STRAYER explores women pushing boundaries in adventure travel

STRAYERSTRAYER
HUMAN ZOO
When does tribal tourism
become unethical? P.6
HIKING HEALS
The trail to health
and happiness P.24
VOLUNTOURISM
The fastest growing sector
within travel space P.18
ANYA CHIBIS
THE PARKOUR PROJECT P.14
BALANCING
CHEQUES
How to work
and travel P.30
women’s
adventure
travel
women’s
adventure
travel

Roxana is a journalism student who embarked on her life journey in Bucharest, Romania.
She continued travelling through Hungary, Turkey and the U.S. over the years, presently
resides in Canada, yet dreams to live in Japan.
Roxana enjoys camping, hiking, horseback riding, kayaking and skiing adventures,
working through her remaining list, including, but not limited to; abseiling, parkour,
rock climbing, scuba diving and… forming a bond with a dangerous, wild animal.
While looking forward to visit as many countries as possible in her lifetime - particularly
Germany, Scotland, England and Israel - the aspiring writer hopes to reunite with her
Creator in eternity’s infinite unknown, as her final destination.
Brittany was shoved onto a plane before she could walk and from then on it was love at
first sight. An avid traveller and wanderlust enthusiast, Brittany’s life goal is to travel to
each continent and learn every culture, custom and history imaginable. Her favourite
place in the world, thus far, is Costa Rica and she is obsessed with travel shows such as:
Departures, No Reservations and Girl Eats Food.
2
in this issue
|in this issue|
STRAYER is a quarterly published magazine that
highlights women in adventure travel culture; a niche
within the travel industry that involves travelling to
dangerous places or participating in dangerous events.
Whether it’s hiking through the Mojave Desert or Shark
diving in South Africa, STRAYER aims to feature stories of
women who are pushing society to recognize that extreme
travelling is not just for men.
STRAYER is a women’s interest magazine that
embodies the boldness of a travel culture that is typically
occupied by male travellers.
STRAYER is bold, inspiring and at times uncouth,
covering the real and gritty stories behind women’s extreme
adventures.
In this issue we cover women who break out of the mold
to chase their adventures no matter what the odds are.
From travelling with a disability to beating men at their
own sport, the women in this issue all have one thing in
common: they aren’t afraid to stray from the norm and
jump into an adventure.
Brittany Campbell
Roxana Chiriac
I’m just some Canadian wannabe journalist. I was at Centennial College for five years, but
am now ready to move on to the next adventure. I haven’t quite decided what that will
be yet, but that’s part of the fun. I also intend on engaging in more writing, although
again I have to figure out what that will be. I like exploring new horizons, much like
travellers do. I can’t really afford to travel, but it would be nice if I could.
Eric Pember
- the contributors -

3
contents
CONTENTS
11
8
30
14
13
1218
24
6
Parkour women are on the rise
Voluntourism:
a wide spectrum
Hiking heals:
the trail to health and happiness
Balancing cheques:
how to work and travel
Disability Accessibility travel
Just don’t go:
female travel safety and how
it is represented in the media
Passion to travel transcends all ages
Gap years inspire the love of travel
Human Zoo: when does tribal tourism
become unethical?

DERVLA MURPHY
dervla murphy
4
CYCLING ACROSS THE GLOBE
GLOBE
Getting to meet Dervla Murphy is no easy task; the recluse Irish cyclist and
adventure traveller rarely does interviews, rarely makes public appearances
and rarely is photographed.
As one of the most famous travel writers in Europe, Dervla Murphy, in
her 80’s has published over 20 travel books and an autobiography called
Wheels within Wheels: The Makings of a Traveller.
She has cycled throughout Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America and
has visited over 15 different countries including: Ireland, India, Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tibet, Nepal, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Cameroon,
Romania, Laos, Yugoslavia, Siberia and Cuba.
Seeing as this issue is covering women who break the mold and chase their
adventures no matter what the odds are, we feel that Dervla Murphy is the
ideal pick for our first installment of Globetrotters. To learn more about
Dervla Murphy and her travels visit her website at: www.dervlamurphy.com

6
tribal tourism
HUMAN ZOOWhen does Tribal Tourism become unethical?
hen avid traveller and
popular UK travel blogger,
Helen Davies decided to
venture deep into a remote
tribal village in Africa, friends and
family were puzzled with preconceived
notions as to why a young woman
would want to travel to a place
where access to modern technology
is limited, and tropical diseases are
prevalent.
“Being an avid traveller, I’m really
interested in learning about other
cultures,” Davies said.
“I really became interested in tribal
culture whilst watching a TV show.
I find it quite fascinating to see how
different people live and see the world,
even if I don’t always agree with what
they do.”
The decision for Davies was clear
she yearned to experience the social
dynamics, traditional customs and
folklore of a civilization that seemed
untouched. With a camera secured
around her neck and a headscarf tied
through her hair, Davies set out on an
adventure that turned out to be much
more than just an experience.
“I’ve visited numerous African
tribes, each tribal visit has been
similar in some ways but different in
others,” Davies said.
“Everyone has his or her chores.
The men graze the animals whilst the
women look after the kids and many
of the domestic duties, like cooking,
gathering wood/water and building.
The kids all pitch in too, often helping
to take care of younger siblings.”
To date Davies has visited five
different tribes in Africa ranging
from the Maasai Mara in Kenya to
the Mang’ati in Tanzania. On her
many trips to Africa, Davies, who
began visiting tribes with friends,
experienced what most tourists would
experience.
Davies said. After her many tribal
visits Davies suddenly started
to consider what effect this kind
of tourism was having on the
communities that she had become so
fond of.
For Davies, the debate suddenly
became real. Was her choice of
tourism threatening the authenticity of
the cultures that she was so fascinated
by?
“There’s a debate as to whether
tribal visits are ethical or exploitative
and how tribal cultures are suffering
due to western influences,” Davies
said.
“It depends on why you are visiting
and what you do.We live in a money
economy now and this is the way many
tribes people make money, however
it is important to visit tribes on their
own terms, some are exploited by
locals and land owners.”
On the other hand, for Michele
Thomas visiting remote African tribes
was more than an adventure, it was
her way of life for 25 years.
As a Westerner living in Gabon,
Thomas was constantly exposed to
a number of different ethnic tribal
groups and their customs.
W
By BRITTANY CAMPBELL
“Most of the time
when you visit a tribe
you pay for the ‘tribal
experience.’ It’s not
100 per cent fake, but
it isn’t real either,”

7
tribal tourism
Thomas said.
For Thomas, the presence of a
westerner didn’t seem to affect the
customs of the tribes she visited; in
fact it became an experience where the
tribal customs and traditions affected
her lifestyle.
“I think you have to make sure to not
only visit and observe but to immerse
and respect,” said Thomas.
Tribal tourism is quickly becoming
one of the world’s most popular tourist
excursions. With hotels and tour
groups adding tribal visits to their
programs it has also become a way to
help financially support some of these
tribes.
Tribal Tourist is an African
adventure tour company that strives
to turn travellers into explorers.
Tribal leader and founder of the
company, Matthew Kearns, describes
his company as a way to experience
authentic tribal customs.
“All our Tribal Leaders are based in
Africa and not sitting in an office on
another continent. We know Africa, its
people and the best places to travel,”
Kearns said.
One of the aspects that makes Tribal
Tourist unique is its deep concern for
preserving cultures and customs of the
tribes that they include in their tour
packages.
“One of our most vital aims is to
conserve the natural heritage of the
countries where we operate,” Kearns
said.
Although it is difficult to say if tribal
tourism is unethical, what remains
clear is the increasing interests of
travellers who have a passion to
explore the unknown, experiencing
cultures that are very different from
their own; yet tourists who are
thinking of visiting tribal areas should
consider the potential effects very
carefully before deciding to make the
trip.
“The Gabonese have
over 30 Bantu Tribes
and they are divided into
different groups. So during
my time there I was able
to experience various
authentic tribal lifestyles. I
have attended a witchcraft
ceremony in the deep
countryside, an instance
of what I call ‘real magic’
and a possible human
sacrifice,”
Photos courtesy of Jane Jackson

n issue women commonly have
to face is balance between their
life and their work.
Some women end up realizing that
they can’t properly balance these
things and that they need to change
their life. Sometimes, this leads to
them realizing that they’ve picked the
wrong career.
Sherry Ott worked for the
information technology department of
a company that only allowed her one
week of vacation time.
“It limited my ability to go overseas
and I had a sister living in Singapore,”
Ott said. “I wanted to be able to see
her, but one week isn’t enough time.”
As a result, Ott left her job and took
a gap year.
She quickly discovered that there
were no resources to help travellers
during their gap year. She decided to
fill that gap herself.
“When I finished my trip, I decided
to put some resources together for
people like me,” Ott said. “I met two
other people who were also thinking
the same thing and together we started
Meet Plan Go.”
It allows people to meet the kind of
like-minded, supportive people she
wished to meet while taking her gap
year, by giving them tools and tips
to plan their career break travel and
finding inspiration to go by hearing the
stories of people like Ott.
Meet Plan Go’s intent isn’t for people
to take a permanent break. However,
there are other people who take gap
years and ultimately decide to follow
in Ott’s footsteps and devote their lives
to travel.
Another example of someone who
did this was Nora Dunn, who writes
a monthly column for creditwalk.
ca, which is a resource for reward
and credit card planning. Dunn ran a
financial planning practice before she
decided to sell practically everything
she owned and spend her life
travelling.
“It wasn’t the easiest decision to
make in the world, but I realized that
from a financial standpoint, the cost of
maintaining a home filled with stuff I
wasn’t using, in a home I wasn’t living
in while travelling the world, wasn’t
financially sustainable,” Dunn said.
Dunn has since travelled all over
the world and has managed to sustain
this lifestyle by finding ways to get
free accommodations, often by
volunteering.
She also works occasionally as a
house-sitter. Dunn says it’s a great way
to truly immerse yourself in another
country’s culture.
“It is a beautiful way to experience
local life and what it’s like to actually
live in the destinations you’re visiting,
as opposed to just passing through.”
Her previous career comes in handy
when it comes to budgeting carefully
for her life of travel.
“One of the first things I recommend
that someone do when budgeting [for
long-term travel] is track all of their
expenses. It’s only when you know
what exactly you’re spending that you
can create a type of budget for your
travels,” Dunn said.
Jo Fitzsimmons (indianajo.com) is
another example of someone who quit
her career to travel full-time. She used
to be a lawyer. In 2010, Fitzimmons
decided to take a year-long break from
her law practice – and she never came
back.
“I realized when I was travelling
that I didn’t want to go back to being
a lawyer, but I had to make money
somehow,” she said.
Fitzsimmons says being a travel
writer requires certain compromises,
just like any other job. There are
moments when she has to force herself
to write about a locale when she has
nothing in particular to say about it,
or there are moments when she has to
forego something she’ll enjoy in favour
of something she won’t.
“Sometimes, while people are going
off to the beach, I have to stay indoors
and work, so that’s something you
really have to force yourself to do.”
However, Fitzsimmons still doesn’t
regret her decision to switch to
full-time travel. She would heartily
recommend the lifestyle to people.
She just thinks they should make
sure they’re mentally suited to such a
lifestyle before they embark on it.
“You need discipline, and the money
isn’t great, so you need to hustle and
you need to hustle a lot, so really
think about whether you have the
characteristics to do it before you quit
the day job and decide to do it, because
it’s not as easy as people think it might
be.”
8
gap years
Gap years inspire
the love of travel
By ERIC PEMBER
Photo courtesy of Nora Dunn
Nora Dunn exploring Peru’s
ancient ruins.
“I’ve painted
murals, I’ve designed
marketing plans, I’ve
done landscaping, I’ve
cooked and I’ve even
taught conversational
English, all in trade
for a place to stay.”
A

9
WINTER 2015
Brandee Laird looks on at Freeway
Park, an iconic parkour location de-
signed by prominent American land-
scape architect Lawrence Halprin.
It was used to train during the 2015
annual North American Women’s
Parkour Jam.
This winter consider taking
a gap year as your New Year
resolution...

10
WINTER 2015
Strayer Magazine explores an untapped market in travel
tourism, Accessible Travel. There are approximately 180
million people with disabilities who travel worldwide.
Travellers with disabilities spend over approximately
$23 Million on their adventures per year, according to
the Open Doors Organization and the Travel Industry
Association of America. One of the most popular forms
of accessible travel are cruise ships because they are the
most accommodating.

11
passion to travel transcends all ages
any sing praises for the
pioneers who do truly
outrageous or extreme things.
However, you can be a pioneer just
by doing ordinary things – Evelyn
Hannon can attest to this.
She was among the first women
travelling to faraway places by herself,
with the simple intention to experience
common aspects of life.
“I have done everything, from
herding cows in the Swiss Alps, to
going with my daughter to bring home
an adopted Chinese granddaughter,”
Hannon said.
People looked at her strangely at
first, just because it didn’t occur to
them that a woman would want to do
that. She got invited to a lot of dinner
parties by people who wanted to know
what kind of adventures she got into.
“It was just a world so far away from
them that they thought it was totally
exotic,” Hannon said. “They couldn’t
understand why I just couldn’t be a
normal female and stay married and
bring up my kids and not have to run
around in the world.”
In 1984, Hannon was divorced and
her kids had already grown up. She
realized that she wasn’t cut out for
a usual grandmother lifestyle; she
needed to go and see the world.
“What I did, even though I was really
afraid, was make a deal with myself. I
said that if I could go out for 35 days
and not die, then that will probably be
a metaphor for the rest of my life. So
that’s what I did. I went off, I didn’t
die and that was the beginning.”
She is now 75 years old and
continues to travel.
There are others like Hannon, who
started travelling well before that was
a common thing for women to do and
continued doing so as they grew older.
One of these women is Jane
Jackson. She travelled a lot with
her parents growing up and started
travelling on her own as soon as she
could afford it.
“Of course, it was a different world
in those days too, but I’m an only child
and didn’t have siblings to travel with,
so doing things on my own was my
normal,” Jackson said.
Jackson liked travelling so much
that she continued even after receiving
a tracheotomy during treatment for
thyroid cancer.
She now has to make sure she is
able to procure saline solution for her
breathing tube wherever she goes,
since she can’t take it on the airplane
with her. This somewhat limits her
mobility, but it still hasn’t stopped her
from travelling all over the U.S. and
U.K. since receiving the tracheotomy.
“I figure I have two options. I can
either sit back and feel sorry for myself
or I can keep going on and doing the
best I can do,” Jackson said.
She continues to be a pioneer over
the years, showing people you can still
live a full and happy life even as you
develop health complications.
She doesn’t find it too difficult to
actually replace her trach tube, but
finds that people sometimes stare
at her awkwardly. A little boy once
looked at her with his mouth agape at
the procedure, unsure what to think of
what he saw.
“I think because I’m not making a
big deal about it, other people soon
stop staring and soon realize that I’m
the Jane that I was before and we just
keep going,” Jackson said.
Being a pioneer doesn’t just reap
results for those who follow in their
footsteps, though. It often reaps
results for the pioneers themselves
as well. Janice Waugh, another solo
female traveller, sums up the kind of
thing that made it worth it for these
women to go out on their own.
While at St. Andrews by-the-Sea
in New Brunswick, she asked the
proprietor of a local shop who the
most interesting man was in town.
The answer was Jamie Steel, an
eccentric man who gets his bushy
hair cut once a year. He is their
unofficial cultural liaison, who brings
in musicians from other places to play
in the town and gets local musicians
booked in other places.
The night she met Steel, a musician
himself who grew up in St. Andrews
by-the-Sea, he was booked and
returning to town.
“This man was coming into town
with his band, many of whom have
won awards for their music,” Waugh
said. “They were coming in from
Nashville and I was invited to hang
out with the band that night, which I
did. That doesn’t happen usually when
you’re with other people.”
Passion to travel transcends all ages
Jane Jackson rides the London Eye, a giant ferris wheel, while wearing
gauze around her trach to stop the plastic from rubbing across her skin.
By ERIC PEMBER
Photo courtesy of Jane Jackson
M

12
disability accesibility travel
he can climb mountains, ski and
speak four languages; but Laila
Grillo could not attend language
school in Ireland, because “they
didn’t want a blind student.”
Others told her it was impossible
to pursue a farm internship once
she expressed her interest to study
international agriculture, yet since
then, Grillo completed two internships
and is currently enrolled in her fifth
semester at the Bern University of
Applied Science, in Switzerland.
The 24-year-old doesn’t let people
tell her what she can or cannot do,
but seeks ways to work around any
circumstance, instead.
“I never had a school saying we don’t
accept blind students,” Grillo said. “I
was sad, because I couldn’t go with my
class, but at the same time I was also
lucky to come to Canada.”
Grillo is fond of travel and
passionate about both mountain,
as well as rock climbing. She also
visited Italy, France, England, Wales,
Liechtenstein, Spain and eventually
Ireland, scaling nine mountains
and various indoor climbing
walls, including those in her Swiss
homeland.
At that time, she studied economics
and languages to become a business
employee. Currently, Grillo speaks
Italian, German, French and English.
During her mandatory studies in an
English speaking country, she lived in
Toronto with her friend, Sheila Ford.
According to Ford, all that could
stand in the way of success for Grillo
and others with disabilities are people,
not a disability itself.
“I know this from personal
experience, because of being deaf
myself, there’s a huge price you pay
for it,” she said. “The stress of trying
to become a part of the world that you
would usually be excluded from.”
Ford felt discriminated against in a
previous workplace. Once a month, the
business firm asked its employees to
take turns filling in for the receptionist
during her lunch hour. Ford was
unable to answer the phone and tried
to arrange for a co-worker to take her
turn, in exchange for completing the
other’s work.
The company said it wouldn’t
be fair, was unwilling to make the
accommodation and Ford lost her
job. Following that, she underwent
surgery to receive a cochlear implant
and presently works as a corporate
secretary at an investment fund.
While Grillo realized she doesn’t
want to work in an office, she
noticed her other friend who is blind
struggling to find the same work.
“Many enterprises fear it is too much
of an effort and too much of a cost and
that’s something I don’t understand,”
she said. “Today you have so much
technology that can be adapted for
use. There are institutions who help
you cover it if you employ a person
with a disability.”
Grillo uses screen reader software
to complete her daily computer tasks.
It’s a form of assistive technology that
communicates with users through a
text-to-speech function and identifies
what is displayed on the screen,
whether it’s navigating between
different windows and programs,
performing other commands or
reading eBooks, emails and various
files, such as documents.
The VoiceOver utility on her iPhone
also serves as a screen reader. It is
now used in conjunction with evolving
navigational smart phone applications,
such as BlindSquare and taught by the
Canadian National Institute for the
Blind.
“The VoiceOver utility is amazing,”
CNIB Toronto Regional Manager of
Service and Operations Sue Marsh-
Woods said. “But then you add these
apps that interface with the GPS and
for somebody who doesn’t want to
always rely on a sighted person to give
them directions, this gives them that
level of independence.”
Some of BlindSquare’s features
include shaking the phone to hear
the user’s current address, describing
environments, including information
about the location of the nearest
street intersection and surrounding
venues, according to its website.
It uses information gathered from
FourSquare and Open Street Map.
The Institution of Engineering
and Technology and the Intelligent
Transport Systems, based in England,
published a report in September 2015
indicating over 80 per cent of elderly
and disabled people aren’t aware of
or using smart travel technology,
including journey planning websites,
smart phones, apps or texts that could
make their lives and trips both easier
and more independent.
“A great step would be to help new
users overcome initial apprehension
and uncertainty towards unfamiliar
technology,” IET Principal Policy
Advisor Sahar Danesh said. “If people
have the chance to inform the elderly
and disabled of the opportunities
adopting these new technologies could
have for them, they are helping them
to become more independent and
confident in their travels.”
On her next internship, Grillo
dreams to work on a development
project in Nepal.
“I read a lot about this country and
that would be the perfect opportunity
to go there,” she said. “Also because
it’s in the Himalayas and I could
discover the mountains there.”
Disability accessible travel technology
By ROXANA CHIRIAC
Photo courtesy of Laila Grillo
Grillo climbs Mt. Altmann in Switzerland.
S

13
travel safety
mong the majestic Pokhara
Mountains and the jagged
rocks that frame the Seti rivers
just outside of the city, on Aug.
28 Nepalese authorities discovered
the body of 25-year-old Dahlia
Yehia, brutally beaten and carelessly
discarded in the shallow water.
Family and friends desperately
began their search for Yehia in late
August when the free-spirited traveller
went missing during a volunteer trip
to Nepal.
The art teacher from Texas had
resigned from her job to work as a
volunteer, aiding in earthquake relief
in Nepal. But the search came to an
unfortunate end on Aug. 28, when
Yehia’s family received word from the
U.S. Embassy that she was beaten to
death by a local man who was hosting
her at his home.
As media outlets caught hold of
Yehia’s story, comment sections across
the Internet were littered with debates
on women who travel and whether it
was safe. Sarah Kaplan, a contributor
to the Washington Post, covered the
news of Yehia’s death in an article
entitled, “Missing American volunteer,
Dahlia Yehia beaten to death in
Nepal.” One of her readers who called
himself ‘Dooki Fried’ wrote, “advice to
you young stupid women, planet earth
is a bad place. Do NOT be stupid.”
It was clear that to many, like
Dookie Fried, this was not a case of
unforeseen or unfortunate events, it
was yet another account of a woman
putting herself into a risky travel
situation and ultimately losing her life
abroad.
“The questions and comments about
a woman’s safety abroad always seem
to be the same,” Alice Driver says,
author of More or Less Dead, a book
analyzing violence against women and
how it is represented in news media.
“With female travellers there are
real risks, but patriarchal society in
many parts of the world never gauge
what men’s roles are and how men
should treat women, so the only way
the media addresses these kinds of
situations is to tell women how to act
or scare them into not travelling at
all.”
Driver believes that with movies
like Taken – a movie about two girls
getting kidnapped in Europe – and
news coverage trying to convince
women that it’s not safe to travel, there
will always be scrutiny towards the
decision of the female victims and not
the men who attacked them.
“There was a statistic from the
United Nations that said women were
more likely to be beaten, raped and
killed in their own homes rather than
during their travels,” Driver says. “So
when people argue about the safety
of women who travel it becomes a
distraction to the real story at hand,
which is a woman was murdered.”
Despite widely publicized stories
like Yehia’s, women are still choosing
to travel and are quickly becoming
the biggest demographic for travel
companies.
According to the Harvard Business
Review, within the past six years
women in North America have
contributed to a remarkable growth
in the travel industry. Not only are
women choosing to travel more, but 75
per cent of female travellers are taking
their adventures abroad.
For Vawn Himmelsbach, Toronto
based travel blogger and avid traveller,
it was a matter of wanting to have
an actual adventure, whether people
thought it was a good idea or not.
“Maybe you want to learn to surf
in Nicaragua or wander the souks
in Morocco — we’re drawn to those
places not because of the risk, but
because of our fascination with the
culture or our desire to experience
something completely different”
Himmselbach says. “And with that
comes a certain degree of risk.”
Although Himmelsbach agrees that
Yehia’s story does accurately outline
the real risks out there for female
travellers, she says that for now female
travel references provided by the
government are an ideal way to add a
bit of security to your travels.
In Canada, the Her Own Way
- Travel Guide outlines useful
information on how to use the
country’s resources if there is ever a
situation where you need help on your
travels.
“The Government of Canada assists
thousands of Canadian women in
distress abroad each year,” Rachna
Mishra says, spokesperson for
media relations of the Government
of Canada for the Foreign Affairs,
Trade and Development Canada
department. “The problems they
face are diverse – from petty and
violent crime to medical assistance
and issues associated with overseas
relationships.”
JustDON’T GO
A
QUOTE OF
THE ISSUE
strayer
“Being a strong woman is
very important to me. But
doing it all on my own is
not.”
- Reba McEntire
Female travel safety and how
it is represented in the media
Photo courtesy of Vawn Himmelsbach
Vawn Himmelsbach and Tanya Enberg started
Chic Savvy Travels, a backpackers’ website.

14
WINTER 2015
Toronto based commercial and
editorial photographer Anya Chibis,
travels across different countries and
cities photographing Parkour athletes
for a personal and self-financed project.
Driven by her desire to meet the
athletes, discover their communities
and learn more about each
advancing technique, Chibis launched
parkourproject.com and started telling
their stories in both words and photos
over two years ago.
ANYA CHIBIS
THE PARKOUR PROJECT
ANYA CHIBIS
THE PARKOUR PROJECT
PARKOUR WOMEN
ARE ON THE RISE
PARKOUR WOMEN
ARE ON THE RISE

16
WINTER 2015
But this self-described warrior-poet is not alone; along
with other Parkour leaders, they coach women and men
alike in a discipline originating from France in the ‘90s.
Dan Iaboni is the head coach at Toronto’s Monkey Vault
Movement Training Centre – the world’s first Parkour Gym
opened in 2008 – he sees an increasing popularity among
women in what used to be a male-dominated discipline. He
trains classes that started having an equal participation rate
among both men and women.
“It’s definitely growing, now that there are women meet-
ups and there are lots of women’s classes and organized
groups, girls can look up girls doing Parkour on YouTube,”
Iaboni said. “I think it’s going to open up the possibility of
more girls entering the sport.”
Drawing its roots from military obstacle course training,
the objective of this discipline, also known as the art of
movement, is travelling from point A to B as quickly and
efficiently as possible while using one’s body to overcome
obstacles.
“Parkour is for everyone who has a body and would like to
learn to use it better,” Laird said. “It is exploration of one’s
human body in relation to personal goals and interests.”
Practitioners are known as a traceur or traceuse, whether
male or female, respectively, with both terms derived from
the French verb ‘tracer,’ which means ‘to trace’ and refer to
tracing one’s path.
The novice-oriented gathering featured workshops for
improving technique, including both indoor and outdoor
training at Parkour Visions Gym and iconic Seattle
locations such as Freeway Park, Gasworks Park and
Volunteer Park.
“Both Saturday and Sunday mornings offered different
workshops from women to choose from, ranging from a talk
on trusting yourself to a falling workshop,” Laird said. “This
year also contained a challenge night, structured to build
a challenge around a single skill or idea, like traversing or
precision jumping and build four levels of challenge for
women to work through.”
While people use the term Parkour to describe their
practice of movement, it can mean something different
from one individual to the next. Some regard it as a sport,
others as a training method for sports and a number
perceive it as a fun hobby; but for others – including Laird
– it’s a lifestyle.
“Parkour is as much a part of my life as breathing
or eating or sleeping,” she said. “I also subscribe to a
philosophy much closer to the original intent that the
Yamakasi (the original founders of this discipline) laid out…
the essence is to explore your world, challenge and explore
yourself personally, maintain a novice mindset and improve
yourself every day in one way or another.”
For 23-year-old Monkey Vault student Florence Kwok, it
also means a career investment.
“I want to be a police officer, so it seemed like a good skill
to have,” she said. “I really like the physical aspect of it, it’s
a full-body workout, it helps you keep fit, keep strong and
there’s a lot of coordination to it.”
[...]
ach day is a journey for Brandee Laird.
Living in motion, the 28-year-old pulls
herself over walls and balances on rails.
Running both indoors and outdoors, the
head coach of Seattle’s Parkour Visions
Gym vaults over fences, flips off bars and
rolls across various types of terrain.
She hosted the fifth annual North American Women’s
Parkour Jam for the first time in July 2015, welcoming
75 women travelling from across the United States
and Canada for a two-day weekend event in Seattle,
Washington.
“It was surreal to host the event,” Laird said. “It was
also powerful and touching to visually see the impact of
my leadership, as if they were all trying to prove to me
– and some do, verbally – that I am a valued part of our
community and an inspiration to many.”
E
By ROXANA CHIRIAC

Kwok started training a year ago and currently works
as a security guard. She believes Parkour may help her in
a future chase-down and trains twice a week both at the
Monkey Vault and outdoors.
“I think it’s really great that there are just women’s
classes and especially the North American Women’s
Parkour Jam,” Kwok said. “You want to get your foot in the
door and some girls are kind of intimidated to train with
guys.
Laird says many women are reluctant to try because of
gender stereotypes.
“The qualities society associates with women are soft,
delicate, pretty, quiet, responsive,” she said. “[Parkour] is
very masculine in its practice: commitment, confidence,
strength, resilience… I think most women who’ve thought
about trying it but never even considered they actually
could, literally do not think of themselves as qualified to do
so because of gender.”
Iaboni is surprised by the number of women who walk
into his gym thinking they can’t do parkour, because he
believes anyone can do it since movement is for everybody.
“We find most females can do the same stuff males can
do,” he said. “They’re learning the exact same things. We
don’t baby them in any way. They can be very strong.”
Kwok says the Parkour community is one of the greatest
aspects of this discipline, where members constantly
encourage each other through technique progressions, raise
one another’s confidence and help each other overcome
their fear.
She looks forward to attend her first annual North
American Women’s Parkour Jam, which is set in Colorado
next year.
“I’ve never been to one,” she said. “I’ve seen tons of
pictures and it always looks like a lot of fun, so I’m really
excited for it.”
Photos courtesy of Anya Chibis
12
PARKOUR WOMEN ARE ON THE RISE

Park, an iconic parkour location
designed by prominent American
landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.
Parkour Jam.
Park, an iconic parkour location
designed by prominent American
landscape architect Lawrence Halprin.
Parkour Jam.

Hiking heals
The trail to health and happiness

arah Wilson wears many
hats. She is a New York
Times best-selling author,
television host of the first
series of MasterChef Autralia,
an entrepreneur, a former
magazine editor and journalist
with over 20 years of experience
in television, radio, magazines
and newspapers. She also has
an autoimmune disease known
as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis that
she manages with constant
hiking adventures all over the
world.
“Hiking gets us in touch with
awe,” Says Wilson, “For me,
trudging over rocks and earth
for hours on end puts things in
perspective. Life feels big, I –
and my pain – feel small…this
heals.”
For Wilson, hiking is more
than her choice of physical
activity it is what she describes
as her travel raison d’etre.
In an article on her blog,
entitled How hiking heals, she
writes that, “When you travel
solo you have to create a travel
raison d’etre…hiking tames and
heals any disease, whether it
be illness, angst, pain, longing,
frustration, and imbalance.”
According to the Institute of
Cardiovascular Research and
Sport Medicine in Germany,
there are many studies that
show the restorative effects of
being outdoors and hiking. A
natural environment inspires
the mind while hiking increases
blood flow and positively affects
physical health and state of
mind.
For people like Wilson hiking
is a way to undergo a process
of healing. A process that is as
challenging and unpredictable
as any hiking trail.
From Iceland to Andalucia,
Wilson has hiked to tame and
heal numerous things in her
life, but it wasn’t until after a
long night of editing her social
media bios that she realized
that her favourite pastime was
actually helping her to heal in
many ways than one.
“My bio on instagram read ‘I
have a crankin’ auto immune
disease that I tame with food
and hiking and that’s when I
realized that hiking was the
reason I was able to keep my
symptoms at bay.” Says Wilson.
But if hiking can physically
help to heal, how does it
positively affect the mind?
Wilson attests to this feeling
of happiness to something that
she writes about on her blog
called “ the wilderness effect.”
This comes from connecting
with nature and the world
around us. She says it’s the
reason why movies like Wild are
successful – because people can
relate to the feeling of wonder
that comes from reconnecting
with nature.
According to the American
Psychological Association,
in a study conducted by
Stephen and Rachel Kaplan
professors of psychology at
the University of Michigan,
humans have two types of
attention, directed attention
and fascination. When people
are only experiencing directed
attention they become irritable
and frustrated. Being exposed to
natural environments initiates
fascination, which provides a
calming feeling and a sense of
inspiration.
This effect is what relationship
expert, Ali Binazir, M.D.,
author of “The Tao of Dating:
The Smart Woman’s Guide to
Being Absolutely Irresistible”,
describes as a sort of mind reset
that aids in helping people to
emotionally heal.
“A lot of the associations that
you have with the source of your
pain are in your apartment,
neighbourhood, city but as [...]
25
hiking heals
Photo courtesy of sarahwilson.com
Sarah Wilson hikes along water in Hawaii.
S

soon as you leave town there
are no associations – like in a
break up for instance, it’s like
a brand new slate and it’s good
for basically anything that is
bothering you,” said Dr. Binazir.
Nonetheless, Dr. Binazir isn’t
suggesting that personal trauma
can be solved with a trip to the
forest. He suggests that your
hiking journey must include
some sort of survival factor
in order to truly be a healing
experience.
“You are basically adapting
to new environments and
situations all the time, you have
to figure out how to get from
‘point A’ to ‘point B’ and there
are a lot of novel stimulants
that are coming in that you have
to handle,” Dr. Binazir says.
“That becomes top of mind, all
the other stuff you are feeling
becomes secondary and that
is therapeutic in its own right
because you have to focus to
survive.”
With this idea of hiking being
used as a way to heal, many
organizations have developed
organized hikes as a way to
get more people engaged in
physical activity for a good
philanthropic cause.
The H.E.A.L Organization
is a faith based non-profit
organization established in
New York City. Founder of the
non-profit, Jennifer Wright
organized their first hiking
fundraiser up Mount Kenya,
the second tallest mountain in
Africa.
“We always wanted to do
some great adventure,” said
Wright, “And I always wanted to
climb Mount Kenya ever since
I started the organization. We
thought it would be a great way
to raise money and it was an
incredible experience.”
The five-day hike raised
over 5,000 dollars to help
support children at the
Rapha Community Centre in
Nyahururu, Kenya, a home built
by the organization for children
in need. The goal was to make
the home more sustainable by
installing a biogas system that
eliminates the use of firewood
and produces clean fuel in the
centre’s kitchen; among other
things.
After the success of the
organization’s first hike, Wright
is in the process of making
Hiking for HEAL an annual
official fundraiser.
said Wright.
26
hiking heals
“We work with a
number of children
who are dealing with
a number of issues,
from being forced into
marriage at a young
age, to not being able
to go to school. These
kinds of fundraisers
help us provide a safe
place for these children
who need some healing
of their own,”

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Wright

28
voluntourism
former lifeguard, weighed down by 30-50
lb. equipment, struggled while learning how
to swim all over again along the Honduras
Barrier Reef, scuba diving and collecting data for Reef
Conservation International.
Hoi Yee Ding’s childhood dream lay under the sea,
but the 30-year-old Toronto clerical worker left behind
her passion, marine biology, back in university.
In 2014, years later, swimming around vivid parrot
fish, queen conchs, dangerous sharks and invasive
lionfish, rekindled what Disney’s The Little Mermaid
first inspired in her life.
“You sometimes move away from passion and
rediscover it when you have a chance,” Ding says.
“That’s why I wanted to look for volunteer experience
in marine life. The first few days (diving) is a little bit
scary, it’s literally learning how to swim all over again.”
Changing her regular vacationer routine after
travelling across North America, Europe and Asia, she
searched for possibilities to give back to the world and
planet Earth.
A research report by travel analyst Henry
Harteveld, shows Ding is one of over 3.5 million
people embarking on international volunteer trips
each year. The multi-billion dollar volunteer tourism
industry – also known as voluntourism – is the fastest
growing sector in the travel space, according to CBC
documentary Volunteers Unleashed.
It is also the most controversial, following instances
where voluntourists take jobs beyond their training or
ability while rushing to provide international aid.
“Medical students operating on people… the dangers
of that,” says Jacob Taddy, founder and director of
Onwards Inc. “Or I think teachers is the one that really
hit home with me, we wouldn’t allow a random high
schooler to walk into our elementary school and teach
our kids, but it’s totally fine over there (in developing
countries.)”
Onwards is a non-profit organization based in
Milwaukee, seeking to eliminate poverty through
tourism based micro-enterprise development and
travel.
“We provide loans and training to those businesses
and then two-fold service as a non-profit travel
agency,” Taddy said. “We run trips to help support
those businesses and sectors and provide the initial
revenue base for those businesses.”
Onwards Board Member Pippa Biddle, 23, is
a former voluntourist who experienced “some
of the inefficacies and straight-up hypocrisy in
volunteer travel” through other organizations, while
participating in her high school’s trip to Tanzania.
During her stay at an orphanage, Biddle and her
classmates were tasked with building a library. After
mixing cement and laying bricks, she was surprised to
discover local workmen undoing and rebuilding her
daily progress overnight.
Their success was pragmatically unrealistic and
set up for failure, she explains, having received
approximately 20 minutes of instruction for laying
bricks, a specialty trade requiring year-long training in
most of the developed world.
“One of the key problems in volunteer travel is that
it doesn’t allow for that area’s economic development,”
Biddle said. “The labour is volunteer labour, rather
than being hired local labour.”
Ding had a different experience in Belize.
“ReefCI has research they’re trying to do and
they depend on volunteers to help them cover more
grounds, to produce more numbers,” she said. “Every
day has a purpose… to assist and find information for
the two main scientists on the island.”
The not-for-profit marine conservation organization
started operating off the coast of Punta Gorda in
2004. Travellers are lodged on a 1½ acre island named
Tom Owens Caye and referred to as guests instead of
volunteers by staff, because they pay fees covering both
their visit and ReefCI funding.
Contributing through “citizen science,” guests
are responsible for data collection such as seasonal
spawning rate statistics, juvenile and adult counts on
commercial species including the queen conch, lobster
Voluntourism:
By ROXANA CHIRIAC
A

29
voluntourism
a wide spectrum
and fin fish, as well as conducting general surveys on
the health of coral reefs.
“I’d say the most prevalent program that we have
right now is the lionfish program,” ReefCI founder and
director Polly Alford said. “Our guests help us spear
them and remove them and dissect them, collect data
from them and remove fins that help make jewelry
from them.”
Lionfish, initially released as former pets, are
an invasive species with a voracious appetite and
fast reproduction rate. They endanger native fish
populations and their venomous sting can leave divers
paralyzed for days. According to Alford, lionfish are
the biggest marine disaster in history.
ReefCI received the commended award Best for
Responsible Wildlife Experiences during the 10th
annual World Responsible Tourism Awards in 2013. It
received recognition for contributions toward
conservation; quality of guest experiences;
data quality; local economy
through employment and local
sourcing; including
working with
the department
of Fisheries
in Belize to help
protect the marine
life and sustain fish
stock and fishing.
“We don’t take jobs
from local people
at all, we do the
opposite,” Alford
said. “The majority of our staff
are Belizean; our marine biologist is
Belizean, our cooks are Belizean, our caretakers are
Belizean and our tour guides are Belizean – even our
dive masters are Belizean.”
Guests receive scuba diving lessons and earn their
PADI Open Water Diver certification once they
demonstrate the required skills successfully.
“It’s a great place to learn about marine life, people
come in and learn in-depth detail to help them write
their Master of Theories and so-forth,” Ding said. “But
if you’re just a regular person coming here to enjoy a
vacation and learn about the ecosystem, they also have
education materials to teach you.”
Overall, Biddle believes volunteer travel is generally a
short term Band-Aid solution.
“We should be really looking at how to fix systems
that are broken in the places that people want to travel
to,” she said. “I’m not telling people to stop travelling,
I think travelling is one of the best things you can ever
do, but go fix a system, don’t just become part of a
problem.”
Although her friends and family discouraged Ding
from travelling alone out of safety concerns, she
encourages other women to try it and experience
independence.
“It makes you become a more confident
person. It empowers you to do what
you think is right, to think for
yourself,” she said. “We still live
in a world where people think
it’s a man’s world or a woman’s
place is in a family
or a certain room
of the house,
but
when you’re
travelling it allows you
to do things that put you in situations
where nobody else can help you but
yourself.”
HOI YEE DING

manda Williams initially
tried to turn her A Dangerous
Business blog into a career.
Like many other travel blogs, A
Dangerous Business is a combination
of practical travel advice and personal
travel stories.
“It’s unfortunately really tough,
because you are never guaranteed a
steady paycheck,” Williams says. “A lot
of the time, people don’t pay on time
and it was just very stressful to try and
make a living that way.”
Although travel was still a passion
to Williams, she decided to find other
ways to pay her bills. She now does
contract and freelance work for the
websites and social media of various
companies.
Williams spends her time finding
ways to travel around her work
schedule.
Many people assume that to be
a travel blogger you need to drop
everything and just be a digital nomad.
It didn’t work that way for Williams,
however; she decided to press on as a
travel blogger and showed people one
can change their life to pursue their
love of travel, while still continuing
their job.
“A lot of times, you should just move
towards making travel the priority and
focusing on that, rather than the time
you have off,” Williams said.
The kind of advice Williams imparts
may not be earth-shattering info, but
they’re the kind of common sense
things that are easy to forget when
you’re trying to plan ahead.
One example of that is Williams’s
advice to take advantage of weekdays
and holidays. The travel blogger says
that if you’re planning a vacation, do it
over the weekend so you can take more
time off during the week.
Another way you can maintain your
job while on the move is by finding out
if your job is possible to do from home.
Williams said.
If it works, that can give you added
flexibility to work and travel at the
same time.
You can also try to negotiate working
overtime or on holidays in exchange
for getting more days off.
Another thing to do – if your
workplace allows it – is to donate a
day’s pay per quarter and get an extra
day off in exchange. If you are willing
to put the effort in, there are many
ways you can fit travel into a busy work
schedule.
“It’s just about getting creative with
the time that you have, and sometimes,
that might mean travelling closer to
home,” Williams says.
According to travel agent Debbie
Lloyd who runs the specialty travel
tours through Today’s Woman
Traveller, women tend to plan things
ahead of time, which is vital to
balancing travel with work.
“The younger market now likes
to arrange things as they go, to
leave things open, but when women
travel, they like to travel [i.e. plan in]
advance,” Lloyd says.
Melissa Shearer, an avid traveller
and former travel agent, runs a travel
blog called The Mellyboo Project.
When she was working as an agent,
a woman came in when she was still
early on in the job. The woman booked
an entire trip through the Canadian
Rockies through Shearer.
She was very thorough with the
planning.
“She was going to use a bus for
this portion, and then a tour for this
portion and then rent a car for this
portion,” Shearer said.
Her job was as a pharmacist and
she only had about seven to 10 days of
vacation time to work with.
She decided, however, that a few
days at her dream destination was
better than no days at all; and so she
planned carefully to ensure she could
get that.
Shearer was curious why she was
doing this by herself.
The woman responded that her
friends just like to shop when they go
away and don’t want to do the sort of
adventurous things that she wants to
do.
“If I wait for other people, I’m never
going to do it, so I’m going to use my
vacation time this summer and go to
the Rockies,” Shearer said.
She was fortunate that her dream
destination was within the nation
rather than far away, because
otherwise, she may have not been able
to pull this off.
“It’s just about getting creative with
the time that you have, and sometimes,
that might mean travelling closer to
home than travelling really far away,”
Williams said.
Balancing cheques:
how to work and travel
By ERIC PEMBER
Photo courtesy of Amanda Williams
Amanda Williams was inspired to base
her blog around a quote from Tolkien.
“It never hurts to
talk to the boss about
hey, could I maybe
work from home or
work somewhere else
for however many
weeks?”
30
balancing cheques
A

31
highlights
- STRAYER HIGHLIGHTS -
What is an Adventure?
Travel Blogger Spotlight: Helen Davies
HEAL Holiday Giving Challenge
What is an adventure?!
Travel Vlogger Sona Gil, is
your ultimate guide to all things
travel!
Her YouTube channel,
SoniaTravels, has over
100thousand subscribers and
has over 11million views!
Through her videos she shows
us evrything from how to pack
the ultimate travel bag to how to
find the best beaches in Brazil.
The HEAL non- profit
organization is hosting
the HEAL Holiday Giving
Challenge.
From Nov 24 - Jan 7 founder
Jennifer Wright is asking you
to be a part of something great!
We are asking our readers
to join the team, share the
campaign with your friends,
family to spread the word
about the work that the HEAL
foundation is doing in Kenya.
Here’s the info:
There are two “friendly
competitions” between any
charity that is registered. The
first will happen on Giving
Tuesday
(Dec. 1). The charity that
raises the most on that day will
receive a $25,000 donation.
The second competition will
award a $100,000 donation to
the charity that raises the most
money by January 7th.
There are weekly challenges
as well, so there are a lot of
opportunities to raise extra
money.
We can start collecting
donations on the 24th, but I’m
recruiting volunteers so we can
have a team established before
then. We have a lot of ambitious
goals in 2016, so I hope this will
be successful.
We’re also offering an
incentive. Anyone that signs up
and raises more than $100 will
be entered in a raffle to win a
$50 Amazon gift card and the
person that raises the most will
win a $100 Amazon gift card.
Not bad!
Where do we go for our fix of
wanderlust?
HELEN IN WONDERLUST!
At the end of her twenties,
Helen quit her job and headed
to Africa on a trip that would
ultimately change the course
of my life forever. Check out
her travel blog to join her
adventures!

@ StrayerMag
@ StrayerMag
Strayer MagazineStrayer Magazine
@ StrayerMag
@ StrayerMag

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