79 hours 26 minutes

 
My entire squad and I are finally in Mozambique!!!! PRAISE THE LORD!! What a crazy journey it was to get here… let me tell you!
 
Friday
5:15 am: Wake-Up, Shower, Repack everything into 2 bags (don’t forget about my guitar)
6:00 am: Meet squad in lobby to get shuttled to Dulles airport
7:00-8:00 am: Get filed through the airport system
10:00 am: Board first flight to Dubai
14 hours later: Land in Dubai safely! Praise the Lord!
-Stories on the flight… my squad-mate Sarah and I watched Pitch Perfect (peed my pants laughing, not literally), Brave (FINALLY got to see it), and Rock of Ages (not appropriate to watch while heading on a mission trip, but we got a few good laughs out of it). I slept about 3 hours total on and off, which was very much needed. Overall, an it was an awesome flight!
From this point on I loose track of time
 
Saturday
2 hours: Layover in Dubai (the airport is very beautiful and very westernized)
8 hours: Flight to Johannesburg, South Africa
-I slept almost the whole time while trying to watch My Fair Lady
1 hour: Go through customs, baggage claim, change my clothes and brush my teeth (since it’s now the next day)
1 hour: Load and hop on a bus to the South Africa/Mozambique border crossing
Regain sense of time
8:00 pm: Bus ride to the Mozambique border
-Crammed in a row of 4 between two boys on my squad. Tried sleeping, but I wasn’t very successful
 
Sunday
4:00 am: (the next day): Stop at the Mozambique border crossing, get our Mozambique visas
9:00 am: 5 hours later, Back on the bus again, Now heading to Maputo to spend the day at our contact, Angie’s, house
12:00 pm: Finally arrive at Angie’s house, Unpack the bus, Settle in, Eat breakfast (bread and jam)
1:30-4:00 pm: Nap… Soooo good
4:00 pm: Lunch (really good creamy spagetti-type noodles)
4:30-6:00 pm: Free time
6:00 pm: Squad worship time!
8:00 pm: Bed time (I missed our late dinner… sad day)
 
Monday
2:15 am: Wake-up, Repack everything… again
5:00 am: All day bus ride to Iris Ministries in Dondo, Mozambique
-Crammed in a row of 5 people (that really should only hold 4) sitting on one of my squad mates packs with my feet resting on top of my day pack. I got little to no sleep or comfort and I ended up pulling my groin somehow on this ride.
12:30 am: Late night arrival, Unpack, Settle in, Sleep… finally long sleep.
 
Now some of you may be wondering if some of this is over-exaggerated. The answer… sadly is… No. This really did happen! And yes… it really did suck.
 
But God is bigger than all of this. Bigger than the crammed bus rides, the pulled groin I have from the bus rides, and the exhaustion that follows from everything. God is so much bigger and ultimately, in the end, my entire squad arrived safe and sound to Mozambique. I praise God for that.
 
This was our FIRST travel day! The first of many.