How do I title this?

I feel so funny because literally everything I do is turning into adventures. So this weekend, I went to Buchannan which is about a three and a bit hour drive away from the ship. We left around 9 or so with 6 of us. We had four girls and two guys heading out for a nice weekend. It took us a fair while to get a taxi, but finally we did with two in the front and four in the back. Nice and tight!
The drive there was rather fun. Three was lots of laughing and telling stories and just hanging out. I was most definitely the youngest by a long shot (5-10 years) yet it was great. It’s cool because the phrase ‘age doesn’t matter after high school’ is actually true. You graduate and suddenly anybody is willing to hang out.
So driving was also squishy because of the huge and very ‘comfortable’ pot holes that lined the entire way. Eventually we got there after what seemed like forever and using our Mercy Ships ID to get through UN check points (only in Africa!). So we got there, found our guest house and got slightly settled in. We put on our swim suits and put our stuff in our rooms.

We walked through town and were largely noticed seeing as we were the token 6 white people in the town. “White man! White man! White woman! White woman!” I can not convey how weird it is to be yelled at simply for the colour of my skin. I was talking to my Mom last night about that and she commented that in Canada if a tiger was to be walking down the road we would shout and scream because it is so unique and different and crazy, and so in some ways, we are like, unique and different and crazy to these people!We walked down the beach though the town toilet (the beach) and ended up finding an extremely little beach which the UN often uses.

It was upstream from the town so the water was so clear that we could see the bottom. This might have been the first time. We swam and hung out for a bit but headed back a little before dark for safety.We went out for dinner and it was fine. We stayed outside so many people stood close and just watched us. We then chose to hang out for a long time and rather made a spectacle of ourselves as we played the animal game plus plenty plenty laughing and noise. If you ever want to be noticed; come to Liberia.

Later that night we headed back to our guest house. Let me clarify to those of you who are going, ‘Isn’t she in Africa … guest house’? Four girls sharing a room with three single beds with a fitted sheet, pillow, and mosquito net. There was no blanket; not that you would need one, no A/C (though there was a fan with different plug than the outlet in the room), but very good security (a small pin like thing holding the door shut). So we hung outside for a bit chatting and then went into the room. Myself and another girl (Emily) talked for a while and then headed to bed. Woke up in the middle of the night to a very very loud dog who needed desperately to be quite and then in the morning by women screaming at each other.Once we were ready to go, we headed out at just before 10am. The sign in our room said to be our by 10 so that’s when we left. Vern put our money in a book inside and told the man on the porch where it was and we left.We went out for breakfast and then walked down the beach. As we were walking we got caught in like, torrential rains and hid under a roof of a random hut. Lucky for the four slightly tipsy Ghanaian men there were suddenly four white women under their roof. Needless to say we got plenty touched in the next while; I got ‘married’ to one of them and the most felt up of everybody. Again; only in Liberia!

Once the rain was fully over we walked further and then headed back. We were walking back to the guest house because we had arranged to meet the taxi driver there at 3.30. We got there and were quickly harassed by the house man telling us that we had not paid him. Seeing as we had; we were rather confused. So, the next hour and a half consisted of us being told that we had stolen from him and being forced to not be able to leave. We were basically surrounded by about thirty Liberians and it was definitely sketchy. I was just like; this is lame – we paid you! However, according to what the man says, and what we say, unless he actually did scam us (which is what we think); his ‘friend’ was on the porch and looked quite like him so when we told him where we had put the money he took it so when the owner came to the front, all he saw was his empty house and no money. It was very frustrating because in no way was it our fault that the money was stolen. If I bought something in Canada and the money was stolen from the store I would not be forced to repay or to have to be harassed for over an hour and a half. Finally after just giving up we paid the man again. It was frustrating the most because bribery and corruption is so huge here in Liberia, and we in no way wanted to support it but we had to be conscious of our own safety, and we had had enough.

As we drove away we all were rather frustrated because we don’t really feel like Mercy Ship people should go to Buchanan because there is no real police force, so issues are settled with violence and no reasoning.Probably an hour or two down the road we stopped for a minute. As we climbed back in the sun was close to setting and we were getting aware that the earlier rain and some of the rain that had consistently been coming down had created the potholes to be much larger and much more uncomfortable for the car. The car we were in already was low to the ground, and our feet were constantly feeling the ground under us.
Soon after sunset, Vern, who was sitting beside me laughingly, prayed ‘Oh Lord, please let this drive last longer so I can have Emily on my lap even longer’. The words had just come out of his mouth when the lights on our car died. Needless to say, the rest of the drive was very scary. The three hour drive took over seven hours.
Let me say that driving through potholes that you cannot see is scary, and driving on one of the only roads (this was several hours later) in Liberia that has few potholes in the night where people are driving extremely fast towards you with basically no way to see you.So. We’re driving, and I have already decided that we will die. I had almost no doubt that I would die on Sunday night. I have never prayed so hard or held onto someone else’s hand so much with such vigour. I decided right then that I would rather, not that I will ever have the choice, but if I did, I would rather be killed in a sudden car accident than one that you know you are going to die in, because fear consumed me for about 5 hours. Liberia does not have street lights. There is no speed limit.
As well, one of our tires popped. It popped seconds after I prayed aloud ‘God, please help us to drive slower’. Again; we quickly told God, ‘God, it’s not a prayer until we say ‘amen’!!!’ We laughed rather than cried as we stopped on the side of the road. Three of us went of into the bush to go to the washroom and just kind of laughed. Our only choice was to laugh because the other option of to cry. I saw a car come up and asked Jesus aloud if the car could have a tire for us to have. As we walked up to the cab I was amazed to see a man pushing a tire up to our cab. God definitely answered that prayer.
So the next several hours were still spent full of fear, but at least one of the four tires was good!Many hours later we arrived at the gate to our port. We all grabbed our stuff, paid our taxi driver, and I prayed over him. I truly feel that the angels were working overtime for us, and we had one diligent angel holding our extra tire on because it was held on by three screws (I don’t know what they’re called). There should be I think, five or six, yet we had only three that were not connected very well.Once we got through the first gate, we called the ship to open the second gate since we were past curfew. The walk was spent in the suddenly pouring rain. Inside the ship we met up a few minutes later after we had changed, ate our second meal of the day, and just kind of chilled for over an hour. We were all kind of shaken up and very much aware that our lives had been drastically changed in that day. I have never (I think) been filled with so much fear before. I have never actually thought that I would die. I’ve gone through moments that caused fear, but never before have I actually genuinely thought that death would consume me. My hope throughout was that I would meet Jesus, and for me, that is alright, so I was alright with carrying on.

I phoned home just to talk to my Mom as I needed her to know that I had almost died, and then went and read some in my Bible.
Here is what stuck out for me:
Psalm 34:4 I sought the Lord, and he answered me; He deliver me from all my fears.
Psalm 43:3 Send forth Your light and Your truth, let them guide me; let them being me to Your holy mountain, to the place where You dwell.
Philippians 4:13 I can do everything who Him who gives me strength.
Exodus 14:14 The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.