In the interest of giving all of you reading my blog a taste of some of the craziness that the World Race brings, I would like to recount the day of April 7, 2015 that Chasing Jubilee experienced.
It began around 11:00 PM on April 6, however, I was feeling ill and so did not wake up until 1:30 AM. We were all tenting at a campsite called Beams. It’s a delightful place with hot showers, trees for hammocks, and monkeys to greet you in the morning. On this fateful day, however, the place was not so spectacular. I woke to a crinkling sound. For those of you who know me, you’ll laugh when I tell that my initial thought was one of my teammates was packing up their tent, and I was annoyed by the sound. I have a sound sensitivity that causes me to get irritated with repetitive sounds (ticking clocks and dripping faucets are the WORST). While the crinkling was annoying, my sleepy brain was working under the assumption that my teammate was merely up early to pack up their tent and that the sound would be over shortly. It did not stop. I felt enraged with thoughts like “OK, seriously, how long does it take to pack up a tent?” Once I sat up to remove my eye mask and earplugs (suuuuuuper attractive), I swallowed my rage and a heaping portion of humble pie when I realized it was raining. Then there came a clap of thunder. Curiously, I clicked on my cell phone to ascertain that it was 1:30 AM in the morning. For some reason, I had a gut feeling that I needed to pack up my electronics. Not long after this thought crossed my mind and I had sprung into action, my teammate, Alicia, called my name to inform me that my tent was in several inches of water.
Camping Tip #1: While flat ground may be desirable for sleeping, should it ever rain, that is a recipe for disaster. More experienced tenters and campers are slapping their foreheads and shaking their heads in disappointment at my ignorance. The rain water pools on flat ground.
After processing her urgent message, I dared test the tent floor to experience a waterbed sensation. At this, I opened the tent door, threw on my rain jacket, and headed for shelter to confer with Alicia about good steps. It did not take us long to figure out that the best solution would be to move all of our belongings. In the work of about 10 minutes, our tents were emptied and moved to higher ground while we faced the predicament of what to do about sleeping for the rest of the evening.
Camping Tip #2: A campsite bathroom can make for an excellent oasis in the event of a severe thunderstorm. Also, if you are interested in watching a movie on a laptop during the day, the bathroom also makes for a great movie theater when you have mats and things to sit on. The acoustics rock.
Eventually, the majority of our team had piled our packs, daypacks, and everything but our tents into the bathroom. We had been staying in Gaborone for a week of training with another team. When all was said and done, there were 8 of us on our sleeping mats covering the floor. Hilarious. All of this would have been a funny story to tell, but it continues to get better.
That morning, we were scheduled to leave for our ministry city, Kasane, by 7:30 AM. Once the commotion of the thunderstorm had settled, the clock read 2:30 AM and to be honest, nobody slept particularly well on the bathroom floor (who is surprised?). On top of all that, I had a severe cold and could not breathe through my nose. All good things. All good things. We woke up to pack up everything which meant that much of what was stuffed into our packs was wet. One of my teammates even had the unfortunate circumstance of getting all of her clothes soaked. Miraculously, we all got our things assembled and in taxis. We even managed to make the 8:30 bus to Francistown which was truly an incredible accomplishment.
Fun fact about the bus system in Botswana: bathroom stops are not a part of it. We were facing over a five hour ride with no prospect of stopping for the bathroom. There was, of course, the option to ask the driving to pull over on the side of the road and hope for some privacy, but other than that, no designated stops were available. I’ve become a much better traveler with this in that I’ve embraced dehydration. Given that I carry the world’s smallest bladder, I’ve had to find solutions. While we had stopped to pick up more passengers in a city, I dashed to a visible restroom which made the trip that much more enjoyable, but it was a little touch and go for a while.
Bus Traveling Tip #1: Never consume much in the way of beverages when you are faced with a long day of travel. Additional helpful materials include never being without toilet paper and bring change because you will likely have to pay to use any facilities that are available.
Our original plan was to just make the ride to Francistown and spend the night there meaning that we would have had the entire afternoon to recuperate from the night before. We had been told that there was no bus in the afternoon that would take us to Kasane. Again, I’ll remind you that I was feeling awful and being in a bus after a night of spotty sleep was not helping matters. About halfway through the ride, our team leader, Kaysea, informed us that a fellow passenger said that there were, in fact, afternoon buses and we would be getting on one. We arrived in Francistown around 2:30 PM thinking that we had only 15 minutes to make a transfer to the Kasane bus. An hour later, at 3:30, the bus finally pulled away from the station.
We thought that our first bus circumstance was interesting as it was arranged with the left side having two seats and the right side having three. Well, the second bus was worse. It upheld the same seating arrangement but was smaller, much older, and far more cramped. Having entered the day thinking we would have only one bus to then find out that we were going to double our travel time was slightly heart-wrenching.
Bus Traveling Tip #2: Flexibility is key. This is true under any circumstances on the World Race and in life but is especially true on travel days. Anything can happen.
About an hour into the second bus ride (only five more hours to go, theoretically), a fellow passenger informed me that something was leaking from my backpack. I had filled my water bottle with a carbonated, flavored water (which I hadn’t had a sip of because of the bathroom circumstances) and it had bubbled over. My backpack was wet and my electronics (laptop, chargers, important papers) were inside and slightly damp. Let me assure you that everything turned out to be OK because I am typing this post on my computer. At the time, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was all I could do to not burst into tears because here I had survived the thunderstorm, rescued my things, made it through one bathroom-less bus ride all while being sick and my stupid water bottle was going to be the culprit for destroying my laptop. YOU’VE GOT TO BE JOKING!!! Thank goodness my teammate, Meg, was my bus buddy because she very calmly said things like, “I’ll put your laptop in my backpack to dry” and “What do you need?” I’m a levelheaded person, but it was all too much. After about 20 minutes it became quite funny but phew, nearly lost my cool.
As the evening progressed, the weather decided it was time to rain. The bus we were occupying was quite old and leaked water from the windows even when they were closed. Also, water came gushing on the floor which led me to pile my heavy daypack and additional shoulder bag on my lap for about two hours. The rough weather also caused the trip to slow down. By the grace of God, we arrived in Kasane around 10:30 and our bus drivers were kind enough to take us to our campsite.
I write this to you to say that all of this is quite hilarious now and to give you a picture of a classic World Race day. Team Chasing Jubilee is thriving emotionally, spiritually, and physically. We are staying at the Chobe Safari Lodge campsite. It’s like living in a game park because we have seen warthogs, baboons, monkeys, various rodents, impala, and crocodiles just at the campsite. The animals will walk right up to the tents without fear. There are signs up along the Chobe River (a two minute walk from our campsite) that warn visitors to be careful of crocodiles and hippos. This place is absolutely awesome and has given us a good base for working on finding future partnerships for AIM for our Unsung Heroes month. We do not have an assigned ministry but are instead networking and finding connections for future teams to work with.
Thank you for playing “Read Casey’s blog about her crazy life.” I hope it’s been an enjoyable experience and look forward to future interactions. Have a pleasant day.
