Our travel days are always so much fun to me. I think it stems from my dad making long travel days so much fun, but also because of the adventurer inside of me excited to be in an airport and going on a new adventure to a new place.
It was Sunday morning at about 4am when I was heading down the four flights of stairs at our hotel. I had all of my belongings as I walked to the van taking us to the airport. We traveled in two groups to our first stop in Thailand, so there were only 10-15 of us leaving that early in the morning. It made traveling seem easy with only 10-15 people to travel with. We all piled into the van and passed by all my favorite places in Siem Reap for the last time. It was bittersweet, because I had mentally and spiritually processed so much in order to be ready to leave such an incredible place; it had changed my life so much.
When we arrived to the airport, we were all shook by culture shock because the airport wasn’t opened yet. It had never dawned on me before that moment that small airports around the world don’t stay open 24/7… we waited a while, but once we got inside, they opened Starbucks for us so, worth it!
One of the most popular phrases of the World Race on travel days is, “hurry up and wait”. Because of all the logistics of traveling we arrive places very, very early.
As we boarded our plane, I was walking down the aisle and I saw people who looked like they were world racers, grungy, dirty Americans. Then, I actually sat with them. They turned out to be a part of YWAM, and they had done their three months of training at Amber’s church, so we had such a fun time talking to them. Our hour long flight flew by and I got to hear all about the work that God was doing through them. It was so crazy because they were stationed in Battambang, Cambodia and worked at the YWAM base there, which is where I went to church month one!!! It’s such a small world we live in, when you’re a part of the kingdom of heaven.
Then we arrived in THAILAND!!! Once we got ourselves situated in the airport, I left with a group since our layover was long enough for us to go explore! We grabbed a cab and tried to go to this famous road that was similar to the Pub Street of Siem Reap. It was closed down that one day, but luckily, one of my squad mates, Hannah, had other recommendations from her team leader, Corbyn. So we headed to a really big, famous mall. We got 6 people in this tiny car and drove 40 minutes to this mall. Our driver was so great and stopped on the way so we could get some authentic sticky rice. It was amazing! Then, we hopped in the car and continued to this mall. Boujiest mall I have ever seen. I’m pretty sure every label known to man was in that mall, and as you can image it was hardcore culture shock. I could barely handle the freeway, let alone this mall. We looked around a bit but were mostly there for the food! I got authentic pad Thai with shrimp and Thai tea. To finish it off we got Krispy Kreme and headed back to the airport.
Our flight was delayed but we did get to witness a pop star come into the airport and a bunch of Thai girls screaming for this singer. I felt like that was the perfect finish to the Thailand experience. 🙂
We did a lot of waiting in that airport, but it was so much fun! Playing cards, strumming guitars, and stocking up on chocolate.
Then, all the sudden we were on a plane to AFRICA! I slept almost the whole flight and missed every meal but one… which is how i gauge how deep I am asleep because it usually wakes me up.
I woke up to the beautiful sunrise of Ethiopia, wow it was sight.
The minute we all got off the flight, the temperature dropped to at least the low 50s which, to everyone in America, seems warm. But to us, who had just come from the insane humidity of Cambodia, it was freezing. But it was amazing to feel cold air again!! I had one last phone call with my parents, promising them, “oh, I will definitely talk to you before Christmas” and then I exited the doors of that airport and WiFi for the next three months.
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It’s so surreal to be on a bus in Ethiopia driving to our new home for the next three months.
It’s about a 3 hour bus ride from Addis Ababa to the small town of Harbu Chulule. The farther we go, the more countryside I’m witnessing. Driving by woman carrying large bags on their backs and jugs of water on their heads. Seeing donkeys pulling buggies full of produce. The beautiful rolling hills of Ethiopia took my breath away for the first time on that bus, and has continued to every morning I step out into God’s creation.
As we pulled up to the HOPEthiopia compound, the children were running beside the busses yelling, “Hello, hello!” in their adorable Ethiopian accents.
The second we hopped out, we were bombarded by hugs and kisses that I fast discovered were from the 28 children who were adopted by Hope, and live on the compound with us.
We unpacked and looked around the place. The main building, which is called the guesthouse, is where we were dropped off. It is where we eat all our meals. It has bathrooms, lots of rooms and our living area where we congregate as a squad. On the left side of the guesthouse is team Kaleo, team Towdah, team Raw and team Nsync (every girls team besides ours). On the right side is Taylor and Ashley’s room and the guest room, which is occupied by Ralph, who is the founder of HOPEthioia, when he isn’t at home in Canada.
Then, our team and the guys’ team walked the 3 minute walk from the guesthouse down to the children’s village where we were going to live for the next 3 months. There are a circle of houses numbered 1-7. We live in house 6. 1-5 is occupied by those 28 beautiful children.
I’ll never forget walking into that house for the first time. Laughing at the lack of privacy mostly from shock. You see, in Siem Reap our team prayed to God that we would be challenged physically in Ethiopia and man, did he answer our prayers. And it’s funny because team Covenant has been really blessed with living situations just like us until that moment so all of us started walking in abandonment real fast.
I’ll try to paint a picture for you all. Close your eyes and imagine opening our front door, looking down at the cement as you enter our living room. We have three extra beds in that area which we call our couches. Then, a half wall which has an unfinished kitchen on the other side of our living space. Straight in front of you from the front door is the bathroom. There is no door but we hung up a sheet real fast and we have a cute “someone is in here” sign. Then on your left are two doors. The first being our room, team Grafted! It’s a small space but we absolutely love it. There are three bunk beds and one normal twin. As you enter our room you look up and realize our ceiling is made out of sticks which means you can hear every single sound wherever you are in the house. It’s normal now as I fall asleep to the African barking spiders, a.k.a the men of our squad farting. There are two more rooms for the guys team and all in all, 17 of us sleep in house 6.
Now, writing this about a month after we arrived that first day, I couldn’t imagine it any other way. I love living in our house which we named Wakanda after Black Panther. It’s our home and it’s peaceful. I love the community we’ve created in this house and it feels like church camp every night.
When we arrived to Ethiopia we honestly had no idea what to expect. As we were driving to our home I kept wondering what kind of mud hut we would be living in because that’s all we saw for miles but God has blessed us with his abundance. First, we have beds!!!! In the middle of nowhere, we have beds. I am so thankful for my bed, nothing so far has been as hard as sleeping in my tent at training camp… wow, my leaders were so right. Those 10 days of training camp have been harder than my whole race combined!
Second, we have toilets! We were all mentally preparing ourselves for the famous African squatty potties. In fact it was a running joke whenever someone complained about the bathrooms in Cambodia to get ready for Africa and to practice our squats!
Third, we were given SO many amenities. We were given a pillow, sheets, pillow case, a wool blanket and a REAL towel!! I didn’t realize how much it took off the time drying off with a regular towel instead of a quick dry REI towel. Physically we are SO blessed here.
Fourth, we have cooks! I swear they are trying to make us all gain 30 pounds here with the crazy amount of bread but I am so thankful for the cooking ladies, Aldonna, Zeenit and Bouza. I love them to death and it never gets old coming up every morning and getting my morning hug from each of them. They are incredible woman of God who work tirelessly to feed all of us. They feed us pancakes and soup. And wow it’s so good!
The soup makes it feel like it’s actually winter. It gets very cold here at night and there’s nothing like a bowl of soup to make you feel right at home. 🙂
A cool fact about Harbu Chulule is it is 8,000 feet above sea level and it gets VERY COLD. Plus, when you run you feel like you’ve got asthma. I understand why people always say Ethiopians are such good runners because of their elevation. These days, I’m proud of myself when I run a mile because it feels like 10!
This place has changed my perspective on my life. Getting so caught up in being busy, all the time. How loud everything is. I will never get sick of the peace here, the absolute peace! It is out of a dream. I have enjoyed every moment of no WiFi here and the pace of life, where no one is in a hurry to get somewhere. I love it here so much. I will always have a special place in my heart for Cambodia and at first I couldn’t fathom loving another place like I love Cambodia but I feel it for Africa now too. I’m so thankful for Cambodia and all that I learned and all I have been able to bring here to make this place a better representation of how God is always making us better versions of ourselves.
Soooooo WAKA WAKA ITS TIME FOR AFRICAAAAAA!!!!
FUNDRAISER UPDATE: ADOPT A MONTH!
SEPTEMBER (TAKEN!!! YAYAYA!!!!!)
OCTOBER (TAKEN!!!!! WAAHOOOOOO)
NOVEMBER (TAKENNNNNN!!!)
DECEMBER (taken!!! Whoop whoop!!)
JANUARY (needed!)
FEBRUARY (needed!)
MARCH
APRIL
MAY
JUNE (may or may not be needed, depends what day I get home)
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Ways YOU can Join me on my Spiritual Journey:
1. Pray. I will need a multitude of prayers ranging from strength, wisdom, clarity, love, joy… The list goes on. Whatever your heart desires and feels right, pray. Here in Ethiopia we have a little boy at the orphanage who’s legs don’t work, pray healing over his body please!
- SPREAD THE WORD! Tell everyone about my trip and show them my blog.
- SUBSCRIBE! When you subscribe you will get all notifications when I post on my blog about my trip and any updates!
- If you would like to donate to me still, please donate directly to me and not World Race. I AM FULLY FUNDED but I could always use money to cover vaccinations costs and so on! I do have squad mates who aren’t fully funded, if you feel lead please donate to them and keep them on the field!!!!
Thank you and God bless you all!
