A picture from Peru. Thanks to my daughter Cindy traveling there today (10/12/2016) and ready for the big climb.
My family and I love our world-wide travels. Different cultures, fabulous cuisines and making lasting friends intertwine with those trips abroad and will stay in our hearts forever. But saying good-bye isn't always easy.
When I lived in Europe, I met many women inching their way from poverty-stricken countries, across borders to find work. Leaving husbands and children behind and never knowing when they could meet again. Documents were generally not in order, so the risk of returning to their homeland was too great for most of them.
Nadia, from Ukraine, comes to mind. In the beginning she made the trip back and forth to her broken down, country-side home, by paying for a secure and safe ride along the way. She hid the money for her family in the hems of her clothes, and the payoff money for a peaceful travel in her tattered wallet. The bus took hours to arrive before she could once again hug her young daughter.
Years passed. Nadia's daughter is a young woman now, university age and still in Ukraine. Nadia continues to travel there and keeps her house cleaning job in a country that "let her stay."
My Women's Fiction story about Nadia and the other women is in the making. Names have been changed but you might be surprised to find out why Nadia (I kept her first name) stayed on in the country where she now resides.
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