Birth of Bali Trip

About to launch a big dream.

I wanted to let you know that I just signed up for a trip to Bali for the entire month of June. I was invited to participate a while back but I had a hard time making up my mind. I had a lot of anxiety around the decision because I've never left my medical practice for more than 3 weeks (China trip with my older, Chinese-speaking sister and my son Barrett) in the 30 years I've been practicing medicine and, since the accident, I haven't traveled more than two weeks at a time. With all the things that are wrong with me, traveling is a big uncertainty, but now that I've made the decision, I'm totally excited.

I'll be going with a group of 8 high school students and 8 adults and an older couple, Zinnia and Gaylon who have been organizing this trip for 14 years. When they retired from teaching in their early 60's, they wanted to do something meaningful with their retirement. At around that time, Zinnia came into a large inheritance. She felt they didn't need the money since they lived frugally in Santa Fe, so they hatched up an idea, taking into account their love of travel and knowledge of exotic places, their love of art, and their experience as former school teachers.

They went to the local high school and asked the art teacher if he knew of three kids who were "disadvantaged," bright, creative, intelligent, and motivated but had no money and were living in difficult circumstances. Gaylon and Zinnia explained that they wanted to take the kids to Bali for a month-long adventure of learning the language, taking Balinese art classes, mask making, Balinese dancing and cooking classes and delving into another culture---and also spending some time at the beach and getting massages and going to temples to get blessed. The art teacher said "no" he didn't have 3 students that fit that criteria---he had 8. So, that's how these trips were born and have been going on for 14 years. This might be the last trip of this kind because Zinnia and Gaylon are in their late 70's and move a little more slowly, although I'm told that they have more energy than most of the adults on the trip.

I went my first meeting a few weeks ago. Although the meetings have been going on since November, I didn't participate because I was undecided if I wanted to go for such a long trip. The students--both Native American and Hispanic--did a presentation for the 8 participating adults. They created a mock marketplace where sarongs were sold. Half played the role of vendors and half the role of buyers. The entire enactment was conducted in Indonesian. It totally blew my mind. I fell in love with those kids and signed up on the spot. The anxiety I had about various aspects of the trip evaporated into thin air.

It's a beautiful day today.