"This will make a great story someday"

A few months ago our family signed up for a race in a town called Makeni. 

This is about 3 hours away from Freetown (where the ship is docked and Sierra Leones capital). A group of about 50 people from Mercy Ships signed up to do this race together. We had done a similar race in October in a different town and really enjoyed it in support of the nonprofit Street Child. Jackie and the kids would do a 5k and Jeff a 21k. Our group would take Mercy Ships Land Cruisers on Friday afternoon, spend a night in a hotel, and wake up early Saturday morning to run then return Saturday afternoon. No big deal, right?

Before it even started, on Wednesday night Jeff began to feel a little bit sick from the smoke so he went to bed early and then woke up Thursday still feeling a bit sick. So he took tons of vitamins because he didn’t want to be sick for the race. So, again, he went to bed early Thursday night got up Friday. Felt a little OK but still pretty fatigued. Then at 1pm we drove to Makeni and got there in good time, even sitting in the 37°C heat! We got checked in and brought our things to our room on the 3rd floor. All looked good... very basic but fine (we had a sink with running water, a bed, and a toilet seat!). We decided to eat dinner at the hotel and let the kids swim for a bit with friends.  Jeff had the keys to the car, and another family decided they wanted to get food from somewhere else, so he left to drive the dad to get some food. While at the pool a big wind/dust storm blew in. This is fairly common in this area this time of year so they kids and adults around all ran into the hotel dining room to wait out the storm for maybe 10 minutes.

   The windstorm was beautiful!

After the wind had died down I (Jaclyn) realized I could turn on the AC in our room, so I went upstairs to turn it on. I couldn't even open the door because there was planks all over the floor and our ceiling had fallen down! 

The boards that fell in our room and the open ceiling!

Completely in shock and just thankful I was not in the room at the time of the storm, I went down to reception to let them know. Apologizing profusely, they found the one available room for us to stay in. It was right next to the reception desk in the welcome area but we would take it. They needed to quick clean it, but they said it would be ready in 10 minutes (it took 40).  My friend Ruth and I got our things out of the room and waiting for the room to be clean. Finally Jeff came back from getting food for our friends and he was able to see the damage in our previous room. Our dinner was ready, so I went back out to the pool area to eat with the kids and Jeff would move our things in to the room when it was ready in 5 minutes. Perfect. All would be good now. :) 

After dinner of Shawarma, chicken, and fries (yum!) I was ready to take a shower and get to bed early before the race. I let Jeff know I'm going back to the room and he assures me he will be there soon. Great. I open the door to our room and there is 2-3 inches of water on the ground and I can hear the water still running! Oh. My. Gosh. Since we are right next to reception I let them know and get the water turned off. Once again, apologizing profusely, the hotel manager and staff are taking buckets of water out of our room. Thankfully our bags were on top of the bed, but Jeff's running shoes for the next morning were wet. About 45 minutes later (it's now 9:45pm) all water is out and towels soaked up the rest, They had to turn off the water to our room so no sink, shower, toilet. Fine. Let's finally get to sleep!! 

This being the mop water, it honestly wasn't so bad.

One of many buckets of water from our room!

"We're sorry, but we will need to come back in 30 minutes to make sure it doesn't flood again."

So we want about 20 minutes, I (Jeff) pop out and let them know it's not leaking and that we're going to bed. I need to be up at 5 and it's 10:15pm. My shoes are drying, there is no running water in the sink, toilet, or shower. So we use our bottled water to brush teeth, carefully make sure nothing is on the ground in case it floods again, and go to sleep.

At 2am, I hear the football game (Americans call it soccer) from the TV right outside our room. I get up, put on my flip flops and don't hear any swishing water, give thanks, unlock the door, and loudly whisper "we're trying to sleep! Turn it down" to which the four or five night crew sitting in reception were shocked, surprised, and confused. Eventually they figured out that they woke up the people who are having such great luck. I get back in bed, thankful again that I hear the AC is still running and the water is not. I fall asleep. About 4am the AC goes off but it's at least cool enough. 

5am I wake up to both my alarm clock and the local mosque's call to prayer. Good reminder. 

We're all so happy at 5:45am

The race goes well. Jeff ends up feeling fine! We had a great time and even had some personal bests in our run times. But this is a trip we won't soon forget!

Sunrises are gorgeous

The beauty of creation. Running 21k with these sights made it so much more enjoyable!

A must have at the halfway point: the obligatory coconut

We finished after all. Whew.

Sunday night, as we recap the trip with some friends, we ask, "How was your weekend?" They respond: "Oh, nothing like your weekend. Our whole family just got lice."