"Six on the way" (around the world by car)

The "six on the way" with the Bishop and the Director of Caritas

Not sure how common it is to have four small children joyfully running around at a bishop's house, doing a couple of hours of "school" at the meeting room, playing with terminally ill children at the hospice and painting a room at a youth project...

It all started with a Whatsapp message where a friend of mine told me about people they knew coming to Swaziland: "They are travelling around the world by car... a couple and four children. They would like to visit you".

Bastien (father), Aurélie (mother), Faustine, Rose, Bertille and Zélie came and asked if they could park their car at the bishop's house. They would just camp there. No need for anything else. 

Whenever possible we'd quote the gospel: "there are many rooms in my Father's house"... I welcomed them and without saying more than that, rooms were prepared for them in the house (it seems the children were happy to have "proper beds" for a few nights).

I asked them if before leaving, they would share their story for this blog. Here it is.

"Discovering two years' ago the genetic disease of our third child, we reflected once again on what is really important for us... That inner journey led us to decide to travel around the world as a family for two years. We wanted to discover the world with our own eyes, its miseries but also its beauties. We wanted to grow in love and convey our four daughters (Faustine, 9 years' old; Rose, 7 years' old; Bertille, 5 years' old and Zelie 2 years' old) a sense of hope in order to give them the pleasure of growing up, love and act in this world .

We then became the "six on the way" on board of a Land Rover adapted to be a kind of a house. We travelled South America for 8 months and we had a very intense mission experience in Santiago de Chile with the 'Mercy International Association': as a family and with the people of the neighborhood, we fixed a room dedicated to the school support of street children of a village.

Desiring to also give some of our time in Africa where we have just arrived, we called the bishop of the diocese of Manzini who opened the doors of his big house and his diocese. We spent 8 days in Manzini. We repainted a study room of a children's village founded by the Salesians to support orphans and we played with sick children at "Hope House" (where terminally ill patients are welcomed with their families). It has been an experience that, hopefully, will forever mark our children...

Thank you Bishop for generously hosting us, sharing our exciting stories about South Africa, Swaziland and the mission and the Church!"

You can know more about them by visiting their webpage:

http://www.sixontheway.com/