Jacques, Mudda & the Big One

We were SOOO glad that our dear friend Chuck could meet us in Africa!! We enjoyed a lot of great conversations together and also shared in some fun adventures!
Before taking off to the Serengeti, we took a sporadic trip out to Moshi, which sits at the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was spectacular in both the evening light and at sunrise! It was great to be able to observe one of the amazing things God created!
We FINALLY departed towards Rwanda on Saturday (Feb 28th) afternoon. We drove out towards Ngorongoro Crater. After speaking with the park ranger, we decided that there would not be enough time to go through on that night, and the cheapest lodging was around $100 per person per night!! So we went to find lodging back in Karatu, the last village before the national parks. On the way back, we just happened to spot a small sign that read YWAM and we went in to check it out. A married couple from South Korea have set up and are running an outreach center. We spoke to them for some time and had concluded that they were not yet situated to accommodate overnight guests as many of the other YWAM bases do. We said that was fine and just wanted to see their facilities anyway.
They gave us a nice tour of the place, and it was huge!! The main auditorium could seat 500+ people! They also had a loft designated for a library and another loft designated for a cafe! Also it had about 6 lecture rooms and 2 other rooms elected for prayer. As she showed us the lecture rooms, she told us how they need English teachers and had been praying for people to partner with! Maybe it was NOT just shear coincidence that we happened to stumble upon that sign and that they happened to be praying for more workers! (If you feel like you could help there as well let us know!). God was definitely working there! She then said she felt compelled for us to stay, so she showed us the room she did have. It was amazing! It was more of an apartment style with a room with an en suite on each end and a kitchen/sitting room in the middle! It was perfect!
We stopped at a school and Chuck was able to give the teacher a soccer ball for the kids to share. The kids there were really excited and practically grabbed it out of Chuck’s hands!!
It has been interesting to see just what East african people think about "mzungus" (white man). They seem to have this perception that white people only want to eat at fancy restaurants or stay at the expensive hotels. That is not the case with us at all. It’s the opposite, in fact. So, when we go into local eateries, we sure get a lot of looks!! People seem to be a little surprised that us white people like to go where they eat and like to eat the same food. Sometimes it’s quite the spectacle! We went to a local place to see if they served food and they didn’t. When we came back the next day, the same man offered a place for Chuck to sit, and motioned another spot for “mudda” to sit. Yep. I guess that’s me! It’s kind of a term of respect here. And then as Craig was parking the vehicle, he asked, where’s the big one?
We went into town and stopped and saw Pastor Francis. He asked Craig if he wouldn’t mind sharing a short word the next day in church. Craig, of course, said sure. He didn’t know what he was in for!
So we went to church as our new friend David had invited us. It seems pretty common around East Africa, that if you are a visitor, you will be ushered to the front of the church, the VERY front of the church. As in sitting on the stage!!
Now Craig was prepared to share a bit, but as he was called up he asked the pastor just how long he wanted him to share. The pastor responded that somewhere in the range of 30-45 minutes would be good! That was not QUITE what Craig had in mind!! But, he did a great job, expanding on the text that he had picked out. Having it translated into Swahili also helped to stretch it out! They had a time of prayer and they also prayed for us. Apparently, someone thought we were trying to have kids and had not been successful, so they prayed for us to have babies!! Now, just to be clear, we DO want kids, in the future. But it hasn’t been something we’ve been earnestly praying for yet. Hopefully, God will remember those prayers when we are TRYING to get pregnant!
Chuck (or “Jacques” as he was introduced!) and I also shared briefly, and then we were ushered out of the church and into a room, where a beautiful lunch was waiting for us!! It was great to share a meal together! It’s so cool how we are all brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what country we come from! Now seeing it turned into the afternoon, we once again didn’t have time to enter the parks. So one more night in Karatu.

Ngorongoro Crater

Monday, March 2nd, FINALLY had us cruising in Pole Poa (translated from Swahili- “slow cool”, as Chuck had named her!) through some amazing wildlife. We approached the rim of the crater and it was a sight to see! It’s a vast area, and there are numerous animals congregated inside! From the top, we could only make out the large lake, the hippo pools, and small specs of animals that were gathered together! Even the drive down into the crater was stunning as the flat-topped vivid green trees contrasted against the intense blue sky lined with pure white clouds. Wow, I LOVE the trees in Africa!
Inside the crater was absolutely amazing! We saw thousands of wildebeests and zebras roaming around freely or rolling in the dirt. There were families of wart hogs and we even spotted some rhinos a little further off in the distance. At the hippo pool, there were several hippos submerged in the water and splashing water on themselves to keep cool. Off to the left side of the pool was an elephant with large tusks also taking a dip. He lowered his trunk into the water and then splashed it onto his back! Slowly he raised his enormous body out of the pool, one large leg at a time. Each move was deliberate and precise. It was quite marvelous!
Serengeti National Park
The park was filled with much of the same types of animals. Here we also saw giraffes really close as well. We were driving as dusk had already begun. There were rock outcrops that had begun to appear in the plains and they were quite remarkable. As we were all contemplating this contrasting landscape, Chuck started to make noise from the back seat . It was incomprehensible. But as I looked in the direction he was pointing, I realized why! Two females lions were walking right towards us on the road! We slowed down and stopped to observe them, and they took no notice of us. They passed on our left side less then 2 meters away, and crossed into the field. One even stopped to scratch her face with her paw! It was astonishing!
We drove on, each of us absorbed with our own thoughts as to what we had just witnessed. A short ways further, someone noticed there was an elephant on the side of the road, so we stopped to observe them. Soon, we realized there was not just one elephant, but there was about fifteen! It was quite a site to see, to have this opportunity to watch a large group of animals out in the wild. At this point, we got out of the vehicle, as the elephants were pretty content and were a good distance from us. It was dusk and there was that stillness in the air that only comes about at that time of day. One small elephant came towards us on the road, and by the way it stumbled, it must have still been pretty young. That group slowly crossed the road in front of us and moved on.
As we looked our right, we noticed a few more elephants. But on a closer look, it was ANOTHER group of almost fifteen elephants! It was incredible! They were a mix of mothers and babies. One with large tusks took notice of us, raised her trunk, loudly trumpeted and even took a few steps towards us! I jumped in the vehicle and the guys moved further behind it! She seemed content that we backed off, and the group slowly passed in front of us. There’s nothing quite like watching a sizable group of large animals as they roam free in the vast expanse that is the Serengeti. We also saw quite a few large groups of giraffes.
We carried on driving on as the light continued to fade. About 30 minutes later, it was completely dark, and we had to stop for a large animal on the road in front of us. On a second look, we realized we almost ran into a big hippo! What a day! After spending the night in a hostel, in the middle of the Serengeti, we got up for another full day of driving. We continued to see animals in large numbers. At one point we thought we had seen a couple of lions just off the road. We turned around and went 4x4ing a bit, and sure enough, a male and a female lion laying in the grass. We drove to within about 20m and at that point the male lion started to crouch in an aggressive manner. We then stopped realizing we were close enough. We continued on, and eventually made it Mwanza, the main Tanzanian port city on lake Victoria. After a wonderful 4:30 wakeup from the mosque next door, we started the rest of the way back to Rwanda. We managed to speed our way to the border and makeit for the 6 pm closing time. The roads in Tanzania are really hit or miss; they mostly switch between really nice tarmac and just plain dirt roads, with the latter being the large majority. In our travels across east Africa, the average speed we traveled was around 40 km\h! On good highways you can go as fast as 80 km but any faster and you are really pushing your luck, especially with all the people who walk on the road. Got to www.flickr.com/photos/crftravels/ for more photos and some videos!

We made it back to Rwanda safe and sound and settled back into life here… for a little while. The three of us toured around the city a bit, going to the major points of interest, like the Hotel de Milles Collines (Hotel Rwanda), and the handicraft market. We also paid our respects at the Genocide Memorials, which is really quite difficult, but necessary if one wants to understand the history of this nation.
On Sunday, we attended church with a friend of mine. The service was all in Kinyarwanda, but they had provided 2 translators for us. We came in during the singing, which is a lot different from back home. Group singing is typically upwards of 40 minutes. I liked the songs in this church because there were a couple of songs that were old hymns, so I was able to sing along in English. It’s pretty active, with almost all the kids dancing, a lot of clapping and a lot of random percussion. It was nice to attend church with the local service, but in the end, it went on for more then 5 hours! It’s a little tough sometimes to understand things even through a translator, and I think that after 3 hours, your brain just doesn’t comprehend so well! We DID enjoy it though!
The final week of Chuck’s stay, we cruised around the countryside of Rwanda. We went to a few different places; Butare, Kibuye, Gisenyi, and Musanze. All of these places are just stunning, and the drive between all of them is just as beautiful! The striking scenery that God has created here constantly amazed us.
On the last full day of Chuck’s stay, we tried to arrange for some traditional dancers to perform for us. Being wedding season in Kigali, it was a little difficult to find a troupe that was available. We contacted a friend of ours, and she actually knew of some people who would be able to perform. Seeing Chuck was leaving the next day, and it was both his & my (Ruthie’s) birthdays next week, we thought it was a great time for a party!
Saturday evening rolls around, and it’s just the 3 of us, so we’re beginning to think that we will be the only ones there! But we’re in Africa, so sooner or later, people will come! We had called almost all of the Rwandese people we had met in the 2 months we had been here and almost all of them showed up! The dancers and singers did a superb job! Fantas and snacks were enjoyed by all!! It was kind of fun to bring all of our random friends together and also introduce them to on another. One of the guys had a guitar and as we were visiting after the performance, he was playing. It was cool because it spontaneously became a time of worship!
Our friend told us later that our wanting to hire some dancers was actually an answer to prayer! When we had called her on Friday night, she was actually at one of the dancers houses and trying to convince the landlord not to kick him out. We were just wanted to watch some traditional dancing, but it turns out that because that one particular guy could perform, he would now have money to pay his rent.
I also really enjoyed playing hostess and walking people out. It’s kind of just what they do here. As your guest leaves, you walk them to the bus stand or to the place where they can catch a motorbike taxi. Somehow, as I walked with people out, it just felt right. I realize that’s not very profound, but that’s the best that I can describe it right now.
Well the last few weeks have been of re-adjustment again. We had put a lot of our thoughts and planning into the time when chuck was here, and our now starting over again. Well not completely starting over as we have connected with people from Ywam. We also know a bunch of friends of friends who are working on the base as well. Because the project we originally came out here to help is somewhat on hold, we have been looking for other areas to help out in. We now have moved out to the Ywam base here in Kigali. We were well taken care of at the guesthouse we stayed, but this will be a good change as we can help here and they also cook 3 good meals a day! So for the next while we plan to mostly stay put and help out with some of the different ministries here. And some much needed plumbing help of course! So the natural questions that come up, like, what are you doing here? How long are you staying? Aren’t exactly answered but we are working on them I guess. We probably will head to Goma (democratic republic of Congo) for a couple days this week, and then to Burundi later on, for a short time as well.
Next week is the main genocide memorial week. Officially it is only one week, but unofficially maybe a month or more as people grieve and continue to deal with what happened. It is a real difficult time for the whole country on an individual and corporate level. Please remember us but especially those here that have gone through such terrible experiences. Many relive the trauma over again.
It’s hard to believe it’s now almost April, and we have been gone over 9 months! We really don’t know where the time has gone, but we feel very blessed to have been able to go to all the places we have gone to. Feel free to email, skype or even call we always look forward to hearing from old and new friends!

Long overdue

Alright, I realize it has been a VERY long time since we have blogged, but I’m about to start it, right here, right now. The thing is, we did a LOT of things the last while. Our good friend Chuck was here for 3 weeks and basically we needed the last while to recuperate! Okay, enough of my excuses….
Craig and I hopped on a bus and went to Tanzania the third week of February! It was a long journey, partially complicated by other drivers. In a town in Uganda, a car in front of us slammed on its brakes, causing our driver to veer off into the ditch to avoid him! At this point, the bus was at a precarious angle in the ditch and the people on that side of the bus were NOT happy! Our conductor (the man who checks the tickets) jumped out of the bus, hopped on a motorbike taxi after the other driver! We drove around that town a while, and eventually, the conductor came back with the license plate of that car. The door to our bus was damaged and they had to tie it shut from the inside! Oh, adventures!
26 hours and 2 borders after leaving kigali, we arrived safely in Nairobi at 7 AM! Our friends, Trevor & Andrea, have been living here for the past 7 months or so. We got a chance to visit with them, and also Trevor’s sisters, Leona and Wanda, who we know from back home! It was so great to connect with friends from home! Also, I was able to beat the Mennonites at their own game of Dutch Blitz! Ha!
After a good night’s sleep in a real bed and NOT the bus, we boarded yet another bus to Tanzania. Now this bus ride was only about 6 hours, but it felt like MUCH longer!! The road to Tanzania was terrible! And as we found out later, many roads in Tanzania are quite terrible!
The original reason we went to Tanzania was to hopefully purchase a vehicle. Seeing we have already spent the time and money to come to this part of the world, we want to see some of the many beautiful things that are here; and the best way to see them is with your own vehicle. Craig had seen an advertisement for a Nissan Patrol for a good price, and it’s what drew us to go to Arusha. In the end, the owner was in the Netherlands and just couldn’t figure out where the paperwork for the vehicle was left. This despite the fact that we had been emailing him about for 2 weeks before we went to Tanzania! We spent close to 2 weeks in Arusha and really didn’t enjoy it. It’s very much a tourist town, situated between the Serengeti and mount Kilimanjaro. Because of this it’s difficult not to pay Mzungu (white man) prices, which are MUCH higher than local prices! Thanks to the wonderful tourists who have come before us, spending their money like crazy. Also because it is a tourist town, foreigners are advised to NOT walk around at night, which is very different from Kigali. I enjoy strolling around a town in the evening because it is a little cooler but still warm enough to enjoy yourself without a jacket. In Kigali, there’s little need for concern about safety, even if you’re out and about after dark (which is about 6:30pm).
It’s now Tuesday February 24th and our man still hasn’t come through with the paperwork. So we need to make a decision as to what to do, as Chuck is due to arrive in Nairobi wed morning and needs to know whether to continue on to Kigali or to hop on a shuttle to Arusha. So we’re walking around the town, trying to make a decision, with none of the options seeming any good. Around 4:30, we get a call from an acquaintance. He has found an ad for a Mitsubishi Pajero. So Craig calls about the Pajero, and the guy meets us within 15 minutes and we take it for a test drive. Within an hour, our mechanic friend comes to look over the vehicle and then we buy it! How crazy it that! One hour! And so far, it has proved to be a good decision and a very reliable vehicle! To be continued…

Rwanda - The land of GREAT change

So somehow we have been in Rwanda already for 3 weeks! It hasn’t taken to long to feel at home here, except for some things we weren’t expecting. Now that we have traveled around to a lot of countries and to the everyday places of those countries, we have gotten used to things like garbage, cows, mangy dogs and worse things. In India we got used to walking on the street most of the time because usually the sidewalk was the dirtiest place of all and not even the locals walked there. So coming here I almost felt a little reverse culture shock. It is really, really clean here, maybe too clean! And I know my standards are much lower then they were when we left, but, I still think this place is cleaner than any city of it’s size in Canada. After Singapore and Australia it’s probably the neatest, safest, most organized place we have been. Now some of you may not believe me, and I don’t really blame you.
When we think of Rwanda we think of the Tutsi genocide. Such atrocious things happened here that it is beyond human comprehension. In about 100 days some one million people were killed, often by people who knew them and in an extremely cruel way. Those Hutu’s who would not kill, or even separate themselves from the Tutsi’s with them, were also killed. It was a brutal extermination of a people, who had lived side by side with their would-be attackers for hundreds of years in relative peace. The reasons behind the genocide are many. Many fingers can be pointed to the colonizers and their policies of rule, which were used to control the people. After these seeds were sown, they eventually reaped into one of the most terrible events on memory. “Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.”*


So how can a country, which was extremely poor even before the genocide, turn itself around so quickly?




Yes, Aid money has come in, much of it perhaps from guilt that western leaders have for so blatantly turning it’s back on a country and a people. But no amount of aid money can wash the blood from the hands of those who, deliberately helped the genocidaires, or those who could have helped but turned a blind eye. Being from Canada it’s hard to understand what it would be like to be raised here, and to live in utter poverty with not much hope for the future. Western foreign policy (and aid money) to Africa has done very little to truly develop nations and help the average person long term. In most countries there is extreme poverty, corruption, and war. It’s almost like there has been more problems created as dictators fight over the money and the control it brings. I can’t sum up centuries of problems in a small excerpt, and I don’t want to discount those that have done incredible good here, so I’ll leave it at that.
But as for Rwanda, how can such a small, overpopulated nation turn itself around so quickly? On human terms the biggest chunk of credit has to go to the President Paul Kagame. His vision to make Rwanda into a better place can be seen everywhere. He has basically eliminated corruption, and tried to be a catalyst for change on every level. Some outsiders complain about his authoritarian style, but you don’t here it very much from Rwandans. There is an extreme attitude against corruption, and things like, a yearly audit on government officials ensures it happens. When hearing about certain government officials driving lavish cars, he created a law that had every luxury vehicle checked. If the vehicle was employed for the government he had it confiscated and later auctioned off. He just doesn’t see the need for unnecessary spending when there are huge basic needs out there. I don’t think I have heard of any government official, no less a leader, giving up luxuries that they are “entitled” too. We heard him speak at the national stadium on Heroes Day (we didn’t understand too much at the time because it was mostly in Kinyarwanda, the local language). He talked about small things, like service in restaurants and how it can be improved. He seems to be constantly trying to improve the country often starting at an individual level. If politicians in the West did half of what he has accomplished, they would be exceeding most of our expectations. Well that’s probably enough of a RA-RA Kagame speech for one blog, but what he has done is truly amazing.

I’m sure there are many other factors that are contributing to Rwanda’s success but what it is doing on the level of reconciliation is great. To deal with the genocidal crimes, the government implemented a community level justice system called the Gacaca tribunals. There is no way a western style judicial system could handle the approximately 1 million who were accused of crimes. The method gives room for anyone to speak their account of what happened. It also gives much leniency for those who confess and are looking to reconcile. After all, everyone still has to live together somehow. If justice were done by the “eye for an eye” principal, the killing probably would never stop. Somewhere, there has to be true forgiveness and healing, and people are making it happen here in Rwanda!

Some books to read on Rwanda:
We wish to inform you that tomorrow we will be killed with our families by Philip Gourevitch
A Thousand Hills -Rwanda’s Rebirth and the Man Who Dreamed It, by Stephen Kinzer,
Shake Hands with the Devil by Romeo Dallaire
Left To Tell by Immaculee Ilibagiza

Or Movies:
Shake hands with the Devil,
Shooting Dogs, or also called Beyond the Gates in North America,
100 days,
Sometimes in April,
Hotel Rwanda (Hollywood version of the genocide)
The Diary of Immaculee

* Taken from James 1:14,15 NLT

Rwanda Rama!

We’ve finally made it to Rwanda! It seems like we’ve talked about it for a long time so it’s really great that we’re actually here! It’s known as the Land of a Thousand Hills and for good reason. The capital city of Kigali has stunning views from almost anywhere in the city! The rolling blue hills on the horizon, against the lush green vegetation, contrasted against the red dirt are a breathtaking sight to behold! And the climate is pretty alright too. The average daytime temperature is 24 degrees Celsius. It seems to be nice and sunny in the morning with a little rain shower in the later afternoon or evening. Pretty close to near perfect!
Fresh produce can be found in abundance and it’s delicious! We’ve had fresh: banana, pineapple, mango, passion fruit, avocado, and pretty much anything else you can think of!
The people here have been especially friendly too (And not just friendly so they can convince us to buy something from us either). We walked towards the downtown area one day and we had been walking for close to 2 hours. So we decided to stop in at a gas station and see if they had a map. They didn’t but, one guy about our age, Albert, invited us up to his office. He searched his office for a while and when that proved unsuccessful, he tried searching on the internet as well. Our hunt was in vain but he called the tourism office for us to see if they had them as well. That evening we received a text message asking if we were able to locate the map and an invitation to have coffee! We thought that was pretty nice from a perfect stranger!
Yesterday evening, a friend of a friend Valence, tried to help us locate a book store (apparently, THIS is where one might find a map!). We were again unsuccessful, but as we walked, he invited us to come to his house. We agreed and he was THRILLED! He served us Rwandan coffee, which by the way, is AMAZING! In the course of the evening, Valence told us several times, had glad he was that we Mzungu (white men) came and shared coffee with him at his house. Yet we were also honored to have been invited! It was a wonderful privilege!
We haven’t been particularly busy this week, but we have enjoyed walking around and soaking in the scenery. It has been especially great to share coffee and conversation with some local Rwandans! We look forward to doing a LOT more of that!

Aging and the Art of Bartering

Craig and I were out doing a little shopping before we left for our trek in Nepal. We were in need of a few things. Sunscreen, a warm fleece, a new headlamp, and a water bottle, seeing as I left mine in Cambodia. Craig had located our goods and had been in the process of negotiating a price for quite a while. Now the shop owner was quite pleasant and things were progressing nicely. I’m not sure that’s quite accurate, seeing as it often just comes down to a waiting game and seeing who will give in first. Anyways, the owner’s friend decides it’s also time for him to get involved and say his piece. But it was to the owner’s detriment.
His first question to me was “Are you mother & son?”
WHAT????

Really, now, how OLD do I look? Or better yet, how YOUNG does Craig look? I know sometimes he drops a couple of years when he’s clean-shaven, but that wasn’t the case today. The guy proceeded to ramble on about it, saying I looked like I could be his mother, and I am old enough to be his mother, blah, blah, blah. He settled on telling me that I look like I’m 36. I aged 8 years in that store. I’m not sure why 36 but apparently, this is the age that is old enough to be the mother of Craig. I told the owner that I was insulted so he had to give us a discount on the purchase. In the end I think I saved us 200 rupees, which is about $3.50. Not near enough for the amount my pride was bruised. I guess it’s time to stock up on that anti-wrinkle cream!

~R

Christmas in Pakistan

Our Ferrero Rocher Christmas tree!!

Well here it goes. Sorry that many of you have heard parts of this story and that we have been a little slow to post it.
We arrived in Lahore (Pakistan) on the 23rd after spending the night in Amritsar. From there we took a rickshaw to the bus station and then the fun began. Here is what Ruthie wrote later that day.

We had an awesome sleep in a super nice room last night and it was only about $30 Can! (Well, maybe it’s not really that nice. Maybe our standards have changed a LOT since we left!) It was convenient because it was just a 2 minute walk from the railway station. So we easily walked away from the touts. We left at a leisurely time and had no trouble at the border or crossing it. I told Craig that I actually felt excited about being here. Those were my words. And I’ve already come to eat those words. We bargained on a rickshaw and we had our pick of the drivers because there were not many people crossing today. So we agreed on a price. When we got there, the driver said 100 more than what we agreed on. After some discussion, we settled on 50 more than we had agreed to pay. I wonder if it had anything to do with the ‘gift’ of fruit he gave us during the ride. We purchased tickets for the next leg of the trip and sat down for an hour wait. We had a bite to eat and were just sitting around talking. Craig got up for something and came back with stool on the back of his pants that was not his own. We were a little confused by it, thinking it could have come from walking on the street or maybe the rickshaw rides. After a couple unsuccessful attempts of trying to clean it off, he decided to change, as there is no such thing as paper towel here. Next thing, Craig comes running out with the same pants on and his jacket open with his bare chest exposed and yells “they took my wallet!”. He clearly knew what they looked like so he took off after them out the building. They had about a 10-15 second lead, so they were long gone. The next several hours entailed reviewing camera footage, filing a police report, calling overseas to cancel credit cards, and sitting and waiting. It was not that Craig was careless, because he was not. He had become a target to rob, by being an obvious foreigner. He has always been very careful to keep his wallet (money belt) in his pocket and to have it secured to his pant belt loop. These criminals clearly knew that. Craig watched the security camera footage later and they were standing behind us, watching us for at least 30 minutes before the incident happened. They had seen Craig take out money and pay for some food. So that is why they used the diversion of the stool, and proceeded to splash fresh stuff on him even after he had put on clean clothes. It was then, that one of them “helped” to clean him up and in the process of changing clothes had stolen the wallet. Now money isn’t that big a deal. I still have all of my documents, cards and we can get more money. But it is his passport that is so essential. It contains the Pakistani visa that enables us to remain in this country. It also contains the Indian visa that we need to get back into India and catch our flight to Rwanda in a month. I guess we’ll be spending a lot of time in Embassies the next few weeks. Sigh. Please keep us in your prayers. It’s not fun to be robbed.

I think I neglected to the fact about our money situation, in regards to the last entry. After I typed up that last one, we decided to get a little to eat and process through everything. We went back to the bus station and had tickets reserved for the midnight bus to Islamabad. So we walked down a ways to find an ATM to get a little more cash out. Craig had most of our Pakistani rupees, so cash was getting a little tight. After 5 or 6 unsuccessful attempts, at various ATM’s, we decided to return to the bus station. The manager was kind and walked with us again to try and find a moneychanger to exchange our Indian rupees, but they were all closed.
I thought they might give us a bit of a break on the bus fare, seeing the incident happened at their bus station, but no such luck. The bus fare came to 1680 Pak rupees and we had 1650. I refused to give them all of our cash, thinking that was a rather unwise thing to do. We hopped on the bus with 100 Pak rupees to our names, which equaled about $1.50 CAN!
The 5-hour trip was long and rather sleepless, but they did give us food and beverage. We decided to save our chips and cookies until we were REALLY hungry!
We were really thankful when a friend of a friend (now a good friend of ours!) came and picked us up and took us to the Canadian embassy. This was now December 24th, so we did have a few doubts that they would be open, but they were. After having to walk a bunch of blocks, we finally made it. Our friend was not allowed to come through security with his car, (it is Islamabad and with all the incidents, security is pretty tight). Here we started the process of getting a passport, in a foreign country, without most of the necessary documents. After 4 hours of paperwork, we figured out that we could hopefully get a temporary passport in 5-6 days, and then start the process of going to the proper Pakistani and Indian authorities to get visas. And this at the time when there are considerable tensions between Indian and Pakistan.

Now is the part of the story when God shows up. We were in a pretty low state, basically no money, no passport (which you need to show everywhere in Pakistan), no visas, and a person from the embassy quite emphatic that we should not be in the country for safety reasons. As we have written earlier we are not adverse to difficult situations, but this was getting a little close to our limits; and amplified by the lack of sleep, no doubt. So we again called our friend to see if he could pick us up again, and he told us he received a phone call.

The bus station manager had called from Lahore, and they had found the money belt!!! It was found not even close to where the man had left the building, but inside by the other entrance. Who knows how it actually got there, but I’m positive it was only through God’s power. It’s times like this, when we are absolutely helpless, that God can actually do something where only he gets the glory. Maybe that’s why he chooses to wait until we are out of answers before he does the miraculous. Along with the passport, the cards were there as well, (even though most of them are now cancelled and useless). And the other amazing thing is that we hadn’t even left a contact number with the bus station (partially hopelessness, partially too much on the brain), but he had just gone through his list of calls on his personal mobile, as we had used it to call our friend’s mobile. Well welcome to Pakistan!! Now is the point of the story where I’m supposed to say everything else went perfectly with no problems, Well…

Celebrating after getting back the passport!
We found ferrero rocher at the bus station and couldn't resist!

We did have a good Christmas, and after going to church (where even Santa made an appearance!), we had a wonderful Christmas lunch with our friend’s extended family. No turkey or stuffing but enough spices to make up for both. We topped that by an evening viewing of the newest James Bond flick. After picking up Ryan (Craig’s cousin) from the airport, we spent the next couple of days visiting both him and his friends in the area. It was a good time, meeting old and new friends in different places. That is definitely one of our favorite things about traveling, just meeting new people and catching up with old friends (hint, hint!).
After seeing Ryan off, we then decided to catch a bus back to Lahore, where we would hopefully meet up with the managers and thank them again for their help. But we couldn’t get a bus for a few hours, so we decided to hire a taxi to take us right to the border. This seemed like a great plan, we could then make it back to India the same day, and see the famous border ceremony (maybe a little more exciting with all the tensions!).
Two hours into the supposed 5-hour drive, our driver got a little careless and rear-ended a car that had slowed down on the road. After the usual exchanging of pleasantries the other driver then proceeded to take our driver’s registration papers so he wouldn’t take off. Then the fog rolled in, and they shut down the motorway, causing us to take smaller side roads. When we finally got to Lahore the other driver demanded that our car go with him to the mechanic shop & police station. After trying to convince the other guy we needed to go to the border, eventually he took us anyway. By this time the border was closed and we were once again in Pakistan with about 100 rupees. When we finally got to the border, we happily discovered a hotel there, and as a bonus they would exchange our Indian rupees.
After a good night sleep, and some English lessons with the soldiers at the border, we decided to it was time to go. Then at the immigration office we were told that we had not actually received an entry stamp into Pakistan. And this was after we asked the lady specifically to stamp them, because we didn’t think she had done it. After a little while they eventually stamped us in and out of the country. Not a bad week all in all. In the end we were out a few hundred bucks, but other than that we were all right.
Of all the problems that are in Pakistan, we only experienced the everyday type like: theft, car accidents, and incompetence. Although it was an adventure you don’t necessarily want to have, we would absolutely go back! For all the things that didn’t work out, God most definitely took care of us!