Solo Travel Adventures: Safe Travel for Women, Preparing for a Trip, Overcoming Fear, Travel Tips

When God Sends You Halfway Across the World to Find Healing

• Cheryl Esch-Solo Travel Advocate/Travel Coach/Freedom Traveler • Season 3 • Episode 133

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Danielle Hiebert's life took an unexpected turn when, in the midst of a painful divorce after 32 years of marriage and exhausted from the pandemic's toll on educators, she found herself scrolling through job listings in the middle of the night. A curriculum coordinator position in Kuwait caught her eye, and within weeks, she was preparing to move halfway across the world.

What began as an escape from heartache transformed into a profound journey of healing and self-discovery. Kuwait—a country she knew only from Desert Storm references—became the backdrop for Danielle's personal renaissance. "That's how you know God has a wonderful sense of humor," she reflects, "because he sent me to a Muslim country to spiritually heal."

For two years, Danielle immersed herself in Middle Eastern culture, forming deep connections with people from diverse backgrounds. From her Lebanese neighbors who brought her meals to her Filipino colleague singing hymns in the school bathroom, these relationships expanded her worldview while providing the community she needed to heal. Professional validation came too, as she found herself surrounded by educators eager to learn from her—a stark contrast to the burnout she'd experienced in American schools.

The distance gave Danielle something precious: perspective. In her "apartment up in the sky," she found time for prayer, journaling, and processing grief. Weekend trips to Dubai, Jordan, and Oman fulfilled her adventurous spirit while teaching her to approach life with an open heart. Her advice for women considering similar journeys resonates with simple wisdom: "Go with an open heart and mind, because you never know how it's going to play out for you."

Want to explore how travel might support your own healing journey? I'm launching a new travel coaching program designed specifically for those working through grief, trauma, or feeling stuck. Book a free call to join the waiting list for this transformative experience launching in late May.

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Speaker 1:

If you've ever experienced so much heartache, pain, grief or even just the stress of everyday life is just so mounting and overwhelming. You have anxiety, just, and need to get away. You're saying, Calgon, take me away. So if you're from my era, we know what that means. But you want to go beyond the Calgon take me away, feel you want to escape these problems. Possibly on a beach would be a better place.

Speaker 1:

Well, I think we've all been there and especially at our age, in midlife and beyond, we have had tragedies. We've come across what I like to call these messy middle seasons in our life. Like to call these messy middle seasons in our life and often, you know, we just we sit in them like we're sitting in mud and we just don't know how to get out. And often we overlook this whole idea of stepping away from the situation and getting a clear picture. Well, my guest today and getting a clearer picture.

Speaker 1:

Well, my guest today, Danielle, did just that pretty, pretty big step that she took in leaving a messy situation and finding herself in the Middle East to heal. So join our conversation. Well, hello, sister travelers, I have an incredible guest today, Danielle Hebert. I've gotten to know her over the last few months and she has an incredible story of how she just kind of picked up her life and moved to the Middle East and I wanted her to share her story with you and that whole process and what happened. So let's dive in, Danielle, Tell us what was happening in your life that prompted such a drastic geographic change for you.

Speaker 2:

Well, first of all, I'm really excited to be on this podcast with you all because I am excited to to be a part of what Cheryl's doing here. I was going through a really crazy divorce after 32 years and COVID you know, everybody had that as well and so I just one night was not sleeping very well, and I had that earlier that day. I had told my soon to be ex-husband. I was like you can go anywhere in this world. I said, your job allows you to work from home, and mine did not, and so I did not sleep well that night and I just felt moved that why couldn't I, why couldn't I go anywhere else? And so I got up in the middle of the night. I did like most of us do and just start scrolling through and I was looking for jobs. I'm an educator by trade, so I was thinking, okay, let's go to Europe, let's go somewhere.

Speaker 2:

And Kuwait popped up and I was like, okay, let's see what this is. And it was a curriculum coordinator for Kuwait, an international school, and I was like, okay, and I was just looking at it and I thought, oh, I can do this, this sounds fun. And I honestly it was amazing because I must have just clicked with the LinkedIn, which is pretty cool when you can do that, but I didn't really update my LinkedIn because I really wasn't thinking about that. So, but all worked out. I got a call and within two weeks I had a job offer. And then it took about two months to get all the paperwork ready to go. And then, just a sidebar, my son was in the National Guard and he is working on becoming an officer in the National Guard and they said, oh, you need to do some overseas experience. And so during that two month process where I was getting my paperwork, he found out that he was going to be in Kuwait the same time that I was going to be in Kuwait. So God works things in bizarre ways, I mean.

Speaker 2:

I didn't get to see him a lot, but you know he was just 40 minutes away for one of those years that I was over there and I was over there for two years.

Speaker 1:

So that's how it happened. Oh, so you said that comment to your soon to be ex at the time and thought well, why can't I? I love that response, but was there some other, deeper intention for you to even consider moving away from your home country? I know you said you were going through a pretty difficult divorce.

Speaker 2:

Well, I think it had gotten to the point where, when anybody's been in a relationship of any kind and there's been abuse and just a loss of trust, I think is a huge thing to say. I think that there's a lot of healing that needs to take place, and I was at the point where I just, of course, as an educator, we had all taken beatings for the last several years because of the COVID situation, and so I was just probably emotionally, socially, physically, spiritually, just drained and I really just wanted a complete change and I just felt like I needed that for healing. I needed to be able to to just get away from the situation, and I think that's really I know, cheryl, I've talked about this before. It's very different from just hey, I want to run away from the situation, and sometimes you might feel that, but in the process I think you need to really be introspective and go what am I going to do to actually take care of me? It was the first time in 30 some years that I was able to just kind of focus on me and not to try to be selfish.

Speaker 2:

But I think that our generation as a whole, those of us that are in our fifties and sixties are just, we were trained to be all right, work, take care of kids, take care of the husband, and that is what women were to do, um, and in at the expense of ourselves, sometimes right. And so I think that, um, that is why, um, I was just like you know what, and at the same time, I also had a beautiful grandson, um, who I was taking care of a lot of the time. Um was my wonderful, wonderful blessing and I was just like you know. I need to get healthy so that I can be healthy for my grandkids too, and that I can be healthy for myself and that I can be what God intended me to be. And at that point, I truly did not feel, at that point, that way. So I was like fine, you know, let's Lord do it.

Speaker 2:

And the thing that I'm probably underselling this but to not fill out a large application to go in an international job, to not to be hired within a two week time period, with a huge nine hour time change for all the paperwork to fall into place, when that does not always happen, While I was still going through the divorce process, still cleaning out a house, still trying to get everything else ready. God had all of that fall into place, and when those things happen, you just you have a lot. It builds on your trust, right, and your trust is low at that point, and I think that that is such a blessing to be able to have that peace. Okay, god, you've got me. You've got me this far, you're going to keep, you're going to keep leading the way.

Speaker 2:

And so did I set out to go. Oh, I'm going to go to the Middle East. Um, you know, uh, the only thing I knew about Kuwait was Desert Storm. So I was like great, so, and then it's a Muslim country. So those were my two things and I'm thinking, all right, we'll see Lord, maybe it's. And I did. I shared this with Cheryl. I said that is how you know that God has a wonderful sense of humor, because he sent, he sent me to a Muslim country to spiritually heal and just to meet some amazing people in the process.

Speaker 1:

So Well, I think that's amazing. You had intention behind, uh, and you shared how God really orchestrated it because, you know, often people might ask like why Kuwait? You know, like you could have probably gone to teach in another country anywhere, but it's. But, like you said, everything just seamlessly fell into place for a reason and I love that, that story and how that came to be. But, you know, knowing you were going to Kuwait, you said you had a lot you were getting ready to do. You were going through the divorce, clearing out your house, you know, packing things up. I mean, that's a lot to you know, just carry. But did you have any concerns about living Kuwait based on? You know? You said you've only known Kuwait through Desert Storm, same thing with me. That's really all I know about Kuwait. But I also know that you, you know, culturally they do regard women differently. So was that a concern of yours, you know, in going to that type of country?

Speaker 2:

Well, in the interview I actually asked some of those questions because I was like what, what are we? Is there a dress code? Is there you know things that are? I wanted to go into the country being a little bit more prepared, so in the interview I did ask some of those things. You have to understand I'm being interviewed by people that are in hijabs and different things like this, so I'm also trying to be understanding of how I word my questions because I don't know.

Speaker 2:

I think either it's a personality thing or it's a culture thing, or we're all Americans and we just speak what we think. So we need to just kind of think about what our words are, that we say sometimes, and so basically, I was just asking you know about that right away, because I saw them in the interview, because we did Zoom interviews, obviously, and they're like no, but it was interesting because I had one lady, two ladies that were in there without hijabs and two ladies that did have hijabs on, and so I was like and for you all that don't really know what a hijab is, I didn't until they told me it's the head covering that the women wear over there. But basically, this is the deal is they were just. I was like, well, they're, they're not using one. And they're like, no, we don't expect you to have any other religion. We do have a Muslim religion.

Speaker 2:

This is, um, uh, the international school, and we want your expertise on American um education and training our teachers and things like that in our curriculum, and so that is how that all came to be. And so I did look it up and you had to have your arms and legs covered. So I was like, okay, so I'll just take my light long sleeve shirts and and, and that was kind of the disc. That's all I really worried about. But it was very different when I rocked in the airport. I wasn't expecting to see men in guns and things like that at the airport.

Speaker 1:

This was not in the military carb and stuff, right so.

Speaker 2:

But I was like, ok, you know what, just keep going. We're here and I met so many sweet people on the airplane that were going to Kuwait and working in different schools as well that I was like, okay, I mean, I thought that was even cool, is that? On the airplane I met a family, a lady with her two kids, that was working in another school in Kuwait. She was returning and just talking, and then I ended up sitting on a second flight next to a lady who worked for a business in Kuwait and she gave me her number and she said, oh well, you'll have to come and look me up and all this stuff. And I was just like this is so inviting and when you are ever at a point when you're trying to heal and you have been just your tank is empty, right, for lack of a better word your tank is empty. You need to be loved on right. You need some people to fill that up and God used complete strangers to do that and it's such a blessing.

Speaker 1:

So it sounds like you know. You were there two years, so it was 2021 is when you went 2021 to 2023.

Speaker 2:

2021 to 2023.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so you were there about two years and so in two years I know you made some friends. How were you treated by the locals? Because you actually kind of became one of them. So how was that?

Speaker 2:

Well, the nice thing is is that I got to live in the military. We call that on the economy instead of in. I was married to someone that had been in the military. We call that on the economy instead of in. I was married to someone that had been in the military, so I was used to traveling a little bit, but I think that it was great because I had everybody in my building. Were were maybe not Kuwaiti, because Kuwaitis have the bigger homes on the outers. I was in town, I was like downtown, and so I was in a big building and I took care of that too, because it's desert and you know, I mean I I get it. Some people love the desert landscape. That is not me. I have always been somebody that loved green, loved water. Put me by a lake, an ocean, any day, right, and so I got to have an apartment where I had a view. When there weren't, when there weren't, sandstorms, I had a view of golf, so I could see water.

Speaker 1:

So I was like okay, there is water.

Speaker 2:

So um that, to me that was another. God's got this right.

Speaker 2:

I mean totally of all the places a lot of, I mean a lot of the buildings and this was a tall building in order to do that right, most of the buildings were not that tall. I could see the roofs of most of the buildings around me and that meant I could have been in one of those buildings where I was just looking at other buildings, right, um. So to me those things are huge, huge. God plays Right. And so then I got there and I I learned the lingo, Right, I learned how to use the dinar.

Speaker 2:

I, most of the people that I probably worked at, were worked with were, were not necessarily Kuwaitis. I mean, I met a few Kuwaitis, but a lot of them were Indians, a lot of them were Egyptians, a lot of them were Iranians, pakistanians because they're the taxi drivers Sri Lankans all the Sri Lankans were my drivers. My little Egyptian man was my um little. They call them um Bacalas, a little Bacala, um, and uh, those are basically like a little mini 7-Eleven that's the size of a closet, right, um, they have little things and you call them and they will bring them to you.

Speaker 2:

And he, he came and brought me all my waters, whatever I needed. I would call and he would bring whatever. And um, he was, he saw, he saw me one day and I don't know what it was, I don't know something. He all of a sudden said you, christian? And I was like, well, yes, which is not something you usually hear, um, and he's in his normal garb and he raises his arm up and he has a cross. He said me too, and he said it really quietly, yeah, and he was a little Egyptian man and I was like you know what a blessing, right. And so you know there was a lot of that. And so you know there was a lot of that.

Speaker 2:

A lot of Filipino women were what they called nannies. When they are called over to watch the children for them and clean their house and fix their meals, and they always have them wear these, really these uniforms. But I didn't know that when I first saw them, and one was really pretty pink little pantsuit and was just like, oh, you were wearing such a cute outfit and all of a sudden she looked at me, honey, and she didn't. The thing that you have to learn about a lot of these other people that aren't queens. They live to not be seen. They live to not be to not be seen.

Speaker 2:

They live to not be seen because they do not want to lose their job. They live on nothing, so they send everything back to their homes for their families to live, because there just aren't jobs in their countries and we can't really fathom how this all works. I mean, I knew a driver. He lived on $10 a month, nothing, so he could send everything back to his family. And because some of them do not get paid very well, but, it's something.

Speaker 2:

And so she looked at me strange and then just kind of put her head down and went on and I would see this lady every. She was dropping off children every day when I was walking to work and I would always say good morning or something and she would just kind of look down or whatever. And then one day I was on my phone I'd gotten a message and I'm walking and this was like probably year two, by the way.

Speaker 2:

And all of a sudden. All of a sudden, I hear good morning. And I was like, I looked up and she actually spoke to me and I was like, oh, good morning. And I I think it had just become a routine and she, she felt safe enough to respond to me and that was just another blessing, too. Right, it was also another one of those aha moments. Again, you have your head somewhere you're not supposed to be. Look up, look around, you know. But such a blessing.

Speaker 2:

Now I would say there are some times that I didn't always feel super safe. Okay, share with us, not perfectly, but I would go to the grocery store to get bigger things that the Bacala wouldn't have and there would be one cashier who would always be come to me, come to me, your husband not here, you can come, stay with me and you know all those things and I kind of and that's what I'm saying I was able to go. Nope, I'm good, thank you, you know, and just play it off, and I would say hi to him every time he came in. But they, some of them, feel very empowered to kind of be a little more than flirty. You know what I mean, just kind of. And one day the other.

Speaker 2:

The scariest thing to me was when I was walking home one day it was in the summer everybody else had left. I didn't know that people could leave early last day, and so all of a sudden, I'm going, where is everybody, and the whole building's empty, except for a few of the the the safe, safe what do they call those security guards that were around the compound? And I'm I'm walking out and all of a sudden this car is right there next to me, just driving really slow right behind me as I'm walking. And this car is right there next to me, just driving really slow right behind me as I'm walking, and he's like I take you home, I take you home. And I'm like no, I'm good.

Speaker 2:

And it just kept, I mean, just kept going. And I was like this is kind of freaking me out, right. So I was like no, I'm fine. And I ran across the street into the grocery store parking lot and then he drove off. But that the street into the grocery store parking lot, and then he drove off. But that was the weirdest time for me because there was nobody around. Everybody left early. They forgot. I left me in my little office, but other than that it was a lot more blessings than not.

Speaker 2:

And I had this wonderful Lebanese family that lived in the apartment building next to me. They just took me in, they brought me meals. I worked with their son and helped tutor him some. He was the sweetest little boy. He tried to teach me how to speak Arabic. Bless his heart. He would take my mouth and go no, you have to make a sound. And I was just like oh, I'm so sorry, I'm not doing that very well at this and um, and it just goes to show you that you know, it's very hard to learn some like especially guttural song. You know, and I'm I'll be honest, I don't even think I'm, I'm meant for a whole bunch of languages, but I know bits and pieces and um, I think it's so important to teach our little ones to speak languages when they're young. Their mouths are forming.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, my, my kids often, uh, get mad at me because I didn't do that for them. So I guess we'll do it for the next generation, right?

Speaker 1:

yes, well yes, that's, that's my grandchildren, right generation, right. Well, you were there for two years and I'm sure while you were there, I know you had an opportunity set a little bit to see one of your sons, but you have two other sons and you have other family and friends that you know were back in the States, you know. I'm sure you missed your family. How did you combat any kind of homesickness that you might have been experiencing while there?

Speaker 2:

You know I, I really I had met so many new people and so many awesome people that I hate saying this because I love my family and they know that. Um, but I have to let me back up for a minute. I told you way back and this is going to date me but when my husband and I first got married, we moved to Germany because he was in the military in 1989. And we were in Germany when the wall came down, so we drove into East Germany. There really wasn't East Germany. We drove into that the day the wall came down. And so I mean we were just kids, just kids probably weren't supposed to do that, who knows Took a back road, I mean, you know so historic event, though, so yes, and so I had always been.

Speaker 2:

I had, oh, that was always my thing, right, and I, even in in high school, when we graduated, most to see the world, you know. I mean, you know those little things that they have seniors vote on and all that stuff Mine, one of mine, was the first to see the world, and that's because I always had this desire to just travel everywhere, and I traveled every summer. My parents were educators, so we traveled everywhere every summer. That was just kind of something that I have a passion for is travel in the first place, right, and so, to me, I was not ever really homesick because I knew what I was doing.

Speaker 2:

And the thing that's so great oh my gosh, in 1989, they didn't have something called WhatsApp. They have WhatsApp now, so I was able to call, text my family whenever, of course, they didn't like it because of time. You know, nine hour time change, they're like mother, it is six in the morning. I'm like I know, I'm trying to catch you, so you know. So I really I got to talk to my family and I got to, and I think the thing that's so valuable about that is because when you do, it's not how's the weather, right, it's, it's deeper conversations. Catch me up. What's going on?

Speaker 1:

in your life Right.

Speaker 2:

And um, and I feel like sometimes, in some ways, I had better conversations with um a lot of those you know and and my daughter-in-law well, she's my son's fiance at the time Well, not quite, she was his girlfriend. She flew over to Kuwait, stayed at my house. He came over, I had helped him pick out a ring, and so they got engaged in my little apartment in Kuwait and I didn't, I didn't know that. Yes, Very cool. And then we, um and Jessica, my, my daughter-in-law. Now we, we, we kind of coordinated at the end of the year or so that she went with me and we took a whole tour of Italy and then we came back to Kuwait, got her stuff and went home. So it was, it was just, I mean, to me I think it was a lot more meaningful experiences. I think that's what you get out of travel in general. More meaningful experiences. I think that's what you get out of travel in general when you have your heart open and your eyes out of your phone.

Speaker 2:

I think that that is what life is about, is those meaningful moments and being able to listen to God's leading, and I think that I was able to be able to heal that way. I was able to listen to a lot of great sermons, dive into so those those quote unquote lonely moments that you were talking about, where I couldn't get homesick. I was. I was able to just hey, this is my, this is my prayer time, this is my Bible Bible time. And I'll tell you my. I wasn't used to the bells going off, and if you've ever been in the Middle East, you'll understand that they have bells going off every time they're supposed to pray in their churches and then they have somebody coming over the loudspeaker and speaking in Arabic, but to an American it sounds like you know, and I'm just like what just happened, and my apartment was really close, so at like 11 at night the first night.

Speaker 2:

I got there. It's going off and I'm thinking what does that mean? Is that like a tornado drill? I don't know what this is right.

Speaker 1:

We're from Texas, so it's a tornado drill for us.

Speaker 2:

I'm just like what is happening, and then I'm looking out all the windows trying to figure out oh, it's coming from that mosque. Okay, obviously this must be a prayer thing, right. So. But it woke me up, scared me and I, and then I got to the point where I just sleep through it. So I but when you have stuff like that in your head, if you will, or just like because I mean that was several times throughout the day, you would hear this it's a good reminder of just praying for to your Heavenly Father, right and go. You know what I can do, that I can pray. I don't have to get down and face a certain way, but I can pray, and I think that that was. It was just a really wonderful thing.

Speaker 2:

And I'll tell you, I was walking into work one day and one of the nannies, one of the cleaners, she was in the bathroom and she was singing him a Filipino lady, and she was singing him and I walked in.

Speaker 2:

I was like I know that him and they have large little pockets of like Filipino churches and Greek Orthodox churches and greek orthodox churches and indian churches that are christian churches that they have, that they meet in either homes or different things like that and and that is. It was such so sweet, right, so sweet to hear that I have grown up in the bible. I mean, I've grown up in the united states and then I've raised my children in the Bible Belt. Can't tell you that I've ever heard anybody singing a hymn at work, you know, and it was very. It just touched me in a really sweet way. So I mean, those are the moments that I said God gives you in the midst of this world and when we want to think what we think about other places in the world. I'm just here to say sometimes we need to rethink those places, because God has people that love him in lots of pockets of this world about places that are not true.

Speaker 1:

They're just based on what little media information we've gathered or past experiences that we've heard about. And, like you said, there's a saying there's just kindness everywhere. You just have to look for it. And I believe that as well. And I think you also express being open, know being open, having this open heart and mind too, is important. To see that, but also to receive that you know without judgment. So I would imagine you know you've given little hints that over these two years, while you were in Kuwait, that it sounds like you began your healing process. You know when you went to leave after those two years, how different did you feel? You know, from a emotional, physical, you know all that stuff that you were dealing with beforehand to now you're two years in what were well, I guess what you know, what changes did you see in yourself? And then you know when you came back, I guess, the re-entry they call it right.

Speaker 2:

Right, I think it was really interesting, I, and it's really important to know that there are so many other, because I was in an international school. I had so many different people I had that were that became great friends with me, you know, from Buddhist to Mormon to you know, that were just different teachers and and we actually, you know, had some great opportunities from Hindu, yeah, I, I, just I got to learn about so many different religions, um, just from being there and loving on people, and I think that that is that is our goal, and so for me, it was not only did I feel loved on for just being a newcomer and I was, it fed. First of all, I'm going to back up for a minute. It fed my professional need, because I had been drained from our school system and just the different things that were going on here, and I was able to go and build up teachers and, in the process of me training teachers how to do things, the appreciation and the love and the kindness that came back to me, that was like, oh my gosh, Danielle, please show me more, Please teach me more.

Speaker 2:

Right, Because we don't I don't always have that situation in the United States, right? We sometimes have that eagerness to learn and that's that's sad on, it's a sad commentary on on our part. But it was very exciting to me because I was going to try to learn from them and they wanted to learn from me and because of that I really helped my emotional wellbeing. But it also helped my. I didn't realize how low I had gotten in my own self-esteem and my own abilities to do my job Right.

Speaker 1:

And.

Speaker 2:

I think when we get to those points we don't realize that we're just beat up across the board.

Speaker 2:

You know, when we, when we get to those low points, I would probably have said in my 20s, oh yeah, even in high school, oh, I'm a pretty confident person, but I think at that point I wasn't, and so I was just like, hey, let's just dive in, let's see what we got, let's see what we can do, and just bonding with people and learning from them and being willing to learn from them and wanting to learn from you was such a beautiful thing that that was a very major healing part for me. But also just building beautiful relationships with people from all over the world and I you know, and just listening to each other, and I think I think that that's what's funny is, I don't think that sometimes we take the time. It was really awesome because we did have a lot of Muslim holidays, so on those Muslim holidays I got to go and travel all over the world with different people, right, and you just get to learn so much when you, when you do that and and I think you have to go in with that is going what can I learn, lord? What is it you're trying to show me? And I think, if have to go in with that is going what can I learn, lord, what is it you're trying to show me? And I think if you don't, if you close yourself off, you're not going to get that.

Speaker 2:

And so, like I already told you, I got to learn to devour marvelous messages and my journaling and just all these things, my prayers and everything that I got to go through and the people I wanted to reconcile. You know my ex-husband Right, I went through all these things. Okay, um started praying for him. Um, just total, um, spiritual healing, right and emotional healing, and um.

Speaker 2:

So it was just that was what was going on behind the scenes. Right, right, my little apartment up in the sky.

Speaker 2:

um, and overlooking the girl looking everything which was so cool to me, because I love heights, I love this stuff um, and it was just, uh, just amazing. And then I would get my venture filled, which hadn't been filled in quite a long time um, by going um burj khalifa when I'm talking about being up high right and to Dubai and had a fabulous trip, and a lot of that got paid for, because I was working with a textbook company who wanted me to come to a conference in Dubai and you know wind and dined me and they did so wonderful and it was, it was amazing, and you know. So, like I said, I can go on and on. There's so many things that God just orchestrated in my life and when you are able to just, and in the moment, sometimes you don't see it, but when you sit back and you're journaling or you're, reading.

Speaker 2:

God's word, or you're singing or whatever. That is what you're seeing, that God is filling your soul, Right, and so that was all great I did. To be honest, I did come back with some health issues, but a lot of that had to do with my age and my hormones and I, I gotta say I really miss my socialized medicine because everything was paid for over the back year. So, but you know, um, but that, that was that's how it played out.

Speaker 1:

Well, and often distance, you know, or getting out of our normal, our comfort zones, propels us forward and you know new experiences, healing whatever is needed. We see things differently and yeah, so I love that you did that. Now I don't what advice would you give to a woman?

Speaker 2:

traveling. I think you need to go in with an open mind and an open heart and there's things you're going to see, like when you go to a third world country, that just break your heart and you just have to just pray because you can't fix that for them. But there's also things that you're going to see there's just going to be the sweetest people in the world and I met this wonderful Jordanian family. Such a blessing. He was our tour guide. He showed us all over Jordan. By the way, jordan is beautiful. You cannot I cannot express the Dead Sea, petra. Those are must, must, do's. Of course, everybody says I do I just to do, to buy Right. I mean, if you're going to be in the Middle East, go to Dubai. It's got so many amazing things and Bahrain and Qatar are now trying to compete with Dubai a little bit.

Speaker 1:

They're doing a lot of cool things.

Speaker 2:

Oman has a world all of its own. It's like a little sea village down in the Gulf and Indian Ocean and it's very sweet people. So they all have different. I think, kind of, if you go to different States in the United States, you get a different feel, right and um. I just like, if you go to different countries and even though they're all part of the middle East, they all have a different um feel to them. And it's funny because if you would have asked me three, four years ago if I would ever want to travel to the middle East, I was like, oh, not interested. Thank you, um and um. But you know God, god works things in mysterious ways, right and um. So my advice is just definitely, if you have those opportunities and it opens up, go, because you never know what you're going to, um and. But, like I said, go with an open heart, go with an open mind, because you never know how it's going to play out for you.

Speaker 1:

Yes, well, danielle, this has been an amazing time and I just so appreciate all your honesty and and opening up about your experience and just I'm thankful for your healing. That happened. So thank you so much for being here and I thank you for having me.

Speaker 2:

I'm so excited to share with your people.

Speaker 1:

So much fun. Yes, thank you again All right, bye-bye, bye.

Speaker 1:

What an incredible story of unlikely place to find healing with Danielle. I love it and I know for a fact and I've experienced it myself that healing can come in those strangest places, and travel can play a part of that. As listeners of my podcast, I would love to help you find healing If you find yourself in a place of struggling with past grief, trauma, anything that has placed you in a place that you feel stuck and you know you want to move on. I'm here to provide travel coaching. As a certified travel coach.

Speaker 1:

I have a new program I am launching. I'm thrilled to offer it up starting the end of May, but right now I am taking names. I encourage you to book a call to get on the waiting list for when this program launches, and so this is a program that's going to offer you coaching to help guide you through and also help you utilize travel as a tool for your healing journey. So I hope you will book a call. I will put the link in the show notes. This is a free call and it's just to assess whether the program is right for you and to get your name and information on the wait list so that when it releases the end of May, you'll be able to sign up for that program right away. All right, sister travelers, get out there and have those adventures.

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Cheryl Esch

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