***The following story is not at all dramatized. The events that occurred are all true. Reader discretion advised. ***
I take in a deep breath unable to control the laughter that has contagiously swept over my team. I look around me to see Rachel on her knees in the middle of the hallway in her sleeping bag. Age is on the floor next to her. I can’t see LB or Jamie. Grace Chase is lying face down on the floor in her sleeping bag, army crawling to the door. I take this all in and the laughter starts all over again. We were in Vietnam on the third floor of the hotel we were living in that month. Jamie, LB, Age, and I were in one room watching disturbia while in the other room Rachel was writing a blog and Chase was trying to sleep. There are six different versions of this story but I’ll do my best to give it from each of ours. For the four of us in the other room, we were in the middle of a particularly suspenseful part in our movie when some muffled noises start coming from the other room. Age pauses the movie and none of us can figure out if the sound we are hearing is laughter or crying. We start the movie again but the sound keeps re-accuring and is getting louder.
** A minute earlier in the other room**
Rachel is in the zone typing away on her laptop with Chase lying next to her trying to sleep. A sound causes chase to open her eyes and she sees something black flying around in the room. (keep in mind she has her glasses off so she can’t see diddly) “Is there a bird in here?” she asks. Without looking up Rach says “it’s probably just a mosquito….” A sudden scream escapes her lips as her eyes catch a glimpse of what the black figure is. “It’s a bat!” she shrieks as she quickly gets inside her sleeping bag. They both look at each other, “what do we do??” asks Rach. They both roll onto the floor in their sleeping bags slamming on to the ground still screaming as the bat is flying around the room not sure where to go.
*meanwhile in our room*
Age pauses the movie, “what is that?” she asks again. We all decide to get up to check that Rach and Chase are ok. We quickly find out the reason for their screams and join them in their fright. Rach has crawled out to the hallway at this point but is still in her sleeping bag. Age tries to entice the bat on to the porch using something that is shaped like a 2 X 4. (To this day none of us know what that was) The bat swoops toward her and she dives to the floor practically tackling Rach in the process. LB dives in to the bathroom on the soaking wet floor and Jamie is already on the steps to the second floor. At this point I can only see Age, Rachel, and Chase who is still on the floor in the other room. I’m not really sure what came over me but the only thought in my mind at that moment was to get Chase out of that room. I yell “I’ve got you Grace!” running into the room. I drag her in her sleeping bag out in to the hallway. All of us are caught in this place of uncontrollable laughter and hysterical screaming. The ceiling is low in both the bedroom and hallway giving us the perception that at any time the bat is going to fly right into us. Chase and I are now on the floor in the hallway and I look up and see LB coming out of the bathroom dripping wet, bent over, and crying from laughter. The bat suddenly swoops out in to the hallway sparking a whole new wave of fear and outbursts of screams. Chase and I duck and cover using her sleeping bag, LB, Age, and Rach run into the other room and shut the door. Jamie thinking she is safe on the lower level is still on the stairs watching the madness take place.
Unexpectedly the bat decides to target Jamie and she runs to seek shelter in the second floor bathroom. Injuring her ankle along the way she stumbles in and shuts the door. Our host finally comes upstairs as our screams had woken her from her sleep. As soon as her and her mother in their night gowns and overnight sponge rollers reach the third floor the bat does the reasonable thing and flies through the balcony door and off into the night. I can’t imagine what their thoughts of us were in that moment but I’m sure “crazy american girls” was somewhere on that train. We all had then sought safety in the room where this all started. The door slowly opens and in limps Jamie. We all erupt in another fit of laughter as we breathlessly recount the craziness of the last 5 minutes.
This is just one of the many hilariously crazy things that happened to my team and I during our month in Vietnam. I remember walking away from this country very thankful for the blessing of joy and the peace that comes after laughing so hard. In the words of Charlie Chaplan “A day without laughter is a day wasted”. In Proverbs 15:15 it says “….. the cheerful of heart has a continual feast.” I can tell you that we definitely did not waste a day that month continually feasting on the Joy that God gave us.
