Wow. Let me tell you about a time I got sent into the jungle. We arrived in Kuala Lumpur safe and sound and in less than 24 hours of being in the big city Peter and Carol, our lovely hosts, called my team down for a meeting. They said that they had prayed about it and decided to send the other team into the jungle, but since the decision was made several signs have come up to prove that God had other plans in mind. They gave us two hours to eat dinner, re-pack our packs, scramble to find internet to send our parents a “hey guys I love you and won’t be communicating with you for a few weeks so don’t worry” email. Basically we ran around like chickens with our heads cut off for 2 hours. I am now able to use that phrase properly as I now know exactly what that looks like…thank you Kenya. So 2 hours later, off we go with Pastor Tony into the Malaysian Jungle.
Alex and I rode with Santana, who was so nice he gave us fish extract crackers and dry chicken ramen snacks. Yum. Little did we know we’d be wishing for those later on. We have no idea where the rest of our team is but we have dropped off all of our stuff and been summoned back into the truck by Santana. Its now around 11pm…? We don’t know where he’s taking us. All ended well that night…turns out Santana was just hungry at 11pm.
The next day we are back on the road for the jungle. We must fix the wagon for the tractor to get all off our stuff to village #3. We load, we unload, we get stuck, we get unstuck. Santana pulls off to the side of the road and tells Alex and I to go down to the river and wash up. Ha. That sounds easy enough. Well I ripped my pants on the barbed wire fence but eventually made it to the river to wash up in what I hope was a STORM water pipe…not another type of pipe. Did I tell you its rainy season yet??
Ok so we don’t make it past village #2 that night, because the tractor can’t get through the muddy road. So we stayed with the kids who played in the rain/mud/climbed the trees like monkeys, and slept in a bamboo house. Then the next morning we try again. So we load up the tractor and our plan is to get about half way in the tractor where it will most likely get stuck again and then we’ll walk until the tractor gets through and can pick us up again. Sounds brilliant. Until about 200 yards into the trip, when the tractor broke.
So there began our journey of walking 12 km by ourselves to find the next village…without our big packs…and without our food. Somewhere around km 3, I took my shoes off and went barefoot the rest of the way because the shoes were not helping my situation in the mud thats so bad a tractor can’t get through it. Around km 8, we get passed by our tractor driver on a motorbike…wait what?? If he’s here, then who’s with all of our stuff. Crap. So Kyle and I head back towards the tractor where we finally find it stuck in the mud with two strange men waiting with all of our stuff. Joy. Along the way, I ate it in the mud and now my leg is muddy muddy and bloody. After much digging and pushing and bailing from the tipping slipping tractor, we were back on our hike into village #3.
OOFTA WE FINALLY MADE IT TO THE VILLAGE!!!!
Stay tuned for more blogging on the jungle and for pictures of our muddy messes of ourselves.
