Setting out daughter free on a global stage.

So the grand experiment has started. I am taking my oldest daughter to Africa to start her year of global learning.  On our way to Africa we stopped in Istanbul, as a test of what traveling means.  There are plusses and minuses with traveling with your adult child.   I wanted to see how she would cope and get a preview of how her year could go.
The plus is to see your teachings and believes show up.  Little gestures which show the character you have instilled in her.  There are no complaints so far.  When I saw another child at our hotel spend the breakfast whining and complaining to the annoyance of the room, I came to appreciate the child sitting across from me.  Our hotel and trip are not the usual she has had, however she had been willing to go with the flow.  The secret to life is not stating the problem but finding solutions.  The ability to make the best off your situation is the secret. I have seen her being kind to strangers and engage strangers.  I hope she saw how I engaged people and how in a foreign land you can make friends in short time, who then help you with local knowledge.  She was kind enough to offer a person sitting besides us in the plane gum when we were having some.  This led to conversation and exchange of information for her future travel to Germany.

In the middle of the night in Nairobi as we waited for out pick up we met a man on his first trip to Kenya from a town 40 miles from our city.  At three am we were laughing and enjoying what normally should have been a tiring moment.  We parted with hugs and well wishes and reinforcement of the faith in people.  Negatives abound, but positives cannot be missed for the fear of negatives. 

The common thing for us both, (and why I chose Istanbul ) is neither of us had been there before.  I did not have previous experience, thus I could not feel comfortable in where we went and how we acted.  My daughter often would say I don't care, I will go wherever. She was happy at times to not lead or have an idea of what to do.  Now granted this may be because you are traveling with your dad, but I think you cannot get the experience being passive. 

Many a times she would remark, how did you know about this place?  The fish sandwich under the bridge, the Turkish bath and the proximity of the hotel to all the sites.  The ability to be wandering in the grand bazaar and finding your way to the spot you entered to get the deal you wanted is not luck but work spent on preparation before the trip and being aware in the case of the bazaar of the markings and little guide marks as you walk.  The extra awareness you don't have when walking in your own surroundings.  Now this could be experience, but it could be the stuff you didn't get across.  The minuses when you wonder why does she not want to cruise, or why does she not know what we should do?  In a two day lay over, she saw blue mosque, hagia Sophia, cistern, galata bridge fish shop's, Taksim square area at night, rode the metro, learned the streets of old Turkey and walked into non tourist places.  Now this can happen on a longer stay, but it only happens in this time frame if one of you is doing the work of research during the breaks, instead of writing emails and blogs. Petty, but what she thought just happened, dad had worked out.  This is something I hope she picks up, because the other part of travelling of letting it just happen, will just happen.
As a gambler once said, 'there will time for blogging, when the traveling is done'

So as a parent, I cannot be prouder, I see the character which will do her good.  As a parent, I worry is she going to do the work and stay safe.  I believe all parents face this when they set their kids free for college and life.  If you are afraid to let them think, let them learn on their own, let them have their views then you are admitting your parenting failure.  Trust in the base you have built in them. In our case we let our child free on the global stage, since we believe the future belongs to those who think global.