Malawi to Mexico

Shopping at the Mwanza Market

A summer program with Crossroads Africa was my first trip out of the United States. In Malawi, I helped build a dormitory and discovered I could go to Africa and return safely. Leopards at my Door is the story of my two years in Tanzania as a teacher at Bwiru Girls Secondary School. Mountain Women is the account of my temporary role as instructor for the only women’s course at the Outward Bound Mountain School that year.

Afterward, I traveled home slowly and inexpensively through Asia and the South Pacific. I paused in India to volunteer with the Sisters of Charity in their work. I learned a Lesson from the Poorest of the Poor. Journals were my refuge when new people and places became overwhelming.

Arriving home amidst the tumult of 1968, I married and continued to travel, this time in Mexico with my husband. We began our many adventures on bicycles, swapped them for a twenty-five foot sloop, and later moved onto a sixty-five foot schooner.

Bikes at Rest

Looking back reminds me how things change. Travel was slow and isolated. In this early period, there was no Internet to help plan or communicate, no GPS to know where we were. Bicycle panniers would have stabilized our bikes but we used our hiking backpacks, and wore our hiking clothes.

How easy it all would have been, yet the spirit of adventure was strong. The difficulties were only another part of the journey. The serendipitous encounters are the ones I treasure the most.