4 Days+
50+ Hours on
6 Buses=
Month 10.
Okay, so we have finally arrived at month 10! This is technically the last full month of the international Race if you ask me, because we will be landing in New York, USA on the 31st of August, thus making month 11 a mix between Ethiopia (our layover), India, Germany (our other layover) and New York.
But anyways, this blog is about the most ridiculous travel day yet.
July 1, 2011
We left from Jinja, Uganda at 3:30PM. The bus was three and a half hours late. So, we all cram onto this bus, bags and all, and then we are off. Except there is no AC, and it is blistering hot with all of our body heat. So we open the windows, and everything seems to be ok.
And then an infamous Ugandan thunder and lightening storm rumbles in. Ok, so I don’t know if any of you have been on a sketchy bus in Africa, but they are usually rusty and have little to no shocks. So, even when you close the windows, when a few inches of rain falls in less than 15 minutes, the rust tends to give.
Angela Aston and I were sitting in our seats in the back, chatting with other racers and watching the driver drive through the storm even though he could not see out the windshield. And then…
Water was pouring onto Angela. The rust was leaking, and there was nothing we could do. Now, if this happened in month 2, I guarantee we would have reacted differently. There would have been screaming and complaining and maybe some crying, but that didn’t happen. Ashley Peterson gave us her rain jacket, Angela held it over herself, and the problem was solved.
But, that is just the beginning.
So, we are told that this bus is going to be around 28 hours long. Ok, sweet. Longest bus ride of the Race. We can handle that in Month 10. Oh, and we have another 10 hour bus ride from Dar es Salaam to Iringa. Whatever, that won’t be so bad!
Heh.
July 2, 2011
So, about 24 hours later, after peeing in a thorn patch, seeing Giraffes, stopping at some super sketchy rest stops and going through three borders we get to this really nice rest stop for our dinner time. So, we get off, get food, stretch, and get back on.
As we slowly drive down the street, the bus starts making this noise. The kind of noise where you think,
‘Oh crap. That’s a bad noise.’ So, we pull over and the driver gets out to see what the problem is.
The bolts were missing from the drive shaft. Honestly, I am not exactly sure what that means, but I knew it meant that we were not going very far. Ironically, Jobie had just told us that we had four hours left and that we were going to try and make it without stopping. Ha.
So, we went back to the rest stop just down the street, the thankfully really nice one. We were told to wait in the restaurant, that the part was coming, and we should be going in a couple hours.
Ah, life on the Race is never that simple!
Two hours later, around 7PM, we are told that according to Tanzania Law, we are not allowed to drive past 10PM. So, all that really meant was that until 5AM on the 3rd of July, we would not be going anywhere.
July 3, 2011
Time to pitch tents! So, I slept for a few hours on our old bus while our new bus was coming, and at 3AM I migrated to our new bus with my bags, and proceeded to wait two more hours for us to complete the four hours we had left of the first 28 hour bus ride.
Alrighty! So, we are off! Thankfully, at that point, I was exhausted. So I slept for most of the following six hours or so until we reached Dar es Salaam!
Alright, at this point we had been traveling for 43 hours. It was 10:30 in the morning, and all of our giant bags were on the street in front of a few restaurants. The first thing we all did was have a real meal. Eating crackers for two days just makes me feel sick.
About three hours later, we found out we would not be going in Iringa that day. The last bus wanted way too much for us to go, so we stayed with a couple of the teams that were living in Dar es Salaam. We boarded another bus, and went to our lodging for the night. Oh, and incase you have not been counting, this is bus #3.
We arrived there an hour and a half later, and realized there was no running water. On the way in, Dex and I had seen the Indian Ocean, and we knew what we needed to do. So, about nine of us went down to the ocean and bathed in it.
Gross, right? Not after two days of sweating on a bus!
That night I slept on the hard floor, using my clothes as a pillow. It wasn’t half bad, and it was at least horizontal compared to a bus seat.
July 4, 2011
Happy Fourth of July! It is late, but what can you do.
We celebrated the fourth of July on our 5th bus (#4 was the bus from the house to the bus station again). We woke up at 4AM, were at the bus station by 5AM, and left for Iringa at around 8:00AM.
On our first bus, we were the only ones on it so we could stop whenever we wanted. But we only had 19 of us on this bus, so all the rest were Africans. I have nothing against Africans. I am nearly half African American after all :). But one thing I have learned is that they sure know how to be aggressive.
By this point, our 38 hour bus adventure had turned into a 4 day sweaty nightmare. Within the first hour, they had crammed on about 20 more Africans, putting them on top of some of our bags in the aisle. We were getting hit in the face with bags, butts and other things, and by the fifth hour of the trip, we were not amused. We maybe had two bathroom stops in the 10 hours we were on that bus.
4:30PM on July 4, 2011
We finally made it to Iringa! It took, a looooong time, but we made it. Pastor Jacob picked us up in out 6th bus, we were driven to his house, and shown our very own house with beds and bathrooms and showers we get to share with Lindsay’s team this month! They also made us a yummy cake 🙂
We are super excited to be here, safe and sound.
This is our second day off, and then we start ministry tomorrow.
Please pray for us…We are going out into six groups, five pairs and one group of three. Each group is going about four hours away to a village of Masai and doing evangelism for four days. It should be fun!
So, sorry this is so long. But compared to the time frame you read above, I bet reading this took no time at all, huh :)?
Love you guys! More updates to come soon I am sure.
