Worldly Women of Travel: Interview with Anna Pfaff

The latest GIVEjoy interview features Anna Pfaff.  We had the opportunity to work together recently on a volunteer project with The Fuller Center of Romania.  When Anna is not cultivating travel magic and volunteering abroad, she is committed to improving measurable health outcomes for women and communities in her work at the Centering Healthcare Institute in Asheville, North Carolina.  It is my pleasure to share my recent interview with Anna.

Per October 2025 Interview

What / who first inspired you to travel?

Sassy 17-year-old me was hell bent on leaving my small Virginia town and the status quo of American teenagerdom. I wanted to change the world in some way. I was a bit hazy on what I was changing or how I would do it, but the intent was clear. When I threatened to forego the formalities of a high school graduation and college, my parents (sweetly) reminded me that higher education was a requirement to join the Peace Corps as a young person. To me, the Peace Corps checked the boxes of social change and a worldview distinctly different from suburbia. I relented and went to college.

Fast forward 5 years, and a whole lot of privilege later (hello: higher education, overachieving white girl?). After a few domestic service projects and a summer volunteering on the Standing Rock Indian Reservation with the Unitarian Universalists Service Committee, I came to my own conclusion that an international program designed by the United States government, intended to better people who had very different worldviews and cultures, was not exactly what I had in mind.

I got my diploma but was unsure where I was headed next. One afternoon, immediately after the 911 attacks on the Twin Towers, my mom (sweetly) handed me a book that had been sitting on our family’s bookshelf for ages: Alternatives to the Peace Corps, published by the Mennonite Central Committee. Turns out, this book was exactly what I didn’t know I needed.

I applied to, was accepted to WorldTeach, a program run by Harvard, in partnership with international governments, which determined the best use and placement of volunteer English teachers abroad. By January 2002, I was in Costa Rica, teaching English to elementary students in a 300-person town in the middle of the coffee fields. The status was not quo. The road was not easy (or paved). Exactly where I wanted to be.

What / where was your most meaningful trip? Where was it and why was it meaningful?

I lived and worked in Costa Rica for 2 years. This service, in this period of my life, was the best thing I have done for myself to date. It brought me, now, a sassy 20-something-year-old, tangibly from idealism into integrity. The idea of what and how to change in the world is much easier to grasp when you are living in it. Turns out, some of the change I was looking for needed to start with me.

Was it all sunshine and rainbows? No. I spoke terrible Spanish, in the first person singular, for a solid year. I took cold showers and ate little more than beans, rice, saltines, and margarine. I lived with a family of 5, and taught English out of a school storage closet.

I walked everywhere. For the first time, I felt like I had dropped into my body. I started a community garden with the kids and actually paid attention to the seasons – or what passes for seasonal changes 11 degrees above the equator. I got my first taste of travel magic – those ineffable moments of coincidence and creative spark that happens so much more frequently in the uncharted waters of travel. Quakers sometimes call this “Way Opens”, meaning patience, inner listening, and a trust in life’s processes are at the heart of a meaningful existence. I could not agree more.

I got my first taste of travel magic – those ineffable moments of coincidence and creative spark that happens so much more frequently in the uncharted waters of travel.

How have your experiences traveling impacted your perspectives/actions?

I came back to the United States in 2004, suntanned, bilingual, and curious about the new worldview and person I would become in this re-familiar place.

I was disheartened at how many people in my community, and in the country, seemed to hate what they did for a living. As a result, I chose work that put me in direct contact with workers and families who had recently arrived from Central America. This wasn’t glamorous, easy, or high-paying, but it was satisfying.

I balked at fast consumer culture and how easily people threw their money at things that didn’t really bring them happiness. I remember stalwartly refusing to buy a couch for my apartment because — why on EARTH would a person need a couch when they had a perfectly good wooden chair? Ditto more than 4 forks — why?

I tried to keep the cadence I learned from rural Central America: for over a decade, I walked to work and spoke Spanish every single day.

More than anything, I came back from living abroad and felt solid and confident in myself as a woman. I acknowledged some privilege. I tried to keep myself humble. I made mistakes. The world changed. I changed. It was the perfect lesson in Way Opens. While I hope I would have come to these ends via other means, solo traveling absolutely clarified and accelerated the process.

What is next on your travel adventure list and why?

In January 2026, I am leading a trip with Fuller Global Builders to Juaya, El Salvador, to help build safe and decent housing for families.

Here is a bit of Way Opens for you: by sheer luck, Juayua is a small town that I passed through in my post-Costa Rica travels, some 22 years ago. The day I got off the bus from the capital, in January 2004, there was a food festival set up in the town square. I have a very vivid memory, and photographic evidence, of my 25-year-old self enjoying an Elote Loco. Will I enjoy this treat again in 2026? Youbettcha. Time hopping is one of my favorite travel magic tricks.

My trips are usually for a purpose, for service or art, and I choose to visit corners of the world that are not on most folks’ bucket list.

It is not lost on me that most of these insights and experiences are now 20 years in my rear-view mirror. I have continued to travel (with a break to save money, go to grad school, and start a career). My trips are usually for a purpose, for service or art, and I choose to visit corners of the world that are not on most folks’ bucket list. (No status quo here! It’s pretty great that we each get to choose our own bucket, don’t you think?) While each experience is unique, my first love is, and always will be, solo adventures. (Sorry, Mom! I know you (sweetly) worry – I will be fine.)

What advice would you give to others considering an international trip?

If I were in charge of things (which, thankfully, I am not), I would require every person to spend at least 6 months of their lives out of their comfort zone, living or working abroad. The empathy, humility, and experiences are valuable beyond measure. To me, the charm and palpability of the human connection, and bona fide travel magic, is more reassuring and life-giving than any antidote to stress or disillusionment that I have found. Travel changes who you are, so that you can be part of the how and the what that, together, changes the world.

Travel changes who you are, so that you can be part of the how and the what that, together, changes the world.

Your commitment, integrity, and passion shine incredibly bright!  Thank you for sharing your extraordinary journey and inspiring perspectives.

For more information, check out these links:

Centering Healthcare Institute

Standing Rock Indian Reservation

The Fuller Center for Housing

World Teach

Unitarian Universalist Service Committee