It was pretty magical to turn twenty-five in Africa.
I had been looking forward to it for months, now. On the eve of my birthday, we went on a night walk in the village and sipped on orange Fanta under the stars. It was a lovely African stroll. Our host walked with us and reminded us, “In Africa, time is not money. Slow down and enjoy it.” It was a good last day of my twenty-forth year of life.
And then the blessed day had come, and we had a birthday mission. Our two translators and our gracious host were taking us into town. But it was after this that the real adventure began.
It started when our host said ,”Who would like to see the church the previous World Racers helped build?” I volunteered myself and Raina to come with me, not knowing what in the world I was getting us into; only because this was a venture that would end up taking many many hours. As we left the group, I remember waving goodbye with a longing, knowing they would return to the compound to eat lunch and rest, while we would not be back for quite awhile.
We were ushered in the back of a taxi (a van that was supposed to seat eight people, but actually seating eleven or twelve people), And ended up waiting an hour for passengers to come! Then were told we would actually take another car. This taxi ride took another hour, during which Raina and I had all the time in the world to talk about every deep debate you could think up.
? We were very blessed to stop and meet the pastor of the church at a home, where we played with the children and prayed for a lovely young mother who was ill. When our host asked, “would you like to take motorbikes into the village?” YES I was hoping you would ask, it was my most prominent wish. ?
We rode motorcycles, three on a bike, through many villages. We stopped for checkpoints, to greet family members; and passed farmers balancing basins of agriculture on their heads. The women here are the strongest I’ve ever met.
After many hours, we made it to the village in which was our destination. We greeted so many people! All the children of the village were following us and now each finger of mine was held by a beautiful tiny hand. Kids gave me their baby siblings to hold and laughed at our bad French and Baoulé.
We came to the church and visited the school toilets the world racers had fixed, and it was so awesome to hear what an impact they made on these lovely souls! And what a spirit of gratitude the entire village held! At this point in the day, Raina and I thought it best to pee. In the stalls, were holes in the ground. This was not a problem. Except, funny thing is, if you squat too low and you are in fact a lady, it becomes a crazy direction of about ten pee streams, none of which actually make it into the hole, and all of which probably make it onto your shoe instead. So if I can teach anything to anyone out there, it is to find the perfect degree of squatting. I know there’s a happy medium.
We thought we were finally to venture home, but no, it was time to see the chief. There we were, now sitting in a hut while the chief lounged on a hammock with the low murmur of a mini radio set before him. They offered us drinks and we waited in joyful anticipation! But actually there were no more drinks, they told us many moments later! As they talked, I watched a baby chick peck the ground in strikes that marked x’s on the dirt. And dreamt of eating and drinking back at the compound, in my hungry delirium 😉 An angel of a woman ended up giving us a delicious looking pineapple BUT one of our hosts held it tight while my mouth watered. (We ate it two days later and it was the most delicious pineapple I have ever had the pleasure of eating) So hours later, our village adventure ended.
Envision this: Flying down the streets, three on a motorbike plus a pineapple held out in the air and I swear we were driving upwind now because this ride was not as dreamy as the first, dust and bugs flew in my face the whole way. And I couldn’t stop smiling.
After two taxis home and one threatening of a car break-down, we made it to Diabo late in the evening, where our host surprised us by taking us straight into church and said the team was there and also we were to preach and sing worship songs at the front. Luckily, the team reassured me they had prepared a sermon, but there was that quick moment of hysteria.
When finally back at the compound, we opened the highly anticipated pot of food to reveal the most mutant looking fish I had ever seen 🙂 and it was the funniest thing to me, After hours and hours of no food and drink…. Ohhh this birthday did not disappoint!
