In 11 days my 11 month journey to 11 different countries will officially be over.
Oy.
So before I start the task of processing the ups and downs of the last 11 months, I thought I would look back at some of the random moments…11 of them to be exact.
- Happy Independence Day Guatemala!
My team rode to our ministry site every morning in the back of a pickup truck. One afternoon we discovered that it was Guatemala’s Independence Day the hard way. We had driven past an old woman getting a water balloon thrown at her by a group of boys. There were cries of injustice from Team Pursuit that could be heard from the truck bed: “What is wrong with this world!?”. What we didn’t know at the time was that a nationwide water fight is a long held tradition on Independence Day. As our truck slowed down to cross a speed bump, we saw them….a group of boys armed with water balloons and buckets of water. “Surely our driver will turn around!” we naively thought.
Nope.
By the time we got back home, we were sitting in an inch of water.
Happy Independence Day Guatemala!
2. FAS! FAS! FAS!
Our contact Alberto took us to a professional soccer game in Santa Ana, El Salvador.The team chants were loud and aggressive, the riot police were in full effect…and when a goal was scored, the crowd’s reaction was deafening and the air would fill with coloured smoke and confetti. I have no idea who was playing or what team actually won the game, but it was such a fun night.
3. SHARK INFESTED SUNSET SWIMS
I never realized how much I loved sunsets until I got to Ometepe Island in Nicaragua.They were breathtaking. My favourite spot to enjoy them was in a hammock, but one of my favourite moments of the month was swimming in Lake Ometepe at sunset. Amanda and I would tease Cheyanne about sharks (we probably shouldn’t have been joking…there were real rumours of freshwater bull sharks in that water), flip our hair like mermaids and yell at Clark to take our picture from the top of the hill. The water reflected the pink clouds…it was a pretty perfect moment.
4. HERE COMES SANTA CLAUS…
We did a lot of Christmas caroling in the Philippines. Every night we would pack into a jeepney (The popular choice for public transportation in the Philippines) with our Santa hats and guitar…and when I say pack, I mean pack. Most of the time a complete stranger would be basically sitting on your lap (Kind of fitting when you are dressed like Santa) Not surprisingly, we would get a lot of stares. We would head to a nearby community where we became even more of a spectacle as we loudly sang “Oh Come All Ye Faithful” and “Away in a Manger” in the dank alleyways of a squatter’s village.
5. LICE FACE
These are the faces of two girls who just found out they have head lice…that stuff on their hair is basically rat poison.
I think our thoughts on the matter don’t need to be explained.
And yes, to those of you that didn’t know…I had lice in Thailand.
My team spent cool evenings in the tamarind orchard underneath a spotlight where we would pick through each other’s hair like a family of chimpanzees.
Lice are the stuff of legend on the World Race. Horror stories of bugs crawling in your scalp are passed around in whispers at Training Camp.
But really, it wasn’t so bad.
Having someone pick through your hair strand by strand is in one word – humbling.
Those little bugs gave me daily lessons on patience and compassion for those around me .And the “lice face” became a great little inside joke between Cheyanne and I…it comes out now for very special, very deserving occasions.
6. THE BAT CAVE
One Saturday we went to a nearby cave to do a little exploring.There were a lot of tiny spaces to wriggle through and an underground river of dark murky water we had to walk across. We ran into an 8 foot python lying in a dark corner, giant spiders and this adorable family of bats. I’m not claustrophobic, but I definitely took a deep breath of fresh air once we got out (and maybe kissed the ground).
7. JACKIE CHAN
Brant and I taught English classes 4 times a day, 5 days a week in a thatch roofed building with a dirt floor. In the middle of one of our grammar lessons, vicious barking and snarling erupted from the nearby rice field. Our contact Vuthy’s dogs “Jackie Chan” and “Black and White” were fighting the neighbour’s dogs. The kids in our class climbed up to the window and for a solid 10 minutes we took a break from English to cheer on Jackie. Black and White nearly lost an eye, and it was only when the dogs had retreated with their tails between their legs that we got back to teaching.
8. GOING ON A GAZELLE HUNT
One of my absolute favourite weeks on the Race was the week I spent in Maasai land. One morning while we were finishing up breakfast, the pastor we lived with excitedly asked us if we wanted to see a gazelle. It was such a funny moment.Here was a group of white Americans (and one Canadian!) following Ezekiel, a former Maasai warrior, through the African bush. It kind of felt like we were going on a lion hunt. We ended up climbing up onto a huge rock and squinting to see the tiny shape of a gazelle in the distance. Our “hunt” ended up being a bit anticlimactic, but I don’t think any of us minded.
9. GETTING THROWN FROM A MOTORCYCLE…IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT…IN AFRICA.
The popular choice of transportation in Uganda is on the back of a boda-boda…which is basically a motorcycle. After enjoying a pizza dinner for my birthday, my team loaded up on our bikes and headed back in the dark.Anton and I ended up at the back of the group.Our driver was having a little trouble maneuvering the bumpy dirt roads. At one point, he slowed down so much that Anton and I had to hop off the back before the bike tipped over.
Laura – “I just got thrown from a motorcycle!…In the middle of the night!… In Africa!! My dad is going to kill me!”
Anton – “You don’t think you might be overreacting?…just a little bit?”
Laura – “Listen, it’s my birthday, just let me have this moment”
10. FEELING VERY SMALL
This moment wasn’t exactly random…it happened every single night in Swaziland at around 5:15pm.
I miss this view so much.
I think the moments in my life where I experience pure joy are the ones where I feel the most insignifigant.Staring at the stars, swimming in crashing surf of the ocean, marveling at the intricate details of Michelangelo’s “David”…those are the moments where it feels like you need to breathe a little more deeply, just so you can take more of it in.
Sitting on those rocks watching the sun dip behind the mountains and the stars start to appear made me feel like that every day. It was almost like you had no choice but to just sit there in absolute awe of who God is.
I could fully understand the words of David “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers…what is man that you are mindful of him?”
11. PLAYING WITH PUPPIES
Every afternoon my team gets to do house visits in the poorer communities around Jeffreys Bay. We bring people bread and soup, share words and verses of encouragement and then we pray for them. Most of the time, I feel like I am the one who walks away the most uplifted. I am so encouraged by the people who have next to no earthly possessions, yet understand where true joy and contentment comes from. I almost want to thank them for showing me such a clear picture of the man Jesus who I love.
This random moment happened last week and was a little more lighthearted (and might be slightly disturbing to some readers…sorry Micah!)We were sitting in a circle in front of a man’s home who suffered from chronic back pain sharing encouragement when something caught our attention in the field behind us.There was a group of small children squealing with excitement as they ran away from a girl who was carrying something…Noooo it couldn’t be!
Could it?
Yep.
It was.
The kids had found a dead puppy in a garbage heap and had begun chasing each other around with it. Its poor little body bounced around as the kids ran holding onto its back legs.
I think we all sat there watching in shock for a few minutes…but then we all started laughing. I won’t lie, it was slightly disturbing, but you couldn’t help notice how happy those kids were. “TIA” is phrase we have used frequently in the past 4 months…it simply stands for “This is Africa”. It is used to explain situations that would seem completely crazy or ridiculous at home. This was definitely a TIA moment.
Writing this blog and sorting through pictures has made me realize that I could write at least 11 more of these blogs…there have been countless "random moments" in the past year…and I can't believe I am coming to the end of this chapter of my life!
Stay tuned!
L.
