We discovered resources within ourselves.\u00a0 We learned how to navigate the streets of Manzini, where the best restaurants were, where to get the best produce.\u00a0 Wren and I explored the marketplace from top to bottom, finding all the wonderful gems there, learning to speak siSwati from orange vendors.\u00a0 After church one day Milo and I stopped by the local mosque and were invited to come back, which we did.\u00a0\u00a0Our front porch became the neighborhood kid hangout and there would be calls for Milo, Wren and Zeph from the parking lot at all hours of the day.\u00a0 We learned by trial and error and found joy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In many ways it reaffirmed my belief in the importance of travel, not just seeing new places, but the ways certain experiences can change who you are, how you see the world and how the world sees you.\u00a0 This is the true meaning of the word journey, and this was a journey for us.\u00a0 It allowed me to see, and in my own small, perhaps insignificant way, to address the ugly, which is this history of colonialism, of global exploitation and continuing racism.\u00a0 Sending money is good.\u00a0 It is important and necessary to share what we have.\u00a0 And admittedly it probably would have been more cost effective for us to have stayed home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But being there in person adds to this message.\u00a0 Eating rice and beans with your hands and laughing with everyone else at how messy and ridiculous you look.\u00a0 Holding a beautiful baby boy as he snuggles into your neck.\u00a0\u00a0Watching your kids play soccer with other kids on grassy fields with balls made out of plastic bags.\u00a0 When people would ask what church we attended and we would respond, Kukhany O\u2019kusha Zion Church, this African church from an African denomination, you could see their expression change.\u00a0 Being with a different flock, being found by God here, far from home, and then creating home in this new place, changed all of us I believe.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n