I once rode in a limo sideways, and was white as a ghost afterward.
I went in a small plane ride when I wanted to be a pilot so I could learn something about flying planes; my mom threw up in her camera bag, I threw up when in the bathroom after we landed.
I sat third seat from the front of the bus with my best friend in high school, the back made me sick.
I love reading, but could not read on road trips because I would feel nauseous.
Needless to say, I get motion sick pretty bad.
This has been a struggle on the race. There are a few people on this squad who get sick like me and everyone knows who we are because we are the ones who need the seats in the front of buses and vans.
Every travel day, I would pray that I wouldn’t get sick. I hated getting sick every time we needed to travel to a new country.
One morning, my team was to travel to Mumias, Kenya which was about a 5 hour bus ride from where we were in Nakuru, Kenya. When my team leader, Gabe, gave me my bus ticket I saw my seat number was 8D… Row 8. Maybe that’s not that far back. So I got on the bus looking for row 8.
Row 8 is dead last.
Maybe I am by the window and I can stick my head out for air or if I feel like I might get sick. Nope. I am in a seat where I don’t have access to a window and I cannot see out to the horizon. Ashley had the window, then I was next to her, Tatiana had the aisle seat (the last row has 5 seats instead of 4), Kara was next to Tati and Trever was by the other window. I became very anxious.
All morning, though, God had been asking if I trust Him. At that point, I realized why. So, I didn’t reach for the Dramamine. Instead, I listened to worship music and decided to praise Him in this moment. I could have been in the back of a pickup truck or surrounded by strangers instead of my friends.
I rode for about 3 hours and did not feel sick. Not at all. Praise Jesus!
It gets really cool when I actually do start to feel sick. I started thinking about how I might be ok if I could just have air blowing on my face or be able to see straight out of the bus. So, when the bus stops and some people get off, Tati and Trever move to open seats on the bus so they could lay down. This allows me to move to the middle seat, and Kara and Ashley both lay down on either side of me giving me tons of air blowing on my face. Simply amazing.
I am now pleased to announce that I haven’t gotten sick from that day on. I traveled on a bus back to Nakuru. Then a van with my team to Nairobi to the airport. Then on a bus in Qatar to the hotel from the airport and back the next morning. I rode in countless vans in Nepal. Including the one to and from bungee and rope swinging. On the way home from there I sat in the second to last row and tried to sleep some. I went to the Bay of Bengal yesterday and sat sideways in the van and never felt sick. I can sit wherever I want to and not have to worry about getting sick. Talk about freedom! Praise God! Hallelujah! Amen.
