Where do I begin? I guess I could start off with our adventure to Gua Masang to visit Team New Reality. Paige, Fiona, and myself decided to take a day trip to visit another X squad team and go caving. We left our town by train at 7:50am, we arrived at 10:20am. We made our way by foot to their site and hung out for a while in their ‘apartment’. We finally made our way out to get some food and decided we would not go caving, because it had been raining and the caves are not safe when it is raining. We went back to the apartment and hung out for a little bit.
Then Joe, David, Evan and I got into a truck with “Pastor” and started our way to meet some indigenous people 2 hours away. We finally got to a place where the pavement ended and mud began. We were driving with just a foot between a sheer cliff and us on some very nasty, slippery mud. A couple hills took a minute to climb in 4wd spinning our tires. All the while I was thinking he was going to overheat the tires and blow one. We make it to one hill where we are ‘stuck’, but Pastor keeps redlining the engine, spinning the tires, trying to get up the hill. At last, the radiator blows its top cover and steam starts pouring out of the hood. Pastor calmly tells everyone to ‘get out’.
After about 20 minutes of assessing the situation we decide to try to make it back down the mountain. We are in the perfect spot to allow the truck to roll back and get turned around. We start making our way down the mountain stopping every couple minutes to let the engine cool for 10-15 minutes. I’m glad to say we finally made it down the mountain and onto the main road. We drive for 15-20 minutes, stopping a couple times to cool down the engine. We finally get ahold of the tow truck and stop off at the side of the road and wait.
So the tow truck shows up. It can only fit 2 people with the driver. So pastor gets in the tow truck and Joe, David, Evan and I get in the cab of the truck as we get towed along the back roads, main roads and eventually into town where we get dropped off. A few minutes later we got picked up by another friend and taken back to the apartment. We ended the night with some double-special burgers with cheese (2 burger patties with sauce wrapped in an egg with cheese on top cabbage, carrot, bun) and teh tarik (brewed-filtered tea with condensed milk and mixed by pouring it/stretching it between a container and the cup where it becomes “bubbly-tea”) watching a soccer game on a projector screen at one of the local restaurants.
I have to say that this was one exciting trip and I will always be thankful for these experiences that Dad has given me. FYI, our new team is doing amazing. We are getting along, working really good together, growing in bond to one another, and really diving in this month to listen to what Dad has to say about ourselves and our teammates. I’m really excited to see what is next for our team. Thank you for all your love and support.
