Chris and I were very devoted to doing ministry at the Hope House while in Swaziland this month. The Hope House is a catholic run organization that is like a hospice care center. We have gone into town everyday and spent a few hours with 2 or 3 patients and developed good relationships with them. It was a lot of fun and I will miss the Mama Margaret, Khosi and Sandile, who are the people that we have spent the majority of our time with, when we leave.
It is quite a trip to get into town everyday. Where we live is about a 30 minute car drive from town and is out in the African bush. We have no form of transportation into town except the public transportation that runs out to where we live. Therefore we walk from our small home on a beat-up dirt road in Timbutini out to the main paved road, which takes about 30 minutes in the hot sun. Then we stand by the side of the road until a Cumbi (a 14 passenger taxi van) comes by and picks us up. Not very many Cumbis come out to Timbutini so sometimes we wait by the side of the road for 45 minutes without any sun protection waiting for a Cumbi to pick us up. Then we ride 30 minutes into town and walk from the bus station to the Hope House on foot, which is probably a 20 minute walk. Therefore, on a good day we can get from our home to the Hope House in an hour and 45 minutes or so.
Keeping this in mind, here is a story from the other day that adequately describes what world racers do and how they are recognized.
A group of 5 of us were headed to the Hope House for the day. We trekked from our home out to the main road and began waiting for a Cumbi to come and pick us up. We talked for a few minutes and when conversations ran dry, we all sat down on the side of the road… in our dresses and read our books. We were reading for a long time….. sitting….. waiting. After waiting for about 45 minutes, I couldn't sit down on the ground anymore and I had to stand up. I stood up and walked over to a place away from the road where a tree existed and paced around in the shade for a few minutes. Kat Law, a fellow racer from team Ruach, finally got tired of sitting on the ground and came over to the shade tree with me. She found an old ladder that people use to jump over a fence and she sat down on one of the rungs. Upon sitting on something other than the ground, she turned to me and exclaimed, "Wow, this ladder feels like a Lazy Boy!"
We waited for a little longer and finally decided to try hitchhiking into town. All 5 of us stood out by the road again and put our thumbs high in the air… and to our great surprise, a pick-up truck stopped and let us all ride with him into town. I think that the had already picked up other hitchhikers because the truck was full with a variety of people headed different places. We all jumped into the bed of the truck amongst the people who were already sitting there. We took off down the road and before a minute had passed a large van pulled up behind us. The van was full of white people and they started honking and wildly waving at us. They pulled alongside us on the road and rolled their window down and the woman sitting in the passenger seat yelled to us, "Hey…. are y'all world racers?" We answered yes, and they sped away. Of course we're world racers…. who else would be jammed into the bed of a pick-up truck hitchhiking into town while wearing dresses?
We successfully arrived in town and decided that hitchhiking was the way to go. Chris and I have hitchhiked into town every day since then… and we have had some great opportunities to meet people and form relationships. It has been a lot of fun.
Disclaimer: Hitchhiking is relatively normal in Swaziland and not near as dangerous as it is in the U.S. We have been completely safe.
