Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

  • Praise the Lord, we are going to South Asia in March after all.  Hooray!
  • We will be in Eastern Europe for three months:  April – Ukraine, May – Romania, June – Serbia/Bosnia/TBD.
  • We will conclude our Race in Central America:  July/August – Nicaragua/Guatemala (I don’t know which will be first).
  • Do you donate clothes to non-profits like the Salvation Army and such?  Chances are someone out here in Africa is wearing it.  As we go into town I’ve seen t-shirts like “Locks of Love Yale University” or “Lake County High School Cross Country” and so on.
  • I’ve been uploading photos on Facebook, and I’ll try to post some here, too.
  • I think maybe I should make like Sofia Coppola and make a movie called “Lost in Translation: East Africa”.  This would be one of the funny scenes:
    • As Christi, Lindsay and I were riding the dala dala into town, Christi and I sat in the front row of seats (behind the driver) while Lindsay sat back. 
    • The dala dala stops to pick up a passenger, a male, who proceeds to sit in front of me, facing the opposite direction.  He situated himself in a rather awkward position – my knees were inches away from his crotch. 
    • Without thinking, I just asked him, “Could you move to another seat, please?”  He had no idea why, but he did move to the row behind me as I explain, “This is making me uncomfortable” and such.
    • Another passenger asks why and proceeds to tell me, “Be set free. . . this is Tanzanian hospitality”.
    • I try to explain that the lack of personal space was not a problem (we’ve not had much of it thus far and are used to it); my concern was that I would inadvertently knee his crotch.  Of course, he doesn’t understand “knee to the crotch” so, I’m trying to speak slowly and find other euphemisms.
    • Some time later as we converse, he asks if we could visit his campus for even just a half-hour ’cause he and some of his friends are trying to start a fellowship.  He wants strangers to encourage and strengthen them and explain God’s Word to him and his friends.
    • We explain that our schedule is set and cannot, even though we would like to.
    • I do however, encourage him to seek the Lord and ask the Holy Spirit – for illumination, for empowerment – before he looks to strangers (and assume that we actually know what we’re doing in an of ourselves).
    • So, somehow, my attempt to extricate myself from a socially embarassing situation evolved into offering encouragement.  We got off the dala dala with no hard feelings at all.