I2 Saturday, July 28, 2012 Breaking news at calgaryherald.comtravel

LIsa MonfortonCalgary Herald

When you’re a parent in the throes of anything between toddler-dom

and teen-dom, you probably won-der when you’re ever going to get to travel again — like you did BK (Before Kids).

Mom Nancy Harper, who calls herself “a little bit obsessed” with travel, seized on the idea that she could still be a good mother (some-where between June Cleaver and Courtney Love) and indulge her-self in some wanderlust like she did in her uni-versity days.

The freelance travel and marketing writer has written a lighthearted account about her 80,000-kilometre escapade with her husband and two kids in Trav-ellin’ Mama: A Parents’ Guide to Ditching the Routine, Seeing the World and Taking the Kids Along for the Ride.

Harper, daughters Molly, 8, Annie, 7 at the time and husband Doog Farquhar left their home in 2006 in Elora, Ont. for a year of travelling. They covered New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and southeast Asia by nearly every mode of transportation, in-

cluding a submarine, boats, buses and horses.

Harper’s goal with the book is to give parents hope that it is pos-sible to travel with kids and that it’s not all work and no play.

“I felt (new) parents feel they can’t do anything fun again,” she said in an interview from her

home in Elora, Ont. “People think it’s drudgery to travel with kids.”

Sure, there were the moments, she writes, that she seriously considered taking up smoking again. But then there were also the memorable mo-ments. Like the time the family was driving

through Lesotho, an urban ghetto in South Africa, and her husband stopped the car and took the girls out to a soccer pitch to join in a game with other kids. It was priceless, Harper says.

“You saw on (the children’s) faces that this had never hap-pened before.”

The family plans to do another, extended backpacking trip start-ing this December to Panama, Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Harp-er’s book is available on amazon.com, Google.ca and itunes. Check out her blog at www.travelin-mama.blogspot.ca.

Mom gives hope to travel-starved parents

Courtesy, Nancy Harpernancy Harper with her husband Doog farquhar and two daughters annie and Molly on safari in Madikwe, near the Botswana border in south africa. Harper has written a funny account of her family’s 80,000 kilometre trip in 2006, when her daughters were 7 and 8 years old.

Not a hammer, nail or a level ever graced my hands.

There was constant interac-tion with the home owner and his cousin Miguel, both of whom had to work on the site as sweat equity, as well as the two local masons who ran the show. Sev-eral of us had passable Spanish and the chatter was constant. As well as the goofing off with the area children who were endlessly fascinated by us.

The 16 team members were split into two projects. Eight on Rodolfo’s home in a crossroads village on the Inter-American Highway, eight on another in a different village a few kilometres away.

It seemed that the other team’s work moved on a a greater pace than ours. They completed their house, although it was further along from the start. Ours had neither roof nor poured floor by the end of the week. We, however, claimed to have had more fun.

We were a pan-Canadian team with members stretching from Bridgewater, N.S, to Maple Ridge, B.C. The youngest was still in high school in Nova Scotia, the oldest was a 74-year-old retiree from Oakville, Ont. It was Cal-gary that had the most of any city with five of us including myself, my part-ner Reneta.

Rodolfo and his fam-ily, his wife and three children, had been living in an extended family compound, with the five of them were sharing one room.

The kitchen was outside without any discernible electricity. The out-door bathroom, his and hers side by side, were little more than boards slapped together with holes in the ground. Reneta and the other women on the team were thor-oughly unimpressed. A curious discarded old school TV screen lay on the rough pathway lead-ing from the bathrooms into the home.

More extended family lived in other squalorous homes scat-tered across the surrounding hillside on land inherited from his parents.

One of the criteria to qualify for a Habitat home is that the recipi-ents must own their own land.

Stewart Hardacre, president and CEO of Habitat Canada, was

leading our team at Rodolfo’s house. He called Habitat’s mis-sion “a hand up not a handout so it’s not pure charity.”

He explained that the idea of Habitat be-gan in 1976.

“The very first build was in Zaire, what is currently Congo, and then they brought it back to the U.S. The very first country program outside of the U.S. was here in Guatemala after the earthquake.”

He said the projects allow families to do what they could not do on their own.

“The model works very similarly around the world. Both in Canada and here in

Guatemala the families have to be working, so they have an in-come. And they have to repay the mortgage that is given to them for the house. But it is at zero inter-est. We help them improve their housing situation,and improve their lives and improve the future for their children. Worldwide there are over 1,000,00 people in Habitat homes.”

The build lasted five days, about seven hours a day with the final portion of the last day dedicated to a closing ceremony. Emotion was in the air. Rodolfo broke down several times as did much of our crew. It was clearly

one of the more memorable weeks in the lives of he and his family. Aside from getting a new home, they also had a group of foreigners, from places they could only imagine, bonding with them.

The family had braided brace-lets with our each of names em-broidered for us as parting gifts. A very moving gesture from a family with little in the way of ex-tra resources.

The launch glided across the still waters ofLake Atitlan. Opu-lent houses dotted the rugged shoreline.

One big difference from 1976 was the number of affluent Gua-temalans in the area. Back then it was mainly adventurous back-pack style tourism.

Despite a murderous civil war in the 1980s and ‘90, the area seemed to be enjoying relative prosperity.

The nearby town of Santiago was dramatically busier and more chaotic than in the 1970s. But the Mayan culture was still predomi-nant.

Virtually all the women wore colourful woven dresses called huipils and many of the men, even young ones, still wore distinctive embroidered shirts and colourful shorts. Even on our build site, Spanish was the second language for Rodolfo, his family and the masons. The still spoke Mayan Kaqchikel.

I had hired the boat to go in search of my former holiday home. I scanned the shore look-ing for telltale signs, like the view of the volcano across the bay that was still etched in my memory

from 36 years earlier. We used to paddle in these waters, three gringos in a kayooka dugout ca-noe borrowed from a neighbour-ing Mayan family, to head into the Santiago market. About three kilometres out I spied it hidden in overgrown vegetation on the shore.

It was the ruins of a house that we had rented in 1976. Hidden on the hillside were three more. All tumbled-down ruins of stone walls. We had moved from this one right on the water’s edge to

another a few metres higher after the earthquake caused a wall in the first to fall in. Looking closely, I think I could still discern where the wall had a large gap in it.

I looked up at towering San Pedro volcano above. It hadn’t changed. It seemed somehow appropriate that it was only the house that was being reclaimed by nature 36 years on.

The only thing that would have made it more of a full circle mo-ment was another earthquake.

Hmm, maybe not.

Guatemala: Family moved to tears

by strangers’ helpFrom I1

Ted Rhodes, Calgary Heralda ted rhodes self portrait along with life partner reneta rothwell on the site of a Habitat for Humanity project in the Guatemalan highland state of solola. the crew of eight volunteers assisted in building a cinder block home for rodolfo, left shown with one of his three children.

We help them improve their

housing situation

and improve their lives and

inprove the future for their

children.Stewart hardacre, preSident and ceO Of habitat canada

Rates in CAD dollars as listed and based on double occupancy. Subject to availability at time of booking. Offer applicable to select 2013 sailings.Additional AMA Member benefits of onboard spending credits, beverage cards or specialty dining on select sailings. Ask for details.

Eastern CaribbeanFORt LAuDeRDALe ROunDtRipMARCh 2 – 9, 2013Pay for oceanview andstay in a balcony $969

Southern CaribbeanFORt LAuDeRDALe ROunDtRipFebRuARy 4 – 15, 2013Pay for oceanview andstay in a balcony $1745

Panama CanalFORt LAuDeRDALe tO SAn DiegOJAnuARy 18 – FebRuARy 1, 2013

From $1775 Was $2532

HawaiiSAn DiegO ROunDtRipJAnuARy 26 – FebRuARy 9, 2013Pay for inside andstay in oceanview $1649

MexicoSAn DiegO ROunDtRipFebRuARy 9 – 16, 2013Pay for inside andstay in oceanview $775

South AmericabuenOS AiReS tO bOStOnMARCh 31 – MAy 4, 2013

From $3366 Was $5734

AMATravel.ca/Cruise

Call our Cruise Specialists 1-866-989-6594

Book your 2013 vacation now and receiveup to 50% off or free upgrades on select sailings!

Book your 2013 vacation Cruise with

Flights

arefro

mVa

ncou

ver,C

algary

andE

dmon

tonvia

AirTra

nsat

orCa

nJet.

Price

ssho

wnare

perp

erson

,base

dond

ouble

occu

panc

yinlea

droo

mca

tegory

.Spa

cean

dpric

esare

subje

ctto

availab

ilityat

timeo

fboo

kinga

ndsu

bject

toch

ange

witho

utpri

orno

tice.

Taxes

andf

eesa

reex

traan

dnote

dabo

ve.Fo

rfull

descr

iption

sand

terms

andc

ondit

ions,

refer

tothe

Nolito

urs20

11-20

12Su

nbroc

hure.

Nolito

ursis

adivis

ionon

Trans

atTou

rsCa

nada

Inc.,a

ndis

registe

redas

atrav

elwh

olesal

erin

British

Colum

bia(Re

g#24

54)w

ithoffi

cesa

t555

West

Hastin

gsStr

eet,S

uite9

50,V

anco

uver,B

CV6B

4N5.

WITH NOLITOURS,WE CAN ALLHAVE FUN IN THELATE SUMMER SUN!

RIVIERA NAYARITRoyal Decameron Complex 4★Thu, Sep 6,13, 20

$529All Inclusive 7 nights +344 tx/fees

RIVIERA MAYACatalonia Playa Maroma 4★Fri, Sep 7, 14, 21, 28

$699All Inclusive 7 nights +344 tx/fees

RIVIERA MAYAValentin Imperial Maya Silver Section 5★Fri, Sep 7, 14

$1099All Inclusive 7 nights +344 tx/fees

SEPTEMBER ON SALE!

CONTACT YOURTRAVEL AGENT 1-888-799-1522

travel.caIn-store | 1.866.359.7327

CALCH086709_1_1

CALSAE29674_1_1