(Written in Nkhata Bay, Malawi. Posted in Bangkok, Thailand.)
Excitement kept me from sleeping. I knew in the morning, it would happen. I knew the time was coming – the time I spent all week waiting for. Just a few restless hours until I would rise early, run to living room, and settle in for…
One Saturday Morning.
Every Saturday, I would turn on ABC and watch this collection of my favorite cartoons – Recess, Doug, Pepper Ann, Rocket Power. With a bowl of my favorite cereal in cold milk or a piping hot Pop Tart (what I wouldn’t give for those treats now), I knew how the first few hours of each Saturday would be spent.
Of course, as I grew older, my Saturdays changed. In middle school, I would spend them sleeping. In high school, I spent them working. In college, I once again spent them sleeping. When I was teaching, my Saturday morning ritual included a cup of the house drip and a blueberry muffin from my favorite coffee shop, Krankie’s, (another treat I dream about) while writing lesson plans and having anxiety attacks.
If you had asked me on any of these Saturdays if I thought I would spend a collection of them around the world in the future, I would have laughed at you.
But today, my Saturday was spent doing just that. I woke up this morning to the beautiful African sunrise over Lake Malawi. I put my laundry in a bucket to soak before washing potatoes in the same lake water. While drinking several cups of instant coffee, I made slightly-soggy-yet-delicious hash browns for my team to eat for breakfast. Because I was cooking on a rock over coals, this process only took a little under 3 hours. Being full to the brim of mushy fried potato, I proceeded to rinse out my laundry and lay it on the rocks to dry in the sun. Hot and sunburned from doing all those chores (and because the water was once again not working), I took a swim in the lake. For the next hour, I sat on the slimy, algae covered rock watching the colorful fish swim around my toes. After drying off and putting on my newly-cut jorts (because jeans are just not something I want to pack around anymore), we began the hunt for internet in town, stopping along the way to barter our unwanted things for trinkets from the local salesmen. Turns out, all the power is down in town, so instead of finding internet, I have found a lukewarm Coca-Cola and a cheap local restaurant to spend the rest of my afternoon in. Before heading back up the hill to our lodge, I will have to buy a few bananas and mendazi (fried doughnutty things) for snacks for the upcoming travel days. This is my last Saturday in Nkhata Bay, Malawi, and it has been an amazing one – just another One Saturday Morning kind of a day.
I have now spent 29 Saturdays on the World Race, and they are so different than any Saturdays I have had before. Though I have spent some sleeping, and some doing chores, they have also involved days on the lake, trips across borders, hiking volcanos and mountains, exploring local towns and villages, and hanging out with teammates and friends from around the world. Some Saturdays we simply watch movies, go to “fancy restaurants” (you know, coffee shops and pizza places that have wifi), playing games, spring cleaning in the tent, and catching up on our hammock-naps. My favorite Saturdays have also included playing with orphans, loving village children, running youth group and children’s programs, preparing for church, and trying our best to love people like Jesus would on his normal Saturdays.
There are only 17 Saturdays left on my World Race…SEVENTEEN! Though many more may be spent like today and the former part of the list, I pray a good portion of them are spent doing the latter. I can’t imagine going back to my Saturdays in the States, and how strange and different they will feel from now. But I am excited to see what all of my Saturdays, here, there, and everywhere in between, hold.
………
Since originally writing this blog, I have also spent Saturdays traveling, stuck on borders, snorkeling at debrief, and baptizing many new believers ( after slipping and sliding through a muddy cornfield to get to the river). God is so good. There are now only 12 (yes, TWELVE) Saturdays left on my race. Soon, I will only have One Saturday Morning, but I know that this is just a beginning, not an end. What if you only had One Saturday Morning… How would you use it?
