BOLT: Black Old Lesbians Traveling

Kathy and I played around with a lot of names before we decided on the acronym BOLT: Black Old Lesbians Traveling.  We wanted something that spoke to the intersections of who we are and what we are about.  Growing up in the 60s and 70s we experienced excitement, pride and much love for the Black power and pride movements.  So the ‘B’ was easy.  We are comfortable, out lesbians and traveling was and is our mission hence the ‘L’ and the ‘T’ were simple choices.

What about the ‘O’ though?  We chose the ‘O’ intentionally, deciding to embrace and celebrate this time of our lives.  For many people old continues to be a derogatory word.  We continue to be told “but you’re not old” as if it’s some horrible slur.  I’m old enough to remember when calling someone black was such a slur.  Things change. I can’t imagine someone telling me “but you’re not black” when I proudly state I’m a black woman.

The OLOC (Old Lesbians Organizing for Change) statement on “why old” says it better than I can.  “Society calls us Old behind our backs while calling us “Older” to our faces. “Old” has become a term of insult and shame. To be “Old” means to be ignored and scorned, to be made invisible and expendable.

We refute the lie that it is shameful to be an “Old” woman. We name ourselves “Old Lesbians” because we will no longer accommodate ourselves to language that implies in any way that “Old” means inferior.

We call ourselves OLD with pride. In doing so, we challenge the stereotypes directly. Thus, we empower and change ourselves, each other, and the world.”

So BOLT chooses to fully embrace the word old and to challenge the stereotypes and misconceptions around it.  We also know there’s a lot of privilege, joy and a ton of humor in being old.  Next blog will be about the specifics of traveling while old.

China! One of the most challenging and exhausting countries we’ve visited so far.  It is also one of the most interesting and beautiful. Am I glad we went? Most definitely! Do I want to return anytime soon? Absolutely not! The following are my impressions of China. Kathy will blog about her impressions in an upcoming post.

One of the best things for me about our Chinese visit was that my best friend, Lecia, came for part of the trip.  We got to explore Beijing  (The Great Wall and Forbidden Palace) and Xian  (The Terracotta Warriors, a Taoist temple and the Muslim Quarter) with her.  As expected, our time with Lecia was absolutely delightful. We also visted Hangzhou and Guangzhou after Lecia left. All together we spent exactly a month in China.

One thing totally unexpected, for me, is how very crowded China is. 1,400 billion people is just a number to me. Experiencing a country with so many people in reality meant crowds and queues everywhere.  The Chinese also have  very different cultural norms around personal space. People get right up against you in lines and I was often pushed, shoved and uncomfortably crowded.

An unexpected, but very pleasant aspect of China was how much natural beauty there is.  We expected to see beautiful and historic places, and we did. But we also visted lovely city parks, small temples and just city streets with lovely greenery. This was very nice in cities full of enormous, rather unattractive, skyscrapers.

I think the thing that made China most exhausting was the fact that there are very few black visitors  there. Everywhere we went we were stopped for pictures. We experienced this is Vietnam as well. However in China were were really stared at, pointed at and at times felt we were being laughed at. I have heard this is not just something black folks experience in China.  All non-Chinese experience it to some degree. Interestingly, Guangzhou has the largest number of African ex-pats  (over 10,000) in all of China. We were rarely asked for pictures there and were pointed and stared at much less.

I was pleasantly and unexpectedly surprised by the level of affluence we saw in the cities we visited. We saw none of the abject poverty that friends, who had visited in years past, had prepared me for. The Chinese seem to be doing very well.  This was reflected in higher prices than we have experienced in other parts of Asia. China is definitely the most expensive country we have visited.  This includes food, hotel and transportation costs. Another wonderful, if unexpected, experience was the excellent public transportation in all 4 cities we visited. We went everywhere by bus or subway and despite our non-existent Chinese we never got lost.

We were somewhat prepared for, but still found difficult, communications in China. Facebook, Google, Gmail, You Tube, Instagram  are all blocked in China. I was able to get on by using a VPN, Hide My Ass, however this was very sporadic. We usually have no difficulty buying cell phone service in the countries we visit but found it very difficult to do so in China. This meant relying on the wifi provided by our hotels which was also iffy.  There is virtually no English spoken in most places but charades type sign language and having important things (hotel names, places we wanted to visit) written out in Chinese was very helpful.  

So overall, we are very grateful for our visit to China, for safe travels, new experiences and one more country under the BOLT belt.

Do you have a Chinese experience to share or question to ask?
We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

In a recent post I shared a great idea, Travel With Balls. But if balls are not your thing, how about books.  When we traveled to Africa Kathy and I let our friends know, in advance, that we would be taking books to donate to children there.

International travel baggage allowances are such that we were able to collect and take 100 pounds (2 large suitcases full) to Africa.  We donated half to the  Leaders of Tomorrow Children’s Home in Tanzania.  The children there all took turns reading to us. It is a wonderful memory.

The other books went to Zambia where we had a fine time giving books to the children of Chipate Village.

And to the Mpika Village of Hope Children’s Home.

We even had the privilege of sharing a book with this hardworking sister.

Coloring books and crayons are another thing that bring joy to children everywhere.

Book bags and school supplies are also much appreciated and easy to travel with.

We connected with this village teacher. She’s sitting on one of the suitcases, filled with supplies and books for her students.

So, if not books or balls, BOLT encourages you to think about traveling with something that you can give away. I promise you will gain much more than you give!

What are your thoughts and experiences on giving back while traveling. We’d love to hear from you, please leave us a comment.

BOLT is currently traveling in the People’s Republic of China. We have pre-loaded this post as we expect to be without connections for a while.

Jan and William Zoochie have a great idea.  Wherever you go…travel with balls. There are two things you are pretty much assured of seeing when you travel: children and balls.  Balls are a kind of universal language. They help you make friends everywhere you go.

Balls can be inexpensively purchased at local stores, giving a small boost to the economy. They can then be given away to local children or teens, giving an enormous boost to the spirt.  Share a picture or video of this on the TWB Facebook page.

BOLT tries to remember to travel with balls, everywhere we go.  We are currently in the People’s Republic of China, without much internet access (this post has been pre-loaded). However, I’m sure we will have access to balls and children.  We look forward to sharing our pictures and stories with you soon.

BOLT will be visiting the People’s Republic of China for a while. We are looking forward to this new adventure and all the wonderful things we will see and the people we will meet. Internet access is different in the PRC. There is no Facebook, Instagram or Gmail. WiFi may be less reliable than what we have been experiencing in other parts of Asia.

If you need to reach us you can try us at boltraveling@outlook.com. If you don’t hear from us for a while, trust that we are well and enjoying our amazing life of home free travel.

For now why don’t you visit our website
and enjoy some pictures of our past travels.
https://boltraveling.com/oh-the-places-you-can-go/

As always, we love hearing from you with any questions, comments and most especially a sharing of your travel experiences and dreams.