World Race google search history
How to fix water tank in toilet
Giant lizards Cambodia
Best hostels in Kampot
Remove oil paint from skin
Baht to USD conversion
Is it bad to eat ants?
Hot climate water intake
What to do if ATM ate my card
Spiritual warfare Africa
When salvation is decided
How to tell if ice is clean
Price of SIM card Thailand
Thai people perception of foreigners
How many megabytes to a gigabyte
Protestant reformation Martin Luther
Catholic Purgatory
Chiang Mai air quality
When to bow in Thailand
Can women speak to monks?
Side effects of drinking contaminated water
Definition of soul vs heart
Is drinking chlorinated water safe?
Is Buddha seen as a god or person?
5 pillars of Buddhism
Essential oils safe for dogs
Lice prevention home remedies
Discerning spirits
Power to demolish strongholds
Prostitution in the Philippines
Laundromat near me
Stars in the Southern Hemisphere
Is mange contagious to humans?
Decline of men in the church
Beetle acid Asia
Heat rash symptoms
Walk in clinic Bangkok Thailand
What to feed 4 week old kitten
Visa Cost for Laos
What is sheema made of?
Safest modes of transportation Angeles City
Do Thái people eat cats
Thailand driving laws
Vietnam War
Clark Airforce Base history
Family children services jobs Midwest
Christian Counseling grad program
Time difference from Malaysia to Philippines
Islam basic beliefs
How to say thank you and hello in Malay
Food prep with no fridge or stove
How many milliliters is a coke can in the US
Malachi 2 commentary
Policy & law orphans in the Philippines
Is it standard to tip in a restaurant in the Philippines?
Ooh the things we’ve googled this year! I had no idea how curious I was as a human or how much I relied on google search answers until the race when we haven’t had access to it. For most of the race, WiFi has been very limited so it was usually not an option to google. But I got my phone unlocked and have been able to buy a SIM card in several countries so that’s been helpful. Most of these google searches are from the end of Africa into Asia. Looking back at them provided a good laugh so I thought I’d share!
Some fun facts I’ve learned as a result:
There are 1,000 megabytes to one gigabyte. Important to know because every country has their own way of handling data usage/SIM card re-fills.
Generally, most countries we’ve gone to like foreigners/tourists and are very kind to us. Most people in Africa see white people as a walking money sign. Their perception is if you’re white, you’re rich. A lot of places we’ve been to rely on tourism for income so they’re happy to have us. The more ‘out in the middle of no where’ places we’ve been that are not used to seeing westerners are also very kind and just INCREDIBLY intrigued by blue eyes, haha. I can’t tell you how many encounters I’ve had where people are absolutely captivated by my eye color. In Malawi, we were trying to explain what contact lenses were to our host family and they asked if that’s why some of our eyes are blue. They wanted to watch me take my contacts out to see if my eyes stayed the same color.
Buddha isn’t a god. A Buddha is someone who has achieved an ideal state of intellectual and ethical perfection which is essentially unattainable. Siddhartha Gautama became known as Buddha after his quest of enlightenment and is thought to be the closest person to reach this ideal state of perfection called nirvana. Most people in Cambodia and Thailand (95-98%) claim to be Buddhist.
Thái people don’t eat cats, but they don’t see them as pets. They’re a nuisance.
Side effects of drinking contaminated water: parasites, typhoid, hepatitis. We’ve pretty much all had parasites. They’re really awful. I had one from Honduras until the end of Malawi and would get hungry after every time I ate because the tapeworms were eating my food. Ew. I think I may have another one right now. They’re hard to avoid and manifest in different ways. In Cambodia, we found out that ‘purified’ bottled water isn’t guaranteed to be safe because stores may just recycle the bottles and fill them with tap water. Oops.
You can detect if ice is safe if it’s shaped like a cylinder and has a hole in the middle- not that we have ice very often though. I miss having access to ice.
Most essential oils are safe for dogs if diluted. Dogs’ sense of smell is ten times that of a human so diluting is important! Citrus, tea tree, and peppermint are toxic for dogs. Always look it up first! I love to take care of the doggos I meet.
Home remedies for lice include lavender, tea tree, and peppermint oil or lathering your head in olive oil and wearing a shower cap to bed. Some girls on our squad got lice in Honduras which was our last country in Central America. We were in Africa before they caught it and it had spread quickly to other people. Unfortunately, finding lice treatment in Africa is next to impossible because Africans typically don’t get lice because of the oil content of their hair. We had an all women’s month in Swaziland with mandatory lice checks every night. Everybody had a partner and would get their head checked whether they had lice or not because it was month 3 of the lice epidemic. It took 30 minutes to an hour per head. Thankfully I made it without ever getting lice!
I googled Beetle Acid Asia and heat rash symptoms because I thought I got a heat rash in my armpit in Thailand. We were on a farm doing 7-8 hours of manual labor each day in the 100+ degree heat. Turns out, it wasn’t a heat rash. I apparently squished a beetle in my armpit and the acid from the beetle burned me. I was prescribed a steroid ointment and it got better (for the most part).
Women cannot speak to monks in Cambodia, but can speak to monks in Thailand.
Praise the Lord for google maps when we need to find a restaurant or a nearby laundromat. Doing laundry has varied from place to place! In Panama, we had a washing machine and hung our clothes to dry. It was trial and error because the 95% humidity never allowed our clothes to dry outside. We ended up hanging our laundry on paracord between bunk beds inside for better results! In Costa Rica we dropped our laundry at a laundromat because there wasn’t a way to hand-wash where we stayed. It was always 12-15 dollars per load because we were in a tourist town. In Nicaragua we paid about 1-3 dollars to have our clothes washed for us or we could wash them on a pila which is a concrete basin with a scrub board. In Honduras we used a pila! We hand-washed our clothes all of Africa. Most of the time you could hire someone to do it, but I figured since buckets were always available, it was a good way to save money to do it myself and I find hand-washing clothes to be therapeutic! In Zambia, we washed our clothes with river water. In Cambodia we paid to have our laundry done. In Thailand, our hosts had a washer & dryer and let us use them whenever we wanted to. We were very spoiled. I drop my laundry off to be done at a laundromat here in the Philippines and it’s usually less than 3 dollars.
Prostitution in the Philippines: WOW this ministry has set fires of joy and fury in my heart. We always debrief our time on Walking Street as a group the next morning and that’s been really helpful. I’ve found it’s important to process and debrief because I’m unaware how much it’s affected me emotionally. Something that really frustrates me is that Angeles City became the ‘Mecca of sex trade’ after the establishment of two large US military bases in the area, Naval Subic Bay and Clark Air Force Base. Clark Air Force Base is within walking distance of Walking Street. The sex trade in Thailand and the Philippines has its origin in the Vietnam War when soldiers “needed release from their stress.” Even though Clark Air Force Base closed in 1992, the demand still exists, just with an influx of different clientele. When the American military left the Philippines, they left behind thousands of unfathered children as a result. The children were often discriminated against in the Philippines as they were a reminder of the war. Some of these unwanted children ended up following the path of their mothers and prostituting themselves as a means to escape poverty. It’s hard to learn all of the truths about Walking Street and witness the brokenness. I’m still processing a lot of it. I will say that despite all of this, my heart has softened toward the men in general. I’ve discovered most of them are ‘nice’ guys operating from a place of deep brokenness. There was one night my teammates were struggling to get the gate open where we live as a man and the girl he had purchased for the night walked by. He said, “Are you guys ok? Need any help?” It stuck out to them as odd, but was a gentle reminder that these men are not ‘bad’ people, they’re just making really unfortunate decisions. Our first night out on Walking Street ended up being geared toward the men. It was odd how the Lord flipped around our expectations entirely and made them our main ministry. Several of the bars know what Wipe Every Tear does and a group of girls our age on the street basically screams “missionary,” at least to the bar owners and bouncers. We went into the first bar, “L” bar, and ordered pop/water/juice which is what is expected. Then they told us we weren’t allowed to call over a girl since we didn’t have a male escort. A couple of middle-aged American men approached us and asked what we were doing there. We say we’re visiting friends who work at Bella Goose. If we tell people in the bars that we’re missionaries upon introduction they’ll assume judgement. We spoke with ‘N’ for a while. Something I thought was interesting was when ‘N’ said, “I figure when you see guys like us here you’d look over and think of us as bad guys.” My teammate, Jessie, assured him that we don’t think that. They talked for a long while and he was really open. He said he knew most of the women were working there to escape poverty and Jessie felt comfortable enough to ask him why he was there. He said that he was there for companionship, and if that didn’t end up happening, it was still a good night out with the guys. We gave them discount cards to Bella Goose, but they didn’t stop by. Jessie and Hannah tried to get into “L” bar a couple of nights later, but the bouncers wouldn’t let them in this time without a male escort. They bumped into our friend ‘N’ again on the street and chatted a few minutes. He said he and his friends were going back to “L” bar and Jessie said, “oh we wanted to go too, but they wouldn’t let us without a male escort.” ‘N’ told them he’d happily be their escort. When ‘N’ and his friends called girls down, the girls ended up talking to Hannah and Jessie instead. The guys laughed about it and gave Jessie and Hannah a hard time and at the end picked up everyone’s bill. Another bar we went into was really quiet. There was a Korean customer sitting at the table by himself. There were 3 girls on stage, but they were all on their phones and seemed disinterested. And then two young male bartenders. We ended up asking if we could get on the stage and dance to the Zumba video playing. The Korean man in the bar joined us and had so much fun. The bar tenders told us we could make song or music video requests so we ended up teaching them some line dances! We danced to Chainsaw, Church Clap, and Footloose. We also did karaoke! High School Musical and Taylor Swift made their debut in that bar that evening. One of my favorite things was seeing foreign men come into the bar and then turn around and leave. Those are some more light-hearted stories from bar ministry. I’ll hopefully share some more soon!
Thanks for praying for us. I wanted to share those stories because the Lord softening my heart toward the men is an answered prayer. I hope you’re having a wonderful week.
Sending love your way!
-Julie
