It all started with a friendly conversation with a couple people from London in our hostel this morning. They were asking normal traveler questions. My teammate Caitlin and I were struggling to find the answers and explain the weirdness that is our lives.
“How long have you been here?”
*Awkward silence as Caitlin and I stare at each other and try to remember what day it is, when we got to Bulgaria, and do the math to answer the question.*
“Ummmm, three days, I think.”
“Oh, cool. How long are you staying?”
*More awkward silence as we wrack our brains to try to remember when we fly out.*
“Uhh, we fly to South Africa on, umm, Monday, I think. We work for a non profit, and are pretty much traveling this whole year.”
“You think? Who runs your non profit, some mystery guy named Dave?”
“Well, actually, his name is Bill, but at this point we pretty much just pack and move wherever, whenever we’re told. We don’t worry too much about it. We just go with the flow, and never quite know what’s happening until after it has already happened.”
*Entire table erupts in laughter at the insanity that is our lives.*
Life on the race, and living in a constant unknown is just normal at this point. We don’t really know where we will be on Monday, what time/day it is, what currency to use out of the six in our wallets, or what we will be doing next. However, we know that we have our packs, our squad, and our God and that’s really all we need.
After our conversation ended with the people from London, another teammate, Hillary, came over and we all laughed so hard we cried as we talked about the things we now accept as normal in our lives.
Like, a random field on the side of the road with Nepali women staring at us is as an acceptable bathroom stop. It’s normal, but it’s not.
Not knowing where in the world we will be in Monday is normal, but it’s not.
Hopping on a bus for an unknown period of time is normal, but it’s not.
Paying for food at a restaurant but then having to go to the kitchen to make it ourselves is normal, but it’s not.
Our bus driver stopping so he could use the bathroom (an outhouse with a hole in the ground) and then being yelled at in Bulgarian (or Serbian? or Macedonian?) when you proceed to follow him off the bus to do the same because that stop was only for him, not for the rest of the people on the bus whose bladders were about to explode. It’s normal, but it’s not.
This is the life we live. We’ve learned to not ask questions and just roll with it. These things are daily occurrences. “Normal,”we say. We’re about to head to Africa. It’s a HUGE deal, and we are all cool as cucumbers. Like, we all know there should be some nerves, but no, it’s just the next transition on the list. Nothing we can’t handle. At some unknown point along the way, it stopped being weird, the unknown stopped being scary, and we simply accepted this as normal everyday life. Then, we have conversations like we had this morning, and as we laugh, the reality of our situation sets in.
THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
It’s weird.
It’s fantastic.
It’s awkward.
It’s uncomfortable.
But we, as month NINE world racers, are so comfortable in the uncomfortable that it doesn’t even phase us.
This doesn’t mean we are complacent, and it doesn’t mean we aren’t thankful for this crazy Jesus adventure in its entirety. It just means that sometimes it dawns on us that people can’t wrap their brains around what we do, and we cannot expect them to, because it is incredibly ABNORMAL. But, wow, are we blown away by the insanity that we get to call our lives. Thanks, Jesus. And thank you, dear supporters, for allowing us to wake up each day in the unknown, to serve, to love, and to grow.
