I’m on a bus headed to Pretoria South Africa. This whole driving on the left side of the road thing is interesting. I get stressed sometimes when the driver makes certain turns that are illegal in the states and I think OMG you can’t do that! But he can, because everything is backwards lol. Driving through Johannesburg feels slightly like Atlanta traffic. I say driving like I’m the one behind the wheel. I’ve really missed driving this month. I just want to get in my own car and go wherever I want to go at the drop of a hat. On the Race you always have to go with someone, order a taxi or an Uber but you first have to find good wifi to be able to order said Uber. It’s not the end of the world, I just want to do my own thing sometimes.
We’re going from staying in a nice hostel with wifi and a pool this past month to sleeping in tents and no wifi the next. I’m not excited about tenting but I am excited about the good this month could bring. The month before last in Lesotho was amazing. We were “deprived” of a lot of comforts but God moved in such a wonderful powerful way that it made us forget about the things we didn’t have. I’m hoping the same is true for Swazi.
We changed teams at the beginning of February. I grieved being away from some of my people. The new team is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not team Valiant. Our season is over as a team and that’s ok, I just wish I had more time with them. Reunions can/ should/will happen though. I will say team S’more that I’m on now is definitely growing. We do this thing called feedback where every night during team time we pray and ask the Lord what He would have us share with each other whether it’s encouraging or constructive feedback. I’ve struggled with the “constructive” part since we started the Race because I don’t want it to look like I’m calling someone out, throwing them under the bus, or just trying to point out what I don’t like about them. I finally got bold enough the other night to say some constructive things and it went better than I thought. Others began opening up and doing the same thing and I think we had some breakthrough with the team. Hard conversations are…well hard but they’re needed in order for us to grow. Iron sharpens iron but if the two irons don’t come together how will they get sharp?
It’s freezing on this bus but I’ll take a freezing cold one over a hot, can’t breathe, no airflow bus any day. Some friends on another team were telling me how their bus bathroom flooded one day and there was urine and “things” all the way down the isle, like couldn’t get up or go anywhere, some people’s bags got covered in IT…eeeeek.
I found some new clothes this month. When you’re limited on how much you can take your clothes wear out pretty quickly. I couldn’t find anything in South America that fit me. It was ridiculous. I needed a pair of shorts and the only thing I could find were some swim shorts from the men’s department that where a “3X”. Talk about a confidence booster. I get to Africa though and I’m thinking alright these are my kind of people lol.
Besides the clothes, Africa has been amazing. The people are so nice here. I’ve noticed a huge difference between South America and Africa. South Americans seem to be more closed off initially. There are plenty of nice people there but it seems to take longer for them to open up to people. In Africa they’ve been open and welcoming from the get go. It’s very similar to southern hospitality. People on the street will look you in the eye and smile and say hello and it wasn’t like that in South America. I’m sure there are past experiences, generational, and cultural reasons for that, I just don’t know what specifically.
Well that’s all for now, talk later, love yall!
