Inspiration
What makes people decide the way that they do?
This is a question that humankind has been asking for tens of thousands of years.
Why does one prefer Pterydactyl meat over Brontosaurus?
What does one man become a knight while another becomes a bard?
What does one person move while another stays?
Several people have helped influence our decisions.
Richard Andrews, Robert's uncle, was the first of the Andrews Family to move to Arizona.
Once Richard was going to set sail across the Sea of Cortez (in Mexico near southern Arizona) in his sailboat.
Robert's father always said "If I hear that Richard got eaten by a shark, at least I'll know
he went doing what he wanted to do."
Suzy Klaus fell in love, married, and decided to move to the far reaches of Alaska
with her new husband to help him study the habits of the local frog population.
(At least that's how Robert remembers it.) Upon one of their excursions, we met up with them
at Sky Harbor airport to meet Gary, see Susie again, and talk with them.
Roger Davis always said "The meaning to life is a free T-Shirt." Aside from that he said
"Live your dreams now." He and Cynthia's sister Judy traveled to Thailand, Africa,
France, Israel, India, China, and many more exotic destinations.
Robert's "Couch Potato" buddy became part of Doctors Without Borders.
Here is her story:
Greetings from Mongolia
Where did it all begin, you ask. Well... I started out in Egypt in 1992 for a two year contract, working for Seavin, a Joint Venture Company, for the US Government providing services for the USAF on compounds in parts of Egypt.
From there I started contracting to the Peace Corps and arrived in Bulgaria, September of 1994. I worked there, and in Macedonia, until January of 1997 as I was next posted to Jordan for a year and a half.
Here Lyn poses at the finish line. She entered
The Gobi Marathon, which attracts runners (and in her case, walkers)
from all over the world. The winning male runner was from Germany, and the female, from America. Walkers were offered options of 10K, 16K, or 21K. Finishers won shirts.
Lyn finished 16K to win hers.
Note in the photo at the finish line: those two very small dots were behind Lyn; she wasn't last!
She saw
lots of sand and dirt,
but it was spectacular sand and dirt; dinosaurs are found there!
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After that, Turkmenistan for two years, just finishing that contract when I won the appointment as the Peace Corps Medical Rover. This entailed going from country to country either as a mentor to a new medical officer, or to "hold the fort" while someone was on home leave or if they were looking for a permanent placement to arrive.
I was officially stationed in Slovakia and flew in and out of Vienna for two years, living and working in China, Bangladesh, Turkmenistan (again for another four months,) then in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Lithuania, and the Ukraine.
For my third year as a Medical Rover they based me in Moldova where I repeated most of the above countries several more times.
In 2003 I resigned from full time Peace Corps and tried a little home style retirement living in Arizona. That lasted ten days as an urgent call came in to do a short assignment in Mauritania, Africa for six months...plus a few more month long assignments back in Eastern Europe and Africa.
After that, three trips to Mauritania, one to Tanzania, and Kyrgyzstan again, and two more assignments to the small Island Nation of Kiribati, in the South Pacific followed over the next few years.
My wanderlust finally got me back into full time work in 2007; this time a two year contract to Mongolia.
Were you counting? If you counted living and working in nineteen countries, that sounds about right.
I know I finally had to retire my passport as it had four inserts and was far too fat to fit into their computers.
By March I will know what the future holds...maybe onward to a new country for two years or another try at retirement. I'm still game for a few more years of work. Retirement is far too dull.
Cheers, Lyn
Cynthia and I have chosen a difficult path at this time in our lives,
but as we grow too old to ride an elephant, we'll start to enjoy
the cruise ships and hotels in the United States; till then we are making memories.
So, in answer to the question: Why do we do it? The answer is Because it's there.
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