Thailand. Month four of the World Race. Things just got real.
It's kind of like the first three months of college. Everyone is excited to be away from home, excited to embrace the freedom that comes with moving away from home and growing up into adulthood. But when that month four hits, everything seems to change. Things get real, college becomes "that thing that will define the rest of your life." "Wait, did I choose the right major? Is poultry science really the thing I want to do for the rest of my life? Chickens stink, though."
With the World Race, it seems to be a similar experience.
Team changes occurred at the end of month three, which I previously mentioned, and the shift in dynamics can really have an adverse effect. Teams get into a groove and become more of a family than a team, and the shift is like being ripped away involuntarily from a loved one. It can be tiresome, especially after having overcome personality differences with someone, creating amazing friendships, or getting into a rythmn with your team, the change can be hard. For new leaders, and old leaders, adapting to a new team dynamic can be difficult, and the "birthing pains" that leaders and teams went through in month one repeat themselves.
Refreshe is experiencing some of these troubles, but we're managing. I think any team that says they're operating flawlessly or perfectly is being dishonest with themselves or they haven't broached any issues yet.
That being said, I'm still loving the race. I expressed to my family that I find that I do miss home, despite my surprise, and find that I am becoming somewhat sentimental; rereading notes left by my brothers or my mom and looking back through pictures that are on my hard drive.
I was surprised mostly because I was rarely homesick at college, but discovered that that was the case because I made the decision to leave and come back home when I pleased, whereas on the race, the opportunity to return home at my leisure is not available.
We're staying in Chang Rai, Thailand. It's almost as far north as possible, in between the borders of Burma and Laos. We're staying at a place called Yellow Bridge Church with a young, recently ordained pastor named Sanguin and his wife, Ying, and their son Prom.
We've had the opportunity to pray at a hospital and a college, and spent some time talking with two different youth groups, one which had about 15 young Thai teenagers (Age 15-19, roughly).
The food is amazing, and contrary to popular belief, I haven't had my mouth burned off yet. Pad Thai, we've learned, is like getting a hot dog from 7 Eleven, it's just a tourist thing. We get mostly chicken or fish, and have to snag the bones from our mouth. Also, we've been eating our weight in rice.
I had wanted to include some photos of Thailand, mainly riding elephant and holding a giant python (sorry mom), but the available computer didn't have a program that could downsize pictures, and the internet would struggle uploading 40 ~5mb pictures. Don't worry though, those pictures and hopefully more are on the way!
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