[So, imagine that it’s a travel day (or travel days in the case.) We are on our way from Da Nang, Vietnam to Vung Tàu, Vietnam for debrief. We had a 23-hour bus ride and a 3-hour van ride. Not too bad in the grand scheme of World Race travel days.]
We were only on the bus from Da Nang to Ho Chi Minh City for 17 hours, so that was a blessing. I talked to the woman next to me, I learned about the best foods in Ho Chi Minh, Vung Tàu, and her hometown, too. She shared her snacks with us, and we attempted to share with her. She also told me about being an engineer in Ho Chi Minh. It was great! The guy on the other side of me was nice, too. He watched the LEGO Movie with Hilary and I, kind of, tried some salted apricots that Salvador had, and laughed with us when we didn’t know what was going on. He even used his flashlight to light up my face when they turned off the lights while I was FaceTime-ing my parents. It was awesome.
We had a great time!
Earlier this month, I found myself on my phone when I was bored. I found myself looking at social media or not being as focused as I could be in some moments. As much as I love posting on Instagram and keeping up with people on Facebook, it wasn’t helping me live in the moment. When I came to the realization that that was happening. I prayed that God would help me realize in the moment when I wasn’t focused on the right thing and that I would have the self-discipline to put away my technology and have intentional conversations or quality time with people instead. After a few weeks of not following through with that, I found myself at the end of my time in Da Nang. I was frustrated with myself for not following through, but I wanted to give it another shot next month. Start fresh.
Back to travel day.
We got to Ho Chi Minh City and we were all waking up from deep sleep. Well, I was, because I can sleep anywhere, anytime. (Thank you, Jesus.) We were 5 hours early! It was 3:30am, and I was ready to get off the bus, mostly. I packed up my stuff, checked to make sure I didn’t leave anything behind, and got off the bus. We were all carrying our trash, our bags, our shoes, and whatever else we had from the long ride. My new Vietnamese friend said goodbye and she left. I wanted to say bye to the guy next to me, but he had left very quickly. We grabbed our big packs and we headed inside the station.
When we got into the bus station, I looked in my daypack for my headphone case. I thought that I had put my phone with my headphones because I wanted to listen to music and sleep some more. After a few minutes, I started to realize that my phone was nowhere to be seen. Alysse and Sarah looked through my bag to confirm that I wasn’t crazy. Then, we started to talk to the Vietnamese people that were around us. A bus station worker helped us by writing a message in Vietnamese so I could tell people my phone was gone. But… it was still 4am, and none of the workers from our bus company were there.
I waited until 6, walked over and got help from 4 more workers. We looked on the bus, and they called everyone they could think of. No luck.
After an hour and a half of looking and waiting and translating, I decided that it wasn’t worth it anymore. It wasn’t the phone that I really cared about in the first place.
As much as I wanted my phone back and I thought that it would have been better if it wouldn’t have been stolen, I got what I prayed for. I got an opportunity to not be drawn to a great piece of technology that had become a distraction. Yes, I am now without a normal alarm, Google Translate, Duolingo, and Instagram, but I think it’s a good thing for a while. Sometimes, the circumstances in which God answers prayers is costly, difficult, and confusing, but it’s all about perspective.
The only things I lost:
Some money that I’ll probably spend on a new phone at some point.
A picture of one of my Vietnamese friends from our fun day at Monkey Mountain.
Some notes and things that were good reminders to me.
Things I gained:
A new perspective.
A new view of quality time.
Some experience with the thing I specifically prayed for – time without the chance of being distracted by technology.
A not so great situation turned into a good one, but I think that’s just how God works.
