Part of the race are travel days. Most travel days go smoothly but there are always days where nothing seems to go as planned and you just gotta roll with it. This is a breakdown of how our travel day from Caia, Mozambique to Blantyre, Malawi went down.
3:47 am– Wake up. Nicole, Courtney, and I all slept in Nicole’s 2 person tent so we didn’t all have to set up and take down our tents
4:12– Finish packing and putting away tent
4:30– The shoppa (minibus) is suppose to be in Caia, Mozi at our ministry site to pick us up and take us to the border
5:15– Our host Jaco leaves and tries to figure out why our minibus isn’t there or find us a new ride
6:34– A flat bed truck comes to pick all 19 of us and our packs up
8:20– We arrive at a ferry pick up point to take us across the river to the border to get our passports stamped. Its apparently a 2 hour wait until the ferry will pick us up so we need to wait around until 10
10:17– Still waiting for the ferry
10:33– I eat my hard boiled egg and apple for breakfast
11:00– We randomly meet a man named Jackie who works for a crocodile hatchery who was getting water from the Zambezi river to put in jugs
11:14– We found out the ferry ran out of diesel and isn’t coming to pick us up
11:26– Jackie helps us to go a little further into town and figure out how to get across the border
11:40– We figure out that we would have to walk across at 3.5K bridge to get a vehicle on the other side of the bridge
11:52– We find nice men on bike taxis to take our 50 pound bags across the bridge as all 19 follow behind them
12:40– Crossed the bridge and were stopped by police asking for our passports and why we were in Mozambique
12:50– The police man tells us we all need to go to the police station so he can search our bags
12:52– Our new friend Jackie and the police man go into bushes nearby and walk out and tell us we don’t need to go to the police station anymore
1:12– We find local transport to take us to the border and we all get to ride in a caged in truck that is used to transport alligators normally
1:48– We stop at Jackie’s house to pick up some papers for his truck and we meet his roommate a one armed barefooted really jolly man name Piter who owns the alligator business
1:50– Piter blesses us all with an ice cold Coke and tells us his story of living in Mozi
2:25– We leave Piters’ house thanking him
2:30– We get stopped by the police and escorted to the station
2:47– Michelle, myself, Arden, and Jayce take everyone’s passport inside the station
2:49– Michelle and I explain to the chief why we were here and details on our ministry for the month
3:12– Jackie calls his friends and coworkers, Piter and Conrad and they both arrive at the police station
3:30– Piter is yelling at the police and spitting out the F word left and right and trying to fight for us
3:36– Everyone is waiting outside and there is no reason for them delaying us
3:40– Michelle and Piter are getting fiesty with the chief and other officers because they’re holding our passports and not letting us leave and we still need to drive 40K to the border before it closes at 6 pm
4:19– There is no problem but they are holding our passports and waiting for a call from a higher up source
4:27– They want us to leave and come back the next day but we refuse to leave without our passports
4:39– We all circle up and pray over the situation. Thanking God for Jackie and Piter and the divine meeting we had with them to help us with everything
4:47– Michelle and Stacie have been inside the police station trying to get answers and our passports for awhile now
5:04– Michelle and Stacie walk out of the station with our passports in hand!
5:06– We all run to the truck and tell him to put the pedal to the metal to get us to the border by 6
6:02– We receive a phone call that Jaco, our contact host, is waiting at the border for us
6:35– There is no service on our cell phone and were praying that the border is still open
7:07– We arrive at the border and it’s closed
7:09– Jaco our host talks to the chief at the border to get him to let us through
7:10– Pray that the chief says yes and that Jarvis our host from Malawi who is picking us up on the Malawi side can keep that border open for us
7:13– Everyone hands in our passports
7:54– Were still waiting on our passports
8:06– Our passports are returned
8:11– We all drive through no mans land
8:19– Get to Malawi where our host Jarvis has been waiting for us since 10 am when we were suppose to arrive. He has talked to the officials and was able to open the border 2 hours after it had closed
8:30– Give our passports to the Malawi guards and have them processed
9:15– We made it through 2 closed borders and praised God
9:23– We all pack into Jarvis van 10 passenger van for 19 of us for the 5 hour drive ahead to Blantyre where we are staying for the night
11:30– We had to turn around because there was a detour but in Malawi that don’t tell you the road is closed until you get there and see that it’s closed
11:55– 9 of us are in the very back storage part of his can and my feet are numb
12:16– Everyone is really delirious and we talk about movies with Kirsten Stewert and Nicholas Cage in them and try interlocking toes with everyone in the back of the van
2:07– We get to Blantyre and meet the rest of our squad and then fall asleep on the floor
5:46– Wake up and load the mini buses that will take us to our debrief location
7:39– All 41 of us leave Blantyre in minibuses and head for Kate McClear for debrief
1:02– Arrive at debrief! Time to discuss with our teams, squad coaches, and mentor how the month went and to have a few days of rest before heading to Asia
The Lord is good and is always watching over and protecting us. So thankful for our ministry host contacts who are some of the most selfless people I know and do anything to help us. I’ve seen corruption in countries and I’ve seen pure kindness. It’s all part of the journey!
