Kao Fela Rea Tsoana

Sitting around the table, I feel a whole world encompassed around 10 chairs.  Two people from America, two people from Germany, two people from Spain, two people from Korea, and two people from England.  While money is tight and budgets need to be kept, tonight we cannot help but indulge.  There is food to be eaten, music to be sung, cards to be played, and company to be enjoyed.  We all speak different languages and carry different accidents, yet we share in the common language of human spirit and zest for life.  Tonight, we give thanks.

Being invited to my first BBQ was something to delight in.  As a newcomer in a foreign city, a simple invite in the giving meant so much to the receiver, and I had been looking forward to this night all week.  This may seem silly, but to be able to say I had plans made me feel less like an outsider and more like I belonged. 

In a city of diversity, this display of culture has become quite normal.  When I was invited to this event, I was told it was a BBQ and envisioned grilled hamburgers and corn on the cob.  Instead, I was greeted with traditional Korean food.  I savored beef and pork overflowing into lettuce wraps with radishes, spicy sauces, and rice.  And it was great!

While languages flowed in forms of many, we all knew a common game: Uno!   So we rejoiced and we played. 

Having experienced and fallen in love with the culture of Lesotho in 2011, I carry a saying close in my heart as I experience everyday living: Kao Fela Rea Tsoana.  We are all the same. 

We come from different backgrounds and we’ve lived many different lives, but we each have a heart that beats an average of 108,000 times a day and we cry tears and laugh and dream dreams when we lay our head to rest at night.  We are connected.  We are all the same.

So tonight, I thank God for the opportunity to learn in the abundance of human diversity and common uniformity.  I thank God for rich food and the warmth of laughter that can fill a room in thick happiness.  It’s moments like these that bring the importance of this YAGM year into perspective.  It’s about everyday living and the messages of worship I can learn from merely sitting around a table.