I wrote this exactly one week ago- the night we arrived to Kenya.
April 29th, 2013
As I sit here at 3am in this tiny, dirty, little bus station in Kenya, I am grossed out by the 'termites' are swarming the room. (They call them termites- but they aren't the wood-eating termites we have at home). I can barely turn up the music in my earphones loud enough to drown out the sound of their flapping wings. So gross.
Whats even more gross is that I have eaten these bugs. Yep, I've eaten them. You see, these 'termites' are actually giant ants with wings, that come a few times a year to 'migrate' — and they are considered a delicacy. When they migrate, the Ugandan (and evidently the Kenyan) people collect them (note: I am now watching a woman here in the bus station collect a few off the ground to put in a cup) and then they fry 'em up with some butter and salt! Or just plain, b/c as my Ugandan family would say, 'they have their own oils, so you don't even have to add anything! they are delicious!' I don't know if I'd say they were delicious, though. No, I definitely would not say that. I'd say they were gross. The texture is what really got me. But, I guess if you can get past the texture of a soft, crunchy, hollow ant in your mouth…it kinda tastes like a potato chip.
What's more gross than that is that these ants aren't even the grossest bug I've eaten on the Race — I ate a fried grasshopper at the market in Thailand and fresh bee larvae right from the honeycomb in the jungle of Cambodia. Both also considered delicacies in their own right. (I skipped the fried spider at the bus station rest stop in Cambodia, I left that one to my buddy Carter.)
So yeah- these swarming bugs all around me are actually African, all-natural, delicacies. And their collection is a 'family event': I remember a pastor that we worked with in Uganda told me that when they'd 'hear' the bugs (like I can hear them swarming right now) or when they'd see them walking (b/c these large flying ant creatures actually shed their wings to walk on ground while they migrate) he'd wake up the whole family to go outside and collect ants…so they could enjoy the tasty snacks the following day. I wonder if my Kenyan Pastor and his family are out collecting 'termites' — maybe that's why they can't pick us up until 5am. hah. I hope that's not really the reason. lol.
Yep, so it's just my team now- Team Living in Zion -we just left the bigger G Squad Family. They dropped us off on their way to their prospective Kenyan 'homes' for the month. We will be living in a town called Malanga, outside of a city called Malava. It's a few hours away from the Ugandan border and it seems like a preeeetty remote locale from what I can tell so far. Yep, I have no clue what awaits me.
As I recently posted on Facebook:
"We now embark on our LAST month, with all the same old anticipations of: "where will we live?, will there be beds? showers?, who will our new 'family' be this month?, who will steal my heart?, what will I learn? what will we actually DO all month?' Strangely, I will miss these uncertainties very much!
In just a few days, all those questions will be answered, and I will settle into my last home away from home for this journey. And I will begin to say goodbye to this nomadic lifestyle I've developed, alongside some of the most incredible people I have ever been blessed to do life with."
Man. Even though I am grossed out by the swarming bugs, the fact I've eaten the swarming bugs, and the fact I've eaten worse on the World Race, there's another feeling over me that's WAY stronger: I am overcome by love.
I look at the 5 beautiful women that are curled up trying to sleep on the bus chairs around me. And I love them. SO MUCH! I am so proud to be their leader. Each one of them has such an incredible story to tell. Their lives boast the power and grace and strength of God. Their World Race experiences have pushed them so far out of their comfort zones, and they've met every challenge with so much zeal –with so much anticipation of how the Lord is going to use each experience to grow them, draw them closer to Him, and shape them into the incredible women of faith they will be for the rest of their lives. I am so lucky. So blessed to have had the opportunity to have done life alongside such strong, fun, adventurous, and truly beautiful women. As my teammate Krystyna, who I have been with since the start of the Race, recently posted on her blog, "I'm gonna kick some more butt and take some more names in the last month of this incredible journey!!!"
Yep. We kick butt. For Jesus. And it's awesome.
For a moment I take my anxious eyes off the bugs, and my gaze l ands on the bus station security guard, Joseph, (Pastor Joseph, actually) and again – I feel God's love.
So, we show up here — this tiny bus station in the middle of nowhere Africa at 2:30am — and I tell my girls to wait on the bus while me and a squad leader check it out. I know our contact isn't going to pick us up till 5am, and I'm not about to bring my girls into some sketchy situation. The bus driver introduces me to Joseph the security guard, and Joseph assures me he will be on guard until morning and it's safe for us to wait inside.
You see, I know the area we are traveling in is not-so-safe b/c when we stopped to do our routine African 'pee by the side of the road' bathroom pit stops (yep- those are the 'rest stops' in Africa: we pop squats in the grass alongside one another. we've grown that close. I digress.) So when we stopped earlier tonight to do our business, the bus driver was insistent that we stay close to the bus (which was awkward- 'cause we were forced to squat within range of the bus headlights) for safety purposes. Evidently, there are a lot of bus jackings, car jackings, robberies, etc that happen in the night hours. But fear not, we were safe with Joseph in the locked bus station. And who is Joseph? I found out he is a local Pastor here and he actually knows our Kenyan contact — the pastor who is coming to pick us up! Of course he does! 🙂 He provided me with a converter plug to charge my laptop on which I now type, he encouraged me that we are 'very welcome' (as Africans often say) and that the community is blessed by our arrival, and he even dimmed the lights to shoo away the termites …because he could obviously see I am wigging out swatting at them.
So, it's now 4am and I'm not overcome by the gross reality of bugs, bus station bedrooms, or bus side in-the-grass bathroom breaks…and oddly, I'm also not overcome by exhaustion after another 12 hour African bus ride… I'm actually overcome by love.
My God, my Heavenly Dad, he loves me SO much.
He has been working SO much in my life.
In my team's life.
In the lives of my Mom & Dad.
He is SO good!
Whenever we glance to look and see what He is doing, He's there.
And He is always busy!
He is a God of the details.
He meets us more than half way, every time.
Just look and see – ask Him to show you.
And when your eyes are opened, believe me, you will marvel.
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." -2 Corinthians 4:18
When you see past the gross stuff in front of you…
When you see what I see…
You, too, will be overcome by love — you'll live loved— no matter where you find yourself.
Even in a tiny, dirty, little bus station at 4am in the middle of nowhere, Africa.
That is my prayer for you:
That you will SEE God.
See all He is doing all around you
…all the time!
When you see that, it changes everything.
And it's SO good.
