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Interview with Shelley Seale: Travel with a Purpose

Written on 22 October 2009 by Mark Lewis. 2 comments.

Take on life by changing the world one passion at a time. Shelley Seale, author of The Weight of Silence and contributing author to The Voluntary Traveler, eloquently shares her passion for travel and how she’s making a difference.

A must-read interview for anyone who wants to get more out of their travels. Thank you Shelley for taking the time to chat with me and share your inspiring story.

What is your mantra and how has it guided you through life?

My mantra is “travel with a purpose.” To me, that means traveling in a way that is more beneficial and meaningful to both the traveler and the people living in the places visited. Many of us, when we first start traveling, stay in tourist hotels and visit the big sites with groups or on tour buses, kind of a “behind the glass” experience of a place. I’m not knocking this – it’s what I did when I first started traveling as well. But eventually, you come to realize that by and large, you’re only getting a small glimpse of what that place, and its people and culture, are really like. Often we are given a “show” for the benefit of tourists, that has little relation to the everyday life of the place.

Traveling with a purpose seeks to go deeper than that – a true cultural immersion. It can encompass volunteer travel, sustainable travel, slow travel, green travel – any variety of alternative ways to travel that take us far beyond a package tourist deal, and into the real heart of places. It promotes a much greater cultural understanding and brings the world closer together. It also makes big strides into keeping the economic benefits of tourism with the locals. Too many times, the tourist travel packages are all done through corporations that take all the money out of the region, and travel ends up impacting the place in a negative way. Traveling with a purpose, consciously, creates a true exchange between visitor and local host, and gives to the community rather than only taking away when you leave.

In my personal life, it has guided me to being much more cognizant of what type of travel I’m doing and who I’m doing it with – is the hotel run by a local family or company? Are the tour guides locals, and giving an authentic experience that is respectful of the environment? How can I live in neighborhoods and participate in the real life of the place, rather than being sequestered away in the tourist trap? All of these things have given me some of the most beautiful experiences and friendships of my entire life.

What is your special connection with India?

I first went to India in 2005, to volunteer at an orphanage with The Miracle Foundation. When I arrived that first time, I assumed all the kids there were orphans in the true sense of the word – their parents had died. Instead I was shocked by how many of them had been “orphaned” by poverty; their parents had left them at the Miracle Foundation home because they were too poor to feed them, which in some ways seemed an even greater tragedy.

I could see that they were “invisible” children, without a real voice of their own. So I embarked on a three-year journey researching the issues, traveling throughout India and talking to many professionals and those working in the trenches to uphold these children’s rights and improve their futures. I have been back to the country many times, and have gotten to know many of these kids on a deep personal relationship level. Having this “family” in India really bonded me to the place, even though I was already in love with the country. They spared me from viewing it with the eyes of an outsider, and instead let me into the real heart of India. It was the most alive place I had ever been – it wrapped me up immediately and refused to let go. It still hasn’t.

Where do you get your strength to take on life and confront poverty in India?

It’s actually quite the reverse – it gives ME strength. It’s really hard to explain – I know that the impulse to turn away from the heartbreak, the ugliness and despair, is quite strong. I have felt it myself many times. But I guess in the end, I know that the struggles and suffering are still there whether we choose to see them or not. Just because we turn away, and say it’s too hard for us, doesn’t mean they go away. We have that choice – for the people who are dealing with this and living in desperate poverty every day in a struggle to survive, they have no choice. And I suppose that I just don’t morally understand how those of us who have the ability – in fact the privilege – of being in a place where we can make a positive impact, could turn away. We have a responsibility to do what we can to uphold the basic human rights of others. The definition of responsibility is the “ability to respond” - if we have the ability, then it is a given that we must respond.

In the end, it is a gift to us. It’s not a sacrifice – whatever sacrifice or difficulty there may be in the beginning, you soon come to realize that you are “sacrificing” something you once thought was important, to gain something that is far more important. It is truly transformational in the meaning and understanding of our life’s purpose.

How has traveling changed your perception of home?

That’s a great question. Growing up, I was pretty sheltered in a very suburban, homogeneous environment. I had no real connection with the outside world beyond the tiny little corner and way of life that I knew – it was as if I had blinders on. Sadly, many people go through their entire lives this way. Traveling in general opens us up to new worlds, new ways of thinking and living. I think that Mark Twain said it best when he said that “travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness.”

But you are right – beyond opening us up to other ways of living in the world, travel does make us look at our own cultures and lives with fresh eyes. Particularly some of the type of travel I’ve done, into very difficult places to see. For one thing, it has made me stop taking virtually anything for granted. It is simply amazing that I can turn a faucet and have clean, fresh water streaming out of it – all that I want, and it’s even hot! That I can walk into any one of several nearby large grocery stores and buy whatever I want in there. I’m not saying that we don’t have severe problems and poverty, homelessness, child abuse etc. here at home. But I do know that by and large, I have it pretty easy and I had nothing to do with that. I didn’t earn it, I don’t merit or deserve it. It was purely luck of the draw. And so I’m indebted to use what I have been given to do what I can to empower others who weren’t so lucky.

What advice do you have for someone who is looking to travel abroad and immerse themselves in another culture?

I think that first and foremost, being aware of the culture they are visiting and how travel impacts peoples and places is very important to travelers making their journeys in a way that will have positive impact, and not negative. There are so many ways in which travel can harm the planet as well as local people; but there are also many ways in which we, as travelers, can avoid those pitfalls and contribute to the people and places of our global village.

There are many great resources for people who wish to travel thoughtfully – and the good news is that traveling in this way ultimately creates such a richer, more meaningful experience for the traveler. In the end, you connect with nature, historical places, and local people in a much deeper way that you would by just going along the worn tourist trail without giving it much thought. You can bring home a lot more than souvenirs from traveling with a purpose. Some of these resources are:

• Voluntourism
• The International Ecotourism Society
• National Geographic’s Sustainable Travel
• Global Travel International

For those thinking of taking a volunteer vacation, I have several tips. First, think clearly about where in the world you might like to go, and what sort of work you want to do and issues you’d like to be involved with. Once you’ve looked inside yourself to become familiar with what is meaningful to YOU, then you can begin researching various opportunities - and they are plentiful, all over the world. For inspiration and a taste of what such volunteer trips are like, you might like to read The Voluntary Traveler. This is an anthology with stories by numerous writers and “voluntourists” - I am a contributing author, and the other contributors also have some amazing stories to share.

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