Living My Best Life: When in doubt do something that fascinates you…
A writer, a traveller, an adventurer, a dog mom—that’s me. I have written poetry, stage plays, short stories, novels, and non-fiction—mostly social justice writing about housing, women, and law—and these have all been published or produced over the years. Among my favourite non-fiction gigs was working as the Editor in Chief of LawNow, a public legal education magazine. Another favourite was developing Rainbow English, an ESL website for a group of street kids in Esmeraldas, Ecuador. And the most recent, researching and writing WINning: The Trials, Tribulations, and Triumphs of Opening a Women’s Shelter has been a wonderful experience.
Volunteering and then working to start the first women’s shelter in Alberta back in the early 1970s in Edmonton was an experience that changed my life. I learned that the excitement and the satisfaction of using my abilities of listening and writing to help other people through non-profit organizations was one of the best ways to live my life. It’s no way to earn a fortune, but seeing smiles on the faces of women and children is a great reward. Having the chance to write the 50-year-history in 2019/20 was even more exciting because of the work WIN House has done over the years, moving from one room in a church bell tower to owning three houses for women, children, plus women new to Canada.
My love affair with Latin America
My first experience with Latin America was travelling for a month through Peru and Bolivia, concluding with a seven-day trek to Machu Picchu, not on the popular Inca Trail, but on the longer, higher, and sensational Salkantay Trek.
That trip was so wonderful, I was afraid to go back for years, thinking nothing could match it. I was wrong. My next visit was to volunteer at Los Chicos de la Calle telecentre in Esmeraldas Ecuador for eight weeks, teaching English, computer use, and helped the children make a short video of their days. The plan was to help these children without homes or sometimes parents earn better livings than they could by operating a telecentre for local people. While the Internet and personal computers have become to common by now for a telecentre to be popular, the longterm work of Los Chicos de la Calle is continuing through Salesian Chicos de la Calle – Cross Catholic Outreach
After that experience, I spent several vacations in Guatemala, Belize, Mexico, and Honduras, exploring Mayan ruins with a wonderful Guatemalan guide, who also runs a guest house near Tikal and the beautiful town of Flores. https://www.facebook.com/ZapoteTreeInn/
My Love Affair with Peru
Working with children was again the draw. I volunteered with Peru Luz de Esperanza school during several month long visits over the years, this time teaching English plus photography, along with helping finance and build the new school. It’s astonishing to see the amount of work local parents will do to ‘hand-build’ a school for their children and the eagerness the children have to get an education. Going to school from age 4-14 is ‘compulsory’ in Peru, but in the region near Chupaca, schools require uniforms and ask students to buy books and any materials they need, starting with pens & pencils. PLdEsperanza charges the children nothing, and does everything possible to help them continue.
Marsha Mildon Writing 