Beth's Blog: Africa Reunion, Aug. 2nd, 2008

I am constantly amazed at how small a world we live in. I firmly believe all this was more than a series of coincidences-- I befriended a fellow missionary kid, Greg, in Indiana who in turn connected me to another MK, Pam, here in Boston. It turned out that her parents knew mine in Swaziland -- back before my parents were even married!

For almost a year now, Pam and I have been getting together almost once a month for dinner after work. We've had a delightful time just talking Africa. The waiters don't like us very much, we take for ever to get around to ordering!!

Anyway, during our get-togethers, we talked about how nice it would be to have a reunion for a bunch of us African missionaries and missionary kids here in the US. And how we thought they would enjoy reminiscing just as much as we did. Well, after months of plotting and planning, it finally happened on August 2nd! Although there were about 75 on my initial contact list (and those were just missionaries and family in the area!), we had almost 40 converge on the campus of Eastern Nazarene College. The weather was a bit questionable, but it remained nice until we were clearing things up.

We had a real feast! Our dishes included: coconut chicken, matsawu (both Mozambican dishes), mielie pap and tomato & onion sauce, samoosas, amagwinya (Zulu fried dough), KFC chicken (in honor of the one in Manzini), salads, curry and rice, boerewors (on the braai!), hamburgers, hotdogs, koeksisters, milk tarts, fudge, etc. Most of us hadn't eaten that much in long, long time!

We had a delightful time together, for some it was a chance to reconnect, for others its was a chance to meet people they knew by name only. It was wonderful to visit with folks who shared that same love of Africa. My only regret-- it was over far too quickly!