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| What would prompt a 69-year-old
retired businesswoman to venture to the Arctic tundra, urge a 73-year-old
former building contractor to go to Timbuktu, or make the remote
Buddhist kingdom of Bhutan irresistible to a 62-year-old homemaker?
According to these three intrepid Elderhostelers, it’s a sense
of adventure, a thirst for new experiences and, according to one
of them, “Being just a little bit off-beat!”
Every year, thousands of older adults opt to explore some of the
remotest parts of the globe on Elderhostel programs. Some are fulfilling
a lifelong dream of embarking on an adventure to an exotic place
they’d read about in books and magazines. Others are returning
to places they remember from childhood, a military tour of duty,
or careers that took them abroad. Some just want to explore and
learn about a land and culture very different from their own. All
possess an intense curiosity and a desire to choose the road less
traveled.
We invite you to read some of our participants’ accounts
of their adventures abroad, what inspired them to choose their destinations,
and what insights they brought home with them.
Meet Joseph Lefkowitz, Marilyn Brady, and Doris Wyman –
Explorers of Remote Places and Students of Many Cultures
Joseph Lefkowitz, 73, remembers a trip to a bookstore where he saw
Kurt Vonnegut’s From Time to Timbuktu, and thought,
“Timbuktu. Now there’s about as ‘different’
a place as I could ever visit.” Lefkowitz, a retired building
contractor who had been widowed for 10 years, then strolled to the
bookstore’s travel section to find a guide to West Africa.
“I knew that Timbuktu was in Mali,” says Lefkowitz,
“but that was about it. After thumbing through the guidebook,
I was intrigued and wanted to learn more about Mali, West Africa
and Timbuktu.” Lefkowitz’s curiosity led him to visit
Elderhostel’s online catalog to see whether the organization
offered any educational programs in Timbuktu. “Sure enough,
they had one,” says Lefkowitz. He made the journey to study
Mali’s history, its Muslim roots and the Dogon and Tuareg
cultures.
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Marilyn Brady, 69, has long been fascinated by Inuit culture and
life within the Arctic Circle. “The Arctic was especially
mysterious to me, as I grew up in South Carolina,” says the
retired owner of a curtain shop. “The thought of people living
in almost year-round snow and ice – not to mention 24-hour
summer sun and winter darkness – was unfathomable.”
After a childhood spent avidly reading National Geographic,
the biographies of Sir Martin Frobisher and Robert Peary, and books
of Inuit folktales, Brady was hungry for a firsthand experience.
“I didn’t want to just go on a photo safari or group
tour,” she says. “I wanted to find out what the Arctic
was like from people who lived there and had their roots there.
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| Tuareg tribesmen share their way of life
with visiting Elderhostelers in Timbuktu, Mali.download
the full-size (1038 x 1318) color jpeg: 118k
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I wanted it to be an internal experience, not just a physical adventure.”
Brady chose an Elderhostel program in Kotzebue, Alaska and another
at Prudhoe Bay, spending more than two weeks immersing herself in
hands-on studies of Arctic ecology, Inuit culture and contemporary
life, and traditional methods for catching, curing and smoking fish
at an Inuit summer fish camp.“It was the satisfying culmination
of six decades of fantasizing about what the Arctic and Inuit life
are like,” says Brady.
Doris Wyman, 62, a Dallas homemaker, earned her college degree in
Asian studies when she was 45 years old and her three children were
grown. “My particular area of interest was in Buddhist practices
of western Asia,” she says, “but of course, there aren’t
too many people who consider that to be an interesting topic of conversation
at a backyard barbecue!” For years, Wyman longed to travel to
Bhutan and Tibet, where she could encounter cultures that practiced
Buddhism as a way of life, and whose cultures and customs reflected
Buddhist beliefs. “My husband suggested that when he retired
from his work as a chemical engineer, we should plan to take a trip
somewhere, so I broached the subject of Bhutan,” Wyman says
with a chuckle. “His eyebrows shot up so high, I thought they
would jump off his forehead! He said, ‘I was thinking more along
the lines of Paris.’” But, Wyman made a compelling case
for Bhutan, and the couple enrolled in an Elderhostel program to study
the culture, history and Buddhist traditions found there.
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They’ve Been
Around, and Then Some
Some of Elderhostel’s nearly 200,000 participants choose
a program primarily for its location, while others are attracted mainly
by the subject matter. Most select their Elderhostel adventure for
a combination of both locale and content. Choosing a program in a
remote destination doesn’t seem daunting or odd to Elderhostelers,
who typically are inquisitive, adventuresome, and willing to tackle
unusual subjects and visit regions that are not among the best known
or most popular travel destinations.
“Mali is not up there with London or Disney World as a hot
travel spot,” says Lefkowitz, “but people would be amazed
at how complex and multi-layered the culture is there. Once you’re
exposed to the intricacies of Dogon tribal culture, the desert life
and tribal structure of the Tuareg people, and West African Muslim
traditions, it becomes one of the most fascinating places on Earth
to visit.”
According to Brady, the same was true for her journey to the far
North. “When I told my friends and family that I wanted to
visit the Arctic, they thought I was nuts,” she says bluntly.
“They didn’t see what was so interesting about a place
where the summer temperatures top out at freezing, and there are
no trees. But, I came home with a journal filled with notes and
photos of the people I’d met, the adventures I had –
I learned how to flake and dry fish, how to waterproof a handmade
kayak, and how a seal gets air when it’s under ice floes!
– and they all clamored to read it. My sister-in-law told
me that it was like the stories in National Geographic that
had fascinated her as a child.”
But what about the rigors of traveling long distances, often with
layovers, plane changes and excruciating time zone differences?
“You just weigh the pros and cons of taking on this kind
of trip,” says Wyman, who eagerly gathered all the information
she could about Tibetan Buddhist practices in Bhutan, Bhutanese
textiles and Bhutanese culture before enrolling in her program there.
“If I weren’t willing to put up with the travel, I’d
only be reading about these wonderful places from my armchair. That’s
not what my life is about.” |
Wyman, Lefkowitz and Brady are all quick to agree that with Elderhostel,
the programs are designed uniquely to allow participants to concentrate
entirely on their learning experience, while all of the necessities
of travel and living are taken care of for them. “It’s
all so well organized that I feel confident,” Brady says.
“Plus, it’s nice to be part of a cohesive group. Everyone
is there to learn, and they’re a sociable bunch. It makes
for a secure environment.”
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| Taking a lunchbreak while exploring the
Arctic Circle by dogsled. download the
full-size (1788 x 1173) color jpeg:
180.9k |
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“Once I sign up for a program,”
says Brady, “Elderhostel sends loads of information on what
to expect, what to bring, who to contact with questions, all that.
And once I’m there, I never have to worry about anything.
They handle all of the transportation, housing, food – everything.
I just get into the subjects and leave the logistics to the staff.”
Lefkowitz concurs, adding, “It’s great to have a setup
where someone is seeing to your day-to-day needs while you spend
all your time learning and concentrating on the substance of the
program. I like knowing that the transportation, the food, the housing
is being taken care of by capable people. It takes the stress out
of long-distance travel.”
“I remember falling asleep in the departure lounge [at the
airport], and waking up with a start,” says Wyman. “I
thought I was going to miss my flight home from Thimpu [Bhutan].
But the other Elderhostel people were sitting next to me and they
laughed and said, ‘Don’t worry, we won’t let you
get left behind.’ It’s nice to be looked out for like
that.”
For more information about some of Elderhostel’s more exotic
learning adventures, please click the following links:
Mali:
Timbuktu
and Beyond: The Mystique of Mali
Bhutan:
Bhutan's
History and Culture
Arctic:
Northern
Exposure: History, Culture, Traditions
Ice
Age Worlds: Greenland and Iceland
Media representatives are welcome to interview active Elderhostelers
who have experienced learning adventures in exotic places. For more
information, contact us at newsmedia@elderhostel.org
or call (617) 457-5502. |
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