Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

| by archiveworldraceblogs

  • You think you’re attending church as a guest but then you’re called up to sing, preach and give a testimony during the 4 hour service.
  • You’re response/excuse to everything becomes, “TIA”… This Is Africa. Expect the unexpected.
  •  Events start whenever they feel like starting.. even if it’s an hr and a half after the “planned” start time.
  • Sadza or Pap (or the other 100 names it has depending on which African country you’re in) is a side dish for every single meal. (It’s this disgusting gritty stuff with no flavor that LOOKS like mashed potatoes but I can assure you it’s nothing like it)
  • Alone time is sitting in a corner surrounded by your squad mates or children staring at you, because they’ve never really seen a white person before,with headphones in trying to read your bible.
  • Red…dirt…EVERYWHERE. or red mud during rainy season.
  • Electricity outages that last for weeks and it’s totally fine because…TIA.
  • You make the Stride of Pride, or to some the Walk of Shame, to the outhouse to poop (because you can’t do that in the toilet in the house due to clogging) in groups at night so if someone is bitten by a black mamba or eaten by a hyena, the others can call for help.
  • You have to play limbo with tree limbs because they have thorns the size of toothpicks or bigger on them that can impale you’re face.  
  • There’s bats in the squatty.
  • You casually get mobbed by a baboon trying to steal snacks out of your hands.
  • Skirts.. ALL…the..time. 
  • Walking a 5k to ministry every day is the norm.
  • Hitchhiking to get to wifi that’s 15 mins away and only barely supports 3 people being on it at the same time.
  • Your clothes are judged to be too dirty by kids (#racelife #bestdressed)
  • You can no longer tell if you’re tan or just dirty.
  • There’s no running water and you have to make the hike to the well, pump it, and then carry it back on your head because it’s so heavy.
  • You behead and skin chickens for your dinner that night.
  • You have to do weird clicking noises with your mouth to pronounce names and words correctly. Americans’ mouths just aren’t made to do that.
  • Every single person knows how to sing and dance. 
  • You’re the only white people in a crowd of 500 at a wedding and are then asked to get up and dance for everyone.
  • You have to climb a gate, in skirts, and then break in to your hosts house where you’re living for the month because the person with the keys is not home and won’t be for several hours.
  • You have to pile 20 people into a 10 passenger van and then hold random things in your lap for them. 
  • You get into a strangers car that may or may not be a taxi…still not sure.
  • Spiders, scorpions, snakes… oh my!
  • Cooking over an open fire.
  • You get to see the milky way better than you’ve every seen it because you’re in the bush and there’s no lights to interfere. 
  • The car breaks down in the middle of the night on the way to ministry in the bush (meaning pitch black) so you have to get out, walk, and carry the trailer the rest of the way.
  • Traveling is only supposed to take 7 hours but 13 hours later…..
  • You pull out your phone and all the children yell, “Hey! Shoot, please!”
  • Afternoon dust storms.
  • Uhmloungu or Keywah (white person) is all you hear when you go out in public.
  • You see giraffes walking on the side of the road like it’s no big deal.
  • Cooking by headlamp.
  • Sugarcane & peanuts at every single house visit.
  • Everything takes twice as long as it should….TIA.
  • Pulling over on the side of the road to preach to random strangers is normal.
  • Bathroom stops on travel day are pulling over and picking a tree.
  • Women carry children on their backs and buckets on their head at the same time.