I meant to post this last week, but I wanted to show everyone what an awesome weekend looks like on the World Race. (I haven't had a camera on the race, so the pictures are from Ashli, Ceena, Erin, and Jochem.)
(Times are approximate)
FRIDAY 11/16
6:45 AM – Wake up. We’ve been living in mud and straw huts, but sleep with our tents inside because the mosquitoes are awful at night.
6:55 AM – Eat breakfast. Today, I made a bowl of corn/soy hot cereal with some peanut butter and banana on the side.
7:15 AM – Walk about a half mile to the local elementary school to help with the Friday morning assembly.
7:30 AM – Hang out and spend time with the students before the assembly starts.
7:50 AM – Tell story at the assembly (about 300 kids each time). I’ve been telling some of my dad’s stories, and today told one called “Nails in the Fence”. Our group sings a song afterward.
8:25 AM – Send the students off to class and walk back to the community center
10:00 AM – Our friend, Abel stops by from Mozambique with fresh seafood he caught that morning. (Abel is Pastor Surprise’s brother and we spent time with him last month at MCV.)
10:40 AM – Head into town to get some groceries, Abel lets us drive the Land Rover. Everyone notices a large white SUV pull up with white people in it.
11:30 AM – Return home with groceries (And take picures with the Land Rover)
11:40 AM – Make hot sauce for the fish with Abel and Ryan G, with hot chilies, lemon, oil, and salt
12:00 PM – Feast on tigerfish, calamari, squid, and prawns, realizing how much I missed seafood on the race. Mozambican seafood has flavor similar to Thai food.
12:40 PM – Have a chili-eating contest with Ceena with the leftover peppers.
12:50 PM – Run out of chilies, after eating about 90 pieces. Our mouths are on fire.
1 PM – Time for Abel to leave. A few of us decide to ride with him and get a lift to Pigg’s Peak, about 40 miles away. Abel lets Jochem and I drive the Land Rover again. Score!
1:45 PM – Get dropped off at Pigg’s Peak Hotel, a luxury resort. Walk up the hill and hang out at the hotel. Spend the rest of the day there and journey back later.
SATURDAY 11/17
8:00 AM – Morning toilet stop disrupted by a young black mamba (about nine inches long). It slithered through the wall and was trying to find a way out around the anthills. After some ridiculously fast wiping, I find some cinderblock fragments to throw at it and smash it in the ground. Easily the most intense dump I’ve ever taken.
9:15 AM – Hitchhike to Pigg’s Peak to go back to the hotel, a family drives us all the way there after making a quick stop along the road
10:30 AM – Arrive at the hotel. Angela and I decide to go back to the restaurant with a view to spend a couple hours and order some food
12:45 PM – Walk back up to the hotel. There is a camera crew shooting the late king’s granddaughters in the lobby and we make a cameo appearance
1:20 PM – Lay by the swimming pool, buy wifi credit for my laptop and enjoy internet time in style. Update Facebook and send emails to family.
(Note to future racers: this type of internet experience is super rare. Usually, you have to settle for a fast food restaurant or an internet café that’s stifling hot and stinks like B.O. Find the good locations like this and take advantage of them.)
3:30 PM – Post one blog (Broken Sunglasses), but ironically run out of time to post this blog as I’m writing it. Hopefully I’ll learn to master the art of blogging offline so my internet time is better spent. But even though I couldn't post it then, Sunday morning was awesome enough to add to the blog:
SUNDAY 11/18
10:10 AM – Walk to the local church service, about a mile away. We knew there was a wedding, in the morning but had no idea what time it would be at. Most of the time we don't know when church is even at because it can start late and go for a long time. Three-hour service, anyone?
10:30 AM – Arrive at church in time for the youth service. Some of us share some thoughts and verses with the youth.
11:15 AM – Realize church service is cancelled because the community is going to the wedding at the other church. Walk over there, almost cut my head on a barbed wire fence.
11:30 AM – Get seated at an awesome table. People begin filling in and the wedding march begins with a tribal beat. The wedding party and kids dance as they walk in.
I don't remember the timing from here on, but the wedding lasted about five hours. (!!)
There was lots of singing and dancing, an intense pastor (who passionately spoke for a long time in SiSwati without a translator), a power outage, and lots of people crammed in one room.
This is when I started to feel sick, so the combination of loud music, little personal space, and bad smells only made a headache and nausea worse. But it was a great experience overall.
Aside from getting sick at the end, this weekend was great. Overall, I told one of my dad's stories to few hundred African schoolchildren, feasted on Mozambican seafood, had a chili eating contest, drove a massive Land Rover, hitchhiked over 100 miles, spent time at a luxury hotel in the mountains, killed a black mamba, and went to an African wedding.
Pretty good for a three-day period if you ask me.
