Names
With the many different languages that we have encountered around the world comes different pronunciations of letters/words and different accents on top of the different pronunciations. Because of that, my name has been pronounced differently on each continent. Below are my names based on continent 🙂 They are spelled the way they sound.
South America: Raquel (that is actually my name translated into Spanish)
Africa: Lecho
Asia: Kachel
North America (US): Rachel
Currency
Traveling around the world has also brought many different currencies and exchange rates for money. It’s honestly been hard to keep track of what currency we are in and what the exchange rate is. But, I’m continuing to collect money from around the world and it is fun. Below are the different names for the currencies of the countries we have been to, the symbol for their currency, and their exchange rate compared to the US dollar. (Unfortunately I am not able to get the symbol for Thailand, Cambodia, or Vietnam to show up.)
Chilean Peso
$1 USD= about CLP$670
Peruvian Sol
$1 USD= about S/. 3.3
Ecuador
They use US currency.
Colombian Peso
$1 USD= about COL$3,145
Rwandan Franc
$1 USD= about FRw900
Ugandan Shilling
$1 USD= about UGX3,707
Kenyan Shilling
$1USD= about KSh100
Malaysian Ringgit
$1 USD= about RM4
Singapore Dollar
$1 USD= about $1.35
Thai Baht
$1 USD= about 31 Bhat
Cambodian Riel
$1 USD= about 3,984 Riel
Vietnamese Dong
$1 USD= about 23,209 Dong
Indonesian Rupiah
$1 USD= about Rp14,272
Update:
We have been in Thailand for just over 1 week. When we arrived at our host in Bangkok, they had a job specifically for each person on my team that fit our individual skills and passions. I have been working in their cafe called Beautiful Creations and I have surprisingly loved being back in customer service.
This next week is PVT (Parent Vision Trip). Parents are given the opportunity in month 8 to come out to where their child is and do ministry with them for a week. Most of my squad’s parents were able to come. There are six of us whose parents were not able to make it. So the six of us who do not have parents coming are staying in Bangkok for another week. The rest of the squad headed to Chiang Mai yesterday, which is where PVT will be held.
Next week the rest of us who are still in Bangkok will head out to Chiang Mai and meet back up with our teams. We will have 1 week of ATL (Ask The Lord), and then we will have debrief in Chiang Mai. Our squad mentor and squad coaches are coming from the states for debrief.
Prayer Requests:
- Please continue praying for safe travels as we move from place to place.
- Please pray for our hearts as we only have 3 months left on the race. Pray that we can stay present here for the remainder of the time and that we get everything from this year that the Lord has for us.
- Personally, the Lord has been taking me through a lot of deep refinement that has been very difficult. Many times I just want to give up and go home. I know if I was at home it would be a lot easier to avoid this refinement. But I want it. I want the fruit from it and the intimacy with the Lord. So please pray for endurance, strength, and deeper intimacy with the Lord than ever before. He has spoken so tenderly to my heart and continued to sustain me and bring me deeper. So praise for that and continued prayers for the rest of this journey.
Below is my one (or two) seconds a day from Malaysia/Singapore!
