After 35 hours of traveling by bus from
South Africa- 10 of those hours literally sitting a borders waiting for our
passports to be processed- we arrived in Malawi!! We were tired and
hadn’t bathed in a few days, but for the most part we were glad to have made it
through the 3 borders and survived the Malawian music videos that
“entertained” us along the way. A Christian guest house
graciously received us upon our late arrival and by 5 am the next morning we
were up again and headed towards the bus station yet again to head up to the
capital, Lilongwe. The “bus station” consisted of a bunch of
buses in a dirt lot which seemed like mass confusion, but we were quickly
directed to the correct bus that would take us the last 4 hours of our journey.
We were told to quickly board in order to get a seat…and that we would
have to take EVERYTHING on with us…big packs and small packs. As i have
mentioned before, although my big pack barely weighs 40 pounds, consisting of
all my current worldly belongings, in a time like this, it feels like i am
carrying an elephant on my back!!
I looked down the center aisle with
dread, but knew that the back of the bus was the best and safest option for us
and all of our stuff….so, i began the trek of wedging me and my stuff down an
aisle that was half the width that i was. Then all of a sudden i heard
it…the voice of an angel singing on the radio. Being a good Texas
girl…and my mother’s daughter, there are three voices that are unmistakable
to me. It wasn’t the Judds, nor Reba…yes, that’s right, it was Dolly
Parton!! No kidding…on a questionable bus in the middle of a dirt lot
in Malawi, Dolly Parton was being played on the radio!! My heart was SO
HAPPY!
I turned to make sure everyone else
heard it which of course they did being the all American kids that we are.
Suddenly what had been a real frustration became the hilarious task of
struggling through, seat by seat, smacking people with our bags along the way,
and cramming all of our stuff in the way back of the bus all to the rhythm of a
Dolly tune. It was like a gift from God…those 3 1/2 minutes were
perfectly timed to change our attitudes and lighten our hearts for the rest of
the day. It is the little things, right?? 🙂
