Packing is an expression of our expectations. Watching my kids pack for this trip is wild. Large bulky toys, entire crates filled with stuffed animals. A random trinket, a half eaten snack, these are the essentials which will prepare us for ten weeks in sub-Saharan Africa.

We tend to overestimate how similar a new place will be. When I moved to Hubei province in 2007 I imagined it to be a chic, oriental version of my life in suburban Michigan: sushi rolls and happy hours, erhu music playing against the backdrop of a tranquil pond with carp, pagodas and kimonos. Everything would smell like a high end spa and people would speak a nobly accented version of the English language. So I packed my bags in a carefree way that made no sense.

Conversely we also tend to underestimate how similar a new place will be. For white people it’s our coffee. I’d better bring my coffee! What if they don’t have good coffee!? The ancient drink of Ethiopian nobility has become our Caucasian morning methadone. I'd be lying if I told you I’ve never packed my espresso machine into a suitcase before.

Many places I’ve been to in the world have reasonable coffee but if they don’t, that could be an invitation to try something good and new. Jingzhou had horrendous coffee, packets of instant mixed with powdered milk. The town also had an operating tea house that had been around since the early Qing dynasty. When will you get a chance to drink a classic cup like that?

Wherever you’re going in life, I’ll bet the new place has coffee, I’ll bet they sell pants there, and soaps which are safe for use. I’ll bet there’s bedsheets and music and some form of cutlery. We don’t need to bring our entire homes with us on the road, we don’t need to pack our bags in an anxious way that makes no sense.

Is packing even worth it at all or would we be better off throwing caution to the wind? I scoured the Bible looking for verses on packing. It seems like Jesus didn’t prioritize it much: “Take nothing for the journey—no staff, no bag, no bread, no money, no extra shirt.” (Luke 9:3) In some ways you can’t pack for what lies ahead because whether it be a new country or new season in life, your expectations will be completely defied. We can’t know what’s coming, so we do well to hold our forecasts lightly and leave room to have our luggage filled by what the future holds.

Yet we never go somewhere new in life empty handed. The Message version of Luke 9:3 says “Don’t load yourselves up with equipment. Keep it simple; you are the equipment.”

Who we are and where we’ve been, it all goes with us. The new place is not so strange from what we’re used to. So travel light, you may find that when you’re not totally comfortable anywhere, you can be reasonably comfortable everywhere.

This week about twelve hours before we were supposed to fly out we got a call from Pepperdine University law school (the summer internship is through their global justice program) informing us that their Uganda site was being closed for the summer due to an outbreak of the Ebola virus in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo. (https://www.cdc.gov/han/php/notices/han00530.html)

Instead, we will be placed at another Sudreau Global Justice Institute site in Blantyre, Malawi 1,570 miles away. Laurie will continue to do her work for the Ugandan Supreme Court remotely, while also having the opportunity to work with the courts on the ground in Malawi. Our family is getting ready to leave this weekend to a totally new place, a place which has already slipped out of our expectations.

We are set to head out on Saturday morning. As soon as I cram this huge espresso machine into my bag we’ll be ready to go…