Home Is Where the Suitcases Are

“Life is lived in the little things.”
—Marilyn Beckwith

In the early 1970s, after a year of unemployment, Marilyn Beckwith was in desperate need for change in her life. With her characteristic joie de vivre, she started a new life on a new continent—and didn’t look back. In 1971, she and her husband moved to Africa with their four children, armed with not much more than a penchant for adventure and a sense of humor.

They started their African adventures in Kenya, and they tried life in Za...