April 12, 2011
What history geek knows what happened 99 years ago TODAY?!
IF you guessed, TITANIC SUNK, then you’re a successful history know-it-all. WOOO!
I have no idea why this date sticks out to me. But I always remember it.
Perhaps Titanic can be a metaphorical symbol of my day as well.
Just kidding J
Our first activity of the day: CAVING. Ok. Who can guess how Renna feels about caving? Any takers?
I tried to convince Janet SO many times that I couldn’t do it. But she was CONVINCED that I could do it. “I’ll hold your hand the whole time, Renna. You’ll be fine.” EHHHH.
There were two cave options: Standard, or Adventure. There were about 15 of us who chose Standard. It felt so lame being all, “Yeah, I didn’t bungy jump. Aaaand…. I’m claustrophobic, so I’m not going to do the adventure one. I am NOT A WIMP; stop looking at me like that!”
Ick. Just like Janet promised, she held my hand the whole time. The first cave was ginormous. But then they decided to turn the lights out so we could feel like the discoverer dude did when he was playing Christopher Columbus. Initiate freak out. EHHHHHH. GROSS.
Confession: I don’t really like Indiana Jones at Disneyland because of the line. It is a claustro-stinking-phobic CAVE. And NOW, I was in the REAL THING!!! IN AFRICA!!!
PS: I KNOW I keep coming back to this. But DISNEYLAND. Way to do your homework and prepare me for my trek across the WORLD. SO proud.
Gehhh. The more we “advanced into the next chamber,” the smaller and smaller the caves got. Ahem. The only way to keep from freaking out was to talk to Janet about the Bible. It was super interesting, because our tour guide was suggesting that the cave formations had been around forr upwards of 700,000 years. But according to many in the Theological field, the earth was created around 5,000 years ago. That doesn’t exactly fit. But SJ suggested that God placed the rocks on the earth already aged. Just like in the Garden of Eden. God didn’t plant the trees, and then wait for them to grow. God placed the fully grown trees in the garden. Therefore, He could have done the same for the caves. But I thought that was pretty cool.
There was one cave that was entitled “The Chamber of Good and Evil.” There was a formation that looked like a devil. But there was also a formation that looked like an Angel wing, a Bible complete with a bookmark, and an alter. You guys. I just can’t look at the world without seeing God. And neither could the discoverers of this cave. BAM.
Then we reached the VERY LAST CHAMBER! HOLD ON, REN, YOU CAN DO IT!!!! ALMOST THERE!!!! Ok, I’m good! It’s all ok!
This was the smallest cave by far. We were deep into the rock. I have never let myself come anywhere CLOSE to this nastiness.
But I was holding on! Janet kept saying encouraging things like, “Renna, I am SO PROUD OF YOU!” and “Picture telling your mom you did it!” FOR YOU, MOMMY! J
There’s NOTHING that can keep me from conquering NOW!!!
Except…
Our dang tour guide flipped the light switch.
PITCH dark.
In a CAVE.
MILES INTO THE EARTH.
(I have no flashlight.)
And then the WORST possible thing happens.
Our tour guide says, “Uh oh.”
DEAR GOD GET ME OUT!!!!!!!
We are in the dark for what seems like FOREVER!!!!!!!!!
The humidity was already a struggle to breathe in so far into the earth. Now, there was definitely no breathing going on.
I am helpless. All I can do is latch onto Janet and BAWL.
Ok, not BAWL. But definite crying.
I hated it.
And I didn’t even feel successful doing the caves because I broke down at the end.
As we say in South Africa, “Shame.”
We didn’t stay at the caves all day, thankfully! Our next stop was the Cango Wildpark! (or some similar title)
I HELD 6 WEEK OLD BABY TIGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!
Kara convinced me! It was a bit pricey, but come now. I didn’t bungy jump and there is NO WAY I am going shark cage diving and I had just cried like a baby in a cave. Therefore, I found it fitting to play with baby tigers. Sniff, sniff.
It was AMAZING!!! They were so cute! They were so playful and they just kept climbing all over me! I loved it so much!!!! Best decision of my day. THANKS KARA!
I had an amazing bus buddy today: Allie! Ohmygoodness. It was such a God thing I sat next to you girl!
If I am being completely honest… I have been kind of disappointed in the community especially recently. I am sure some of this is purely me… But I feel like most people don’t really care about me. I have witnessed a lot of self-centeredness. And another thing? I have been feeling like I have to carry the conversation all the time, if that makes sense. Like, the person next to me will be SILENT unless I talk and talk and try to be an awesome friend to them. This has been a real theme.
But I also got to talk to Kate Wallace. She is so great! I know that if we had more time together, we would be great friends. She was telling me about her experience studying abroad in Oxford. She explained that she belives God hardens people’s hearts to teach us lessons. That was how she felt she came to rely so heavily on God in her time abroad. And I kind of feel like that situation has been applying to me recently. And it’s ok, but it just gets tiring to pour out into people with no one pouring into me, you know?
I felt slightly homesick for the first time today.
Mom? I missed you.
Tommy? We’re going Bungy jumping when I get home.
Francesca and Danielle? I REALLY wish you were here, my loves.
Back to Allie. For the first time in a long time, I felt like someone was pouring into me. She actually cared about how I was doing and wanted to help. It was such a beautiful God-send. Thank you, my dear J
Before getting deep, we created super heroes for ourselves.
Allie’s:
Awkward Allie transformed into Aqua Allie, with Steve the Stingray for her sidekick!
Mine:
Rambunctious Renna transformed into Rainbow Renna, with Oscar the Ostrich for my sidekick!
We created a good THREE episodes. Not going to lie. I was THOUROGHLY entertained! I plan to write it all down one day J
At dinner, I got to sit next to Allie and Wailana. SUCH a pleasure. Love them.
After dinner, hung out with Debs and Tyler for a bit. Then I hung out with Matt and Zach. Zachariah tried to teach me about football. We can all guess how that turned out… J
It was a big day.
And hey. I’m a survivor. J
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