Northwest counselor reflects on life of travel

Samuel Westbrook, better known as “Geno” by friends, is the coordinator of counseling in the University’s Upward Bound program. Westbrook has lived in 12 different states and four different countries, and he has traveled to many more.

Westbrook was born in Germany, and soon after, his family moved back to the States. From there, his family moved across the country while he was very young, from Georgia, Florida, Illinois, South Dakota, and all across Missouri, including St Louis, St. Charles, and Hannibal. Westbrook and his family moved around a lot because his father was a preacher in the Salvation Army, and they could not live in one place for more than three years.

“It made it so that you had to step out of your comfort zone a little bit to meet people,” Westbrook said. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I hadn’t traversed like I did, and I don't know if I would’ve caught the traveling bug, if you will.”

Westbrook graduated high school in 1983 in Aberdeen, S.D. and was all set to attend the college there at Northern State University, but had some friends who were going to Minot State University in North Dakota, he opted to join them.

“I applied probably two weeks before I got in, never been to North Dakota before, never seen the school, didn’t realize how cold it got in winter, and still ended up staying there for four years,” Westbrook said.

Westbrook admitted that in college, he didn’t focus on his grades and classes as much as he should have and ended up taking a year off, which turned into 10 years. After a few years of working various jobs across the Midwest, he finished his Master’s Degree in teaching at Northwest and in less than five months, was out of the country and traveled the world, only returning to the U.S. for events like weddings and funerals, for over a decade of teaching and traveling abroad.

While attending Northwest, Westbrook studied abroad in the east coast of Australia. He studied at Southern Cross University and lived in Byron Bay, where he learned to surf. While there, he bought a car and traveled across the country, calling it a two-day drive with nothing in between the east and west Australian coasts, and compared the kangaroo road crossings to deer in the States. 

He later lived in Perth, a major city on Australia’s west coast, before traveling all over Southeast Asia, including Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

Westbrook admitted that Vietnam is not a place he would hurry back too. He said he enjoyed the southern half of the country and met some friendly people, but the further north he got the less open people were. While in Vietnam, he visited the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

“I went to the American War Museum there, which is what they call the Vietnam War,” Westbrook said. “One thing that struck me was kids drawing pictures of our planes dropping bombs and all that stuff. That kind of stuck with me.”

While in Southeast Asia, Westbrook visited India, seeing the Taj Mahal and Mt. Everest from a distance. He also went further north and was in Beijing right before the 2008 Summer Olympics. He had originally taken a train into southern China from Laos and made his way east over three months.

“The closer you get towards Beijing and that area, the more people you see, and the dirtier and nosier it gets,” Westbrook said. “I can remember going through a coal mining town, and everywhere you touched was just coal dust.”

Westbrook said prior to the Beijing Summer Olympics, the Chinese government cleaned up a select few blocks where tourists would be and shut down factories to improve the air quality.

“Suddenly the air quality was magnificent. It turned blue again. This was a short time after they stopped burning coal within a certain radius,” Westbrook said. “It’s almost like man caused the climate to change.”

Westbrook went further north into Mongolia, spending some nights in a rural hut far away from civilization. While there, he was almost attacked by some locals asking for cigarettes and spare change.

“Life in a lot of countries is very cheap. I’ve heard more than a few stories of people being killed for less than one dollar,” Westbrook said. “Just senseless stupidity, and that’s kind of a scary thing.”

After Mongolia, Westbrook traveled through Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad, a 14-day journey, and he ended up developing pneumonia from the cold. He shared a ride with some Russian soldiers, the captain of them asking Westbrook if he was in the FBI, since most tourists visit Russia’s industrial east in Moscow or St. Petersburg.

He also traveled to Egypt at an interesting time. Westbrook stayed in Cairo during the 2011 Egyptian Revolution, seeing the chaos from the protestors, police, tanks and soldiers from his 12-floor hotel room, which he was the only resident in the hotel during his stay. Government and police buildings were burned down, but what he recalled the most was when the revolution ended the night that President Hosni Mubarak resigned.

“Everybody just went crazy because they had been oppressed for so many years. The girls were all uluating, and that was probably the wildest all-night party I’ve ever seen where there was no alcohol or drugs,” Westbrook said. “I didn’t really see the population of the town, but when Mubarak stepped down, there were people as far as you could see in the square, the city just opened up. The entire city was out in the streets going nuts.”

Westbrook left Egypt and hitchhiked across the Sinai Peninsula and visited Israel and Palestine, walking across the desert and grabbing rides whenever and wherever he could.

“It was really wild, especially having a dad that was a preacher and going to all these places I’ve heard about all my life as a kid,” Westbrook said. “I’m suddenly at the Sea of Galilee, walking around Nazareth and going through the gates of Jerusalem.”

Westbrook taught English in a public high school in Thailand for five years and another year in a private high school. While there, he had family check up on him because of the 2014 military coup. Westbrook said that in reality, all the chaos was specific to a few square blocks in Bangkok. He called Thailand a country of organized chaos, full of wonderful people and nature. He commuted to work everyday on his moped in the crowded streets.

“Sometimes, you may have to stop for elephants. I remember one time I was walking home, and I had to pause for a moment because there was a cobra slithering across my path,” Westbrook said. “The neighbors, who were from Burma, caught that cobra a few days later and made dinner out of it. Not bad. I wouldn’t eat it everyday, but it was alright.” 

Westbrook also taught in South Korea later on, which he also enjoyed. There were beautiful beaches, nice people and very large and modern cities. He said it was a very internally-focused country, with very focused and hard working students, whom he also taught English to.

“It always amazed me that a lot of the students could sit down and read English perfectly, but they can’t speak it,” Westbrook said. “I had students that can write amazing stories in English, but couldn’t speak any English, just little variances here and there.”

Westbrook came back to Northwest and got his masters in school counseling in 2018. His most recent trips included several trips to Mexico, as well as Belize and Colombia. COVID-19 put a delay in his traveling, and soon plans to visit more of South America, specifically Brazil, Argentina and Chile.