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Ever ridden a bus with livestock? Been one of several people on a motorcycle? Had to jump off of a moving train? Here, our missionaries share their exciting tales of transportation in other cultures.

Billy and Laurie Drum served in rural Peru for five years before relocating to Spain. Here, Laurie shares her adventure on the ride to work one day.

Before we had a truck, we lived approximately an hour’s drive from where the main ministry work was going on. To arrive in Patarcocha involved taking a 15-passenger combi minivan from Huancayo to Chupaca with 50 of your closest friends. After about a gazillion stops and starts and shuffling people’s bundles and children around in the van, we would arrive in Chupaca and change vehicles. 

The next leg of the trip involved getting into a small station wagon with another 20 people to take the 15-20 minute ride to San Juan de Iscos and up the mountain to Patarcocha. 

On one such occasion, we were stuffed into the back-seat of the station wagon. Did you know that a back-seat could hold six adults? The front seat had four adults in it, and the back cargo area had seven adults and a couple of children and lots of bundles. The luggage rack on top was piled high with market goods and small livestock. 

About five minutes into the trip, I felt tugging on the back of my hair. I politely tried to ignore it, since it wasn’t uncommon for Peruvian women or little children to “pet” my blonde hair and try to feel it. But the tugging continued and it was increasingly difficult to ignore. 

I gently reached up (there was no turning around to stare at the tugger, since we had too many people crammed in the back-seat) and freed my hair from the tugging. I immediately noticed that the ends of my shoulder-length hair were sopping wet. Gross! Was some drooling, boogery kid tugging on my hair?!

I had finally had enough and was able to crane my neck around enough to turn my head face-to-face with the perpetrator – A SHEEP! Yes, there was a sheep in the car, and it was making lunch out of my hair.