NoW fOr ThE fUn PaRt…OUR RACE THAT ENDED THIS MORNING
and the winner is….THE BROWN TEAM!!!!!!!!!
it was the best race yet! so so much fun! we started out being dropped off at the bus station in trang. nobody knew anything about the race. we jumped off our shuttle, grabbed our luggage, and were given a piece of paper with many destination points on it. to make a long story short, i’ll try to bullet point how it went…
*we had to climb 2474 stairs up a buddist temple
* we had to ride an elephant
* we had to find the “fruit that is not allowed in public elevators”…try it, smell it, and report the difference.
* we had to report on the role of Jesus to the Buddists
*we had to EAT either a roach, cricket, or locust AND a worm…and then report the difference
*we had to buy a t-shirt, the offspring of a volleyball and soccerball, and a “loud frog” all for under 400 baht.
*we had to have someone translate John 17:3 into the Thai language
*and the final destination point was to travel to the southern most point of phuket and snorkle to an island where our team flag would be…and then report on the type of fish we saw
sooooooooo….we began at 11am yesterday and my team finished at 8:15 this morning. we went nonstop without any sleep. and our strategy was to bypass the steps which were 2 hours from our starting point, and head two hours past that to the elephants. we did this, because we figured the elephants would be closing and we could always go back and climb the stairs at night. and our plan worked 🙂 well, we actually got to the elephants around 4 i think, and they really closed at 2. well, we begged and they let us go. minutes after they said ok, the lime team pulls in and is also trying to work the same magic. we had jumped into the safari truck and were trying to get our driver to leave before they got on. and we were lucky. they told them no, and we left!
so after this was over, we headed to phuket town to do all our shopping and research. we got everything finished except we couldnt find the bugs to eat. they said they were out, and we couldnt get any til the next morning. (they were OUT? like people were really eating them? ughhhh…) anyways, we figured we would just look for those somewhere else. as they seemed to be such a delicacy. so we headed out of there and went back the 3 hours or so to the temple. by this time it was like midnight and our poor truck driver that we hired was so tired. thank gosh he agreed to stay with us, because there was not a sole out and we would have been stranded there. oh, i forgot something…on the way to the elephants, anita, kim, and i rode in the back of the pickup with all our bags. it was beautiful, sunny…and then an hour or so into it…it starts to pour. and did not stop for the next 4 hours. no fun!
so we climbed the stairs and then jumped back in the truck and headed back to the southern point to finish and do our swimming portion. we finally arrived at 5:30 am and started walking the streets of the little village to try and find these stupid bugs. we knew no other team was able to ride the elephants the day before, so they all had to wait til this morning to ride, which gave us some time to work with. well, we could not find bugs anywhere. we were starting to freak out, because we busted our butt all night long to make it here, and then couldnt find the bugs! so kim, friske, and laura took a taxi back into town to try and find them (even though we were told we couldnt get them til 5pm in there) and anita and i started searching through the grass trying to find a roach or cricket. i know, i can’t believe i am typing this, let alone did it. we found some worms on the leaves of banana trees that we were going to use, but they ended up finding some in town. anna-marie took some pictures of us as we were eating them (wait til you see) so as soon as i can, i’ll post them.
so as soon as this ended, we flew to the water and anita grabbed the flag and our clock stopped…30 minutes before the lime team. 🙂 YEAH!
so tomorrow we will all split up and head to our separate ministry sites for the rest of the month. i’m not sure where my team will be yet, but we will have internet access so i’ll be able to update more often (and upload pictures!)
sending much love and enjoying all the little things with you…
And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. -Deuteronomy 6:5
