What a great way to end the race. Loved our time at BEAM Africa with Erika and Louie. Loved our hosts, loved hangin out with the team from Nebraska, loved doin ministry at the Poject in Mamelodi every day, loved bonding with my team. And LOVED ENDING THE RACE IN CAPE TOWN! Month 11, was by far one of my absolute favorite moths all around.
Hope y’all enjoy a few of the stories. Although, there are certainly so many that didn’t make it into this list because I was having too great of a time to write them down throughout the month. Haha, oops.
Part of me regrets not keeping up with the stories throughout the month like I did in the previous months. Because I know there are so many hilarious moments I missed. I feel like my abs were always hurting because I laughed so much this month. It was full of so much joy, and it made going back to the United States so hard. But, I couldn’t imagine a better way to end the race. Truly blessed to have spent my time in Pretoria, South Africa at BEAM.
- Sometimes Ronny, Sydney, and Liz have to spend 8 hours at the border crossing into South Africa from Zimbabwe because customs has to check the bus and bags 5 million times for drug smugglers. But when Brad, Tommy, Kaitlin, and I go through the boarder we only have to wait for about 4 hours. #winning #sorryguys #theywerebitter #donthateus
- Sometimes you celebrate July 4th the right way with a cookout, a bonfire, and good company. Gotta love celebrating holidays internationally.
- While sitting in the van in the parking lot at the mall, this larger woman with a skin tight leopard print skirt on walks by. That’s when you suddenly hear Grant subtly say “Welp, had my first leopard spotting. Thought it would be in a more natural habitat, but…” Hahaha o the subtle remarks from Grant never cease to bring endless laughter.
- Sometimes you lose to what are the odds, not once but twice, and have to eat food coloring so your mouth is colored for the rest of the evening. Don’t worry, we let Anna chose her color of choice.
- When you have Jayne aimlessly searching for a “Strawberry knife” because she thought there was actually a specific knife she needed to cut strawberries with haha. Priceless.
- So at the Project there was this crazy, hilarious, spastic little boy who would never tell us his name. We even had someone ask him in his native language and he still wouldn’t answer. But, all month long he would say “yaya, yaya, yaya” over and over and over again. So now he is known as Yaya who also has a major obsession with Spider-Man (that’s the other word he would say endlessly). He was absolutely adorable. A handful no doubt, but adorable nonetheless.
- So we have some dogs who run around the house. One named Courage who acts like a real infant child when Anna holds him. One named Muffet and Molly who are just kinda chill. And then one named Bin Laden because apparently he terrorizes the others. Ummm talk about hilarious and they totally fit their names.
- Warning!!! Never enter Cotton On because you WILL come out with everything in the store. Especially if you’ve been deprived of cute clothes for an entire year.
- When you’re puttin a ceiling in and Ronny breaks the window in your hosts house. Dropped the Mic on that one, Ron dog.
- We have officially become masters of grocery shopping. 4 days worth of groceries in 11 minutes!! That’s my kind of shopping, folks.
- Sometimes at Mamelodi we have to find ways to entertain the kids… Which translates into the hokey pokey every. single. dayyyy.
- That moment when Brady comes back to the car after the market and nonchalantly says he has a real giraffe leg in the trunk. Come to find out he bought a lamp that is made out of a real giraffes leg. Hahaha this is the same guy who has a huge chunk of stone from the Great Wall of China chillin in his office at home. Haha only Brady. O and let’s just say, getting that through customs was, well, interesting.
- When you buy something at the market and they conveniently don’t have bags at their booth so they give your stuff to another booth to bag it for you. And then, since you’re down there they let you know that if you want, you could look through their stuff as well. O how clever… I see what you did there.
- When the guy at the market randomly pulls out a taser and points it at you just in case you might want to buy it. Ummm actually, on that note I think I’m gonna walk away.
- Staying up until the wee hours of the night playing Mafia and Murder in the Dark because it’s just that awesome and you’re friends from Nebraska are also just that awesome.
- When Tommy is Mafia every single game and gets voted off first because of it. Doesn’t even matter what he tries to say. And it doesn’t even matter if everyone knows he’s not Mafia. We vote him off.
- When you start singing “Let it Go” and everyone just mumbles because they don’t really know the lyrics. And then outta no where Dan busts out perfect lyrics and caries the song solo style. Crushed it, Dan. Crushed it.
- When an intense game of Murder in the Dark leaves Tommy and Anna in a heated debate that goes on for an impressively long time. Tommy is the murderer, but has everyone convinced that Anna is the killer, and Anna is trying to tell everyone that he’s the murderer, but no one believes her. It’s actually unhealthy how good Tommy is at convincing people in these games.
- Brady driving the “Robins Egg” or the little blue car around South Africa can be kinda interesting. Especially when he pretends like speed bumps are like a little roller coaster and decides to actually speed up when he goes over them. Always entertaining riding in Brady’s car.
- Sometimes when you’re riding down the side of a mountain in a cable car you just have to bust out singing Frey’s “Over My Head” because it just seems so fitting. Thanks, Grant, for takin the lead on that one.
- It’s July so obviously we needed to bust out into harmonized Christmas music for about an hour in a half one night. I guess that’s what happens when you feel like you missed Christmas and all Christmas music for a year. But, it was the best night of the month.
- When you take a walk through the slums and it turns into a 2 hour hike while you’re inhaling dust from every passing semi who tries to get inches from hitting you. That’s an adventure I’d be ok with not experiencing again.
- When you’re in the van Matthew is driving. For a moment he forgets what country he’s in and takes a tight right turn. Well we’re in South Africa and right turns are FAR RIGHT. So we find ourselves driving straight into on coming traffic!! That’s what happens when ya let the Americans drive, haha!!! EEEkkkkkk, terrifying.
- When you’re on a safari and you find yourself only several feet from 3 massive Rhinos. Ummm WHATTT… so freaken awesome!!!
- So many cuddle sessions on the couch every single day. Alllll the love!!
- Proud to say we got most of the Nebraska team hooked on SNL’s Pizza Eater video with Melissa McArthy. We may or may not have gotten them quoting it all month long. Ummmm #winning
- Sometimes you find yourself playing what are the odds for 3 hours straight to see how many ridiculous things you can come up with before the new team arrives in the evening. So here’s what we ended up with… Brad is actually Derrick Derrick’s, double D’s for short, from New Mexico. He doesn’t believe in deodorant or shaving and his parents are hippies from Hawaii. I’m a mute 24 year old from Ohio and Ronny is my translator who likes to make up ridiculous poop stories for me. And Ronny, Kaitlin, and Tommy have to creepily finish every question they ask with “mmmm?”
- Headlamp dance parties in the kitchen while you’re cooking dinner? Yes pleaseeeeee. Cooking has never been more fun.
- You get back from church and finish eating a late lunch. As you’re hanging out at the table before you start washing dishes your teammates surprise you with freshly baked brownies and vanilla ice cream as an early birthday surprise. O my goodness I freaken love my team!!! They are just pretty awesome humans.
- Sometimes you watch two girls from the Nebraska team get baptized by our host. And it’s just a pretty special moment to be a part of in someones life.
- When you’re hanging out at Erika and Louis house after a delicious dinner they served you. You’re sitting on the couch and Louis starts talking about how Erika needs to remind him to hand out the plague before we leave. Well, he meant plaque, but said plague and immediately Erika exclaims “No! Don’t hand that out… No one wants the plague.” Gosh, I just love how they laugh and make jokes on a daily basis. Life is just so fun and interesting around them!
- Sometimes during your flight to Cape Town, Kaitlin likes to deploy her life vest under her seat. And then an older woman won’t let Kaitlin get off the plane until she’s “gotten all her belongs from under her seat” thinking that Kaitlin has left something. Then there’s that awkward moment when she realizes it’s just her life vest that she deployed. Let’s just say we started Cape Town off right with abs in pain from the endless laughter.
- First night in Cape Town means go all out and have one last team dinner at Ocean Basket in the airport before heading to the hostel. All the sushi in the land and delicious South African wine!!! Made for one interesting evening in the Cape Town airport while we waited to pick up Renee and Tyler.
- Sometimes you’re dragged on stage with Kaitlin and asked to sing Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” in front of a room full of strangers. Who said making a fool of yourself isn’t fun.
- Leading our squad in one last night of worship. Worship with DTM was one of my favorite ways that my team bonded. And it was very special to do it one last time in Cape Town before leaving for the United States of America.
- That moment when on the very last day of the race, and as a last hoorah, your team decides to rent a car for the day to check out all the hot spots in Cape Town. You check out the colorful houses on the beach in Muizenburg, you hang out with the penguins in Simon’s Town, you step foot in the place where two oceans meet at Cape Point and Cape of Good Hop. It’s not until you get back to your hostel at the end of the day that you find out racers aren’t aloud to rent cars anymore. Hahaha what better way for Drop the Mic to end the race? Breaking rules and asking for forgiveness. Pretty much the story of DTM’s lives haha. #droppedthemiconthatone #oops
Last DTM picture on top of Cape of Good Hope (the most South-Western tip of Africa). Couldn’t have imagined a better group of humans to “do life” with. And definitely couldn’t have imagined a better group of humans to spend the last day of the race with. Adventuring, laughing, and doing what we do best, having a great time together (while also breaking the rules). I love you DTM! May the legend live on 😉
Here’s our last highlight video. Month 11 was my favorite, and this is by far one of my favorite videos as well. So y’all should totally watch it! Enjoy!!
Blessings,
Jaz
