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I Want to Do More Traveling

Published June 1, 2009 9:44 AM by Valerie Newitt
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Have you ever caught yourself saying, "I want to do more traveling"?

I say it all the time.

But recently, when I was researching conditions on the once-idyllic "Pearl of the Antilles," I realized that maybe what I actually mean is: "I want to do more vacationing."

Travel isn't always piña coladas and clear blue waters. It isn't always smooth sailing.

The aforementioned "pearl" is Haiti, western third of the island of Hispaniola, connected by land to a distinctly different Dominican Republic. I went there once, at the innocent age of 12, with my family, "on vacation." We sailed into Port-au-Prince on an old British cruise ship - The Ocean Monarch (Furness Lines). After a half day's tour, some Calypso music banged out on steel drums, and shopping for native wood carvings on the pier, we piled back onto our air-conditioned ship and sailed into a Caribbean sunset. Can anyone say "midnight buffet"?

Trouble is, we were oblivious to the plight of Haitians, residents held economically captive to an island world that would become storied for its degree of human sorrow. We didn't have a clue to the disease, hunger, violence or despotic rule that clamped shackles on a population descended from slaves and proud to lay claim to the world's first Black republic. The heat-soaked, tropical port-of-call I experienced was no more akin to the real Haiti than the glitz of the Taj Mahal is to the slums of Mumbai.

So, this blog is devoted to travel, with one important twist: we'll experience it through the eyes and voices of nurses the world over - some in Third World countries, others in countries with a long history of universal healthcare. They will serve as our guides to a global view of the profession we revere. We'll start our trek in the Caribbean, but we'll follow an uncharted course, crisscrossing oceans and borders, languages and customs to find human challenges shared by those who seek to give care to others.

Accompany me.

Better yet, steer the ship. Join in conversations, ask questions and know your input will always be the most important markers along our passage.

Come with me, back to Haiti.

It won't be postcard-pretty. But amidst the poverty and struggle of what is now the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, we will also, indeed, find hope.

Next: How the "Pearl" lost its luster.

Meanwhile: How about you? Any nifty travel stories to share? Post a comment or email me at vnewitt@advanceweb.com. Let's talk.

posted by Valerie Newitt
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3 comments
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I love this idea.  What a great combination - travel and health care!!  Who better to show us the 'best and the worst' around the world than nurses?%0d%0aWe in the US have a tendency to think that we have the 'best', allowing ourselves to ignore the plight of others and ignorantly believing we are the 'best'.  In reality, our health care system is tragically broken.%0d%0aI love that we will be shown the stark contrast around the world.%0d%0aI hope that you will also bring to us the countries who have proven to have much better h/c systems than we have, like Holland's for example!
Donna Bagatti, , Publisher Locally Yours June 6, 2009 9:55 AM
Royersford PA

Thank you for helping to show "the other side" of the story. We, who are so fortunate, need to see and try to understand what others have been dealt and what, even in some small way, we can do to help. I look forward to reading more.
Judy Baca, Freelance Writer June 3, 2009 9:47 PM
Jeffersonville PA

Great article.  Thanks, Val.

Speaking of poverty I must relate that many years ago when I was pre-teen I lived in the outback of Australia in a town called Port August in South Australia.  The heat was unimaginable.  But the poverty and struggle of the Australian aboriginals was unbearable to watch.  Here was a country, early 1960's, that had free medicine, free universities, good schools, was rich in minerals, practically no unemployment, yet the aboriginals lived in abject poverty.  Rejected by people who had stolen their land, their lifestyle and forced them to live in "camps" where the government paid them little mind, except for a monthly stipend.

Sweet, innocent people who smiled easily, yet white people refused to have interaction with them.  Those aboriginals that were catholic were forced to take communion last, and much like African Americans back in the day, they were forced to stand in the back of the bus.

Times have changed.  The aboriginals have reclaimed their land, are active in politics and have become engaged members of their communities.

The country is young.  Beautiful.  There is an alchemy of light you cannot see anywhere else in the world.

But it also, like many countries, has a dark past.
Vivien McCarthy, self employed June 3, 2009 8:16 PM
Philadelphia PA

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