10 Years

It was 10 years ago today that I left on the trip of a lifetime, a trip that changed my life in more ways than I can count. 10 years ago today I met up with a group of people in Toronto's Pearson airport to head off to Cape Town, South Africa.

It was on that trip that I met my husband. I also renewed an old friendship with Karen and began an amazing friendship with Lynette. There were so many great people on that trip and I loved every minute of it.

Some of the things I saw while I was in South Africa have changed the way I look at the world. Sadly, it's far too easy to settled back into Western life once you're here. You say that you'll always be more aware of world poverty and issues in the developing world, but once you're back into your own routine, it's so easy to forget about those things.

The church our group worked at in Eldorado Park, just outside of Johannesburg had a playground right beside it. The playground also served as the garbage dump. Every day it made me sick to see children playing in the midst of all that garbage. I remember asking our pastor about the possibility of cleaning it up for them. He told me I could, but that by nighttime it would just look the same again. I can't imagine what kinds of diseases those kids were getting from playing there.



As I said earlier, I really met a lot of incredible people on that trip. The fact that I married one of them serves to remind me daily of what a great trip that was. Lynette and I have talked about how great it would be to have a reunion of everyone who went to see what has happened in our lives since that time and how much that trip shaped who we became. So, if you're out there, I'd love to hear from you!