My first experience of Deliberate Travel happened at 6 years old
My grandparents lived in Jamaica when my dad was a baby. I grew up seeing pictures of my dad running around in a nappy in the Jamaican heat, with stories of Ackee trees and a reverence for Bob Marley.
When I was 6, my family took a trip back there to see the university where my grandfather worked and the house they’d lived in when my dad was younger than I was. Travelling to Jamaica with my family is my earliest consistent set of memories – hardly surprising for such a significant trip with cousins and grandparents.
But there’s another reason I remember the trip so well. As this was my first big trip away, my dad wanted to make sure I knew what was happening. Several weeks before we left, he gave me a project to complete. It was a series of questions about Jamaica – what was the capital, could I draw the flag, who was this Bob Marley dude anyway?
I went to the library with my mum and proceeded to research Jamaica intensively. It was my sole profession for the length of at least 2 visits to the library. I learned about Bob Marley, sugarcane, a little bit about slavery, about lionfish and pufferfish (I was deeply concerned about their venom – so deeply that I completely disregarded the threat from either jellyfish or sharks, which was probably a blessing). This research had a great impact on me. I regularly dreamed about Bob Marley, imagining him talking to doves and dying on a windowsill looking out over a bay (I have no idea if either of those things are accurate).
When we arrived in Jamaica, the knowledge I already had meant I had a grasp of the basics of the country, and anything new I learned could be slotted into a pre-existing structure. When we visited a fish market in Kingston (I still remember watching gobsmacked, as men cut a whale into pieces on a huge trestle table), I recognized that fishing was a major industry in Jamaica. I recognized the green, black and yellow flag everywhere and what it meant. I even noticed that lots of people were missing teeth, largely due to the habit of chewing sugarcane.
Learning about Jamaica before I arrived allowed me to remember my visit to Jamaica with more clarity than most 6-year olds are capable of. I attribute that, at least partly, to the research my dad set me before. I was aware of where I was going before we got on the plane, in a real sense rather than an abstract idea. It taught me that travel was exciting but not removed from its context. Jamaica became, not just a nice place to visit, but a country that would exist once I left, filled with people who had a completely different lifestyle than mine. I still feel a connection to Bob Marley’s music, and sometimes I still dream about him.
Deliberate Travel Guides were initially intended to be for an adult audience, with an idea to move onto Kids versions at some point in the future. However, since the COVID-19 crisis we’ve been making free, limited versions of the guides to distract kids stuck at home under lockdown.
To find the workbooks, please visit our Kids page. The workbooks are free to download, but please remember to sign up to the mailing list to make sure you receive a new workbook each week.