I realized the other day that although I’ve posted a handful of blogs, most of them don’t actually let you all know what I’ve been doing. (And now I’ve updated this with the last two months!)
Life on the world race is super interesting because it becomes “normal life”.
- It’s normal life for me to run down and grab an Americano in Cambodia and say, “Ah cone (thank you)” as I leave.
- It’s normal life for me to casually ask my team, “Does anyone want to rent mopeds and go to a different waterfall than we did last time?”
- It’s normal life to gauge laundry needs by a sniff test.
- It’s normal life to complain about bugs. Bugs in your chocolate, bugs keeping you from sleeping, big bug cockroaches that hide in shoes, bugs for sale to eat.
But although it’s normal life for me, it’s pretty extraordinary.
Since I haven’t really told you all WHAT I’ve done since Swaziland here’s a quick overview
Debrief
- Location: Nelspruit, South Africa
- Purpose: Getting back together as a squad, teachings, worship, team debriefs and TEAM CHANGES!
Mozambique (click here and here to read blogs from Moz!)
- Location: Guija, Mozambique
- Host: A South African missionary and his 3 dogs
- Living situations: 1/2 beds, 1/2 sleeping pads. Western potty and showers! No electricity past 9pm. Hand pumped water!
- Purpose: Mornings we would visit with local community members. Afternoons were building a mud hut for a widow.
- Fun things: Beaches!!!
Lithuania
- Location: Vilnius, Lithuania
- Host: NONE!
- Living situations: one room in the bottom of a church basement for half and then an airb&b for half!
- Purpose: Finding new ministry contacts for Adventures in Missions
- Fun things: We got the chance to “save up” our off days and take a friend-cation to Prague, Auschwitz, and Warsaw
Estonia
- Location: Tallinn, Estonia
- Host: Focus Church (An American-team church plant)
- Living situations: We shared an apartment with one of the staff members
- Purpose: Bringing people one step closer to Jesus through events such as: bubbles in the park, volleyball on the beach, teaching classes, and working at the church on Sundays
- Fun things: A lot of this month was spent resting. Pissy Polly (read here) was a big event this month. Tallinn is the capital so played a lot inside the city!
Debrief
- Location: Tallinn, Estonia
- Purpose:Getting back together as a squad, teachings, worship, team debriefs and TEAM CHANGES!
- Fun things: I got to be a team leader!
Malaysia
- Location: Gua Musang, Malaysia
- Host: A local (totally awesome) Malaysian couple who fully walk about what it means to follow Christ in full surrender.
- Living situations: Sleeping pads, western potty, HOT HOT HOT, some fans.
- Purpose: Teaching English at their English center. We had quite a bit of down time so I had incredible times of seeking and finding the Lord!
- Fun things: Cameron Highlands, Singapore, and Penang.
Thailand
- Location: Mae Sot, Thailand (Right on the Burma boarder)
- Host: Outpour Ministry – Click HERE, seriously check them out.
- Living situations: 3 story bunk beds and AC PRAISE THE LORD!
- Purpose: Mornings we would work on their new property that they’re hoping to transition to in the next month or so. Afternoons a couple of us would teach English at a home for Burmese Refugees
- Fun things: Mopeds, waterfalls, and we rode bicycles everywhere all month and it was glorious. Walking is so slow. 😉
Cambodia
- Location: a hour outside of Phnom Penh, Cambodia
- Host: Shalom International School – An english school
- Living Situation: We stayed in the principle’s office on our sleeping pads and had a couple fans (Which were livesavers, literally.)
- Purpose: Teaching English to the students at the school. One of my teammates got Dengue Fever so I stayed with her in the hospital for the first part of the month
- Fun Things: Throughout the month there were 14 (!) days of holiday that we didn’t have to teach and had to leave because our cook left. Because of this we got a chance to visit Otres Beach for a week.
Vietnam
- Location: Da Nang
- Host: Fisher’s Superkids
- Living Situation: We stayed in two hotel rooms that had all the nice things.
- Purpose: Teaching English to the students at the school. Fisher’s does an excellent job and are always looking for quality people that have a passion for teaching (Let me know if you’re interested!)
- Fun Things: We lived super close to the beach so we frequently found ourselves laying out and playing in the water. Our host took us to Hoi An and treated us to lots of yummy meals!
Thank you to everyone who’s been a part of this year, it’s been one heck of an adventure and I’m excited to see what this spring boards me into next!
