Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

Okay. One week to go. It’s not over yet, but it’s winding down and I have a few closing thoughts, ya know, a few things I’ve learned this year:
 
To sum it all up:

-I circumnavigated the world, traveling over 40,000 miles. I took 14 planes (Bangkok to Nicaragua taking over 80 hours total travel time), 6 trains, 17 buses (the longest bus ride being 60 hours straight in Africa), 19 vans or taxis, and 4 flatbed truck rides to travel said 40,000 miles.
 -I slept in exactly 52 different “beds” this year.
-Internet access is more readily available than running water.

-Most of the world really does live on less than a dollar a day.
-There is almost nothing more heartbreaking than seeing a child dip a bucket in a muddy puddle to get water for his family to use that night.
-Most ATMs in the world are air conditioned. Often the only place in the whole town that will have AC.
-Europeans, Africans, and Asians almost always take tea in the afternoon, almost always with milk. Latin Americans mostly drink coffee in the evenings rather than the mornings.
-You really can only help one person at a time. Apparently saving the world will take a  really long time.
-One learns very quickly to always carry a roll of toilet paper with them everywhere they go. Also, I have become a professional squatter.
-Bananas are available everywhere in the world. Africa has the best ones.
-Rice is more ubiquitous than air.
-Eating a whole jar of Nutella is a very bad idea indeed.
-Never leave home without a bottle opener or ear plugs.
-Mosquitoes buzzing in the ear quickly makes one suicidal.
-My two favorite foods from this year are: 1. Chapati (the African oily tortilla) with mango and raw brown sugar sprinkled on top. 2. Pad Thai.
-The music of Africa is breathtaking. Those sounds really can heal the soul.
-It is the dream of people from every country to visit or move to America. It is seen as the oasis of hope in a desert-like, suffering world.

-The Holy Spirit is legit.
-Cipro is my new best friend. 
-I had hundreds of near death experiences this year, half of which occurred while rafting the Nile, the other half in traffic. 

-I haven’t seen a baby or child ride in a car seat since Ireland.  Seat belts are almost entirely disregarded. Upon my count, Africans can squeeze 27 people into one minivan, Latin Americans can squeeze over 30 into the bed of a pickup truck.
-I am more selfish, more wretched, and more loved than I possibly could have ever imagined.
-How to bring Kingdom (heaven to earth) to all the lonely, hungry, thirsty, lost, blind, diseased, and broken people of the world should replace comfort as the aim of our lives.  We just need Jesus to come back to set order to the chaos called Earth.
-The best part of the race: the people. The hardest part about the race: the very same people.

 
 It’s been a great year. Full of the highest highs and the lowest lows.