The World Race is deceptive.
Follow the Instagram account of any racer, including me, and you would believe the World Race is a vacation. You would think we go to the beach and sightsee while intermittently playing with cute orphans and taking cute photos with them.
That is not the World Race.
I apologize for not accurately depicting my journey, and only recording the (literal mountain tops), but missing the valleys.
I have believed the lie that nobody wants to see the lows, but that’s where most of my lessons have been learned.
So, here’s a summary of the realities of the World Race:
Sometimes we wake up at 4 am to work 12 hour days with kids.
Sometimes we find out children have lice, and then we play with them anyway. Later, we spend 18 hours picking lice out of our hair, but the kid cuddles were worth it.
Sometimes we shower once a week.
Sometimes we shower by filling up yogurt containers with freezing cold water, and willingly pouring it over our heads in the cold weather.
Sometimes 22 of us shower in an old wooden shed in the Himalayas with scolding hot water trickling on us, and we feel blessed because we have hot water.
Sometimes we share a squatty potty (hole in the ground) with the same 22 people in that same wooden shed when we all have explosive diarrhea.
Sometimes, actually pretty often, we get sick. Food poisoning, parasites, the flu, malaria, you name it.
Sometimes we sit in bus stations for 15 hours before getting on a bus for 24 hours.
Sometimes you travel up a mountain on a school bus with cows and chickens and an old Nepali woman holding onto your upper thigh for dear life as the bus rocks back and forth over the edge of the mountain.
Sometimes you ride on top of the bus and almost fall off.
Sometimes people around the world smell bad and you just smile through it.
Sometimes your back goes out because you have been carrying around a 50 pound backpack for 6 months.
Sometimes the water tastes like feet, and you chug it because it’s 98 degrees outside.
Sometimes you eat pig eye balls because they are offered to you.
Sometimes your heart breaks when you fall in love with starving orphans and hear their stories.
Sometimes you get tired of living with 6 people you didn’t choose for 11 months (even though you love them).
Sometimes you get to sleep in beds (emphasis on sometimes).
Sometimes you miss your closet, and your mom.
But, this is the life that I chose.
I wouldn’t be doing anything else.
I am abiding in God’s will.
The World Race isn’t just bungee jumping, surfing and smiles. Sometimes it’s not fun and sometimes it sucks and I just want to go home.
But, it’s in the sucky moments that God’s faithfulness and beauty seems to shine through.
