Well, we are in Africa. I have gotten to experience some of the biggest changes in the last two weeks. I knew that all the places in the world are different, but I truly never understood that the discrepancies were this big.
To really understand this story I need to go back to the start. Our first country in The World Race was the Dominican Republic. Our time in the DR was hard; there is no way around that. But after that country, things got much easier. In Haiti (the poorest place on the earth) the people had it bad, but where we were staying was actually nicer than I thought I would see on the race. We had our own showers in our room. The showers were cold, but we still had them. We had beds and places to sit around, and it was just an all-around nice compound. Then it was off to Costa Rica where we lived in our tents all month. But our tents were under a shelter, and I got to surf every day and even had a gym membership. Yes, that was my favorite month so far. Let’s be honest–it can only be so hard living in a beach town. (I guess I do have a little of my mom in me.) After Costa Rica, our living situation got even better at the YWAM base last month, an American organization that had very up-to-date living. We had a work truck and dorms and, yes, for the first time since New Year’s I had a hot shower!!!!!
After finishing up our time in Central America, we headed to Panama City and stayed there for two days. While we were there, we had personal TVs and food whenever we wanted it. If I wanted a diet Coke, I just pressed a button and someone brought it to me. It was amazing. I got to see the Amazon River on the way to Brazil, then the Nile River on the way to Dubai, followed by the Red Sea. Dubai itself is just so nice. Then it was on to Cape Town. We had our debrief there, and Cape Town is absolutely as nice as anyone has ever told you. I loved it and wanted to spend all month there. During the four days we spent there and the crazy travel days that led up to it, I almost forgot I wasn’t back in the States.
Then we got on that bus. We spent 23 hours on this thing taking us out as far from Cape Town as you could possibly go in every way. We stopped in a place called Pietermaritzburg, and then went a few more hours in the back of a pickup truck to get dropped off in the heart of Africa. A sweet older lady that we would be staying with greeted us and all I could think was, “This can’t be it.” It is never a good sign when the kitchen doesn’t have a sink because that means there isn’t going to be a bathroom. And there wasn’t.
We went from Wi-Fi and rugby games to outhouses and leaky roofs. We are now in the middle of Zulu culture. The crazy part is I love it. The people we are working with are awesome and are making a lasting change in the whole community here. The people trust Jesus in a way that only happens when you have to. The orphans we get to feed on Mondays and Wednesdays will break your heart and you better have a sermon in your back pocket. I told my host that I was a youth pastor before I came here, and somehow I immediately became “the person who is going to bring the Word.” And I am never given heads up that I will be called on to speak. These times just happen. Even this past Sunday at the big church, I got called up to preach. I asked the pastor on my way up how long he wanted me to speak, and he said an hour.
It is going to be a crazy month and nothing like I had in my head for South Africa. That being said, it is going to be just what God wants it to be.
