The last several days have been full of packing and traveling. Africa, in general, tends to have its own time schedule and way of doing things, especially in transportation. So, here is a small glimpse of what a day of travel may entail and the many life lessons that can be pulled from such an experience!
5:40am – Wake up to make PBJ sandwiches, finish last minute packing
6:00am – Bus suppose to pick us up
9:00am – Bus arrives and we load up
Noon – Stop to pick up 2 teams, but wait the company made a mistake and sent a bus with not enough seats. So, how can we fit 27 people and all their packs in a bus with 24 seats. Oh, now its pouring down rain and packs are getting soaked. We decide to use the back row and the aisle (which contains 3 jumpseats) for packs. That means that several people have to ride on the bags. Although we are crammed in like sardines with only dreams of leg room or even empty laps, we have everything and everyone in the bus.
1:30 – Leave for Jinja. Since its been pouring rain for an hour, the road is turning into a small river of mud. The next several hours are filled with bumpy, pot-filled roads, slow moving clocks, and sore bottoms, but above all good attitudes!!
So, what life lessons can you learn from a travel day in Africa? Patience, slowness to anger, flexibility, adaptability, joy in all circumstance, just to name a few!! This experience took place on our way to Jinja, Uganda, where we went for a day of white water rafting the NILE RIVER!! What an amazing experience!! The rapids were fun and scary, mostly 3’s and 5’s. We even went down a 15 foot waterfall, which I am so glad I didn’t see until after we’d gone over it. So crazy! But tons of fun, and I would love to do it again!
The next day we traveled to Nairobi, Kenya for a week of debrief and change. We stayed at a YMCA in the city, and were blessed with beds, a western style bathroom, and a showerhead with warm water! Luxury!! I also enjoyed hanging out at the Javahouse, a coffeehouse/restaurant, and ate lots of ice cream!!
We were told at the beginning of this last month, to expect changes within the teams at this debrief. Those changes involved complete team changes in hopes to stretch us even further in this journey of faith and dependence on Christ. Although, there was grieving and I still miss my orginal teammates, God has really blessed me with the opportunity to live life with a new, but amazing team. We have named ourselves, Team Clay, to represent our humility and willingness to be molded into the person that God has created each of us to be.
Hey Sarah, what did you do during those three hours in the morning? I have never been to Africa yet, but in the Middle East, they have a similar relation to time, not important, things will come, now or later. “Relax” was the best way to approach things.
Mostly just waited!! Hung out and visited with our hosts and said longer goodbyes! Yep, never in much of a hurry. We could probably learn a lot from their philosophy!
What you mentioned about being patient. That can be applied to so many situations these days.
Many people get easily frustrated with all the hustle and bustle. They don’t take time to slow down and understand the situation.