The time I puked out the African bus

Here I am… I’m in Kenya. I’m chilling in a cool backpacking hostel. I feel great, relaxed, and comfortable…. So it’s really hard to believe that just two days ago my life was drastically different…
 
At two pm Friday afternoon my team and I left our home in Lira, Uganda to walk to the bus station, so that we could travel 16 hours to Nairobi, Kenya. Excited, clean, and well rested we set out with our backpacks and water bottles. We were ready for our spring break, as we like to call it, weekend in Kenya. At least we thought…
 
Upon arriving at our bus stop, we learn that our bus is about 2 hrs away. Now, on any given day, this would be an ok wait, except Friday I didn’t feel very well. I thought I would be fine, but after waiting a while in the heat and next to a raw meat stand I realized that staying at the bus stop for the next two hours wasn’t a possibility. Which is when I talked to my team leaders and one of them took me back to our home so that I could lie down for the few hours we had to wait for the bus to arrive. At about four pm we Logan (one of my leaders) and I took a boda boda back to the bus station. I was still feeling sick, but I was able to brave the next hour and a half of waiting without actually getting sick. During this time, my team had a ridiculously fun time drawing a crowd by doing stretches in front of the bus station. It was such a joy to watch! And when the bus finally arrived at five thirty pm (an hour and a half later than scheduled) we had about 45 people surrounding us, amused by our craziness. Only in Africa!
            Now, here’s the deal with the buses in Africa… Basically, everyone buys a ticket, but you’re not really guaranteed to have a seat. And when the thirteen members of my team piled on to the bus we learned this lesson well. On this 16 hour bus ride to Nairobi, there were only 9 seats available for us to sit in. We had people sitting on the floor, in each others laps, on stools in the isle, and on the front steps of the bus. It was crazy! But the team took it like champs! Unfortunately, I was still feeling sick, though…and I had to sit next to a man who would not keep the window open. Ok, a bus that is over capacity, with no AC, and a sick person just don’t mix well unless the windows are open. It was really hard. I was able to sleep for the first few hours, but after that I just couldn’t do it anymore. Thankfully the man was nice and willingly traded seats with Somer, one of my team mates. And praise God for this switch! It wasn’t long after that I woke up, had her open the window, and I lunged over her to puke out the window! Yes, I really puked out the window of an African bus. She was amazing and didn’t complain, and did everything she could to make me feel better, but my body wouldn’t have anything of it.
            Not long after my leap of faith ;), we arrived at the Ugandan, Kenyan boarder! Almost there… not! It was 1 am at this point in our trip, and we had only slept a minimal amount. The Ugandan customs was a breeze. We were there 30-45 minutes tops. Praise God because being in line was brutal on my sick body. But, little did I know that we had a whole other process to go through on the Kenyan side. After finishing in Ugandan customs, we climbed back into the bus and drove to the Kenyan boarder. Everyone once again climbed out with all of our stuff, my team rocked and carried my bag for me, and went right back into line. Now, it’s nearing 2 am and when we get in line with about 100 other people we realize that there is only ONE woman working the desk, and…she was HAND WRITING every single visa! What?! And not only that, but they don’t take Ugandan shillings to pay for visa’s. You had to have either USA Dollars or Kenyan Shillings, and you guessed it…our leaders only had Ugandan shillings! This night keeps getting longer and longer. Our leaders are amazing though and at 2 am went on a mission to find an ATM, and were successful. But, there was still a line of people that had to get visa’s and paperwork filled out. And after sitting there for 30 minutes waiting, I realized that my sick self wasn’t going to make it through this process without getting sick again. I needed a restroom…ASAP! My leader and I found it and as we were crossing the street, yup, I got sick again, and then had to brave out a nasty squatty potty. Bleh! Sick and squatty potties don’t go well together! And it wasn’t the end either. After this I had to get back in line and wait some more. And when my time to get finger printed and to get a visa came, well, it was probably the worst timing ever because I felt sicker than before. Uh oh! As I stood in front of the customs lady, at almost 3 am, my team mates had to manually move my fingers onto the finger printing machine because I couldn’t even look at lady, I was that sick. And the timing was perfect because the second she finished I had to run to the curb in order to get sick one last time before we re-boarded our bus.
            I wish I could say this trip got better at this point, but it didn’t. Within minutes of us boarding our bus we heard a loud POP! Our tire blew! At 3 am, our tire blows! Really?! Yup! The bus driver drove us over to a mechanic shop that was down the road, I got sick out the window of the bus again, and then we sat there for the next two hours and went no where. At 5 am, the driver finally woke us up and told all of the Mazungus (white people) to get off the bus because he had called for another bus to Nairobi for us. We were excited, but the Africans weren’t, they were mad that the driver called for us and not them… we got off that bus fast! Our next bus was great, at least in some ways. It was clean, smelled better and had AC, all good perks when sick… but it lacked a few necessities. It lacked windows that could open and a sick person can lean out, and the shocks were broken. In the first five minutes all of us were catapulted out of our seats, and got a good two feet of air. It was crazy! And if I had felt better, it probably would have been fun, but instead I was scared. What would the rest of this ride look like if I kept getting sick?! God, help! And He did… I asked my team to start singing worship song over me, because it was the only thing that brought peace, and right after we hit the worst roads ever. But it was amazing because I didn’t get sick once more the entire ride. My team sang for me for 2 hours, starting at 5:30am until the sun rose. And the entire time I could feel God’s arms holding me and carrying me through to healing. My God was there and more real than He has ever been to me. He is the reason why I made it through.
            The next morning everyone was able to get some sleep on the bus because the roads became less bumpy. We ended up not getting to Nairobi until 3pm, Saturday afternoon, when we were supposed to be there by 8 am. But we saw zebra, gazelle, and wart hogs and had a fun morning drive. And arriving in Nairobi was the best experience yet…God had brought us through!
 
In Christ,
Ally