Hospitality

I spent the last two weekends surrounded by beautiful people. Two of our co-workers invited us into their homes. It was beautiful. They went out of their way to prepare their tea the way we like it and treated us better than we could ever deserve to be treated. We walked through their villages, sat at their tables, and visited their churches. We laughed as their children played, took photos, and we tried to dance along.

Every culture expresses hospitality slightly differently but, at it’s core, hospitality is the same everywhere. Hospitality is an expression of love. It’s sharing in not only material wealth but in joy and in life. We create our homes and we fill them with our laughter and our tears. Then, eventually, we invite friends and sometimes even strangers to visit what we’ve created.

When we let others cross over the doorway it is a physical representation of tearing down the walls we’ve built up to protect our families and ourselves. Welcoming a guest into your home is saying that you trust somebody enough to know that they’ll respect the home you’ve created. A dinner invitation is an invitation to step more deeply into friendship.

Going to people’s homes has always meant more to me than visiting with them at some generic restaurant or neutral space. Maybe that’s a result of how I was raised but I think it’s true for most people. Whether or not we put words to it we know that to enter into somebody’s home is important. Hospitality isn’t a one-way street. It requires that the guests show up. It requires us, the guests, to give up our time and step out of our comfort zones. A families’ home reflects their values. You won’t always have the same values as the people you’re visiting. Their home might be so clean that forgetting to take off your shoes will have them frustrated or it might be so crowded that you don’t even know where to sit. Even though it might make you uncomfortable you still have to show up. You have to do your part.

Hospitality is really important and it’s something that many people my age are not so great at participating in, myself included. Inviting people in takes practice and stepping in willingly as a guest also takes practices. I hope that we will continue to practice hospitality both as hosts and as guests. I’m so thankful for the opportunity I’ve had here to be a guest. I hope that if any one of my friends here ever shows up in Canada I will open up my home to them the way they have opened up their homes to me.

Photo 1: One of the trading centers we visited with our co-worker Sam and his family.

Photo 2: Sam's beautiful family.

Photo 3/4: Evas' (our Ugandan Mom) and her hilarious family... they are super sassy and it's great.