Today has felt like five days somehow meshed into a 24 hour period... (In the best possible way🙃). Our team stayed the night in Johannesburg last night before making the trek to Malawi early this morning. We landed in Malawi and hopped on a bus to journey three hours to Esther's House where we will be spending our time here.
We were riding along the dusty road bordering Mozambique, gazing at the incredible mountains and land formations, enjoying the nice African air in our faces, all the while trying to stay awake from the long journey behind us....(48hrs of traveling confuses one's body that's fer sure). After nearly two and a half hours, we found ourselves (all 27 of us) walking in a single file line (LOL) back to the nearest town to find another form of transportation because of an ill-timed bus breakdown. We walked for a little while and stumbled upon a police station of some sort out in the middle of a few villages.
It was around 5:30 pm by this point. The sun had just begun to set and we were still looking for a way to get to Esther's House. Some curious lil kids from the village wandered out to observe what one earth we were doing. Some went over to try and communicate with them (which is always humorous). I tried to ask if they had a 'football' (⚽️) and pretended to kick an imaginary one so they would better understand. (I think the only english the kids knew was "yes" and "no" because that is all they kept saying 🙈😊). Instead of trying to communicate with words, we grabbed an empty water bottle and started kicking it around. Within 20 seconds we had an entire game going. We made goals from rocks and sticks and 5 minutes into the match another village boy ran over with his football for all of us to play with.
Laughter was all over the place. Love beyond language. The typical (and breathtaking) african red sun was setting off in the distance. Some women and their little ones from the village came over and watched the pick up game with some girls on our team. It was so unexpected and so beautiful. I loved every moment of it. I think Eunice, Joshua, Corence and all their buddies did too.
After a few hours, our replacement bus showed up and we made it to Esther's house. We ate like we were giving up our birthrights. Potatoes have never tasted so good in all my life. We are so stoked to be here!!!
Tbh I don't really know what day it is or what time it is on my body clock, but I do know I'm point 7 seconds from being unconscious.
-ht
