Muddy Med Caravan

So went on the first medical caravan this morning.  Left the house around 8:00 to meet the rest of the med team which consisted of Pastor Jacob, Pastor Joseph, Mama Jeanine, and some other nurses and technicians.  We rode in Pastor Joseph's truck (take note of this) and Tim's van.  We made it to the village back roads where it was very muddy and knew the van wouldn't make it.  PJ's truck, however, needed to make it up because it held all of the med supplies.  It made it about half way up the muddy hill before it got stuck.  After pushing it out (of which I sank in a muddy hole and shoes got covered...) multiple times from different spots on the road, it finally got stuck in a huge hole of mud.  The back left tire was surrounded by mud.  It took many guys to help dig it out and push it out.  So after 1 1/2 hour setback in the morning, we finally headed to the village which was another 2 kilometers away up and down big, bumpy, muddy hills.  The truck only took about 3/4 of the team, so me and some others walked.  The ladies decided to take a random cab that passed by (yes it was a village in the middle of nowhere that we were going to...) and Pastor Jacob and I were left to walk or "marche" in french.  Actually a truck full of Africans picked us up and we rode by standing on the back bumper.  Very interesting way of transport :-)  Got to the village, had about 20 patients where each were weighed, bp taken, and consulted then given drugs/meds.  Had lunch afterwards which was about 3-4 hours later.  The trip home was even better.  The guys rode in the truck bed and Joseph is not a slow driver, but the roads did not help either.  Let's just say that Tim and I rode on the edge of the trucka nd our tooshes got manhandled by both the roads and truck.  No other way to explain it.  One of the scariest moments of my life.  Interesting first day of Gabon-life to say the least.