After we were finished doing ministry in the city, where we have been the last few weeks, we made our way up into the hills here in India. It was a journey to say the least! Funny things happened like when Elise talked as if she spoke goat and a goat talked back and when I saw a goat chase another and it did a complete stop and its hind legs flew over its body and then landed. As for us, though, we had to ride standing up in the back of a pickup truck, but at least we were looking out at an awesome view of the mountains. The mountains here are unlike any other mountains I’ve ever seen! It took us about 16 hours to get to our village where we would be doing ministry for a couple of weeks. While there we helped in a school by teaching the kids but mostly playing games with them because the people here don’t get very much outside interaction. Later in the day we would do a devotion with them and one of us would have a lesson ready for them. One time they took us to another village and basically paraded us around! They had all the kids lined up with signs that said things like “you are awesome world race team” and then they took us to their church. They had songs prepared for us and then they wanted us to sing! The pastor welcomed us, then preached, and then had a time of prayer. After church was over they took us outside in front of a statue and took pictures with us. We learned while we were there that this village was the first one in the area to receive the gospel! So that was cool to see! April 19th was our last day with the kids, so we played a lot of games with them. When we were finished, they took us out into the middle of the courtyard and all the kids surrounded us in a heart shape and thanked us for coming and for helping with the school! There are about 300 kids in this school. Kylie then prayed for the school and most of my team broke down crying because we had been touched so mcuh by these children. They then taught us their traditional dance called the “bamboo dance”. They showed us how to set the bamboo on the ground- 2 bamboo going vertical and 4 going diagonal- then 8 men grab up the bamboo that is going diagonal and smash them together and then open them up and smash them together while the women are dancing in between the bamboo. So we practiced this dance and then performed it on Sunday at the going away party that they threw for us and the rest of our squad. They performed other songs and dances and we also got to wear traditional clothing to show that was cool. Then we had to say our goodbyes.
The next day, April 23rd, we headed out around 7 or 8 in the morning. We all piled up in the back of this dump truck-like vehicle, all 37 of us Americans with our big packs and our small packs! It was so cramped for 2 hours then we finally got to our boat (the sketchiest boat I’ve ever been on). While on our boat ride, they had to constantly throw water out of it with a bucket because the back had a hole in it! The engine died about 10 times. I’m glad I wore my swimming trunks because I had to get out and help push the boat off of the sand dunes that we could not see because they were under the water. It was beautiful, though, seeing all of the mountains open up with the river and then the jungle. It was just beautiful! I got to see a wild elephant on the shore and that was epically awesome! We got off the boat in the city we are now staying at, around 1:30 in the morning on April 24th. Then I did something stupid. I lost a bet and I had to drink some of the river water! Thank God I’m not dead yet, lol! Honestly, it was my favorite travel day that I’ve had on my race! Our ministry right now, seems to be helping the church here by cleaning it in the morning and then in the afternoons we are free to do our own ministry! I am going to be able to do my favorite ministry and on the world race we call it ATL which is “ask the Lord” which means we pray before we walk out and ask God where he wants us to go. That to me, personally, is called being a Christian.
