Two things: 1) Being sick is never fun. 2) If you have to be sick… a trip on an African Shappa ride is not the ideal location.
On Saturday, we were packed and ready to go by 6:30am, our driver (who was going to take us from Mozambique to South Africa) was supposed to arrive at 7am. By 10am we realized he probably wasn’t going to show up. As we sat waiting for alternative transportation to arrive, I began feeling sick to my stomach and went to take a nap. I woke up still feeling sick, but didn’t have an option of not traveling to South Africa (because my Mozambican visa was running out at midnight).
Our shappa (an African van with hard tiny seats) finally picked us up around 3p and we headed for the boarder. By the time we arrived at immigration I could barely crawl out of the van. I sat on the curb in the shade with my stomach cramping uncontrollably until it was my turn to get my passport stamped. I made it through the Mozambican boarder into the neutral zone between the two countries and everything inside started to flow. I threw up twice before I made it into South African customs (thus I technically threw up in two places at once, but also nowhere because it was in-between two countries). As we continued our journey, I threw up in two gas station parking lots, and twice out the front passenger window as we were driving. By the time we arrived at our destination, I was dry-heaving and chocking on bile because there was nothing else left. Thankfully, Sara met me at the gate and took me straight to bed. My squadmates unloaded my gear and brought it to my room.
At midnight I woke up with “stuff” coming out both ends. While I was sitting on the toilet with a trashcan in my lap all I could think was “thank you Jesus…thank you for giving me a western toilet.” I couldn’t imagine having this problem on a squatty-potty in China.
I finally made it to the doctor the following morning and found out I had a waterborne bacteria. I was loaded up with 5 different medications and sent back to bed for the rest of the day. Within 24 hours I had bounced back to normal.
Of one thing I am confident… I may be the only person to throw up in two different countries and a neutral zone all on the same day!
ONLY ON THE WORLD RACE!
