Three teams, including mine, packed up and headed out to work with churches in the bush that had been arranged for us. We were supposed to be about 10-15 minutes away from town and Clinton (our squad leader). We drove through town then started on a sandy road. The ruts in the sand were so deep that our driver could take his hands off the steering wheel for 5 minutes and the car would drive by itself on the curvy road. After about 1 ½ hours of driving we stopped at our site. It was in the middle of nowhere in the bush. There was a tin roof and benches for a church. Our drivers (white South Africans) advised us not to stay saying it would not be safe for us especially because of the color of our skin. We also did not have enough water to last the four days and Clinton would have no idea how far out we were. If something would have happened we would have no way of contacting Clinton and he would have no way of contacting us. So as a team we decided not to stay.
By the time we made it back to town it was getting dark, so our drivers invited us to stay at their lodge. The lodge turned out to be a resort of large huts sprinkled on the coast of the Indian Ocean. The lodge was not open because of the extensive hurricane damage, but it was beautiful. We stayed on mattresses in the 3 bedroom 3 bathroom straw roofed bungalow. I expected to eat a dinner of peanut butter and crackers, but our hosts insisted on preparing a dinner for us. When they placed a huge T-bone steak in front of me I was so overwhelmed I started to tear up. I could not believe the generosity and hospitality of our hosts. We ended the evening gazing up at the stars and calling out exclamations with each shooting star. I saw four.
