Interview: Rita Golden Gelman

Rita: Sure, it’s less threatening for the local people to talk to someone who’s alone. I just spent three months in Thailand and Laos with a friend. It was great to have company but it wasn’t as people-friendly as when I travel alone.

Nana: I see. I should try that. I’ve always traveled with someone.

Rita: I think when you’re alone sometimes you have no choice but to initiate contact.

Nana: In all these years that you’ve been away from home, have your political views changed?

Rita: No, my politics haven’t changed. But seeing the world has certainly intensified my belief that the US needs to be more sensitive to the customs and beliefs of other cultures. Most of the world thinks Bush is arrogant and dangerous. I agree. The US feels it is better than other countries. My travels have shown me otherwise. I am opposed to the war in Iraq and just about everything else that has been done by the Bush administration. I think there is room in the world for many different ways to live and govern and co-exist. I feel the same way about religions. I think there is room for all of them. The fundamental bases of all religions is love, respect, honesty. To go into a culture and tell people that they are worshipping the wrong God is arrogant.
I think travel is the best education and it opens hearts. If they ever make me queen in the US, I will add a fifth year to high school and every kid will be sent to a developing country for that year. No assignments. Just live in a village for a year. I will call the program, “Drop Kids Not Bombs.” Those kids would learn that people are the same wherever they might live. It would change the world… and we would certainly never get another George Bush as President. At this point, wherever I go, people are very much afraid of Bush and what he might do in the next years. They are all pretty astonished that he was re-elected. The world does not respect him, even small nations.

Rita Golden Gelman with Irian Jaya Family.

Nana: Has the US involvement in Iraq changed how you have been treated as an American?

Rita: No. US involvement in Iraq has certainly reinforced negative feelings about the United States government, but the people I’ve met have not held me responsible for what the government is doing.

Nana: You had the good fortune in 1977 of staying at a rented apartment in the Left Bank in Paris that belonged to people who were members of Servas. Could you please tell me a bit more about this organization, and what benefits you, as a member, have found?

Rita: It’s a great organization that was founded in Denmark at the end of WWII. The members are hosts (in nearly every country of the world) who want international guests in their homes, and travelers who want to be those guests. Everyone is screened, both travelers and hosts. There’s an annual membership fee that is different in the different countries. No money is exchanged. Once you have been screened, you tell the organization where you want to travel and you get a booklet that lists the members in the country(ies) that you are planning to visit. It gives the names of the hosts, their ages, their occupations, their interests, the languages they speak, where they have traveled, and where they’ve lived. It’s a two-day visit. I’ve stayed in Servas homes in Argentina, Uruguay, Mexico, Israel, Thailand, US, New Zealand, and Canada. I’ve met wonderful people. Anyone who is interested in meeting the local people should check it out.

Nana: Very few people have heard of Servas; it seems it was a bit of a secret. How does one go about becoming a Servas member?

Rita: For years they didn’t want publicity; the organization grew through word of mouth. Then a few years ago, they realized they had to have more travelers if they wanted to survive. Now anyone can obtain an application online at www.servas.org.

Nana: In all the countries you traveled to, what would you say is the common link between cultures, be it spiritual, values, etc.

Rita: Basically, our common humanity makes us all the same, wherever we may be on the spectrum of life on earth. Whatever our race or language or religious beliefs, we all laugh and love and cry. We have the same needs, the same emotions, the same concerns.
The more I travel, the more my belief in the oneness of humankind is reinforced.

Nana: I know that you also write children’s books, and you visit schools whenever you can. You mentioned that you tell students that you’ve learned two things in your 19 years of travel. What are they?

Rita: First, that we are all different. We have different color eyes and skin and hair. Our smiles are different, our languages, our religions are different. But wherever I am, whatever the differences, I’ve discovered that we are all the same. Everybody, wherever they are, laughs and everybody cries. Everybody talks and smells and loves. Everybody eats and burps and poops! Even kings and queens and presidents pee and burp and poop. That always gets a lot of embarrassed giggles. I suggest to the teachers that they might want to write a class book called: “Everybody.”

Nana: Returning to your book, in Chapter 4 you said, “Over the next years I will meet other people whose lives are devoted to great causes but whose sensitivity to individuals, including their families is defective. I applaud their work and their commitment, but after my Brigitte experience, I am wary of their friendship”. What do you think happens to these people?

Rita: They develop a sense of entitlement. They know that they are doing something good for the world. So, the world owes them. Their devotion is to a cause and they lose the importance of individual connections.

Nana: Right. How can they be so giving, pouring their lives into a cause, yet seem to lack compassion at the same time?

Rita: They’re lost in the importance of their cause and nothing else matters or little else. They really are doing some wonderful things… I just don’t want them for friends.

Nana: Do people back home still think you are rebelling?

Rita: Some do.

Nana: You started traveling in 1986. Have your friends back home changed?

Rita: Some people think I’ve become a bag lady. Others accept me for who I am. I still have friends I went to high school with. There are plenty of people who enjoy sharing their lives with me.

Nana: And you’re making new friends every day.

Rita: That’s right.

Nana: Where are you off to next?

Rita: I’ve rented a house in Seattle for four months… January through April. In May I’m going to Tanzania. I’ve never been to Africa before. I’m both excited and scared.

Nana: Of the people who contact you, what age group are they in?

Rita: They are anywhere from 14 to 80. I get letters from people who tell me that the book inspired them to head out the door with their suitcases. Others tell me they could never do what I’m doing, but they really enjoyed reading about my life.

One of my favorite letters came from a woman in San Francisco. She said, “I finished your book, walked across the street, and introduced myself to the Vietnamese neighbors who had been living there for three years.” I love that. I fantasize that they have been sharing meals and ceremonies ever since.

Nana: Rita’s website is www.RitaGoldenGelman.com. Her book is Tales of a Female Nomad.