If you suddenly discover that your children's grandparents have gone missing, check their closets to see if their backpacks-on-wheels are gone. Then check your email to see if they sent a quick message from an internet cafe in a South American city. They may have done it again.
Grandma and Grandpa went to do a service project somewhere. More than likely, it's remote and off-the-grid. You might not hear much from
them, until they return home with photos of mud-brick homes and barefoot
children with smudgy faces. They are having a blast and changing the
world at the same time. "Best vacation ever."
To all our senior citizens, "would you please retire!" "No, no come back! We need you to be volunteers."
While you're looking for contained, sterilized cruise ships with pools and rock walls for you and your kids, Grandma is sleeping in the home of
a Qechua family in a village with a name you can't pronounce. She
might be teaching English to the local children or handing up mud-bricks
as she works side-by-side with local people trying to build a school or
community shelter.
Used to be that only adventurous college kids would throw on a backpack and head off to a bushy, wet place without a bathroom and learn how to
live. Now, Grandma and Grandpa are grabbing their
ergonomically-correct, wheeled luggage and waving good-by (if there's
time for such frivolity) to their kids and grandkids as they head off to
explore the remaining remote corners of the planet.
These old, former Peace Corp volunteers want to do what they did when they were young. They've raised you while being gainfully employed as
teachers, doctors and lawyers in corporations and if they had any doubts
about what is important in life when they were young, they have no
doubts now.
They volunteer in droves in local hospitals, parks, libraries and schools. They take volunteer vacations. They work hard and recently
there have been some questions about whether older travelers are getting
themselves into physical trouble in their pursuit of adventure.
Apparently, they're not aware of this "problem," and the complaints
appear to be coming from sedentary newspaper columnists sitting at
computers. (ahem!)
Adios Adventure Travel worked closely with a group from the Appalachian Trail Club, who ranged in age, from 40 to early 70s, organize a volunteer vacation to Peru. They spent
6 months getting prepped, then flew down in late June for 2 weeks. My
Peruvian partner and I knew they were hikers and used to hard work, so
we planned a service project that would require living in primitive
conditions for the duration. They slept in tents and there was no
plumbing.
After the 4 day service project, they were scheduled to have one day of rest and showers, then hike the Inca Trail. Not an easy stroll. You'll
have to read up on it, on your own time. I hiked it at the age of 51 and lived to tell the story. (I'm kidding!)
This group of 12 participated in a vacation that, in their words was
"life-changing." Some had never traveled like this before.
When they weren't installing clay tiles on the roof, or tossing up mud-bricks, they were handing out school supplies to the local
children. The grateful villagers showered them with the one thing they
had, guinea pigs and potatoes. The women brought baskets of food as
gifts. (see photo slide show).
Grandparents today are modeling a new way of spending time (and money) in retirement. The only thing that's better than that, is if you and
your kids join them on their next "vacation."
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