There has been a common phrase used around the squad before travel days begin. It’s almost become like a game for us. Someone begins with, “Well I heard that (enter something really far-fetched)”, and the process continues as the things that we’ve heard become more and more ridiculous and hard to believe. I think this all really began in Haiti. If you have read any of the blogs from Haiti, you know that it was a rough month for us. Things kept happening that we really couldn’t believe, like we were told that we couldn’t leave the country because hurricane Sandy was coming or that we were going to have to get out of the bus to cross the DR-Haiti border by foot in water up to our knees (which didn’t end up happening). We couldn’t believe that this was our life and that was only month two.
We knew leaving Asia was going to be quite a culture shock. Everything seemed to be lining up well, the squad had a great time in Siem Reap, and they were praying up in preparation for our three months in Africa. After reading a lot of world race blogs and hearing from past racers, there is a kind of expectation formed about long travel, theft, and bus break downs. You have to take every blog with a grain of salt, but little did we know our travel day(s) wouldn’t be much different.
Our journey began by heading to the Cambodia-Thailand border. We had heard horror stories about long lines at the border so we knew we wanted to get an early start. I just love early starts on travel days…yes there was sarcasm in that sentence in case you missed it. We got on the bus at 7am and headed to the border where we waited for 5 hours to cross…yes 5 hours. During that time we sang songs and had deep conversations about Disney princesses and which princes were the ones with the most depth. Of course my argument was for Prince Eric. Then we decided the perfect princess/prince pair would be Belle and Prince Eric. I mean just think of it…and now you know how we spent about an hour of our time.
We boarded our plane in Bangkok at 12:40am the next morning and heading towards Africa. After another 9 hours on a plane, an hour and half layover and another hour on a much smaller plane, we made it to Tanzania (well the first half of us did). I ended up staying at the airport for 11 hours between the time we waited for the second group and waiting for the second round of buses to come pick the other half of the squad up. I was relieved when we finally made it to our hotel in Darussalam. Although it was only 9pm, it felt like it was the middle of the night. After arriving I learned that we had to be ready to leave at 5:15am to head to Singida with the first teams that we were going to visit this month.
5:15am came and went and we didn’t end up leaving until closer to 5:30, which meant we had 30 minutes to find our bus in the awaiting chaos of the Darussalam bus station. We had no idea what it was going to be like, but I had no idea it would be so confusing and hard to find our bus. I haven’t been that scared in a long time. I just wanted to curl up in a fetal position and cry, but I knew that wasn’t an option. We had to turn the Lord and put our trust in Him and hope that we would make it to the bus on time. God sent us an angel that led us to the right bus after wandering around the bus station for 30 minutes. We just had to take a deep breath when we finally sat down. Our 6 hour travel soon became 9 hours and with a 5 hour delay because of a breakdown, the day seemed to last forever.
Once we finally got to Singida it was already dark. I couldn’t help thinking, “Great, here we are in a city that none of us knows about and we’ve already experienced feeling completely unsafe. What is this going to be like?” We hadn’t even gotten off the bus when the pastor and some of the members of the church boarded the bus and began to shake our hands and tell us welcome. I instantly felt at ease. As we got off the bus one at a time the pastor’s wife, our mama, was waiting to give each one of us hugs. She told us how much she had been praying for us. I felt like crying, but this time it wasn’t out of fear, it was out of pure joy. I felt so loved in the moment from people that didn’t even know us, all they knew is we loved the Lord and that made us family.
We went to check out the church a couple of day later. As we walked up to the church children ran towards us from every direction grabbing at our hands and wanting us to hold them. We learned that most of the children either come from very poor families or are orphans. I tell you what, there is nothing that 15 women love more than to hold precious children that don’t get to experience love very often. My heart hasn’t been that happy in a long time. I could have sat there for hours just letting them sit in my lap or listening to them speak (even though I couldn’t understand most of what they were saying).
Singida is a beautiful place and the community that is here, that we have been blessed with, has only added to the beauty. Yes, internet is a 20 minute walk and costs a dollar/hour, we are all getting sunburned because of our malaria meds/we are close the equator, I am highly allergic to something in the air, and we pretty much eat the same 3 meals every day, but when you look into the eyes of the children and see Christ smiling back at you, it makes our very long travel day(s) and all the other things disappear. We were sent here for a reason, and the Lord continues to teach us even in the little moments. I feel so blessed to have gotten to be a part of this community even if it was just for a week. I will remember the faces of these children for many years to come and they will always be in my prayers. The month is just beginning, a new season is beginning for me as the Lord continues to open my heart more and more.
