Waaaaaaaaay later…

Today we took THE roughest trip I have ever made. This is how it went down: The Dinkas decided the trip to Raja would be too rough on the large van, so they brought a pickup truck instead. A one CAAAAAAAB pickup truck. Since Jason was still really sick and Karen has extreme car-sickness, they rode in the cab. The remaining 22 of us PLUS all of the luggage were left to wriggle our way into whatever space was available in the truck bed. Dave and Chad pulled me up to sit on the roof of the truck over the passenger’s side. I had only a bar beneath my legs to hold onto with my right hand, and nothing to hold onto with my left hand. Very bump in the road (ummm, in other words, every two seconds) was a treacherous opportunity for me to bounce clear off of the truck, so I held onto Dave’s arm with my right hand and the bar with my left hand. It was mercifully cloudy for the first 40 minutes of the ride, but the sun showed its face full force for the rest of the way. We had originally been told that the trip would last three hours. As we piled onto the truck they told us it would take four. We stopped to let one whole person off at one point and then stopped again after about two hours. I was so weak from the jostling, the scorching sun, dodging thorny branches (more than three of which whacked me in the head and back), general fatigue, and by now possessing the same sickness Jason had (the night before I had a few sessions of outhouse emergencies and vomiting in between checking in on Jason to make sure he was still alive and hydrated). The situation was not good. But the worst part about it was that there was NOTHING I could do about it…but grin and bear, that is. At one point when we stopped for a short break, I traded spaces with Santino, who was sitting on some luggage with his legs dangling over the edge. Though not a comfortable spot, at least I wasn’t required to hold on for dear life. The one responsibility with this spot was that I had to steer my legs clear of the thorn bushes we passed every ten seconds. I eventually just held my legs up against me for as long as I could, all the while Santino sang the SAME song over and over at the top of his lungs as I watched my “sun blocked” skin turn redder and redder. Definitely THE worst trip.
One aspect of the trip that I will more than mention is that I prayed the whole time asking the Lord to give me peace, strength, endurance and joy. The joy part took a little while but we finally made it to Raja in one, slightly cracked piece. Praise God! We made it and he watched over us.
Oh, and the trip lasted 5 ½ hours…smirk. = /