If there is one thing I have learned from the world race, it’s that you shouldn’t have expectations about anything. They told us that at training camp and while it was a little sensationalized then, it cannot be overemphasized now. Here’s a snapshot of our most recent travel day as an example for you:
We just finished debrief (the time when all of the teams come together for a week) and we’re all preparing to head out for Nepal. We have to leave in 3 groups because of some ticket mix ups. We eventually get there and gather everyone up to get on the bus from Delhi to Kathmandu that we’re estimating will take around 15 hours. Off to a good start. We all get on the bus and Ryan, my amazing logistics guy, comes up to me and gives me a big hug. He starts laughing and asks me if I want to know how long the bus ride really was. We had been misinformed and learned that it would actually be around 33 hours. We all laughed and shrugged because at this point in the world race, you have no expectations except that nothing will ever work out as planned.
We start going and all is going well. Amber always makes fun of us on travel day because we are like cave men. All we need are the basics. Food, water, shelter, bathrooms. That’s all we have to do to make people happy. We find a McDonald’s and even find time to drive past the Taj Mahal so everyone is feeling pretty good. Everything goes pretty well except for the insane amounts of traffic that you hit all through India. We’re expecting to hit the border in the middle of the night, but since its not open at night due to terrorism, we expect to spend the night in the bus. Here’s the rest of the story:
10 p.m.: Pee break on the side of the road. 30 girls lined up on the side of a wall out in the open. We’ve regressed. Thankfully there’s no diarrhea from the shady food.
11 p.m.: Get in an accident. Lose the back of our bus and find our bags strewn along the road. Thankfully no one is hurt minus minor cuts and some whiplash. Sit there forever while Indian men fight about whose fault it was.
12 p.m.: Bungee tie the back on to the bus and clear out the broken back window and take off.
5 a.m.: Stop at a bus station. Sit there for an hour. Think we’re at the border. Use their disgusting bathrooms. Start driving.
7 a.m.: Still driving. Stop on the side of the road. Driver takes a nap for an hour
10 a.m.: Pee break. Still not at the border.
2 p.m.: Pee break. Lunch. Still not at the border.
5 p.m.: Finally at the border.
7 p.m. Leave the border. Drive for 5 minutes.
Over all, the bus ride ended up taking 44 hours. It was ridiculous. I tell you what though-I’ve never had so much love for my squad as I did when I looked back at one point when it was pretty rough and I got a smile from just about everyone. They’re troopers man, and I’m thankful. No complaining, just an acknowledgement that it sucks, but we signed up for this. Another thing I guess I’ve learned through the world race is that you have to have a sense of humor. Otherwise, you would have a mental breakdown always. At random points throughout the trip, someone would just start laughing hysterically about the whole situation, which would spread like wildfire. We’re turn into cavemen and psychos and that’s okay. I’m pretty sure that having no expectations and always having a sense of humor is the only way we can get through this insane thing called life. So I’m in Nepal finally. It’s beautiful. We’re leaving today for another 13 hour bus ride to get to our final destination. I don’t know that we’ll have internet for the whole month…so don’t worry. I’ll try to post whenever I can. Much love to all J.
*So this is a fun addition. I tried to post the above blog a couple of days ago, but it didn’t work. Since I wrote this blog, we did the 13 hour bus trip to Banke, Nepal and it took 17 hours. Upon arrival, Cassie realized her passport had been lost or stolen, so we spent the night there and Andrew, Cassie and I turned right around the next morning and did the whole trip over again back to Kathmandu. We’ve spent the whole day today trying to get her a new passport. Please pray for favor so that we get it in time. So overall in the last 6 days, I’ve spent a collective 75 hours on a bus. Insert world race cheer. LOL. We’re not making that trip again, so maybe I will have internet this month J.
