Before Africa:
We flew from Chicago to New York and then after 12 hours in New York we had to be back at the airport to fly to Atlanta. The second group of people leaving New York had an hour from the time we landed in Atlanta and our plane took of for Joeburg. As logistics coordinator, it was all I could do to pray that we would make good timing between flights and then all get to where we needed to be at the next gate by navigating through Atlanta’s huge airport. Well God did something bigger than I could have imagined, He dropped us off right across from the gate we needed to be at. We literally walked off our plane and across the hallway to the rest of I squad and quickly got everything squared away to board about 15 minutes later.
To Harare Zimbabwe from Johannesburg South Africa:
You would not believe the travel stories I am about to tell you. We were scheduled to leave South Africa for Harare Zimbabwe at 3pm on Thursday September 13th on the Eagle Liner Bus. My team arrived at the bus station at 1245pm and the other team at 130pm. We walked to our gate and sat there until 3pm when we all jumped up thinking our bus would be there at any moment. One of the girls we had met, Jackie, received a text that our bus would be two hours late. Again at 5pm we were excited that the bus would arrive shortly. At six it was getting dark and by seven we were getting tired and hungry. Finally at 9pm the bus arrived to the station. This ride was supposed to take about 16-18 hours, however after stopping at another station and loading all their stuff on the already PACKED bus, and then being pulled over by the police for a kind-of-flat tire we were on our way by like 2am, and only about an hour outside of the town we left. The aisles were full of bags and peoples’ belongings since underneath was full. You could barely move and the seats were straight up. I will say I loved the beautiful African sunrise at about 520am. We stopped several times for Recess, where you could use the toilet or buy food, but then you had to hurry back on the bus before it left you. At the South Africa border we walked through a tent to leave the country. Then the bus drove us to the entrance of Zimbabwe. (I saw moneys between the two stops) At the Zimbabwe entrance we filled out paper work and paid for Visas and then had to sit by our bags because they had to unload everything to check us before we came into their country. After all of that, we pulled into a place called chicken inn and Jochem talked the bus driver into free chicken and fries for the entire bus. The bus driver had joked about getting us a free meal but Jochem made sure to talk to him about business principles and it was crazy, everyone was so happy. I couldn’t believe we got the free food I had prayed for the previous day around 4pm when we were all hungry. Go God, and Jochem. During the rest of the trip I saw two giraffes and listened to music with Liz and the friends she had made in the back of the bus. We slowed down several times for people on the side of the rode to show us what they were selling and we also stopped for cows and other animals to cross. Well finally after about 24 hours, we arrived in Harare at 930pm and it took an hour to get our things because they had to unload each thing section by section because of theft. When our contact picked us up we crammed fifteen people, 12 huge packs, and 12 daypacks into his van. We all felt so blessed when we arrived at their house and they had a hot meal waiting for us, including chocolate muffin tops!!! AH yay. We all set up our tents and passed out. I praise Jesus we all made it safely because our contacts could not believe that we sat outside the Johannesburg bus station for so many hours, especially after dark. They informed us that it is one of the most dangerous places in the world. I know angels were with us. And let’s just say that every person we told in Zimbabwe about our trip laughed after they heard us say we took the Eagle Liner, I guess we took the wrong bus. We learned real quick what traveling was like in Africa and all of our patience was tested but God showed Himself as our sustainer and as our protector.
To Harare from Rusape:
While in Harare we made a trip out to our new friend Ngoni’s to help with his Sunday church and an outreach project he was working on with our contact out in the bush. More to come on that in the next blog, but first, while were talking about travels, let me tell you about the ride back. You should know that everywhere we go we ride in combis that pack about 23-25 people and their stuff in a 15 passenger van. So when leaving Rusape, some took the combi and others rode in Brian, our contact’s, van. Brian’s tire bearing went out and we were stopped on the rode when all of a sudden Jochem is hanging out the window and a public combi is pulling over to see if we were alright. It was all our team. So they put the ladies on the public combi to hopefully get home sooner and the boys in Brian’s van because he had some work to do on the van. Our public combi died, twice, and we were flagging down anything we could, beds of trucks, big semi trucks, other combis, and finally a charter bus agreed to take us on and bring us back to town. It was all we could do prior to that to laugh and say well this is Africa. We danced and took pictures in the street while the boys worked on flagging down a ride. On the charter bus we witnessed an African sunset and I am telling you the sun on the land around here is one of the most beautiful things, besides the people of course. Once in town we scurried around in the dark to get to another public combi to take it near our contacts house. Another day of travels and another way God showed Himself always taking care of us and keeping us safe and calm in the chaos.
