"Despite all the little problems it's fun isn't it?"

The Reeder family has always been a little "Griswoldly" as in Clark Griswold..and apparently I have brought that with me here to Africa.

People say to me a lot "only you Lauren, only you"...I'm not sure why "only me" but crazy things do happen to me a lot.

Anyway, let's start this story last Sunday...



I wasn't feeling well on Sunday, so I decided to stay in town and go to church with my South African friends. Eric had a speaking engagement in the village so he left early to go do that. Lisa also was not feeling well, so it was just Eric and the kids that headed out to the village. While I'm sitting in church with my friends, they get a call from Eric. (whoops, I didn't have my phone), saying that he has broken down and they need him to come and rescue him.

Problem with that: we HAVE to take this car on our 8 hour long awaited journey to our Annual Meeting at the lake the next day.  We have to pull our trailer behind us, etc...etc...

So, we get back and find out the AXLE has fallen down. Yes, axle. Apparently the bolts weren't tightened on some joint, and the entire Axle fell. So, we got it all fixed up and it seemed that this would just be a little blip on the radar, and that we were going to be ready to ride at 5am the next morning.

Later that night, I get worse. Pain, nausea, weakness, and finally fever starts overtaking me. In my delirium, I remember someone maybe weeks ago mentioning to me to check the lake shore road we were going to take the meeting...something about a bridge being out. I tell Eric that night around 7ish, and a hour later we find out yes...that road is out. We have to divert to the capital adding at least an hour to our drive. Well, at least we found out before hand...

Then, Eric comes into the room and says, "where are the keys to the car?" We have spare keys, but the original has the key to "The Club" (the steering wheel lock) and so we can't drive with that still on.

We decide we will find them at some point before 5 am, and the Laffoons have to drive me home and put me in bed because I'm so sick now.

I wake up at 4:30...and wait...and wait...5 o'clock rolls around...5:30...STILL NO KEYS! We are stuck in Mzuzu because we can't get the steering wheel lock off!

Around 8:00am, Lisa drives me to the hospital to get tested for Malaria. I get meds for it and we hear the decision that we are going to "saw-off" the club so we can get on the road.

So, by 10:00 we are on the road! We are dreaming of having supper at the lake with all of our friends...well, i was feeling so horrible I was just dreaming about not being in the car anymore.

Around 11:30, the car kind of slips on the road...
Hmm...
As we are looking for a place to pull over, we hear a big thud, and our car is scraping on cement.
And I look over and our TIRE is rolling past us...We all watch is just roll past us and in front of our car.

Oh gosh.

We are parked by a mud hut in the middle of nowhere...
Everyone we know is already at the lake, but crazy enough some of our colleagues were in a wreck the day before so they were still in town to arrange help for us.
-a car is being sent to pick the family up.
-a wrecker is being sent to get the car.
-our colleagues are coming to get Eric and the trailor
-they will be there in 4 hours.

About 3 hours into this, 2 mechanics stop by and help us get the wheel back on. They say its drivable to get to Lilongwe.

Two kilometers later, we have to pull back over because the brakes are rubbing and may start a fire.

One hour later, our van comes, gets our car drivable and we finally head to Lilongwe.

We have offically been on the side of the road for 6 hours.
I'm going to be honest; having Malaria while on the side of the road, missing out on being at the lake...probably ranks up there with one of my horrible days ever.

Finally we get to lilongwe 11 hours after we first left Mzuzu.

Our replacement car will be ready by 9am and then we will make our last 4 hour ride to the lake...

We find out at 10 our car has horribly bent tires and needs alignment.
Finally at 1 we get on the road to the lake.

No kidding here...1 hour into the trip we get a FLAT TIRE!
hahaha.

Well...what should have taken 8 hours...took 48, but we finally made it.

To add insult to injury, I had to be wheelchaired to my room because I was so sick when I got there, and the wheelchair got a flat tire. So I had to be driven the rest of the way.

I told you...it was like a Griswold family vacation!!
No one can ever say my life is boring.