There are glamorous moments of the world race and there are very unglamorous moments of the world race.
Here are a few stories for you!
We went into town to check things out on our second day here, our contact Pastor Peter took us there. We got onto a bus to which we thought was crowded and hot but we had seats. Then as we went along our way, lots and lots of people kept getting on, I was being shifted around like a hot potato, fell on a bag of sugar until I got placed in the front seat, then we got stuck in traffic that’s when it got sweaty hot, but we got off to walk around. The town is amazing, located right by the Indian Ocean, it’s beautiful and the sun is always shining- it shines so much that I instantly start sweating when I get out of the shower! Also, the electricity likes to go out, leaving all of us sitting as still as possible to try to stay cool before going to sleep because the fan is not working.
In town, Emily had to go to the bathroom, so we walked through the smelly fish market and into the smelly bathroom. We didn’t have any TP but Emily did not need it. *after she was done, our contact came over and had bought toilet paper, so sweet* but this was by far the smelliest place I’ve ever smelled, even though about two minutes prior in the open market, I was gagging from the nasty sausage smell. Anyway, then we got back on a bus to go back home. We got on, and it took twenty minutes to get on the road through the traffic, then five minutes later, the engine of the bus stops and we sit for an hour until we get off. 56 people on a 35 passenger bus, sounds crowded right? Just wait. Got onto another bus and were ‘cheek to cheek’ butt cheek to butt cheek. The bus stops and starts so fast that we flail forward or backward. Alex was sent into a move that looked similar to a figure skater poorly landing a twirl.
Next time in town, we are off to meet our friends on Team Pulse. Got onto another fun bus, we could barely get our bodies onto the bus, about 70 people on the same size bus as before. We prayed to get closer as a team, well here we go. People continued to get onto the bus even after us. We meet our friends at the Holiday Inn and head off to the nearest beach, Coco beach. Upon arrival we notice about five people swimming, no one on the beach, and the tide is way far out, we decide to walk. We do not find anything better, so we go back to CoCo and eat lunch. Then five of us set out to the ocean. We get in and start wading through garbage to get to the clean water, then we decide to get out and try farther down the beach, we start going in and are stopped by a filmy line of seaweed… to walk through it or not to… hmm. We keep walking and decide we just need to do it. We wade through the seaweed and finally get to a nice piece of ocean. Hooray! On the way back Mary fell into a hole, we giggled, and then I proceeded to fall into the same hole! Mercy.
We headed back into the city and split up from our friends. Haven went to the African Hotel where we bought some food and enjoyed the air conditioning. Started laughing so hard that I spit out my milkshake! What a day! Came home and took a shower, and relaxed for a bit, then off to dinner! I went to put on a sweatshirt (even though it’s super hot) because I was being lazy and needed to put another shirt on because I was wearing a tank top, and my sweatshirt was already out. So I put on my sweatshirt and all of the sudden a HUGE cockroach was crawling on my stomach and I screamed my fool head off and had to fling it off of me… I screamed, screamed, screamed, and then it scurried into our baggage. So sick, then I had to try to kill it after dinner, I made Alex do it-our token male. He proceeded to find the roach, and tried to murder it, failed. Lost it, then found it, lost it, then found it, lost it then found it and tried to kill it again, failed. Then we had to go through our entire luggage to find it, and only found more. Sprayed it with bug spray and finally killed it, Alex thought he should have ridden it first before he killed it.
Recap of SOME of the unglamorous parts of the world race: I’ve had pink eye, lice, fungus, peed my pants, picked through garbage, killed a chicken, went potty in far too many places swarmed with flies, had a parasite, malaria, had a cockroach crawl on me, had a cockroach visit us at dinner, have so many mosquito bites I look like I have the chicken pox, and that is only some! J It’s all been fun and part of the journey though!
Psalm 91: 9-11: For you have made the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent. For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all ways.
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