I wanted to give an overview of what a day on the road is like. ON a long drive day, we can wake up as early as 4:00 or 4:30 am. Usually 30 minutes later will be breakfast and then we weill leave 30-45 minutes after the start of breakfast, depending on whether it's a fast breakfast (cereal and toast only) or a longer breakfast with eggs to order. During breakfast, we also usually make a pack lunch to eat on the bus during the drive. After breakfast we all help pack up the food, gerry cans, pots and pans, supplies, bags, tents, etc. If we have a more relaxed drive, we may stop to set-up and make lunch enroute. We generally stop roughly every 3 hours for a bathroom break. Mostly it's a bush bathroom stop, but sometimes at a gas station or supermarket. Bush bathrooms are preferred as they are always much cleaner!! But they can be a challenge for the ladies when there aren't many bushes around, or they are nervous to venture into the bushes due to snakes.
On the truck I mostly spend the time looking out the window while listening to music, or reading. Sometimes I nap for a bit. Some people play cards and other games.
When we arrive to a campsite, we help unload the truck and set up our tents. Elisha and I are more typical American West campers, so we set up our tent as far away from the rest of the group as possible. But most people set up all the tents really close to each other and right near the truck. We then chill, do laundry, shower, and/or explore until dinner.
We all have truck jobs. These are jobs such as sweeping, cleaning the fridge, filling up jerry cans, loading and unloading personal luggage (known as the back locker), security (Making sure the truck is locked and windows are up when we all leave), trash and recycling, pub manager (pub is the code word for our safe where we store passports and money in a safe and locked placed), table, chair, & stove set-up, tip collector (I call the tax collector), and a coupe others. My first truck job was table, chair and stove set up. I then did back locker for several trip sections, then I was jerry can filler-upper, and lastly tip collector. Elisha has been truck sweeper, fridge cleaner, trash and recycling, and pub manager. We all help out as a group though, so we'll lend a hand in all jobs.
We also are in cook groups. The job of the cook groups is to assist the chef in food preparation and set up, and to wash the pots and pans and tear down after a meal. Before we had a chef, we also had to shop for and plan the meals and do the actual cooking as part of our cook groups (We had no chef from Gondar to Nairobi.). We rotate through with cook groups, having to help out with about 1 out of 4 or 5 meals.
The truck is really nice and comfy, in my opinion. Most seats face forward, but there are 2 tables that have 2 front and back facing seats each. Our new truck, Florence, actually has seats that recline and has little airplane style pockets on the seat back. There is also overhead storage. In the truck there is a small fridge, small library, and USB & cigarette plugs for charging. There are big windows for looking out that can of course be opened. The steps to get in and out of the truck are pretty big, and upon entering, every person always has to purell their hands. There is a combination padlock that we know the code to so that we can go in and out of the truck as we please whenever we want.
There is a large water storage container that the crew puts micro-pur tablets in so that we always have drinkable water. We all do our own individual dishes after every meal. It's like the Dry Valleys in Antarctica where we have a bin with soap to wash, then we put the dish in a big with disinfectant, and lastly a pure water rinse. To dry the dishes, we "flap" so that the dishes are dry before putting away. The flapping can be pretty hilarious because our whole group will be out whirling our hands about to dry the dishes.
On the truck I mostly spend the time looking out the window while listening to music, or reading. Sometimes I nap for a bit. Some people play cards and other games.
When we arrive to a campsite, we help unload the truck and set up our tents. Elisha and I are more typical American West campers, so we set up our tent as far away from the rest of the group as possible. But most people set up all the tents really close to each other and right near the truck. We then chill, do laundry, shower, and/or explore until dinner.
We all have truck jobs. These are jobs such as sweeping, cleaning the fridge, filling up jerry cans, loading and unloading personal luggage (known as the back locker), security (Making sure the truck is locked and windows are up when we all leave), trash and recycling, pub manager (pub is the code word for our safe where we store passports and money in a safe and locked placed), table, chair, & stove set-up, tip collector (I call the tax collector), and a coupe others. My first truck job was table, chair and stove set up. I then did back locker for several trip sections, then I was jerry can filler-upper, and lastly tip collector. Elisha has been truck sweeper, fridge cleaner, trash and recycling, and pub manager. We all help out as a group though, so we'll lend a hand in all jobs.
We also are in cook groups. The job of the cook groups is to assist the chef in food preparation and set up, and to wash the pots and pans and tear down after a meal. Before we had a chef, we also had to shop for and plan the meals and do the actual cooking as part of our cook groups (We had no chef from Gondar to Nairobi.). We rotate through with cook groups, having to help out with about 1 out of 4 or 5 meals.
The truck is really nice and comfy, in my opinion. Most seats face forward, but there are 2 tables that have 2 front and back facing seats each. Our new truck, Florence, actually has seats that recline and has little airplane style pockets on the seat back. There is also overhead storage. In the truck there is a small fridge, small library, and USB & cigarette plugs for charging. There are big windows for looking out that can of course be opened. The steps to get in and out of the truck are pretty big, and upon entering, every person always has to purell their hands. There is a combination padlock that we know the code to so that we can go in and out of the truck as we please whenever we want.
There is a large water storage container that the crew puts micro-pur tablets in so that we always have drinkable water. We all do our own individual dishes after every meal. It's like the Dry Valleys in Antarctica where we have a bin with soap to wash, then we put the dish in a big with disinfectant, and lastly a pure water rinse. To dry the dishes, we "flap" so that the dishes are dry before putting away. The flapping can be pretty hilarious because our whole group will be out whirling our hands about to dry the dishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment