Jeffrey's Bay, South Africa 4.22.2006

As a team, we are rapidly coming to a very critical junction. For the past ten months, our overriding goal was to reach Cape Town against all odds. As we slowly made our way south, countless people told us this was impossible. We heard many things. There was no way in hell our car could make it. It was too dangerous. The roads are impassible. Thieves will steal everything we have. Recently, one wise guy told us that he wouldn't trust our car to drive him home. Very few people gave us a chance. It was almost embarrassing for a while when people asked where we were heading. I would say a country not far away. If I didn't, we would get strange looks from almost everyone.

Even I didn't give us great odds on actually making it to Cape Town. Although I knew we would do our best to persevere against anything Africa could throw at us, there were so many things that could go wrong. This has clearly been evident in the last few months as the Stingray has suffered from some major problems that would have meant the end of the journey in many countries. But we made it and now must look to the north.

I want to quickly thank everybody that has supported us along the way. We have met innumerable friends along the way who have been instrumental in making this trip a success. Each and every one of you has made a very positive impact on us as a team and has definitely been a credit to African hospitality. Extra special thanks go to two wonderful friends and crucial supporters that never lost faith: Happi in Cameroon and the Major in Nigeria. If we pushed on when everything seemed lost, it was because of people like you.

We have left Cape Town behind and are now heading up the coast towards Mozambique. After living out of a car for almost a year and being constantly on the move, I think we are all a bit burnt out. I have almost forgotten what it is like to have a place of my own, to wear clothes that haven't been utterly destroyed and to sleep in a bed that offers something more than a thin plastic mat in a tent which, due to a myriad of gaping holes, is affectionately referred to as the "Franken-Tent". Yet my desire to see the trip to its conclusion in Ethiopia still remains strong. Africa is an amazing continent and there is still so much more I want to see and do.

Unplanned expenses have put us into a small monetary crisis. We have enough money to get out of South Africa and into Mozambique; but the African AIDS Awareness Campaign will meet its end there if nothing significant changes. Tuuli is hard at work in Jo'burg looking to the private sector for support; but assistance is far from guaranteed. She has her work cut out for her.

Despite an uncertain future for the campaign, I am very happy with what we have already accomplished. Ten months, seventeen countries and nearly 20,000 miles later, we have made it further than any of us could have imagined. I have seen fantastic projects and met many dedicated people that have given me hope about the fight against AIDS. Despite appalling statistics from a pandemic that is still growing at an astonishing speed, significant progress is being made in many places across the continent at a local level.

The next few weeks will be critical to the future of our campaign. What transpires next, on a personal level, is just as uncertain. I have been disconnected for so long that all previous plans have been called into serious question. Despite much reflection and recent homesickness, I am increasingly becoming weary of throwing myself into a life that I have avoided for so long. I have what might or might not be a very rational fear of becoming trapped. Yet at this point I am very far removed from that life. And I have recently been wondering what I might possibly be missing. I don't know what is next for me. I am not even sure what I want. But as I have learned on countless occasions along the way, only time will tell.
* posted by Sean at 12:07 PM