The Silk Road is gone. At one point, the Silk Road—which, of course, wasn’t really a road, but just a collection of routes and passes—connected the east and the west. It brought people, goods, religion, learning, and culture from one end of Eurasia to the other, year after year, for more than a millennia. And…
Author: Five Backpacks Family
Not all who wander are lost — we are living nomadically, exploring, and wandering to learn about the world, its people, and ourselves.
Chris and Holly Santillo are not your regular authors.
They are the epitome of the Latin phrase “Mens sana in corpore sano,” which means “A healthy mind in a healthy body.”
Having strong backgrounds in Martial Arts with Chris being the founder and Head Instructor at Potomac Kempo in Alexandria, Virginia, and Holly being a Senior Instructor, they have managed to develop the principles of Martial Arts into a cohesive parenting methodology.
They believe that children (and parents) with broader horizons and an open mind can sow the seeds for future generations of confident, strong, and resilient adults.
Now, you can find them gliding through the Siberian steppes on the Trans-Siberian Railway, visiting the buzzing markets of Samarkand on the Silk Road, or wondering at the vastness of the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. They have decided to live a nomadic life and explore the world with their three boys in order to bring back memories, ideas, experiences, and a fresh view on life.
Join their epic journey at www.FiveBackpacks.family, visit www.ResilienceParenting.info for more information on their book, and www.PotomacKempo.com to learn about their Martial Arts teachings.
The Silk Road is Alive and Well – Opinion I
Imagine being a merchant’s apprentice leaving his village for the first time to travel thousands of miles from East to West, trading your wares. What astonishment would you experience as the landscape transformed from fertile green valleys to parched deserts to high mountain passes? How would it be to hear another language for the first…
What Do You Think of the People of Uzbekistan?
I didn’t learn about Uzbekistan in school. It became an independent country when I was an awkward adolescent in eighth grade, more absorbed the discomfort of my braces than in the collapse of the Soviet Union. As per usual with ignorance, when we decided to follow the silk road all the way through “the Stans”…
My View From the Front Seat — Taxi Safety in Central Asia
First, let me start by saying that I’m happy to be alive. We are a family of five, and though we favor our own ten feet, occasionally we need to traverse greater distances. So, we pile into a taxi—no, really, we pile in. The compact sedans of central Asia do not offer over much hip…
Leaving China – Anthropological Goggles and Surveillance Cameras
I wasn’t sad to leave China. The culture of this country has captured my fancy for decades—traditional Chinese medicine, martial arts, calligraphy, the five phases, feng shui, spicy stir fry…the list of enticing inventions and concepts goes on and on. I’ve studied China extensively, written scholarly papers, even a summer camp curriculum. Given this familiarity,…