After 11 months on the field, I thought I’d write down some of the tricks I learned to surviving life with cold showers and constant sweat and no electricity and people all the time. So, here you go!
- Cold Showers. If you have to take cold showers, especially in months where it’s cold outside, don’t wash your body and your hair at the same time. Jump in the shower, wash your body, dry off and get warm, then wash your hair in the sink. It helps a lot, I promise!
- Buying Gear. See if you or your parents or whoever has points on their credit cards that they can cash in for gift cards. You can usually get ones to places like Walmart or Bass Pro or Gander Mountain that will come in handy when buying gear.
- How to make granola. Granola is a great snack for travel days and it’s super easy to make! Melt some butter in a pan and stir in sugar until the sugar stops dissolving. Add oats until all the butter/sugar mixture is soaked up. Lay out flat on a plate until it hardens. Munch away! You can also add peanut butter or cinnamon.
- Free pile. The free pile is awesome and probably the best place to “shop” for new clothes, shampoo, and all things American. The free pile is not a place for dirty loofas, smelly wet towels, or broken hard drives. However, trash is always welcome. (KIDDING! #2 pet peeve right there.)
- Travel day food. Don’t just think you have to resort to PB&Js every time. You can make really cheap egg sandwiches with eggs, cheese, grilled onions and peppers. If you make them the night before and wrap them in foil/baggies, they’ll be good for lunch the following day. *Special note: do not try this if your food will sit out for over 24 hours!!*
- Trade your stuff. Local artists love to trade their paintings, bracelets, or carvings for your headphones, t-shirts, hats, whatever, especially in Africa!
- Showering with headlamps. There are times on the race where you’re in that kind of outdoor, curtained, light-less shower, so you need to bring your headlamp along. If that’s the case, make sure you place your headlamp on the front wall and point it towards the back wall. If you do the opposite, you are projecting your shadow on the front curtain for all your friends (and host!) to see.
- Make the everyday moments eventful. Sometimes you just need a candlelit dinner, or a laundry party, or tickets required for entrance into your movie-watching team time. Take the extra time to make the everyday parts of Race life exciting.
- Celebrate the big moments. It can be hard to do when everyone is all spread out over a country but take time to celebrate your “Squadiversary” or Christmas or Thanksgiving or the 4th of July. Make a big deal out of the big holidays you might be missing. You’ll create memories you’ll never forget and you’ll look back years from now and think about these special times.
- Keep track of all your memories. It takes forever and you probably won’t even realize your need for it until month 10 or 11, but try to keep a few pages in your journal saved for each month to write down key things that happened. The list my team has been using includes: Country, Team, Currency and Exchange rate, Ministry and Location, Language, Snack of the month, People you’ve met, Fun Memories, Favorite meals, Favorite off days, Team times, Things you learned, and anything else specific to you that you want to add. Spend time with a fellow teammate from past months and just sit and swap memories. Trust me, you’ll want this when your race is over.
- Be careful about have Christian stickers and logos on everything you own. I am just as guilty of this as everyone else, but be aware of how many t-shirts you own that have Bible verses on them or how many Jesus stickers are on your laptop. You may spend time in countries where you can’t evangelize in any way and you can’t have any of these stickers/verses/phrases/symbols showing.
This is by no means a conclusive list, but it’s just a few tips I’ve learned over my time on the Race. Don’t freak out, you’ll learn along the way and you’ll find what works best for you!
