Dear friends and family of world racers,
You are the people that we told first when we signed up for the world race, you where there when fundraising felt impossible, and the people who probably supported us the most. You waved us off at the airport with tears in your eyes and a little nervous and unsure of what we were getting ourselves into. You stalked us on Facebook, liked our pictures, read our blogs, prayed for us, worried about us when we were not worried for ourselves, and loved us from afar. You are the people that we wanted to talk to but could not because the WiFi cut out, or it was 3 am your time, or because we did not have electricity entirely. I wish I could have talked to you more. Choppy phone conversations on magic jack, Email and short Facebook messages even Skype calls never really felt like enough. For everything that you have do for us in the last year we say Thank you.
Now it is almost time for us to return and neither one of us really know what to expect. We have no idea how to explain the last year of our lives. Every day has proved itself to be the strangest of days, but that is normal so we don’t really talk about it anymore. We are so excited to come home, there is a chance that we daydream and talk about it too much, but at the same time we don’t really know how to say goodbye to this strange life of ours that the race has created. Seeing the faces and places that we miss is going to be great but I think goodbyes and change are always awkward and require a great deal of grace.
For the last eleven months we have lived in unfamiliar surroundings but that is normal now and the unexpected is always expected. We have lived out of back packs and hand washed our clothes. You smell nice or you look like you just showered it a great compliment in a day. I have developed the OCD habit of smelling each article of clothing before I put it on, a slight musty smell in acceptable as long as your teammates can’t smell you. We have rode on busses, trains, plains, in the back of pickup trucks, song tows, tuck tucks, crammed taxis and hiked to strange corners of the world that we did not know existed all to preach the gospel and share the love of Jesus. Eighteen hour bus rides with obnoxious Asian music blaring over the sound of an iPod is not all that out of the ordinary to us (that is the current status as I write this). We have adapted to “Africa time” where things start about one to three hours late. Life outside of America is a lot slower and some days we don’t have much of anything to do and we might end up watching too many Boy Meets World episodes. We have eaten the most bizarre foods and gotten terribly sick from it. We have met some of the most amazing people and fallen in love with places that we could not find on a map until we had been there. We have seen great hurt and poverty, but we have seen God work though us and our prayers. We have lived with the same seven people day in and day out, with no more than a bathroom or shower break most days. They know most everything about us; stories from our past, what we talked about with our last phone conversation with our parents or the details about their last B.M. It is hard to explain because well it is just a lot and it is just normal now; and how do you explain normal. So please forgive us when we don’t know what to say, or quite what to talk about. More than anything I think the things that we have seen and the places that we have been have just become a part of us and words are hard to find.
We have all changed a lot over the last year. We have grown closer to God and discovered things about Him and ourselves that we did not know before. God has taught us so many things in the last eleven months. I’m pretty sure we won’t see a lot of the ways that we have changed until we get home. We use strange AIM lingo because whether we like it or not it is the best was to describe “what we are walking though”. It is hard to even know what our 11 months of travel has done to us. Hopefully most the change has been for the better and we are more the people that we were meant to be all along.
In preparation for our return we just want to say ask a few things from you. The first is please have compassion and patience for us. We have never returned from an eleven month mission trip like this before so I can’t imagine that we are going to be very good at it. There is a good chance that returning to America will be the biggest culture shock yet and we will be a hot mess and have a break down in the cereal aisle or in the sock department of Target. We have traveled with the same 50 people around the world, we have become like a little mobile city of sorts. They are the only people in my life right now that understand what it has all been about. We am going to miss them a lot, talk about them, and try to see them when we get the chance; but know that just because we miss them does not mean that we am not happy to be with you. We also need time. Time to decide what is next, time to process, time to mourn the ending of the race, time to heal from hurts that we may have encountered. Please Share your life with us too. We want to know what has happened while we were gone. Don’t ever be under the impression that we think the last year of our life has been more important than yours.
The things that we are excited about and miss may or may not surprise. For example I am excited to drive to Target and have no one care that I am there because I am not the only white person, although I am not entirely sure I know what side of the road to drive on any more. I can’t wait to decide what I am going to have for breakfast. I want to eat anything green, fresh, or meat that I don’t have to question what it is. Hot shower, and after that hot shower I want to get dressed outside of the shower on a dry floor. The day that go to a friend’s house and don’t have to ask if they have a squatty potty or toilet and if they will provide the toilet paper or if I should, will be a good day. Food American food, all it takes is one person on my team to bring up donuts or bacon blue cheese burgers and all too soon we have spiraled deep into a conversation about the food we pinned on our Pintrest board yesterday. Alone time, just being alone is something unheard of and will be strange but refreshing. We have defiantly become adaptable people and embraced all that our lives have been but that does not mean that there aren’t days that we miss the comforts of home.
It has been quite the year. I would not have changed much of it, I have truly loved it. I am grateful for the adventure of a life time and I am grateful to have people who love me and a place to go home to.
We can’t wait to see you at the Airport and have you be there when we get excited about the simplest things. (Like when I get really excited about wearing my flannel shirts again.)
Love you all.
See you soon
Love
The kids that are coming home from The World Race soon.
-Anika
