Coming to Africa had been a scary thought for me. I’ve heard to stories about horrific African transportation and bathrooms, and seem to many Discovery Channel shows about bird eating spiders and gigantic insects. Botswana was not top on my list and I was not excited for it at all.
We had a few long travel days from Swaziland into South Africa and up to Botswana. Uncomfortable bus rides for several hours is not the most favorite thing of racers. Our team arrived in Maun where we stayed for a few nights in our tents in the “back yard” of one of the hotels. We only had one more bus ride to go and I thought to myself, “Only six hours, it’ll go by in a flash, we’ll be in Shakawe in to time.” (For those of you who don’t know, on the race we are used to 20+ hour bus rides sometimes so a measly six hours to us feels like nothing).
Waking up that morning was a struggle right from the start. It was raining and we had to be at the bus station by 5:30am, which meant us waking up and packing up everything in the rain at 4am. At this point I thought to myself, “It’s ok, we will soon be on the bus and out of the rain.” WRONG. When the bus finally arrived at 7:30am we got on and it was basically raining on the inside. There was water coming in from the holes in the roof and splashing in from the unsealed windows on the sides; at one point there was a steady stream of water coming down on Rocky’s head, who was sitting right next to me. As I looked across to my teammates, someone had put there child on Ash’s lap (African culture is so weird), and the bus driver was driving like such a maniac that I immediately knew that stepping into this bus was the most dangerous thing I’d done on the race so far.
We arrived safely (thank goodness) in Shakawe that afternoon where we were picked up by our host Willy and his wife Estelle. We had another 2 hours to go to get to Seronga, but even though we had to travel down a dirt road for those two hours, this ride was much better, Willy and Estelle had a brand new mini van for us to comfortably ride in.
Mom (and the rest of the family), you’ll find it hilarious to know to know that I had never been so happy in all my life to get into a mini van. Africa changes you.
When we arrived in Seronga I immediately knew that our rough transportation was all worth it. We spent the month on the Okavango Delta not only being surrounded by magnificent wildlife, but also being part of a family. Willy, Estelle and their three daughters Arista, Karlein and Simone all welcomed us and took us in as their own. We had such great times with them talking and laughing, God knew right where He was placing each one of us. We also had a Bible study that really challenged me this month to search scripture and search for reasons why I believe what I do. It was all so good, so challenging, and God blessed it so much. I thank God for the time He gave us in Seronga; for the Spitting Cobra that Willy shot for us out in the front yard on Easter Sunday (that’s an Easter Sunday I will surely never forget!), for the Hippo that hung out outside my tent every night, for the opportunity to be a part of the Booyse family this month, and most of all being able to serve Him in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
I never thought Botswana would take a piece of my heart, I love how God surprises me with these things.
Sent from my iPod
