We're Home!

By now we are either all home, or are where we will be for most of the rest of the summer (Keane we hope you enjoy more time in Zambia). Our time in Zambia was at the same time long and full, and much too quick. We missed the people we loved, but enjoyed the time spent learning new things and meeting new people. Travel to a far away place can be disorienting when you return. Where we were has been separated from where we are by two days in airports and airplanes with little sleep and weird sun schedules – and now Zambia feels distant - it’s beginning to feel like somewhere we were (not somewhere we are). Now that I’ve been home for 15 hours I could almost convince myself it was a dream – except for the laundry to do, the clothes that all smell like Zambia, a computer full of pictures, and a sense of a change in my perspective on the world.

At the airport in Livingstone, preparing to fly away home. Sarah, Annie, Caleb and Jackie.

 We return to things here that are almost exactly the same as we left them (my cats immediately climbed on my lab when I sat down to write this) but we feel different. It can be hard to keep the sense of excitement and adventure once we have returned safe and sound with the spoils of our travel spilling out of our bags. But we were in Zambia, and we were changed by what we saw there. The challenge in Zambia was to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone to experience new things, and now that we are home the challenge will be to keep ourselves from returning to our comfort zone- to be mindful of what we have, what we say, and what we do. Our world has grown and now includes a little Zambian village, the people (and especially the kids) who live there, and the challenges they face.

Returning to Messiah after the trip. Messiah felt too normal!

 It will be important as we return to talk about our time there, but it may take us a long time to process all that we saw. We will be making connections with what we experience now and what we saw there for years to come and in many different situations. The goal is to be permanently changed by experiencing more of the world.  Our minds and our hearts have grown to hold Macha village during our trip, and we will continue to hold it in our hearts and prayers with hope for the future. 

Our time is Zambia is done, but the things we have learned will remain with us forever.