More families are traveling together, according to Travel Industry of America. Road trips are the most popular as families visit national parks, museums and monuments. Families are also increasingly taking Global Citizens Network trips. Trips through GCN can offer families time to work, bond and play together away from their normal routines and lives. Three families recently took the plunge and traveled to a Global Citizens Networksite. Each family reports a deep level of satisfaction that they shared a vacation immersed in another culture.

Nancy Farris, medical writer, real estate agent, and single mother, and her children Ariel, 14 and Alex, 12 traveled to Rombo, Kenya in December 2002. While there they worked on building a medical center/clinic. Nancy reports that she shared so many important experiences with her children from "watching my kids teach our hosts' nieces how to play checkers and 'Go Fish' to fetching water, doing all our laundry by the well." She came away from the experience with a new found appreciation of "how patient and hard working my kids can be. And how resilient." Daughter Ariel thought it was important how traveling as a family made the hardships they had to endure easier. "The support and encouragement we gave each other while hauling water or cleaning or learning new things helped a lot."

Ken Brandis, an emergency physician, and his son Dov, 16, traveled to Sansirisay, Guatemala in July of 2003. Ken had visited Guatemala earlier in his life and wanted to go back. While in Sansirisay, Ken and son Dov worked doing manual labor and designing a mural for a church. Ken feels that the trip was "a great experience for teenagers who are pulled in so many directions in today's society." The lack of auditory and visual stimuli
(TV, CD's, video games) Ken felt was a positive experience for his son who spent real time connecting to the people of Sansirisay. Dov agrees, "I really enjoyed spending time with the locals, playing soccer with the kids."

Meg Denman-Vermillion, a retired social worker, and her granddaughter, Ashley Wing, 13, stayed with the Hopi Indians in Polacca, Arizona in 2003. While there they worked on the project of building and repairing traditional bread ovens. "My first born grandchild, Ashley, was turning 13 and I wanted to celebrate her entering adolescence with a 'Rite of Passage' experience," Meg explains. While staying in Polacca, Meg and granddaughter Ashley shared experiences of listening to Hopi stories and seeing traditional Hopi dances.
Meg says, "I learned how open Ashley was to new and different experiences. She worked without pause and then played with full zest." Granddaughter Ashley says, "Šnow I have done something with my Nana that I am proud of and I will remember it for the rest of my life."

Each family made connections to their communities. Connections that remain deeply important. Ken Brandis was profoundly moved by how the Guatemalan people "took us in a short period of time." He adds that when their group left, everyone in the community cried, even the men. Similarly, in Kenya, Nancy Farris was struck by how the local town people approached them immediately, learned their names, passed this information on. Later, someone they never had met would know their names. The Kenyan people walk everywhere and share any news and information with those they meet on the road. And Meg Denman-Vermillion, describes her Hopi hosts as "welcoming, warm, teasers, humble, gentle and generous." When her and her granddaughter caught the 24 hour flu, they were gently fed boiled blue corn mush and cedar tea-a Hopi remedy that worked. Global Citizens Network trips don't leave the family stuck in the car admiring the passing landscape. Instead, families have the shared experience of making lasting cross-cultural
connections.

 

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