By John Dennehy, HIMC alumnus and American abroad

There are many reasons why I enjoy traveling to unlikely places in unusual ways; one of them is because it lets me be a child again. I think in many ways children understand the world more clearly than adults, and certainly they are more honest about it.  As humans we tend to develop entrenched habits and perceptions as we mature, and as each birthday passes we become ever more resistant to leave our comfort zone.  The learning curve flattens and, at times, even seems to regress.  Not only does our learning slow to a comparative crawl, but we stop caring.  The constant sense of wonder we all once had simply disappears.  When I travel alone to very different places I get to feel like a kid again.  I get to look at the world and marvel at how much of it I don´t know anything about.  It is, in a word, wonder-full.

My first full day in Costa Rica I was robbed twice.  That same travel that allows me to see the world with the perspective of a child, also makes me as vulnerable as one.  In the morning a man exploited my child-like trust, and at night a group of men exploited my lack of familiarity with place for their own gain.  Both realized my vulnerabilities.

The second theft involved four men dragging me into a dark hallway in a coordinated attack and was fairly violent.  A half dozen people watched from the other side of a locked gate and didn’t make a sound.  The most disturbing image I have from that day is standing up as the thieves fled and looking behind me to get a sense of where I was.  Perhaps ten feet behind me a half dozen people stared blankly in my direction.

In a similar situation in Nicaragua a few years ago, a mob rose on my behalf and returned me all my possessions.  Everyone in these stories realized my vulnerability but they reacted differently to it.  Sometimes people do try to hurt me because it is so easy, but truth be told, it is far more common that people go out of their way to help, at times even at their own peril.  For me, travel isn’t always fun, but it is always enlightening and forever wonder-full.

paz. amor. esperanza. john.