On Monday, Elaine Pitkin, 74, will leave for a service trip to Asia, where she will help build a wooden bridge in Thailand and renovate a school in Nepal. The projects are arranged by the Global Citizens Network, an organization that promotes cross-cultural exchange by sending groups of volunteers all over the world to immerse themselves in the daily lives of different communities. Pitkin, a Scarborough resident, is a retired psychologist and currently works part time at Hannaford. On Sunday, Pitkin sat down with The Current to talk about her upcoming trip, her previous travels and her philosophy on aging.
Q: How did you decide to take this trip to Asia?
A: I did an eight-day trip with the Global Citizens Network to the Navajo nation last October. Their primary purpose is to promote cultural understanding. You work with the villagers, live in their homes and learn what their customs are.
Q: Where else have you traveled?
A: The first trip I took was through Eastern Europe in 1980 on a bicycle trip with 49 other people. I had all kinds of adventures. The East Germans stole my bicycle. It took me about two weeks to get it back, but I caught up with the group. Living in a communist country at that point was pretty scary, and you could feel the oppression of living under a communist state.
Q: Why did you get involved with the Global Citizens Network?
A: I think the greatest need we have in this country is to respect diversity. We could learn a lot from the way in which villagers in rural areas help each other and support each other. We’re entering an era of globalization. If we don’t understand other cultures and respect them, we’re never going to be able to get along with them. I found people in Bulgaria that took us in and fed us. I had a whole village come out when I got dehydrated in Romania. They got fruit and water for me. We had people that talked on the roads to us in Greece.
Q: What do you do when you’re not traveling?
A: I work part time at Hannaford. I’m a retired psychologist, and I owned a restaurant in Bethel. I bicycle a lot. That’s what keeps me in shape. I’m working on a study of the Scarborough Marsh. I hope I live long enough to do an oil painting of it. It’s fun. It’s making the most of the time you have left.
Q: Is there anywhere else you would like to go?
A: I’d like to go all over the world. My housemate and I took a trip across the United States in 2004. Probably this will be the last big trip. When you’re 74, you live each day the way you want to live it, and you don’t do any harm and you just keep on truckin’. There are a lot of people my age that want to do stuff like this, but they don’t know how to go about it. They think old age is sitting on a porch and watching the world go by, but I don’t want to do that. You don’t have to do that.
Elaine Pitkin, 74, of Scarborough, will be traveling to Thailand and Nepal next month, participating in two service projects. Send questions/comments to the editors.
