World Race Hacks

This blog is dedicated to Alaina Norsworthy (http://alainanorsworthy.theworldrace.org/) and Matthew Alexander (http://matthewalexander.theworldrace.org/).  Two of my very favorite people who will be starting their own World Race journey in August of 2018.

There are a lot of packing lists out there so I will skip the all inclusive clothing lists and just stick to my personal favorite tips and tricks.

First and foremost I will say, don’t freak out!  There are sooooo many things to worry about leading up to the Race but we are commanded NOT to worry.  

So take a deep breath.  Breathe in…….Breathe out.  And repeat after me:  

I trust the Lord of heaven and earth.  He owns all things, is Master of all things, and He is my Dad.  I know He will provide all that I need.  That includes money, medicine, relationships, clothes, camping gear, medicine, and food.  

I could sit here and tell you story after story in detail of how my Good Father provided EVERYTHING I could possibly need at EXACTLY the right time (so that I didn’t have to carry unnecessary stuff around!).  Gear, warm clothes, dress shoes, makeup, feminine products (sorry guys but it’s a real concern), and everything else.  

CouldaShouldaWouldas will drive you absolutely INSANE in this season and steal all of your joy if you let them.  Instead of being excited you’ll be one of those people sitting on the first plane going over your FOREVER UNFINISHED checklist in your brain instead of celebrating, living in the moment, and getting to know your new family.  DON’T BE THAT GUY!

Planning is great, it’s necessary, but it can ruin your whole Race if you don’t learn to say “no” now and then and live in the moment instead. Sincerely, a recovering checklist-making plan-for-everything addict.

 

Prep Work:

• Get a Charles Schwab account!  There’s a REASON so many people recommend this!  I saved nearly $300 in ATM fees!  Also, be sure to call them before you leave the country to tell them you will be traveling.  Technically you have to do this everytime you change locations but if they’ve already made a note on your account you’re less likely to get your account frozen.

• I would also suggest finding a trusted person to have access to your bank accounts in case you need someone state side to help you deal with things.

• Ask your health insurance company if they cover travel vaccines.  I got about $500 in vaccines reimbursed because mine covered anything the CDC recommends!

• While we’re on the subject, get all your medical history printed out and in one place.  Go ahead and add a copy of your passport and birth certificate.  Chances are you’ll NEVER need it but it’s such a small, quick thing that could save a LOT of headache for your emergency contact.  

 

Clothes:

• Only pack things you actually wear.  (if you love jeans, bring a pair! If you would never be caught dead in Chacos, save your money! I wore jeans and flip flops in literally EVERY COUNTRY because this is what I wear at home and I was comfortable in it!)  If you need more info than this please refer to the many, many detailed packing blogs out there. 

• Pack lots of underwear!  (I took more than 30 and still wished for more sometimes lol)

• Pack for the first 3 month’s weather/conditions and leave the rest up to God.

 

Gear:

Remember, you don’t need the coolest, most expensive stuff.  But watch weight.  If an extra $20 gets you something lighter, pay the money!

• Camping towels are the BEST!  Get one, you’ll thank me on those travel days when everyone else’s packs smell like wet towels and your’s has been dry for hours.

• Packing Cubes are a thing.  They’re real, they’re amazing, all the blogs say to get them.  Just buy some already.  (Vacuum bags are not really worth it. Remember, you need to keep weight down more than size.)

• Some people will recommend bringing your normal, full-sized pillow but I like Therm-A-Rest Compression Pillows way better.  They fold up real small, weigh less than most normal pillows, and fluff right back up after washing!

• Travel/Camping dishes are great.  I had a coffee cup that was literally spill proof and I used it nearly every day for 11 months.  Sometimes my teammates and I would even cook food and pack it in airtight containers so we could save money on travel days. Don’t spend much on it though.

• A good headlamp will save your life.  Maybe literally.  Just imagine having to find the “outhouse” in the middle of a pitch dark jungle and you’ll see why a headlamp is a dear friend.

• Sleeping bag liners are not a joke.  I was one of the only people on my squad who bought one and they were all jealous.  It keeps your pack clean(ish), keeps mosquitoes out on hot nights, and basically just provides a little extra comfort in crappy sleeping conditions.  Again, don’t spend a fortune.  Get the basic one.  

• Bring some salt and pepper.  Or just Tony Chachere’s.  You probably won’t need it in Asia but Africa and Europe can get REALLY boring flavor-wise.  (Other countries don’t use NEARLY as much salt as the US does!)

 

Tech:

• Bring a hard drive (1-2 TB).  You’ll end up with hundreds of movies, lots of new music, and (of course) pictures that all need to be saved somewhere.

• A couple flash drives come in handy as well.

• You will probably wish for a small bluetooth speaker within a month of being out of the US.  Laptop and phone speakers are just not loud enough, especially when you want to watch a movie with your whole team. If you’re first continent is Asia, just wait and buy one there.  Otherwise, think about dropping $20 on one before you leave.

• Portable chargers are a gift from the Lord God Himself!  Look for one that doesn’t weigh much.  (Watch your weight on these, they can get HEAVY!)

• Headphone splitters are definitely useful.  I didn’t take any because I thought I would never use them but I ended up constantly asking to borrow other people’s.  (There were seldom enough to go around on travel day!)

 

MISC:

• If you’re a coffee lover (Alaina, I know you won’t be worrying about this one lol), don’t leave that love at home!  You will have the opportunity to taste some of the BEST coffee!  Consider bringing a small french press.  Several people on our squad either brought one or purchased one while traveling.  I personally drank coffee nearly every morning and loved finding all the cool coffee shops on my off days.

• Bring brightly colored index cards.  You never know when you may need them for team time or decide you want to write someone a note.

• Use brightly colored duct tape to label all your charger chords.  After your electronics have all been together for month and months, it’s hard to remember who’s is who’s.  Good fences make good neighbors and all that.

• Bring a notebook style daily planner.  One that only has 4ish lines for each day.  Write bullet points in for each day.  Journaling is the MOST DIFFICULT thing to keep up with.  And you’ll be amazed at how quickly all your days run together.  (This is part of why they push blogging!)

• Bring something small that will help you feel “dressed up” now and then.  Girls, even if you don’t plan to wear makeup, a little lipstick or mascara can be just the pick-me-up you need for a day off.  

• Decide ahead of time on something small to collect from every place you visit.  It needs to be both easy to find and easy to carry with you.  (Rocks and sand get heavy REAL fast!)  I did patches.  Other ideas are jewelry, stamps, postcards, specific pictures… you get the idea.

• Plan ahead to send home a package from every continent.  It will probably cost you $20-$40 each time but it’s worth it to get rid of the weight and not have to keep up with all those souvenirs right before getting on your next plane.  Pro top: try to combine with other team/squadmates and then have someone’s parents disperse within the US for cheaper postage!

• Type up blogs/emails ahead of time while you don’t have wifi so that your time on wifi can be better utilized.  (Some places make you pay by the hour.)  

• Fiber pills are a must.  Even if you’ve never had gestational issues in the States you will very likely experience weird things on the Race.  Constipation may sound like a joke but believe me, it’s NOT.  Fiber pills are relatively cheap and available at any drug store.

• Probiotics are also important.  Especially if you’re going to be on anti malaria meds for awhile.  Just don’t bother taking them while actually on the anti malaria meds, they won’t do any good and you’ll just waste them.  Antibiotics are not really intended to be taken for months at a time and a probiotic can help replenish the good stuff the antibiotics kill in your system.

 

Apps to download:

One of the biggest struggles of everyday life on the Race is living without internet connection.  You never realize how much you rely on it until it’s not there.  So any app that does stuff without internet, or allows you to download things ahead of time, is GOLD. (Everything I included on here is FREE unless otherwise stated.  Race motto: “if it’s free, it’s for me!”)

• Maps.me is the MOST useful app for traveling!  It allows you to download different maps ahead of time so that you can drop pins, route directions, and much more with NO INTERNET CONNECTION.  I would spend my first day in every new location dropping labeled pins where we were staying and at all the interesting places our hosts showed us so that we could find them again later on days off.  It was my best friend for exploring new cities and planning adventure days.

• Google Translate: Such a freaking cool app!  Not only can you download language dictionaries to type in words you don’t know but it also has a camera feature that literally translate written words before your very eyes!  This is invaluable when ordering food off a menu or trying to read road signs!

• Some sort of currency converter: I used XE Currency and loved it but there are a lot of good free ones out there.  Try to find one that actually has a feature of entering in the currency amount and converting for you.  Even the best at math find it easy to get confused while bartering in the foreign markets.

• Youversion: Or any Bible app that allows offline access.  I like youversion because it’s free and allows you to download multiple versions to have on hand.

• metric/temperature converter: It’s a strange thing to be continually told temperature and distance in terms you have no experience with.  Also, people who have never been to the States love asking questions about normal whether and travel distances.  There are a lot of good free converter apps out there that allow for offline conversion.  Just play around with some and find the one you like best.

• Guides by Lonely Planet is a great starting point for figuring out what your next location will be like.  They have helpful hints and tips from fellow travelers.  

• Some kind of app where you can record the countries you’ve been to.  It’s just really fun to visually see all the places you’ve been on a map.  I used “Been.” It’s pretty simplistic but FREE.

• Kindle: You may not be a fan of reading ebooks at home but they’re perfect for this trip!  Don’t bother bringing an actual Kindle device unless you are an avid reader, your phone app is enough.  It’s also helpful for downloading and keeping emails and docs your leadership WILL be sending you.  I managed to read at least 10 books (both fiction and nonfiction) and passed many boring hours on my Kindle.

• Podcasts: Yet another great free resource for travel info/sermons/news/entertainment.  You can download ahead and keep for travel days and personal quiet time.  (My team spent an entire month gardening and I listened to 4ish hours of music/podcasts a DAY.)

• Keep in mind that a lot of the music you love is not actually on your phone.  Buy/download the stuff you can’t live without.  You’re gonna want a lot of worship/ministry music but don’t forget your secular stuff!  There’s no room for super spiritual people on the Race.  Bring your real music and be okay with who you are.  Your team will figure it out soon enough anyway lol.  (But do be aware that phones get put on “shuffle” a LOT so maybe think through excluding songs that could be more offensive.  We had an interesting incident or two with various hosts!)  

• Not exactly an app, but think about subscribing to a general news email.  I was never one to care in the States but it’s disconcerting how out of touch you start to feel when you’re out of the country AND don’t have regular access to wifi.  Sure, you could google new updates but an email is fast and downloads to your phone/computer when you open it.  Pro tip: OPEN all your important emails while on wifi and then go back and read non time sensitive ones later.

 

Again, DON’T STRESS!  Some of the things I stressed most over weren’t important, things I spent too much money on (Chacos) got dropped or given away, and some things I thought I’d never need/want ended up being necessities.  Two months in you’re going to think back to this stage of planning and chuckle.  God is good.  He’ll take care of you.  My reason for writing this is to help alleviate stress, not add to it.  Hopefully I have succeeded.