travel, which he used as inspiration for one of his later sermons. I was so tickled, I asked Tim if he’d like to be interviewed, and it turned out he has a phenomenal travel history.

Tim, tell us a bit about your background.

Tim: I grew up in Maine near Portland, which is the state’s largest city.  My childhood was full of day trips to the ocean and mountains and the neighboring states of New Hampshire and Massachusetts and several trips across country via plane.  As I look back, it’s not surprising with all this travel as a child that I caught the travel bug early life.

Tim's mission work in Honduras helped improve this sub-standard housing.

I left home at 18 to attend college in northwest Ohio.  Unlike most high schoolers today, I never visited the college prior to arriving for freshmen orientation the week before classes started. I had never been to Ohio, nor I had I ever been so far from the Ocean and surrounded by such flat land in my entire life. I often wonder how I survived four years in the wilds of northwest Ohio.  The answer is great friends, a wonderful college, and a student body that was 10% international. There were students from Syria, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Japan, Germany, Nepal and Saudi Arabia. Being from Maine in northwest Ohio was about as different as being from Syria, Malaysia, or South Korea, and therefore the international community became my community, which fed my wanderlust and led me join the Peace Corps in Africa after graduation.

A Honduras home, after Tim's mission work has finished.

Upon returning from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, where I was posted as Peace Corps Volunteer, I went to seminary in Boston.

I completed seminary in 1993, and have been a United Church of Christ pastor since my graduation in 1993.  I have served churches in Miami, Florida; Hudson, New Hampshire; Kingston, Rhode Island; Lakewood (Metro Denver), Colorado; and my current location Hagerstown, Maryland.

I’ve traveled to 43 states in the US, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Canada, Mexico, Haiti, Jamaica, the Bahamas, 9 countries in Europe, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Thailand, and Vietnam.

TT: Amazing! Tell us more about your travels.

Sunrise over Drake Bay, Costa Rica. Beautiful!

T: The congregation I currently pastor has a mission partnership with a church in Honduras. The church we have a partnership with is in El Progresso, which is in the North of the country not too far from San Pedro Sula, the second largest city in Honduras.  With our partner church we build homes for families living in substandard housing.  A substandard home in El Progresso typically means a “structure” made out of discarded materials attached to poles/tree branches struck in the ground. There may or may not be an actual door and there may or may be windows.  There is never indoor plumbing or electricity.

The homes we construct with our partner church and the family that will inhabit the home are concrete block with a cement floor, a metal roof, three rooms, two doors and windows in each room.  Recently, we have begun to construct outhouses with pour flush toilets.

Tim ziplining through the rainforest in Costa Rica!

On each trip to Honduras we spent 10 days there living with a local family and build the house during the day light hours.  We normally take a side trip or two. On my first of three trips to Honduras so far, I stayed behind after the group left to go on vacation.  I traveled to Costa Rica on Tica Bus, the Central American version of Greyhound.  It was a two-day journey with an overnight stay in Managua, Nicaragua.  I was one of only a handful of non-Central Americans on the bus.  I had the opportunity to meet Central Americans from Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama.  I could have made the same journey in 4 hours on a plane, but I would never have seen as much of Central America as I did on the bus, nor would I have met all the wonderful people I did.

My bus riding adventure did not end when I reached San Jose, Costa Rica.  I already had reservations for a week stay at Drake Bay on the Osa Penisula, which is located on the southwestern coast of Costa Rica on the Pacific Ocean.  I climbed aboard a local bus for the 8 hour journey on the Pan American Hwy to the town where I would catch the ferry to Drake Bay the next day.

A Central American pineapple plantation. Yum!

I spent 5 wonderful days in paradise on the edge of the Corcovado National Park and Rainforest.  My day began at 5 am with coffee served on my balcony where I could watch the sunrise over Drake Bay.  This was followed by a leisurely breakfast and then mountain biking, which nearly killed me.  I was not half as good a shape as I thought I was. Mountain biking in the tropics is a bit more strenuous than mountain biking in the Mid-Atlantic.  I had signed up for a full day, and barely survived a half day. I should have known I was in for a rough ride when the tour guide said I was the first person to ever sign up for mountain biking, half or full day. The gracious mountain biking guides who also owned the company that ran the mountain biking tours along with a number of other tours refunded my full day tour and gave me the use of their sea kayaks in the afternoon for free. I think they felt bad that they had “nearly” killed me on my half day mountain biking tour.

One of the sweet locals Tim met on the Costa Rican Tica Bus.

Each night the other guests and I would gather for dinner family style at a large table on open-air veranda.  During those dinner times the guests would share with one another our adventures of the day and what we had planned for the next day. One night I was speaking with a couple from Boston, MA about the rainforest zip line adventure I was planning for the next day. They expressed interest and learned that there was space available.  When we arrived the next morning for our rainforest zip line adventure, we discovered that the owner of the resort who also ran the zip line adventure was joining us with his tour guides and camera crew to shoot a new video for their website.  It turned out that we would be the only three people on the tour and the rest of the folks were the owner’s crew.  Over the next several hours as we floated and flew from tree to tree, platform to platform high above the rainforest, the couple from Boston and I became friends.  Each night after that morning we sat near one another to share tales of the day’s adventures.

Tim, ruggedly hiking in Honduras.

At the end of our time on the Osa Penisula, we exchanged phone numbers and e-mail addresses.  A few months later I received a phone call from them wanting to know if I would officiate at their wedding that coming March.  They told me, “they were not members of a church, but they wanted a religious service and I had made such an impression on them during our stay on the Osa Penisula that they could think of no better to bless their marriage.” Needless to say, I was deeply touched and agreed to officiate at their marriage.  They are now the proud parents of a little girl and they call me every year on their anniversary. I have visited them in their home in Boston and met their daughter and continue to be amazed by how small the world truly is.

TT: What a beautiful story! How do you find your travel opportunities?

T: The mission trip part of the travel was through the church, but the rest of it was through the internet, my own person desire to go where few others go, and my belief that traveling the way locals travel is always the most interesting and rewarding, even if it might take longer, be less “comfortable” and have unforeseen interruptions.

TT: How did you find the money to fund this travel?

Tim, Tropical Mountain Biking in Costa Rica. Wow!

T: This trip was funded by personal finances and fundraising.

TT: How have your travels impacted you in your current career, and as a person?

T: My travels starting all the way back to my childhood have led me to be a more open, flexible, and accepting person.  As a pastor these are very valuable traits. On a daily basis I encounter people who have differing views than my own and I work with volunteers who move at their own pace and do things in ways that may or may not be the most efficient. Having lived, worked, and traveled to a number of places in the US and across the globe I am much better prepared and able to work with folks from a wide variety of backgrounds.

My travels have also made me more thankful and appreciative for my family, the things I have and the freedoms I enjoy.  My travels have also made me aware that there is as much to be seen and experienced in the U.S. as there is in countries near and far, meaning I don’t need to travel to Southeast Asia or South America to discover a new place or beautiful spot.

TT: Good point! What advice do you have for teachers who are dreaming of travel, or travelers dreaming of teaching?

T: When it comes to travel the only limits should be your imagination. I like this Tour Finder Extreme Bike Adventures site, as well as this Adventure Center one.

TT: Thanks, Tim! Readers, what questions or comments do you have for this world traveling pastor?

Related Posts:

• Erin: Living in Costa Rica as a WorldTeach Volunteer Teacher
• Maureen: From Intelligence Official to Book Author in Ecuador
• Volunteer Teach this Summer in the Beautiful Dominican Republic!

Tim: A Pastor Doing Volunteer and Adventure Travel Abroad originally appeared in . . . Teaching Traveling! - To inspire and assist more teachers to travel, and more travelers to teach . . .