I was thinking the other day; no, it didn’t hurt. I was thinking about how easy it is to blog about the amazing things God is doing, sharing stories of people’s lives I’ve met, what I’ve been learning and experiencing. But sometimes life is hard. Traveling the world doing missions can seem very glamorous. Don’t get me wrong; I love my life. I just don’t find myself taking pictures of me living in sweat and not showering for a few days or portraying the long bus rides, having to eat the most questionable things, lots of awkward moments with cultural differences, not having a clue what tomorrow looks like and having to be prepared for anything, wearing the same clothes ALL the time and never having time to yourself to do what you want. The not so glamorous side of life. Welcome to the World Race. Welcome to my life. And as much as I love it, there are times that are frustrating and messy and quite frankly, I get cranky. I want to tell you about one of those times. Now that it’s in the past, I can laugh about it. So here it goes…
This month we are traveling all around Malaysia. We only spend about a week in one place and then we’re off to the next. So it was time to change locations for our next week of ministry. We were told it was about a 6-7 hour bus ride to the next city, not too bad. The bus was supposed to leave at 10:30pm and we arrived an hour early just to be safe. By 11:40pm we were wondering if we had somehow missed it. 2 hours at a bus stop with stray cats, pouring down rain (we had to put our bags in the seats because water was everywhere), giant, man-eating mosquitos and Malay men staring at us like we were aliens is not my idea of fun. The bus finally arrived and we went to put our big packs underneath in the luggage compartment. Oh wait, it was too full. So all 7 of us, in the rain, had to carry our packs and all other belongings on the bus with us. Needless to say we got dirty looks as we blocked the entire aisle with our stuff. Plus, when it’s raining everything seems to take twice as long. I wish I could tell you that was all and I sat comfortably in my seat and drifted off to sleep until we arrived at our stop. False.
The entire bus smelled like a dirty diaper, and that’s being kind. We’re pretty sure a rat or something died in the air vent and was blowing through the entire bus. Good times. An older man a few rows behind me was literally coughing up a lung every 6 seconds and I may have contracted SARS. Am I being too dramatic? But wait, there’s more! My seat did not lean back. I can pretty much sleep anywhere but a little bit of reclining action would be nice. Is that too much to ask? Any time I was almost asleep, almost, we made a stop so people had to climb over all our things and they bumped into me because I was in the front row and used the bags in the aisle as a leg rest. Another man in the seat across from me enjoyed talking to the driver, quite loudly I might add. Last but not least, I am thankful for the AC, really I am, especially in Malaysia. But when it’s blowing on you, smelling like dead rat and you’re wet from the rain it makes you very cold. Every time I looked at my watch only an hour had passed. 1:12, 2:25, 3:40, 4:09, 5:31, 6:17; it was the l-o-n-g-e-s-t night of my life. At one point I remember just laughing to myself, probably out of pure exhaustion or maybe the dead rat air was getting to me. Either way I’m glad I found joy in the worst bus ride of my life. I’m also a little bummed I did not take a picture but this is what I felt like and exactly what my hair looked like.
As I write I hope that you are getting a picture of this and it’s not one of those “you had to be there” moments. I think that night was the first time I didn’t want to be here. What I would give to be able to sleep in my own bed, eat what I want, have clean clothes, take a long, hot shower, hang out with friends and family. And then I realized that I am already half way done! This is month 6 and I only have 5 more to go. I know that when I get home I will sleep in my bed, eat what I want, take ridiculously long showers, see friends and family; but I have a feeling that I am going to miss this life. Not only miss it, but crave it. It’s a little addicting. Yes, even the nightmare bus rides that cause sleepless nights.
