Everyone does this blog at some point on the Race, and now seemed like a good time for me to pitch in my opinion. These, my friends, are the top ten things I’ve learned on the Race.
Bug Wars.
There will come a time on the Race when the amount of insects you’ve experienced will push you over the edge of reason. When the third cockroach crawling on you in your sleep disappears after a quick shoe death, you start to wonder if you imagined its existence. I started using the light on my Kindle to attack and kill bugs every night in Malawi. I could grab a flying ant from my bed, throw it on the floor, and smash it with my shoe in a matter of 3 seconds and go back to reading like nothing happened. Mozambique has really stepped it up with the mosquitos. Every night they find their way into my net and what I’ve learned is that a two hour mosquito war in the middle of the night is worth the peace of mind.
Eat it while you can.
The food manages to look different every month on the Race, even if you stay on the same continent. Sometimes your host feeds you boiled plantains with vinegar and onions every night for dinner and sometimes you get to cook eggplant parmesan from scratch. You never know what you’re going to eat the next month, so take advantage of the good stuff. If there’s a coffee shop down the road that serves cheesecake and you have some extra spending money, don’t regret a single bite. I went to the bakery nearly every day in Guatemala and feasted on meringue, donuts, and fresh baked bread. I haven’t set foot in a bakery since. Drink that coffee, down that smoothie, and pick up some chocolate. Next month you may not have it.
Hair is a big deal.
I love my curly hair and take really good care of it at home. I’m always trying out new products and getting fancy cuts. I decided to go simple for the Race, as I have with a lot of things. Just some shampoo and conditioner for me. Sometimes I’ve even had team products bought at the local grocery store and maybe filled with fake product. One time there was a team bottle of shampoo/conditioner. My hair has consistently been a disaster. It doesn’t help that I’m always keeping my long hair up in a bun because it’s so dang hot. Even when I purchase good product, my hair has been dry because of the water or oily because of the lack of water. Here’s my advice, embrace the crazy, bring lots of hair ties, and learn how to braid. If you know how to French braid, all the girls on the squad will love you. P.S. It’s true that you will lose more hair on the Race than normal, and most likely, your male teammates will find it in their beards. Don’t panic.
Go with your gut.
I’ve realized that God speaks to me more often than I ever thought. Most of the time, my gut instinct about something is coming straight from God. I wake up in the middle of the night and know I must do something in the morning. My gut tells me someone is having a bad day and needs some encouragement. I don’t want to go pray for a sick woman late at night, a rough ride in a truck bed away, but my gut says yes. Now’s not the time to say this, but later the time comes suddenly. I must go speak to that elderly woman on the road and this team member must come with me. More often than not, God has blessed these decisions made by my gut. I’ve felt weird things in prayer, I’ve encouraged squadmates miles away, and I’ve helped teammates see the face of Jesus.
My backpack is my life, but nothing in it is that important.
Everything I need for a year on the mission field fits into my backpack and daypack. Seriously, I don’t have a purse or small bag of things I’ve purchased along the way. That’s it, everything I need. At the same time, there is nothing in my pack that I wouldn’t give away without a thought. You need some ibuprofen? Here, take my last two, surely we can find more. There’s a risk that the clothes I send with the cleaning lady may disappear? Oh well, I wasn’t planning on keeping any of these paint splattered, hole strewn clothes anyway. I can buy a new shirt in the market. I would be terribly sad if my Surface or Kindle disappeared, but that doesn’t keep me from loaning them out. Nothing in my bags is more important than showing the love of Jesus.
Pens are made of gold.
They must be made of some precious metal because every Racer only has one and lends it out with condition that it be given back immediately. Don’t create a strong attachment to any pens you bring because they will disappear and there’s no telling when you’ll have a chance to buy a new one. The same could be said of Dramamine. More people on the Race find out they are motion sick when you start climbing the mountain in the back of a bus then you would think. Stock up and get ready to hand it out to everyone if you offer it to one.
Books bind teams
Sometimes everyone on your team will read the same book, one after the other. Even if the idea seems completely uninteresting to you, there’s a sense of comradery that comes from sharing the experience together. It could be a simple romance book that all the girls can gush over the main male character for the next month. Even if you don’t gush, at least you understand your teammates. It could be a book that challenges your Christian character and calls you into a better Jesus follower. How amazing to be able to share that journey with those you are doing community with. Read the book, because even the effort you put into it means something to your team.
Laughter and yelling go hand in hand.
As your relationships with your teammates evolve, something begins to happen. Laughing becomes second nature. There’s stories at the dinner table, mistakes made in ministry, and clumsy teammates able to laugh at themselves. The laughter opens the door for so much love and openness. What it also opens the door for is yelling. At first I thought this was just something that my last team did. By our last month together, we had yelling matches in jest nearly every night. Somehow, just like with brothers and sisters, yelling became a mode of communication that expressed our love. It wasn’t until the end of last month and the beginning of this month that my new team started yelling. The moment it happened I felt at home. We trusted each other enough to yell our love and know it would be interpreted as that and nothing more. Yelling and laughter are somehow indicators of a good team.
It’s hard to know what to say to friends and family back home.
Sitting on Skype with my parents on Christmas day, I ran out of things to say. How do you express everything that is happening in your life when those back home have no context? They don’t know what it’s like to walk two miles just to communicate with them. They don’t know to expect banana hockers on the road and corn sold to you through the bus window. How do you tell a story about camping in the African bush, when they’ve never seen just how dark it is without any lights on the road walking to your campsite? Or, when they’ve never heard the sound of termites constantly moving in the walls and roof of the hut you change clothes in? It’s hard to express your thoughts while holding a child clearly dying of starvation. I know that as time goes on when I return that it will get easier to share my experiences, but when so much happens in a single day, it’s hard to know where to begin.
The Race changes you.
They tell you from the beginning to expect a great amount of change in a short period of time. At 27, I thought I had at least myself figured out. I was completely wrong. The changes in me are drastic and hard to communicate. Don’t count yourself as one of the few who will come out the same you went in. There’s nothing to be gained by making this your goal. One day, maybe in month 4 or month 7 a squadmate will look at you and say, “You’re not the same person anymore.” Take that as the compliment it is and rejoice in the fact that you stood up to the challenge of the Race. In the middle of my month 7, I hope I still have many changes to go. I’m not giving up, but standing strong, even if some days that may look like crying out on my knees.
Thanks for taking the time to read my lessons learned. There’s so much more and so little time to share everything that has happened to me. If you are friend, family, or supporter, thank you so much for your love. If you are a current or future Racer, take note, but keep your heart open. God will teach you different lessons. Praise the Lord for his goodness!
