11 countries I have visited this year. I know everygone is probably going to ask me “what was your favorite?”
11 Countries visited. If I had to rank them, this would be the order of how much I liked them of course. This is very difficult to do overall, because there were things I loved about each country as a tourist that would give it a different rank if I wasn’t spending most of my time in ministry. Nevertheless, here is my final countdown. I would also like to say that Qatar gets an honorable mention. We spent one night there and it was amazing!
#11-KENYA
This was by far the worst country for me. I don’t like to dwell on the negative, but it was a very hard month with little ministry. We’ll leave it at that. However, I did see zebras and hippos up close.
#10-India
Definitely a country I did not fall in any kind of love with. The culture is polar opposite of anything American and I just didn’t enjoy it at all. However, the food was really good and spicy. I will miss cheap Indian food.
#9-Honduras
We were stuck in a city with little room to explore the city and/or the rest of the country. I like to explore so this one wasn’t my favorites. However, I really loved the the kids and the ministry with whom we worked. The kids were awesome and we had an opportunity to work with numerous ministries during this one month.
#8-Costa Rica
This was my first month and I didn’t want to be on this trip; however, I enjoyed the ministry we worked with in this country and loved that we did many different things. I also lived in a house with almost half of our squad and was forced to be involved in community when I didn’t really want to be.
#7-Thailand
I loved Thailand for many reasons. The food was some of the best I have eaten (Thai Green Curry is now on my top foods list), and we were able to participate in one of the largest water festivals in the world. I also loved the contact that we worked with and actually got to sleep in a bed!
#6-Rwanda
First month in Africa and I really liked the city of Kigali. There was a lot of free time in Rwanda so I was able to explore a lot and see the city. We had our biggest team of the year with two passport members joining our team and one squad leader. My team was 10 people. It was one of the cleanest nicest places we went in all three African countries though. The people were amazing. Ministry was not my favorite in this country, but as a whole I like Rwanda a lot.
#5-Cambodia
When I get to the top five it becomes very difficult to rank them. I loved Cambodia before I even reached Cambodia. So many people in my life have been working in Cambodia already so I heard their stories and it made me appreciate the country from the start. I will say the most beautiful children of all the world live here. I enjoyed the amazing people we worked with here in Kampong Cham. I also really enjoyed the ability to be a tourist while I was in Cambodia. I was able to see the city of Phnom Penh and Siem Reap while working in another city. Cambodia is definitely a place I would like to visit again.
#4-Nicaragua
This is the only Central American country to make it in my top five and the main reason is I found the people, scenery, and everything amazing here. We were able to have a debrief session in the cutest town called Granada. Instantly, I was in love with this country and the culture, not to mention it was the cheapest place we visited this year. After that we went to a very small town called Palacaguina and despite the fact that all coffee was instant, I loved it. Some of the most beautiful people I have met in my life lived in this small little town. My work days consisted of swinging a pick ax and carrying stones. In the middle of the city was a basketball court and we would go play USA v. Nicaragua games with the locals. This is also the month I decided I was going to embrace this blessing God gave me of the World Race and I spent the entire month with all of my squadmates getting to know them and learning to appreciate them.
#3-Nepal
This country was a wild card for me. I knew nothing about it other than Mt. Everest was there. I came into the month very tired and ready to go home, but it quickly surprised me as an amazing place. I was able to spend time in both Kathmandu and Sarlahi. Two totally different pictures of this country. Kathmandu has many tourists and is a gem for an American who is just craving Baskin Robbins. It was nice to hang out with my teammates and enjoy a slice of normalcy with perfect weather. Then, where we ministered for the month was hot, humid, and mosquito infested. When I arrived here, I thought I was going to hate this month, but the people you work with always make or break a country for me and these people were some of my favorite people in all the world. We called them Auntie and Uncle. Auntie spoke no English, but loved like no one else. I spent my birthday playing with kids by a river, getting gifts from Auntie and Uncle, and ending my day with them praying over me and this year of my life. There were so many amazing people here and we didn’t have a lot to explore, but I still loved it. This country proved to me that circumstances do not greatness make, but people are really what matter.
#2-Malaysia
This country was like no other for me. We were busy every day. Two teams were working at five different ministries and every ministry was like working an actual job. I loved the normalcy of going to a job every day. I worked at a coffee shop and did fundraising for a hospital in which I mostly sang all day. Coffee and music are two of my favorite things. We had a lot of freedom in this country as well. We cooked or ate out for our meals, had an air conditioned room to sleep in (this was the only time all year we had that) and we did not have to check in with anyone every day. However, the contact we worked with became one of my favorite people on the race. Although, we didn’t spend a lot of time together, he and his wife took me out to lunch the last day we were there and shared their lives with me and their culture and tried to convince me to come back as if I didn’t already love Malaysia.
#1-Uganda
To say the contact we worked with in Uganda was why I loved it so much is an understatement. The most amazing man in Africa lives here and we were able to work with him. I honestly loved everything about Uganda except the traffic. The people were nice, it was easy to navigate, the ministry was amazing, and at the end of the month we had debrief where I rafted the Nile River. Despite having malaria, this was by far my favorite month of the year!
