The availability and ease of transportation is something that I took for granted before coming on the race. I had my own car, as did most people that I knew, and if there was a problem with my vehicle, I always had others that I could “catch a ride” with. Even when travelling and using public transportation, I could easily look up a published schedule and plan my route accordingly. But this is the race . . . and I am in Swaziland . . . and it is NOT like that here!
We do not have private vehicles to transport us to our Care Points this month and so we typically use cumbis. These are 15 passenger vans and are the common form of public transport, but they do not run on a schedule so you must go to a stop and wait. If a cumbi comes by with 2 seats available then two can get on and so forth and if it is full it will keep driving and you are out of luck until the next one comes by. You must usually catch one cumbi to the downtown bus park and then switch to another to head to your final destination, unless you are in fact going to downtown. Another interesting fact is that a cumbi will not depart the bus park unless it is full . . . no matter how long that might take. As I said, there is no schedule!
This would all seem easy enough except we discovered on our second day waiting for a cumbi, in the morning before work, that the stop near our home was not ideal for catching a cumbi with available seats. After about 20 minutes, we decided to start waving for a ride. In case you are unclear, I am talking about hitch-hiking. We figured there is safety in numbers (there are 4 of us that travel together daily), but still said a little prayer as a man in a Land Rover pulled over and offered us a ride. To our surprise and pleasure, the driver turned out to be a missionary and not only took us all the way to our Care Point free of charge but also offered us transportation to his church the following Sunday . . . which we happily accepted! God has such a sense of humor!
Over the past few weeks, my team has primarily used a combination of cumbis, school buses (also waved down), and walking to get to and from work each day . . . and of course a few additional rides from friendly locals! This array of transportation adventures has kept it interesting and has facilitated our meeting a variety of people and getting more of a real glimpse into this community than we otherwise would have. You may call it uncertain transportation to our ministry sites, but as a racer I just see it as God’s innovative method of taking us out of our comfort zone and enabling us to connect with the community . . . all while getting us where we need to go!
