Title: If you say Shenanigans one more time…
5-10-12 through 5-12-12
55 hours later with only 6 hours of sleep
Travel days are as much apart of the World Race culture as feedback or living 24/7 in community. Travel days are one of those things you never really think about until you are on the bus, or in the air, or in the back of a pick up truck going 70 with only one hand holding on to anything stable enough to keep you alive. Travel days are not spoken about that often until something goes wrong, or it takes more than 2 days till your next country, or you end up pulling out lice out of all your teammates heads while on a 9 hour lay over in Bucharest.
This blog will consist of the unspoken truth and riches about our most recent travel days from Moldova to Mozambique and all the craziness and adventure along the way. Then we will recap and explore the depths of further travel days to come. I will also include many funny and quirky short stories about specific examples of why and how travel days rock and can be extremely monotonous.
Stories of EPIC PROPORTIONS…
1.) While still in Moldova during debrief two days before Africa we find out multiple people on our teams had the well known and extremely dangerous "LICE BUG". This bug does two thing….creates uncontrollable panic and wide spread fear. So naturally we wanted to do one thing when this factor was added into the mix of travel day…….KILL KILL KILL!!!
2.) At our hotel in Moldova as our teams loaded our mass amounts of bags into the bus, a Moldavian family decided to have a HUGE argument and fight in the middle of the hotel lobby. This fight just happened to be conveniently right in front of the entrance to the room where our baggage was. So as they are fighting hysterically we are trying to shuffle around their yelling and pushing.
3.) On the Bus ride into Romania crossing the boarder all the people wearing shower caps to contain their deadly lice are asked to take them off for the border patrol agents because we don't want our "Foreign American Missionary Group" to look "Suspicious". (personal favorite)
4.) When we arrived at the airport in Bucharest we all had to check in for our flights and found out we had reserved tickets to a flight and time that "DIDN'T EXCIST". Come to find out they had changed the planes a delayed the flight by 2 hours……..It apparently happens "A LOT"???
5.) Because of the huge 10 hour layover we had in Romania, Michael (my teammate) and I decided to go into the city and see a movie. "The Avengers" WAS AWESOME!!! and that is something I thought would never happen on the race. Especially on a layover waiting for our flight to Africa.
6.) Come to find out after our movie there are two major international airports in Bucharest. Also we didn't know what number bus to take back to the airport!!! So next time we will plan better when this happens. (and yes we made it back after 7 taxi's said no to taking us and we finally got the number for the bus Thank God!)
7.) On Turkish Airlines they feed you a "FULL MEAL" with a drink for a ONE HOUR FLIGHT! Now thats what I think is great airline service! can't EVER get that in the states.
8.) God has a great sense of humor because our team sets up these great expectations when it comes to layovers like the one we were suppose to have in Istanbul from New York and this most recent one from Romania. Both times our flights were delayed just enough to make the connecting flight with only about 5 minutes each time at the Istanbul Airport. Sometimes we need to know it doesn't always go the way we expect it to and it turns out to be a funny story in the end.
9.) This one time during our travels to Africa we got held up at the Mozambique boarder for 3 hours. This was not what we were planning or expecting but something good happened in the end. The boarder patrol agents had to take our pictures for our visas (all 40 people). This turned out to be the best thing that could ever happen after 50 hours of travel because we all pushed up our oily hair and mushed our faces together to take the best and most ridiculous visa pictures in the HISTORY of boarder crossing. This would not have been possible in other countries but we keep our patience and smiled so in the end they loved us so we made our 50 hours of travel worth it with this idea. THE MOST RIDICULOUS situations come in the most desperate times of tiredness, fatigue, and unhappiness. God is ALWAYS at work and just in this little story you can get taste of his creativity and humor. Having beards in this specific situation proved to be very beneficial.
10.) While enjoying our much needed rest during our first day in Mozambique I am writing this blog while………some ridiculous disney channel Jonas Brothers Movie is playing from a DVD player for one child. But the funny thing is that about 10 of our team members all are also watching this Pre-Teen disney movie with eyes fixed on the screen like they have never seen a T.V. before ( I hope out of lack of sleep from our 3 days of travel.)
The next major travel day to come will be the many miles of flight from South Africa to New Delhi, India. Many hours of flying and bus rides. But this set of days have been the craziest so far!
I hope this blog has gave you some insight into our world of ministry and travel and problems with LICE!!! I know what happens in the future will be even more entertaining than this!!!
2,500 dollars in support due until I am fully funded by July 1st so please spread the WORD!!! PRAISE GOD!!! I know with Faith it will happen!!!
Pray God rocks our world in Africa and we contiune to listen to his spirit everyday!!!
