So here I am…still in South Africa. I didn’t plan to lose my passport, and wasn’t prepared
to watch my squad leave without me, but God had this planned from the beginning.
Everyone that I’ve spent the last 9 months with is gone and I am faced with loneliness and anxiety about what’s to come. I learned all about being flexible on the race. Sometimes things didn’t work out exactly as planned with my teams, but now I am learning to deal with it all by myself. I don’t have a support team with me 24/7 like my team was for me. I’m not even home yet, and I have to deal with the stages of post-race processing. Let me tell y’all, it’s difficult.
I am currently staying with another squad in Durban, South Africa until I can get a passport and a flight home. This squad is only half way through their own race and are so curious about my race and what it feels like to almost be home. It is hard to answer questions about it all. “How was your race?” “It was good??” I don’t know how to answer these types of questions. Even though they are racers as well, I still find myself unable to put into words just how incredible these past 9 months were. There isn’t just one story to share, there are a million! And I cannot sum up my race in just a minute or two, or even over an hour long coffee date.
I’m almost a little glad that I lost my passport. I have this in between time from saying goodbye to my squad and being reuniting with my family. The Lord must have known that I needed to spend these next few days with Him before heading home. These next few days, I am figuring out how to answer basic questions like “How was the race?”, and I am reflecting on all the Lord has shown me and the crazy adventures he has taken me on.
ALSO…
I have been making a list this past month of things that I have become accustomed to while travelling the world.
Home feels just a foreign to me now as Guatemala, Malaysia, and Botswana were to me 9 months ago.
So here’s my list of what I now consider normal
-paying to use the toilet
-using the word toilet instead of bathroom
-Having the driver’s seat on the right side and driving on the left
-pointing with my thumb
-living on $5 a day for food
-putting on make-up is a super special occasion
-wearing the same 4 shirts over and over again
-handwashing clothes and drying them in the sun
-being challenged and pushed to my limits every day
-automatically converting prices to $USD
-enunciating my words and speaking slowly
-asking if they have wifi before ordering a coffee
-fitting everything I own into a backpack
-using a headlamp after dark
-living with girls who love me unconditionally no matter how many times I mess up
-not considering it dirty until I’ve worn it at least 3 times
-converters, converters, converters
-not having running water
-sharing everything with the people I live with
-making sure I remember where I put my only pen
-not being able to understand what people are saying 90% of the time
-sleeping on a 1 inch thick sleeping pad
-living with people who love Jesus just as much as I do
-cold bucket showers
-not having an oven
-flights and buses that take days
-public transportation
-the buddy system
