Sometimes life on the World Race is bizarre and we often have to
stop and ask ourselves “is this really my life?” Like when we were in the
Philippines staying on one of the most beautiful beaches in the world, or when
I was living in the Jungle of Malaysia spending my days pulling roots out of
the ground and swimming in the river with 20 Asli kids or driving motorbikes
around the countryside underneath the starry night sky of Cambodia or our last
month when 7 of us girls were sharing 2 beds and were piled into one room like
sardines.
There are so many moments like this on the race that this short
list doesn’t even begin to make a dent in all the crazy things I have done on this trip.
Last night several of us had a moment like this where we all were
asking “is this really my life right now?” To begin this story though we have
to go back to when I was Kenya where I was sharing a room with 6 other girls.
It all started when at the end of the month I discovered a weird little bump
right in the middle of my foot, at the time I didn’t think much of it I just
figured it was a callous and I didn’t bother to tell anyone. About 4 weeks
later I was sitting around with a couple of teammates and noticed it was still
there and that now it was larger, so I decided to share this weird growth on my
foot with my teammates. One of my
teammates quickly began calling it my black eyed pea and My team leader, Nikki, who is a paramedic back
at home recognized it right away as a planters wart and told me I might want to
think of taking it out before it got any worse. So I sat on this idea for about
a day and the next night I decided to take matters into my own hands and cut
the thing out, so now I am left with a big hole in my foot and such an intense
pain that I can’t even walk on it. I have to walk on the side of my foot and am
left with a pretty severe limp.
So last night 7 of girls decided to go out and find a Mexican
Restaurant we had heard of. We didn’t really know where the place was, but
since it’s been quite a while since any of us have had Mexican food we were
rather determined to find it.
We started our adventure at the bus station where we stood around,
looking lost for about 20 minutes. Then a lovely woman, who’s name I never
learned, that spoke English approached us. She said she knew of the area where
the restaurant was but didn’t know where it actually was, then she said she
would take us there.
So then the 7 of us girls, our new friend, and about 12 other
people crammed into one of Kigali’s 14 passenger van/taxi (ya that’s right
there was 20 of us plus the driver and the guy who takes the money in one 14
passenger van, may sound weird to you, but that’s just normal for us here on
the world race). Fifteen minutes later we got off and began walking through a
really nice and quiet neighborhood. We walked for about 45 minutes, and I was
limping far behind everyone because of my gimp foot with the hole in it.
Finally we made it to the restaurant that was right in the middle
of a residential area and in a rather large house. We all ordered our food and
then decided to explore our surroundings. Outside we found a swimming pool, a
trampoline, which several of the girls enjoyed, a swing set, and bunch of
rabbits locked up in cages.
At this moment we were all in total awe of how crazy our night had
been so far, we met this random lady at the bus stop that we ended up following
about 20 miles away from our home and
now we were sitting at a fairly unique Mexican restaurant in RWANDA!
Two hours after we had ordered we finally got our food, we quickly
ate and rushed out the door because it was getting late and our contact doesn’t
like us to be out past 9p.
To get from the restaurant to our bus stop we had to walk 2 miles
up hill. Everyone was either really irritated with me and my slow limp or
beginning to feel sorry for me so they decided to take turns carrying me 2
miles across the land of a thousand hills. This quickly turned into a fun
adventure/competition between those who took turns carrying me. With me being
carried we got even more attention than usual walking through the streets of
Rwanda. People were really enjoying watching and laughing at us make our way up
this giant hill, one guy even reached out and grabbed my bandaged foot while we
walked by.
We actually made it up the hill and to our bus stop quickly, but
with the time of day we were having a hard time finding a van that wasn’t
already completely full. It was getting late so we began to pray that God would
provide a way for us to get home quickly. Right then 2 motorcycle taxis pulled
up, then a taxi that could carry four of us and then a 3rd
motorcycle showed up. We now had 7 seats on 4 different vehicles so we could
all get back home before it got any later. I climbed onto the back of one of
the motorcycles and we took the long road to get home. I absolutely love riding
on the back of these taxis and as I stared up at the night sky I was able to
reflect on my day and think about how crazy my life is now and how I wouldn’t
have it any other way. Life is such a blessing from God and we must take hold
of all the crazy things he throws our way or otherwise you may miss out on the
wonderful things that God has to share with you.
