When Monica Murphy hit the age of 50 rather than slowing down, she decided to do something adventurous.
From the time she was 50 to 74 Murphy travelled to seven countries: China, Korea, Oman, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia. She taught English in those countries and upon returning wrote Wats, Wadis and Waterfalls: A Canadian Woman's Travel and Teaching Experiences in the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
"I always wanted to travel and then I kind of got the travel bug and the job market was terrible in Vancouver," she told The Observer after her book reading event at the Quesnel Library. "In most of the countries in the Middle East, I had worked at universities and they called a foundation program. So the students were supposed to learn English in a year." She joked that most of the time the students failed at that.
During her reading she answered questions and chatted with those who attended about her experiences abroad. She described struggling to understand her roommate who was from New Zealand, some of the challenges of working with agencies to go to new places and some of the friendships she made throughout her time overseas.
She also described some of the cultural differences she saw such as men having multiple wives.
"One time we were studying the family tree (in class). So I got them all to draw a picture of their family tree and there was this one girl and she did it beautifully. She did these nice beautiful figures and she had the father at the top. And then one woman over here with her children and the other woman over here was with her children," Murphy said.
She recalled responding with curiosity and asking what the girl called her father's other wife and she responded with "auntie."
Or where she experienced power outages that would last for hours at a time during periods of extreme heat.
"They'd say they were going to have the power off for seven or eight hours. Sometimes it wasn't the full seven hours but it sure felt like it," Murphy said. "It didn't affect the hotels, so we'd go and check into a hotel and spend the day there swimming and having food." She said that was one of her only strategies to get through the power outages other than to simply sleep through them.
She also recalled being in China and in the middle of the day when an announcement would go out and students would start massaging their faces after studying for a few hours.
Before travelling to teach, Murphy said she didn't leave Canada often.
"I was raising my son and there was very little money to go around so I didn't have the chance," she said. She added she had always wanted to see more of the world and eventually she decided to jump in and go for it.
Her fondest memories are of meeting new friends, some of whom she tries to stay connected with over social media. While she was abroad she would put ads in English-language newspapers saying she was looking for friends and she would receive dozens of emails in response. Many of the people she connected with were looking to practice their English skills and she enjoyed spending time with them and having someone help her navigate their country.
She said the event in Quesnel was the first time she actually spoke to people during one of her book readings and thought it was a fun experience to share her stories in that way.
"I wrote the book to encourage other women, if they're at a place in their life they want to make a change or maybe they're breaking up with somebody and they want something to do. To go for it," Murphy said.
People can find out more about Murphy's adventures by reading her book. They can email her to buy a copy at monicawriter057@gmail.com.
