Donna and Simon gave up the rat race in 2013 and travel fulltime with their daughter Araya, who, at age 4, has housesat on 3 continents! Donna administers the HouseSittingCafe Facebook Group. I was honored an interview she did with me appears on her blog. Here’s an excerpt:
5. What’s been your most interesting experience?
All of it! Every housesit I’ve taken has been “interesting.” Great pets, great locations. One stand-out was a 6-week assignment in Kent, UK, where I spent those weeks on perpetual blind dates: I had already been communicating with potential suitors through a dating web site. Argggghhhh! But, love bloomed…
I blogged about it: Puppy Love: Courting through Housesitting.
But, the truly interesting experiences are the housesits that never happened. Years ago, I applied for a housesit in Lebanon, but when the dates changed it didn’t work. Nevertheless, the homeowner “joined” my web site. When she learned I’d be coming to Beirut in 2013 to prepare for a return trip to Iraq, she invited me to spend a delightful weekend in her home high in the hills overlooking Beirut. We became fast friends and she and her husband were remarkably helpful during a time when violence was spiking both in Baghdad and Beirut.
Another remarkable encounter happened a few months ago. I had wanted to return to New Orleans’ Ninth Ward to see how the poorest community in the US was faring nearly 10 years after hurricane Katrina and the levee breaks. I saw a housesit posting in NO with no dates and emailed the couple. They replied that the posting was an error, but they said they were so moved by my writing about NO that they wanted to host me for a week! It was a delightful, insightful experience.
Read the entire interview at: http://www.3ontheroad.com/kelly.html