Ignoring the difficulties of destiny to transform them into a great adventure.
This is the life lesson given to us by Édith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier.
This couple from Quebec decided to undertake a world tour with their four children, Mia (11 years old), Léo (9 years old), Colin (7 years old) and Laurent (5 years old).
A unique experience that they wanted to carry out after learning that three of their children had retinitis pigmentosa.
This degenerative disease causes a dysfunction of the photoreceptors, that is to say the cells of the retina which capture the light signals.
Affected individuals gradually lose sight, with loss of night vision and continued narrowing of the visual field.
Without treatment to delay the progression of the disease, Mia, Colin and Laurent should become blind by the age of 30 or 40.
Among the siblings, only Leo was spared.
Read also“Around the world, you should not impose too many constraints”
A year of travel
When they heard the news, Edith Lemay and Sébastien Pelletier decided to set up this ambitious travel project.
An idea inspired by Mia's doctor who had suggested to them, at the time of the diagnosis, to create
"visual memories"
for her .
"I said to myself: 'I'm not going to show him an elephant in a book, I'm going to take him to see a real one'"
, tells the mother to the American media CNN.
“I will fill his visual memory with the best and most beautiful images I can give him.”
Both parents therefore wanted to go abroad for a year.
Something they had never dared to do before, when they had already made several journeys before the birth of their children.
After gathering the necessary savings, the family set their departure date for July 2020. In particular, they had planned to travel through Russia by land, before discovering China.
The Covid crisis decided otherwise.
But no discouragement.
The small tribe was able to leave two years later, in March 2022, from Montreal.
In the meantime, plans have changed and more room has been made for spontaneity and improvisation.
"We left without an itinerary
," says Edith Lemay.
"We had an idea of where we wanted to go, but we plan as we go, a month in advance."
Life-size learning
The family thus began their journey in Namibia, where they were able to rub shoulders with elephants, zebras and giraffes, before continuing to Zambia and Tanzania.
She later visited Turkey for a month, then traveled to Mongolia and Indonesia.
Objective: to discover the riches and beauties of the world.
“We really try to show them things they wouldn't have seen at home and give them the most incredible experiences
,” reveals the mother, who shares the family adventure on social networks.
What about school?
Children do their schooling at home.
But part of their learning also happens on the road.
The couple hopes that the trip will help them develop good coping skills, but also a form of resilience.
“You can learn from travel.
It's nice and fun, but it can also be very difficult
, ”explains the mother, to CNN.
“You may be tired.
There can be frustration.
So there are a lot of things you can learn from the trip itself.”
Return scheduled for March 2023 in Quebec.