Talk: Inspired Travel for Normal People [] Teatro Santa Ana

Inspired Travel for Normal People

Thursday, February 6
5:00 pm

Teatro Santa Ana

100 pesos

Imagine having a conversation with a 90-year old Vietnamese woman sitting on the dirt floor of a palm frond hut in the middle of a rice paddy. Or driving to a Korean temple in the back of a police car. Or cooking arroz con pollo for 400 Honduran migrants on an outdoor fire with Mexican abuelas who insist on making the chile sauce from scratch because “that’s how we do it for our own family.”

Kim Malcolm says you don’t need to imagine. She believes travel can connect us with people and places in ways that never leave us, even if we aren’t especially adventurous. Kim retired from her career in California government in 2015 and has been traveling ever since (except when she can’t pry herself away from San Miguel). Along the way, she has learned that the tourist sites we usually visit give us a foundation of understanding. But we can also think of them as a gateway to something more inspired and personal.

“A suitcase of used tennis balls in Cuba,” she says, “made me realize how little it takes to connect in some small but delightful ways with people in other cultures. We don’t need to go very far off the beaten path to find magic. It’s more than ‘immersive travel,’ or ‘living like a local.’ Renting an apartment and eating street food is great, but the real rewards come from a way of moving and thinking.”

Changing the way she travels has been life-changing for Kim in ways she never expected. She has worked with refugees in Mexico and Greece, written two books, and feels comfortable in places as far-flung as the steppes of Mongolia and North Korea. She has adopted an Afghan family living in Germany and a little sister in rural Louisiana.

“I am not very adventurous by nature, just curious. But traveling with a more open heart has helped me think of the whole world as my home, where we can find the goodness in our human community.”

Whether you have traveled all over the world or are planning your first trip outside North America, join us to learn how Kim makes the most of her vagabonding – and the story of those tennis balls.