For Williamson, discovering self means serving others

It was obvious the man seated at the table next to Cecil Williamson was fascinated as she talked about her experiences as a volunteer overseas. He kept looking at her out of the corner of his eye.

Finally, he interrupted the conversation and started asking her questions, saying what she was doing was just what he was looking for. At her prompting, he went on line and, smiling, found the site she suggested.

Williamson’s adventures have drawn admiration from some and shudders of fear from others, but the former mayor of Demopolis has found the outlet she needed at this time in her life.

She wasn’t nervous at all, she said. “I just do it.”

The death of her husband, Wayne, in February 2015 was just the last of a series of losses that slammed Williamson. In the fall of that year she went to Ireland for two months and stayed at a Catholic monastery to work on grief and undergo spiritual direction.

“I could either do something or sit around and wait for God to come get me,” she said.

It’s not like she hasn’t offered her services before. “Everything I’ve done here (in Demopolis) has been volunteer,” including, she joked, her term as mayor. “That was pretty much volunteer.”

She decided to do something new and embarked on “my first real adventure by myself.”

Last September she flew to Laos (pronounced Lao, she stressed) and volunteered with the group Global Vision International (GVI) to teach English to a group of young Buddhist novices for two months. Williamson had never taught anything before.

Her son, Rob, who works with the State Department in the Pentagon, “was not happy with my going,” she said.

Williamson could have chosen to visit many countries over a two-month period, but, “I’m not a very good sightseer,” she explained. “I really like to know the people. I like to see how they live, I like to see how they work, I like to see what they do. I like to understand the culture.”

GVI has base camps in 37 countries, she said. The group is very organized, and volunteer teachers are placed with a partner to team teach their students. Williamson joined Alejandro, a young Mexican student. Most of her fellow teachers were young men and women in their “gap” year from college.

That’s when she experienced the biggest surprise of her adventure: the diversity of the volunteers.

“It was amazing,” she said. “It was like sitting in the U.N. There is so much diversity.”

Her time in Laos introduced her to an entirely different culture. She did her share of sightseeing, but she also planted rice while wading through muddy paddies, threshed the rice by hand, tried different foods and learned the social taboos.

“Every day it was a surprise,” she said.

Not once in the two months did she or Alejandro have any discipline problems. “They have absolute respect for authority,” she explained.

Laos has no public education. If families want free education for their sons, the boys become Buddhist novices at a young age. When they turn 18, they decide whether to become monks or return to the secular world.

Whatever decision they make, said Williamson, the boys need to learn English in order to succeed in their chosen field.

In spite of her adventurous spirit, Williamson did have one complaint. “I don’t mind the food. I don’t care where I sleep,” she said. “My only nemesis was the heat.”

When she arrived in Laos in early September, the temperature hovered in the 100s. Two months later at her departure, it had dropped to the 80s. None of the buildings were air conditioned. “I couldn’t drink enough water,” she said.

Since GVI is a volunteer organization, all those who travel to other countries foot their own bill. For the two months in Laos, Williamson paid $4,200 for room and board, in addition to her travel expenses.

GVI doesn’t require immunization, but after checking with the state Health Department, she took several shots to protect herself.

Williamson admits that such adventures are not for everybody. Many people, she said, “think I’m crazy.” She’s been told she’s brave or that, “I couldn’t eat the food, “I couldn’t do this, I couldn’t do that.”

But Williamson is ready for the next adventure. On Feb. 7 she left for Guatemala for another two months to teach yet again. This time her sojourn was set up by her college roommate.

She has been learning Spanish for her foray to Guatemala, and she is mulling over where to volunteer next. Right now she is whether to volunteer in Nepal or Sri Lanka this fall.

She tells those who share her love of adventure and the desire to keep learning and experiencing new things, “If you think you can do it, you can.”

The man sitting next to her may be one of them. He thanked Williamson, picked up his laptop and left with a determined look on his face.

Williamson is determined to keep volunteering until she no longer can. Paraphrasing from Erma Bombeck, she said, “When I see God I want to be able to say, ‘I used every gift you gave me’.”