More Than a Gift

I’m not much of a television watcher... I know, I know, but honestly, I don’t really miss it. I love to read. And travel. And read about traveling. I’ve also discovered that anything really good that others insist I must see, I can usually find online. That’s how I found this commercial.

This might need to be the 2018 Christmas filter that all gift buying needs to pass through. Do a search for “Elton John Christmas Commercial” and take two and a half minutes of your life to just absorb the message. You don’t have to be an Elton John fan (OK, I’m a big fan) to appreciate the talent of this artist, and if you’ve been alive in the last 60 years you will admit what an amazing entertainer he is and how he has a legacy that other piano players just imitate. 

The commercial is the product of John Lewis & Partners, high end department stores in the UK. Every Christmas, people watch for the annual advertisement and discuss it, sort of like we Americans chat about the Super Bowl ads. The promotion begins with Sir Elton John at an upright piano as he begins to play the first notes of his famous 70’s hit “Your Song”. From there the video goes in reverse, spanning Sir Elton John’s career of concerts and parties and events with the haunting song connecting the scenes.

Get ready to grab a tissue as we see a young John at a school recital with his mom offering encouragement from the audience. The final images take viewers to a past Christmas where little Elton discovers a gift wrapped piano from his mom and grandmother. His child fingers find the same keys as the 71 year artist. (sniff) Of course, this was the gift that forever changed his life. And to make sure we get it, the words “Some gifts are more than just a gift” centers simply as the pianist closes the piano lid. (Just take a moment to bawl...like I did.)

Now take another moment and think if you ever gave a gift that might have been a life changer. Follow this deep thinking to ponder if you ever received a gift that was “more than just a gift”. I got a pair of spurs. I was probably around 13 years old. As a farm girl, I had started showing my horse and entering riding competitions. I asked for a fancy pair of slip-on spurs for Christmas that I had circled in the western catalog. They weren’t something I needed, like the yearly pajamas, or something expected, like a game to share with my much older sister, the spurs were an investment in me. My parents were saying to me, ‘we believe in you...this is something you can do.’

Fast forward in my crazy life and you will know that I didn’t wind up an equestrian icon. But looking back, I have wound up spending a lot of my life wearing spurs... entertaining as my alter ego Willamae. They aren’t the same fancy spurs, they were my dad’s, but it strikes me a little bit funny. It’s amazing how a seemingly insignificant gift (at the time) can affect someone. For another instance, husband Doug got a magic kit at age 12. It was more than a gift as he has made a career as a professional magician.

Sigh. I guess I’m feeling a bit nostalgic as we head into Christmas. Thinking about giving more than just a gift. Maybe I need to note that John Lewis Department stores have started selling pianos again.

Here’s just a few....

I had a conversation with a neighbor over the weekend. We were standing in a heated room, rubbing our tummies after a wonderful potluck Thanksgiving dinner. Food was being packed up to take home for leftover meals because we had so much. He and his wife have traveled, and asked me about some of our recent tours. Then he asked me a question that gave me pause, “Do you think people appreciate what they see when they travel?” Hmmm.

 I answered with what I know, some do. They tell me, they express it, they show it. Some, I don’t know. I hope so. We take so much for granted, and when you have the opportunity to see the way different people in the world live, more often than not, we return home knowing how blessed we are. BLESSED.

Here’s just a few things I’m thankful for:

• Clean water. Just take a few steps in any direction, and turn the tap and there it is. We went to a Samburu village in Kenya that we have visited before. This culturally nomadic tribe live in huts made from branches and cow dung with an occasionally plastic tarp or cardboard roof. They sleep on goat hides. It’s the real deal, not a recreation for decoration. The Chief wanted us to be sure to see their new water tank. It’s a giant, black plastic container. They pay about $100 US to have it filled and it lasts two weeks and three days. But with it, the village of 14 families no longer have to walk to the muddy river. The girls can be in school rather than needing to haul water in buckets. The tribe won’t need to follow the rain and can stay in that area. The village is understandably so proud of their water tank. I think of that when I carelessly let the water run.
• Food and the means to prepare it. In Peru, the locals have eaten Quinoa for centuries. Now the grain is in high demand as a organic food for exporting. They can’t afford to not sell it and are experiencing a shortage of basic food for their families. Remember, it’s not like the extra money earned can go for McDonald’s happy meals, they don’t have those options. In India, I was constantly amazed at the beautiful women in their colorful sari dresses, reminding me of butterflies as they floated down the road. But they were picking up cow manure off the paved road and forming it into a shape that would be dried on the same road. Then it would be picked up and stacked to be used as cooking fuel for their home kitchens. We complain if our oven light burns out.
• The chance to be with family. Husband Doug worked aboard cruise ships for many years. He loved getting to know the Indonesian crew on the ships. Most of the time, his cabin steward or the guy that worked backstage had a similar story. They were working to support their families back home in the Philippines or Cambodia or somewhere that jobs were few and the pay was low. Some supported a wife and children. They might go months or a year before having the opportunity to go home for a visit.  Marriages were on two sides of the planet. Babies were growing up and teenagers were becoming independent and all of this life was shared over a telephone at the next port of call. Yet, they smiled and made sure our families were happy with their service. Sure, it’s an effort to be with our kin, but what if that weren’t even an option?

Traveling is a way to continue to learn, but it is also a way to appreciate. We have so much, no matter how little, to be thankful for.

Remember to express your thanks to those around you and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Some Good ID’s

Can I offer you a few travel tips? Perhaps some of you are ready to take off for a winter escape, and perhaps that might even take you out of the country. Please consider this advice.

1. Make sure you have your luggage with the proper identification. Look at the tag hanging on your suitcase; does it have the name on your ticket? Does it have your correct home address? I see this all the time, and as a Patricia that goes by Patti Beth, I’m guilty of it myself.  I have all kinds of names and mixed information dangling from my handles. If your bag is misplaced, you will want all the help you can get to point it back to you and not be a source of confusion.
2. A good idea is to use a small return address label on the ID tags. There is no need to offer up the location of the home that is going to be empty to any bad guys to easily read at the airport.
3. Make sure you also have your correct information, including your mobile phone number on the inside of your bag. If all identification is torn off the outside, have the correct information on the inside. I have my info written in black marker on the lining. Again, if you are borrowing a suitcase, make sure YOUR information is what is showing.
4. If you are traveling out of the country, make sure the person you have designated as your emergency contact person has a valid passport. It’s certainly a worst case scenario, but IF you became ill or injured, and IF you required assistance to get home, and IF someone had to fly to help you get home, what IF that person didn’t have a passport? That is alot  of “ifs” but one of peers recently had that scene play out. A client was left in France for two weeks in ICU. They were so glad they had taken the travel insurance! But the group continued their tour and when the patient was released, they needed help to come home and no one had a passport.
5. So, international travelers, maybe you should consider who is on your emergency call list. If they don’t have a current passport, that might be a wonderful idea for a Christmas gift. Passports are valid for 10 years, and are important to have for those “just in case” situations.

Kenyan Memories

I’ve been very blessed to show a lot of the world to group travelers. When folks ask me where my favorite place is, I answer “Kenya”. Eyebrows go up, and I try to explain without sounding cheesy, that one is changed after a visit there. It’s the people, it’s the animals, it’s the simplicity, it’s the surprises... you never come all the way home from Kenya, you leave part of your heart there. I think our recent and return travelers would agree with my sentiment. 

Our 2018 Kenya Wing Safari proved every aspect of these wonderful feelings. “Wing”, meaning we cover more ground in a shorter amount of time with a flight from the northern part of the country to the Maasi Mara in the southern area. The experience is as different as the  landscape is completely different.  The animals and  people are unique to each area. 

The border of Tanzania goes through southern Kenya. It is the Maasi Mara on the Kenyan side and the Serengeti on the Tanzania side. Serengeti will conjure up images of “The Lion King”, the wildebeest (aka Gnu), the hyenas, the gazelles and of course, the lions. It doesn’t take long to be immersed in the beauty of umbrella tree dotted landscape, where wild life is abundant and free. 

Hunting has been banned since the 1957. Even the king of the jungle has realized he and his pride of lionesses aren’t threatened by the safari jeeps as they roll up, turn off and just watch Wild Kingdom happen yards away. It is amazing.

Sometimes it gets even closer. 

We stayed in tents on the Maasi Mara River. Luxury tents. Beautifully furnished tents with a hot shower and flushing toilet and a mini-bar tents. We lay in canopied beds and listened to the grunting of the hippos in the river below. We heard the screech of birds calling out in the night. Unusual sounds obviously not something we’d hear on Grand Lake. We tucked our toes under our hot water bottles, pulled the blanket up a little higher and pinched ourselves to assure ourselves that “we really are here”. Sometimes it occurs to us that the only thing between us and all this wildlife… is about a quarter inch of tent canvas and a zipper.

 Mindy and Susie’s tent was next to ours. As it turned out, theirs was the party tent. Susie was taking a nap and thought she heard sister Mindy return to the tent. The zipper slid gently up. Then she heard the door to the refrigerator open and a bottle of water come out. Susie then heard Mindy’s carry-on suitcase being quietly rummaged through. Only a sister would understand that this made her suspicious, because her sister wouldn’t be that considerate. So she opened her eyes to see a big baboon at the foot of her bed digging through Mindy’s bag. She shouted and the intruder took off out the tent flap grabbing the water bottle. He only paused long enough to leave a little primate “parting gift” on the step. The next day they were entertained by a lizard on the wall. 

Kenya is a magnificent, wild place. Full of beauty and surprises that one can never forget.

Out of Africa 2018

Danish author Karen Blixen and her husband moved to Kenya  in the early 1900’s to attempt to make money with a coffee plantation. It failed. Little did she realize it was her charitable efforts that made her name live on forever in the hearts of Kenyans and become a hero in Denmark.

The drop in coffee prices, due to the world-wide depression and the breakout of WWI, was part of the failure. Wrong soil was another.  But the timing of her land donation to locals and help to give them a better life was right. This happened long before businesses sought protection under bankruptcy laws as they were forced to sell off the remaining lands and equipment to pay creditors. The banks graciously allowed her to remain on her homestead… as long as she was able to continue paying rent. Later, the Danish government bought the homestead and donated it to the Kenyan government where it still remains as a monument to her and her charitable efforts.

In her popular world-wide bestselling book “Out of Africa”, Karen details her life, times and struggles and at the time. It was considered by critics as racist, colonialist and “haughty”. However in our recent Good to Go with Patti Beth trip to Kenya, we learned a much more profound and revered status that still remains for the person whose  help for locals doesn’t seem to make it into online memoirs. Helping others less fortunate and the often unsung heroes in life are a living testament to the good in people. Being kind has a profound effect long after the benefactors have passed.

I was so very proud and thrilled with our intrepid Good to Go Gang, as well as local Groveites that donated four suitcases full of school supplies and clothing that we gave to the Girl’s School in Nanyuki, Kenya. I was proud when a member of our tour initiated an impromptu donation to a local Samburu tribe to purchase clean drinking water. This was in addition to, and far and above the help provided to the locals through purchases of locally crafts, jewelry, and other trinkets.

While our meager (by comparison) efforts will never have the profound effect of a world-wide bestselling book-come-box office legend, we saw firsthand, how much our previous efforts have helped the P.C.E.A. (Pentecostal Church of East Africa) Nanyuki Girl’s Boarding Primary School.   The school has grown from its humble beginnings we witnessed back in 2005.  They started with a handful of girls and now educate over 200 girls.  Most likely, we will never know how much these acts of goodwill and donations will reverberate for generations to come.

Proud? You bet. I am proud of our Good to Go goodwill ambassadors and how much they positively affected the lives of so many with their smiles, friendly gestures and donations before our always-too-short visit to Kenya ended and we too had to get Out of Africa. We will plan a return visit to retrieve the pieces of our hearts we left behind for a beautiful country populated with so many beautiful people.