Quick Update – We are headed to Mozambique some time on Wednesday or Thursday whenever our visas are ready. I’m excited about where we are going, a tropical beach town that was ravaged by a cyclone a few months ago. It’s supposed to be beautiful, right on the Indian Ocean. Most likely we will be staying at a church and helping to rebuild houses in the area. Please keep our team in your prayers especially as we travel it’s about a 24 hour bus ride on really bad roads. From what I hear Mozambique will be intense, it’s the fourth poorest nation in the world and over 2/3 of the babies die before they reach their fifth birthday.
My First Sunset in South Africa with the girls!
South Africa Race
Ok, So I tried and tried to get the pictures to post and they are not going to work with me! UGH!
“Breakfast is over, load up the vans, we are going to start the race sooner then we thought,” Clinton our fearless leader said. Everyone begin to quickly grab what was needed and load into vehicles. It was a completely normal world race day in the fact that we had no idea where we were being driven or what the day would hold. Eventually we were dropped off in Pretoria, the capital city of South Africa and handed our first clue.
“Find a local who can translate the following clue for you and make sure to take a picture with them.” Eventually we found a lady who could speak Afrikaans and she told us that we were headed to the Union Building. Our team didn’t bother to read the rest of the clue and took off running for the building. About a mile later I was really regretting the decision to sprint to the building. Eventually we made it and got the next clue, which said to purchase train tickets to Jo-burg and go to the zoo. Eventually we found a ride back to the train station (which is where we were supposed to have gone for a ride to the Union Building.)
Following directions we purchased third class tickets for Johannesburg. The train was painfully slow and about two and a half hours later we sprinted off the train trying to find a kombi (public transportation van) that was headed for the zoo. As we asked driver after driver in the mass of vehicles most of them didn’t even know where the zoo was. Things seemed pretty hopeless. The area outside the train station gave me flashbacks of Kenya, busy marketplace, lots of people moving about, music with rhythm pumping, despite the chaos it felt nice to be back.
Two police officers approached us and offered to take us to the right kombi. They were worried about us wondering around a bad neighborhood not knowing where to go. They walked us to the right van and we were off.
At the zoo we ran around like crazy animals trying to find the big five (lion, rhino, buffalo, leopard, and elephant. After we had pictures of everything we needed our team took off sprinting for the restaurant we were had to eat at for lunch. I don’t know exactly what we ate, but I know there was lamb, duck, shrimp, and a bunch of other kinds of meat. The restaurant was really cool. It was outside in a park with men in tribal costumes playing steel drums, great food, and even face painters.
As soon as the last bite was swallowed and we found the next clue, which was hidden with Clinton in the restaurant, we ran to the nearest road. Team Nessa from B squad got there at the same time, so together we found a Kombi to take us to the Apartheid museum where we had to answer 12 history questions about South Africa.
The museum was my favorite part of the day, and it’s something I would love to go back to and walk through slowly. We made our way through, grabbing answers to questions and learning as much as possible in the process. All we had left to do was make our way down town to the Top of Africa Observatory, go to the 50th floor and snap one final picture.
As we walked out towards the street, I heard a familiar sound, “round, round, get around, I get around…” Childhood memories of listening to my Dad’s favorite band the Beach Boys flooded back to me. There was a couple about our age in the car with the music. We flagged them down explained that we were in a race and asked the best way to get to our final location. They were more then excited to help and offered us a ride. The four of us racing, Andrew, Candice, Emilie and me all hopped into the back of the small car.
That final ride was the highlight of my day. They busted Hey Mickey, and I Get Around, so loud I could feel it in my bones as we squealed around corners. The couple was awesome and super excited to help us. I felt a little guilty when they asked if we were the racers from T.V. At the end of the ride I gave them the blog location and explained that there were videos online, but that we weren’t from a T.V. show.
We piled out of the car and ran into the building, eventually finding the ticket booth for Observatory. Up 50 floors, a final team picture and we were finally done! We found out later that not going to the train station first cost us a 30 min time penalty I didn’t feel too bad because at some point in the race every team got a penalty. When all was said and done we got second place by less then 10 min. Not too shabby for a fun interesting day.
