Here is the story of how I went from Eswatini to Atlanta within 2.5 days.
Friday March 13th 4:10 pm Eswatini
We just left our care point to go home for the weekend and we got a flat tire. Our driver gets his pump but it doesn’t have enough pressure to pump up the tire, luckily another bus was passing by and gave us his jack to lift the car. Within 20 minutes we were back win the rode.
“Hey did y’all get this text?” -Jadon
We all looked at Jadon confused because no one has service but him. It was funny until he read the text that we would be leaving Eswatini ASAP due to borders closing. Apparently Lesotho (our next country) completely closed their borders and Eswatini would be closing soon. Our bus ride turned from a party bus to a worship/prayer drive. Although sad it was a great moment. When we got home our leaders confirmed with us that we would be leaving at 8:30am the next morning for Pretoria (Near Johannesburg). This was hard to hear as a team. There was also an 11n11 team with us and I can’t even imagine how they felt being told they were going home with 5/6 months left. So Friday night turned into one last hoorah and half of us stayed up until 2am!
Saturday March 14th Eswatini -> South Africa
We had breakfast together before getting our bags outside and loaded into the vans. We were also meeting up with a Gap Year squad so all of us can be together when we travel. During our travel both 11n11 and gap year got flights booked while our squad was left waiting. Kinda exciting having no itinerary, not knowing when we are flying out or where we are flying too! We got to our hostel in Pretoria and still had no wifi access to talk with family so we just had to continue to wait. Finally we left for a mall to get dinner and find wifi. We split up at the mall and luckily my small group found a restaurant with good wifi (good for South Africa!) and I was able to let family know what was happening. Later that night some of us stayed up just messing around since we didn’t know how much time we had left when we were told we had a flight booked for 8pm the next day. WOW, within 48 hours of finding out we were leaving we have a flight book. Things were slowly becoming a reality that we were actually leaving South Africa.
Sunday March 15th
We had the morning and most of the afternoon free before flying out. We went to the mall again to get food, wifi, and some of the girls even got tattoos! It was a sad/fun day. At 3 we had to pack up to head to the airport. We had a 9 hour flight to Doha Qatar with an hour layover to get on a 15 hour flight home to Atlanta. On the bright side the longer the flights the more food you get! Also just ended up watching a lot of movies and only sleeping a total of 2 hours…
Monday March 16th 4pm
We landed in Atlanta and I turned my phone off airplane mode for the first time since leaving. Reality was setting in especially in regard to the new society we are returning too. Since we had limited wifi in South Africa we didn’t really know much about how America was reacting to the COVID19 virus. Although we didn’t have to go home yet, our mentor was able to get us a 2 night debrief in a hostel which was an absolute blessing. Our air B & B was dope and gave us the opportunity to process everything that was going on in a save environment of people who are experiencing the same thing. Also gave us time to book new flights home.
Tuesday March 17th
Today we had a full day of debrief planned which included worship, processing, and coming together as a team one last time. It was amazing although my day was cut in half. Casey and I didn’t have flights booked yet and we are supposed to fly out Wednesday, we decided to go to the airport to try and get our April flights changed, since the phone number wouldn’t work. We also brought our packs with us incase they would give us a flight for that day. Unfortunately they wouldn’t not let us change our flights but Casey called a woman fro her church and was able to get a buddy pass on a flight. I also just purchased a new ticket that night to go home so the final plane ride was aproaching. We already said our goodbyes to the rest of the the rest of the team and now had to hang out in the airport for a while before leaving for good.
I read something on the World Race instagram that used the words we are being “sent” home. I never thought about those words, I just kept saying we have to go home, and we are going home but no. God has a plan in all fo this and we are not just going home, we are being sent home by God. That He didn’t even plan for us to finish our trip, His plan from the beginning was to send us home abruptly and for us to continue to chase after Him.
I’m not going to lie life kinda sucks right now, I had plans when I got home and as long as group gatherings aren’t allowed those plans are useless. So now I am stuck for the next 12 days in self-quarantine lost in what to do. But in that time I want to find what Gods plan is for me. I don’t expect it to be easy, especially with how easy it is to be lazy in this situation. I ask for prayers that laziness doesn’t consume me and that I can find ways to glorify God in the next 12 days.
I love you all and am waiting for the day we are able to get together and catch up!!
– Josh
