This is for my current and future Racers! And really, anyone who’s doing a ton of traveling!
The Race is awesome, but the smallest, stupidest things can make it hard and slow you down, on top of all the hard work you’re doing in ministry and the emotional and spiritual growth The Lord is putting you through!
I thought I’d write a blog on some practical, helpful tips for travel and life on the Race that I came across during my time overseas. 🙂
Hope this is beneficial for anyone searching for some handy ways to stay less frustrated. Haha. But really.
TRAVEL TIPS:
1. Didn’t bring your special blanky with you on the Race? No problem. Grab one of those blankets sitting in your seat on your 15 hour flight, enter ultimate ninja stealth mode and stuff it into your daypack and then use the extra one on the seat next to you for your time on the plane. I say this because many international flights don’t want you keeping the blankets because they reuse them. (Kinda ew?) But seriously, most of the time the blankets are a decent quality and they’re compact. I did this about three times…I like blankets.
2. Fully charge your electronic devices before you leave ANYWHERE (US, your ministry site, the airport), because you’re not guaranteed a convenient outlet at your destination. I made the mistake of using up half my phone battery on the way to training camp by being on Facebook and texting. When I got to training camp I was at 40% and we weren’t allowed to charge our phones. WHOOPS. I did that again on a bus ride from South Africa to Lesotho. I expected an outlet, and when we arrived, we were greeted with no electricity for our stay that month. Oops…I did it again. (ha)
Not cool. Be prepared!
3. On that note, always keep your charger for your phone/tablet handy. You never know when The Lord will throw you a blessing and provide a USB port on your 15 hour flight from Africa to Asia (praise The Lamb). You might not be able to juice up your laptop for a movie, but you can use your phone to listen to music, play games, etc.
4. Spotify was my lifesaver. I can’t live without my music. I eat, sleep and breathe it; it’s healing for me, it’s my getaway from the world…it’s a lot. I saved up $120 before I left and dedicated that money to my monthly Spotify payment so I could download any music I wanted onto my phone. The cool thing about Spotify Premium is that before I left the country, I downloaded all of the music I wanted offline onto my phone, and then when I got wifi, I downloaded more offline. Discovering new music my teammates listened to and being able to download it onto my phone, as much as I wanted when I had wifi, was lifesaving for me. Don’t let yourself not be able to access music if it’s really important to you.
5. Always keep your earbuds with you. NEVER not have them. I found myself in situations where I needed to put my earbuds in because I was in a loud taxi in Africa for two hours, or because I was feeling overwhelmed during manual labor ministry and needed my music to calm me down…you just never know what situation you’ll be in, even on your days off. Always keep them close-by and handy. I forgot them a few times when I suddenly needed them, and I never let it happen again. Haha!
6. You can carry more stuff on the plane than you think. No really. I know that they say “one carry-on, one personal,” but in real life, they don’t ask you about that stuff. 95% of the time, I had three and four carry-ons and no one said a word. The other 5% when they asked, I told them I was carrying something for a friend. It’s really that easy. One lady said I was carrying too much as I was exiting the plane and I just looked at her like “I’ve already arrived…it’s too late for that now.” Haa…I was a master crap-hoarder and had issues leaving things in the free pile lol. So I got real creative with how I packed and carried stuff.
7. You can hang anything off your daypack. Is your big pack too full for the scale at the airport? No problem. Grab one of your 20 carabiners you brought and hook that sucker up to one of your millions of backpack loops. Hanging things off of your backpack does kind of suck because it weighs you down and throws you off balance while you’re walking, so this is a last resort. But do you want to leave it behind at your layover in Taiwan? No. So hook it up to your backpack!
9. Is your pillow your bestie? If so, don’t leave it behind. My pillow and I are forever, and I made the mistake of not bringing it and using a crappy travel pillow. Ew. I bought a pillow in SA and secured it to me on travel day using my hoodie tied around my waste. I was the most ridiculous-looking squadmate on travel day, but I gotter-did. (Scroll down to the bottom for some pics of a typical travel day for me)
10. Have a long layover? Leave that sleeping pad out. It’ll save you some weight in your big pack, plus give you something to take a lil nappy on for your 20 hour layover. I got the Therm-a-Rest NeoAir XLite sleeping pad. It packs down super tiny and can easily hang outside your daypack. Handy for those really long layovers.
11. Dying of thirst on your flight? Ask your stewardess to fill up your empty water bottle; most of the time they’ll do it! There’s nothing more frustrating and awkward than asking for water when your throat is dry and being brought a child-size cup of water that you down in three seconds and then you don’t see the stewardess for another 45 minutes…or you ask for five more cups. Don’t do it.
12. Would you like to avoid the horrors of jet lag? Jet lag sucks; the worst I had was going from Central America to South Africa and I felt like I was in a dream for five days during debrief. Don’t. Let. It happen. Here’s a way to avoid jet lag: find out what time it is in your destination country and go to sleep/stay awake according to the time over there. If your flight in Panama leaves at 11am and it’s 6pm in South Africa, be prepared to take a good long nap in a couple hours so you can stay on schedule with South Africa, regardless of your current time.
13. Only bring what you need, plus a little extra. I can’t stress this enough. If you’re going to be gone for 11 months, you’re not going to want to lug around a ton of crap, PLUS your souvenirs and other things you pick up along the way. Be prepared to let a lot of things go. I had to leave the Race temporarily for an emergency in Month 9 and I left my entire big pack plus some, and lived out of a small duffle bag, day pack, ukulele case and my big pack airporter that I zipped everything up in. I couldn’t believe how much stuff I was carrying around until I left most of it behind. The last two months were a breeze without my big pack. I don’t want you to think you shouldn’t bring the things you LOVE, just don’t bring a LOT of it. Bring the stuff you use every day and the clothes you love, but don’t overdo it. You may regret it later when things are falling off your arms at the airport.
SUPPLY TIPS:
There are plenty of great packing lists out there, but here are a few things you may not think of/think are important to bring, but really are!!
1. Sleeping mask. I make this number one because I myself am so sensitive to light while I’m sleeping. Many of my teammates either forgot to bring or lost their sleeping mask early on and it was not pleasant for them. I highly coveted my sleeping mask (lol) because it was vital for me to actually sleep, especially on long, bright bus rides. I bought REI’s Co-op Lightweight Eye Mask and Earplugs Set. It gave me full coverage for my unnaturally thin eyelids for ultimate darkness and sleeping comfort.
2. Universal outlet. Do you want to have access to your electronic devices or nah? If you know you’re going to countries that have different outlets than ours, it is ESSENTIAL to bring one of these. You don’t want to be in a place where you and your teammates don’t have one, or your teammate has one but they need to charge their stuff and then it’s awkward cause you didn’t bring one and…just don’t let it happen. Yes, you can most of the time purchase outlet converters in-country, but they can be expensive/break quickly, or start out not working at all. Universal outlets can be pricey here. Mine was a good price: https://www.amazon.com/Universal-Worldwide-Adapter-Charger-Charging/dp/B01BHIBEO4/ref=sr_1_12?ie=UTF8&qid=1492461957&sr=8-12&keywords=universal+outlet+adapter DO NOT PLUG A HAIR DRYER INTO IT. I blew the socket and it wouldn’t charge my computer because it required too much voltage. It charged my phone and Kindle, but not my computer. Fortunately, that was Month 10.
3. 2-3 pairs of earbuds. This is essential. I brought two pairs of earbuds with me. One was a Phillips brand with a microphone and another was a backup I had been given. The backup was crappy, bright pink and had no microphone (ALWAYS make sure it has a microphone). My Phillips broke by the time I was heading back to the US for an emergency, so I was able to pick up a pair of Skull Candy ones while I was there. I would have had to drop some major bucks at an airport if I wanted quality earbuds if I hadn’t gone back to the US for a week. BRING BACKUPS. They get lost, someone accidentally thinks it’s theirs, they break….whatever.
4. On that note, bring extra chargers. I cannot TELL YOU how many times peoples’ chargers and Apple headphones went missing/got mixed up because everyone has the same pair/brand.
1. Don’t use Apple headphones. They are poor quality and uncomfortable. Make the switch now and you’ll thank me later.
2. Get an iPhone charger that’s not Apple brand and get a LONG cord. Apple chargers are poor quality, break easily and look like everyone else’s (PERMANENT MARKER DOES NOTHING). Plus the cord is so short. I bought my extra long phone chargers here: https://www.amazon.com/ZTeanok-Braided-Lightning-Charging-Charger/dp/B01MTUD3JW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1492462330&sr=8-1-spons&keywords=long+iphone+charger&psc=1 $12 on Amazon, you get two 10ft cords and they lasted me the whole Race and I STILL use them now and I’ve been 5 months off the Race.
I say get a long cord because most of the time, the outlet (if you have one) at your ministry/hostel is NOT near where you’re sleeping. Having a ridiculously long cord to reach my phone was essential for me.
5. Solar charger. I wish I would have budgeted for this. I brought a slightly crappy solar charger with me on the Race and it broke two weeks into my first month on the field. Lame. Invest in a solar charger! I was grateful that I had some squadmates who would let me use theirs every now and then, but if you have your own, you can use it all the time, especially when your ministry site has no electricity! Gotta be prepared if you want to use your iPhone 6 camera.
6. Bring two water bottles. I say this for so many reasons: you forget your water bottle somewhere, you need extra water during your ministry day, your first water bottle grows mold…all of these things have happened to me. I had to get rid of my water bottle in Month 4 because it grew mold that couldn’t be washed out or killed. Fortunately, my mom had bought me an additional water bottle that I hadn’t used up until that point. Extra bottles are essential in my opinion.
7. Rain jacket. And invest in a GOOD one. Especially if you’re heading to Asia. You’re gonna want that jacket. It rains a lot over there and I bet you wanna stay dry. I got a waterproof Marmot rain jacket. It served me well and continues to serve me well here in Houston during flood season. It was $99 at REI, but the investment was worth it. Not a drop of water got through in any of the rainy seasons I was in while living in Asia.
