Most of the time when I write a blog post, I write about myself and my experiences encountering other locations and cultures. In this post I want to reverse that. I thought I would share my experience as a sort of personal tour guide for someone from the African country of Malawi.
In January of 2020 I went to Malawi for two weeks to teach pastors at a Bible school. That came about after meeting Bern the director of the Bible school, when he visited our church in the summer of 2019. He had come to the United States to attend the general conference of our denomination which happens every four years. You can read more about how this came to be in the post I wrote in 2020.
Now, four years later, Bern was back to attend the next general conference. Before the conference he came to the Seattle area for a few weeks, flew to Kansas for a week, and then to the denominational meeting in Orlando, Florida. While he was here in Seattle, I had a chance to spend time with him and act as a tour guide of sorts. The question was always what would Bern be interested in seeing?
Bern arrived the weekend before the Fourth of July. As we thought about what Bern could experience, I thought there was no more American experience than to attend a Fourth of July parade. My hometown has had such a parade almost every year. It seemed the perfect experience to share.
As Bern and I were walking over to the parade route, I asked him if they had parades in Malawi. He told me they had them for their day of independence celebration also, but mostly the parade was about showing off their military. I told him this would be a very different type of parade with minimal military.
The parade started with military members carrying the colors down the street. I pointed out that this was the most military we would probably see. After the flags came police cars and some fire trucks. Then all the other groups came along. There were the usual things like scout troops, sports teams, businesses, the occasional politician, car groups, drill teams, bands, and the Seattle Seafair pirates who set off their cannon with a jarring boom. As tour guide I tried to share what some of these represented, but he seemed interested in it all.
While the parade went by, Bern would frequently comment, “Beautiful.” He was also busy taking photos and videos with his phone. I teased him that he was going to use up all the space on his phone if he kept taking photos. He seemed to really enjoy himself. I do think that this kind of parade is a uniquely American experience, and I was glad he was able to experience it.
When we first talked, I told Bern that I was going to take him out for a one day excursion, and I asked him where he wanted to go. I suggested a few possibilities. He said he wanted to see snow, so I was thinking Mt. Rainier would be a good possibility. However, as the time for our excursion came closer, I realized that with our warm weather, snow would probably be a challenge to find. In the end we settled on a trip to Whidbey Island.
My plan was to take the ferry to the island and then drive around coming back through Mt. Vernon. Our pastor had taken him on a ferry before, but just as a walk on. He found it quite interesting to see how all the cars were parked below in the ferry. We went upstairs and out to the front of the ferry. It was pretty windy so after a few minutes outside, I told Bern I was going inside. He stayed on the deck the whole time taking various photos and selfies. I was glad to see that he was enjoying himself.
We got off the ferry and drove to the town of Langley. Besides just wandering around the town and pointing out a few things as tour guide, I wanted to buy him some pie. There is a place that was supposed to have really good pie. We finally found the place and each got a piece of pie.
The pie shop was next to a coffee shop so we went there to get some coffee to have with our pie. I ordered him a latte as I had done before as he liked milk in his coffee. However, when I brought over some sugar, he asked where the milk was. I reminded him that the latte came with milk. Another example of how our American coffee culture can get very complicated for the uninitiated. As for the pie, I was a bit disappointed with it. It seemed dry. Bern said his was fine, but then he’d never had any other to compare it to.
From Langley we drove to Fort Casey State Park. This is such a unique place, and it seemed Bern was quite interested in what he saw. The cannons fascinated him, and the views also impressed him. It was fun to be the tour guide and share about the gun batteries. We also were able to look down at the ferry dock where the ferry from Port Townsend stopped, and he seemed interested in that.
After touring through the various buildings and locations of the military area, we walked down to the beach. We walked along it for a ways. I think he was a little surprised at how difficult it was to walk. The beach is not particularly hard packed sand, more rocky, so it was an effort to walk through it.
We did have one fun experience. There was a large flock of seagulls on the beach. As we walked towards them, those closest to us would fly over the flock and land on the other side. Then the next group would fly over and move ahead. It was almost like a game they were playing with us. Finally they gave up and flew away back to their starting point.
From the beach we walked up to the Admiralty Head Lighthouse. We went inside, and the volunteer there became our tour guide. He told us about the lights and some of the information about the keepers. We then went to the top of the lighthouse. Bern had never seen anything like this before so it was definitely an educational experience for him.
Our next stop was the lovely little town of Coupeville. We walked out onto the dock. Inside the building there are some skeletons of various sea creatures which Bern found interesting. There were maps there of Puget Sound, and as tour guide I was trying to help him understand where we were in relation to other places. I’m not sure he completely understood as Puget Sound is large with many islands. It can be somewhat complicated.
Here we also enjoyed an ice cream cone. Bern’s challenge was choosing flavors. We got a cone with two flavors, and ice cream names like moose tracks can be a little hard to understand. In the end he seemed happy with his choices.
Our final tourist stop for the day was at Deception Pass State Park. I drove into the park as I was afraid there would be no parking by the bridge. We parked a fairly short distance from the bridge so the hike over wasn’t too bad. We went out on the bridge and down to Pass Island. I continued my role as tour guide by pointing out how the water was flowing quickly by the island which is part of the reason it is called Deception Pass. What fascinated Bern the most was how tall the bridge is. He, of course, had seen bridges before, but he said this was the tallest bridge he had ever seen.
After walking back to the car, we began to make our way back to Seattle. We stopped for dinner, and Bern said he wanted a hamburger. We encountered a Red Robin and went in there. There I learned that he liked the thick steak fries they have rather than the skinny fries most fast food places have.
I needed to get Bern back as the next morning he was leaving quite early for Kansas. Overall I think he enjoyed his stay here. One thing he told me is that he would not like to drive here. He said that he was concerned with all the freeway exits and knowing where he was going. I thought that was funny because when I was in Malawi, I had thought to myself I was glad I didn’t have to drive on their roads. The roads there, often with potholes and people everywhere, were scary to me.
It just shows that we all adjust to the life that is familiar to us. The familiar is the most comfortable for us. What travel does is take us out of our comfort zone. Sometimes it happens when we privileged westerners go into a third world country and sometimes when an African comes to the United States. Travel stretches all of us and helps us to grow as people.
Bern is home now, and I will soon be going to Malawi to teach there again. I am looking forward to what I can learn by being in his world a second time.
Have you ever had a chance to be tour guide for someone unfamiliar with your world? I’d love to know your experience. Just share it in the comment box below.
Thank you for your generosity of time with Bern. Good choices.
Thank, Les, I enjoyed spending time with him as well as our tours. I always enjoy Whidbey Island so it was an enjoyable day for me as well.