Short Biography

I have been interested in travel for as long as I can remember, and often say "I think I need to travel like other people need to breathe".  Ever since my first overseas trip with my grandmother  to England from Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) at age eight , I've travelled whenever I get the chance. Sometimes travelling alone, sometimes with family and friends, I've been to all the continents except Antartica.

I believe that, after education and health, travel is one of the most important things people can do, as a way of trying to understand the world, and therefore to promote tolerance. 

I was a registered  clinical psychologist in South Africa, then switched to Psycholinguistics, then teaching ESL and counseling international students, which I now do in a program affiliated with the University of Illinois.  My husband is involved in many international research projects and we both travel as often as we can. I've always had a passion for reading and writing, so keeping a travel journal and taking (too many) photographs and slides was a pleasure that came naturally, and recently I decided to branch out into freelance travel writing too.

Family

They are all bitten by the travel bug as well. We travel together whenever we can. It's fun, and gives another perspective to have different generations traveling together and sharing adventures.

Contact Vivienne

Images and Text copyright Vivienne Mackie, 2009.

No reproduction, electronic, written or otherwise, without prior written consent.