100 Things You Experience/Learn On The World Race

With there being only 100 days left of My Race, I thought I’d share with you all some of the things I’ve experienced thus far on my journey. 

1. Connecting with the Lord in a way you never thought possible
2. Being chased by goats & cows on your run 
3. Never having a regular poop 
4. Heat. Lots of heat. 
5. Getting poop on the back of your heel when you have the shits in a squatty potty 
6. Cold bucket showers. A lot of them. 
7. True obsession for wet wipes 
8. Always having tp with you
9. A real deep love for noise canceling headphones 
10. Covering your head with a blanket to find your alone time
11. Always being okay with never truly having clean clothes
12. Smelling terrible and accepting it 
13. The smell test to decide what you’ll wear that day 
14. Making friends with the nearest shop owners because of the amount of visits to get coke & snacks 
15. Running out of drinking water & filtering water from a dirty trough 
16. Cooking rice & only rice over a charcoal fire. Because it takes too long to cook anything else. 
17. Eating dog
18. Eating rice 320 days out of 320 days outside of the country
19. Cooking chicken means literally the entire chicken. Gutting it out and cutting its head off. 
20. Being in shock when your host has a fan. Even better, AC
21. Sleeping in a hammock for a month 
22. Sleeping on the floor because it’s too hot and you don’t want your sweat to soak in your sleeping pad
23. Riding on the top of a truck down a local interstate because the inside already has 26 people packed in
24. 4 people and their big packs packed in a ricksha 
25. Sleeping on a sleeping pad for 3 months straight
26. Being okay with drinking a soda that expired a year ago 
27. Going an entire month without eating protein 
28. Using street kids as your gym weights 
29. Flipping tires in a dirt field as a workout 
30. Being good friends with people. Not because you have stuff in common but because you spend every minute of everyday with them. 
31. Dressing up in saree’s and feeling like an Indian princess 
32. Praying your host buys you peanut butter to get the protein you need 
33. Being super pumped when you get chicken with your meal 
34. Plans never going how they were originally planned
35. Getting spit on (intentionally) by a local in a market 
36. Locals saying that the walk to a store is only 15 min and it’s an hour 
37. Praying your hosts allow you to have a cold one 
38. Teaching English for yet another month in Asia and you aren’t a teacher 
39. Accepting you never match 
40. Chacos are life 
41. You feel like you’re dressing up when you wear jeans 
42. The best way to try new things is to not ask what it is
43. Trying to keep a straight face when you eat that thing and it’s terrible & your host is watching you
44. When you get WiFi and download all the new movies and songs before contacting people at home letting them know you’re alive 
45. Trading clothes with your teammates and feeling super pumped about your new wardrobe 
46. Being broke always 
47. Feeling like a VS model when you wear mascara for the first time in 5 months 
48. Wearing your hair up in a bun every single day because it’s too hot to wear it down
49. Hearing about news back home two months after it occurred
50. When your news channel becomes your Facebook feed
51. Feeling at home in the middle of a shack and there’s rats and spiders everywhere. But you have a candle lit so it’s all okay
52. When it’s 101 degrees out but you have a fever so you’re wrapped up in your 30 degree sleeping bag anyways
53. Hand washing your clothes and 3 year-old African kids teaching you how. Humbling. 
54. Playing charades with locals in order to communicate 
55. Using your off days to go find WiFi & eat fast food 
56. Going to ATM’s more in a year than your entire life added up 
57. Transferring liquids from bottle to bottle just to save the slightest amount of space
58. Thinking you’re on the same page as your ministry host but you’re not. Ever. 
59. Tattoos & piercings ?? sorry mom & dad 
60. Your pack being overweight most travel days and just praying they allow it to slide 
61. Surprised if you get an actual bed to sleep in. Only happened two months of the eight so far. 
62. Thinking a 4 hour flight or bus ride is really short
63. Taking taxis EVERYWHERE 
64. Getting all the stares when we go places feeling like a superstar. Actually feeling disgusting and just please no one look at me. 
65. Random dance parties
66. Children songs stuck in your head always 
67. Forever barely fitting everything in your pack
68. Friends at home creating playlists for you so you can stay somewhat with the times 
69. Eating cockroaches, tarantulas, and beetles
70. Paying a fortune for PB but it’s okay because it’s worth it
71. Feeling twice as dressed up when you leave your hair down for the day. 
72. Using my Bluetooth speaker so much just about everyone on the squad has connected at some point to it. Best thing I brought on the race. 
73. Re-reading letters from loved ones at home when you’re feeling homesick 
74. Workouts in 110 degree weather and already drenched in sweat before starting 
75. Losing your clothes somewhere between hand washing them and letting them dry on the line 
76. Getting a sun stain on your T-shirt’s from the amount of times it’s sat out on the line to dry 
77. Cockroaches. EVERYWHERE I GO. I live in MN for a reason.. 
78. walking down the street and people at the market constantly trying to get you to buy something. 
79. Trying the local food, unsure of what it is even after you have it
80. Living in community with people from different states in America and hearing “y’all” on the regular 
81. Reading so many books 
82. Putting headphones in and not even playing music just to get some alone time
83. Naturally calling soccer “futbol” 
84. Trying to decide which one of your 5 shirts you want to get rid of when you purchase something new so you can fit it all in your pack 
85. Being pushed out of your comfort zone on the daily 
86. Getting asked to preach or share your testimony on the spot 
87. Asking strangers for their local number to login to the WiFi network 
88. Getting excited for your period just to free up space in your pack with tampon usage 
89. Spending community with the same 6 people all day everyday 
90. Experiencing the hottest places on earth and you didn’t know that it was possible to sweat so much
91. Getting things stolen (chacos) is really sad because you can’t just go buy new ones 
92. Don’t leave your clothes on the line overnight.. I learned this the hard way and now only have 4 pair of underwear left. Not sure why people chose that to steal of all things?
93. Public speaking really does get easier the more you do it
    
94. Seeing starving & homeless children in the slums doesn’t get easier each time 
95. Getting rid of your big pack and just having two day packs is SO worth it. I sent home my 50lb backpack and it was the best decision I ever made
96. Workouts on the race are hard because you have no weights so you need to be creative and it’s so hot all the time but they’re so worth it
97. It’s crazy how much you get used to being in community 24/7. There’s days it drives me crazy but I know I’ll miss it when I return home
98. The Race is about serving others, but it’s also about personal growth. I’ve learned so much about myself. 
99. Learning to love people that are hard to love 
100. I’m so blessed to be able to call this my fun & crazy life