– Never had I ever known that water coloring brought me such joy. Restful activities that normal people enjoy tend to stress me out, so it was refreshing to find freedom in water coloring. I have the skill of a first grader, but also the excitement of a first grader.
– Never had I ever eaten more rice over the span of a month than I had my entire life combined. One day my friends and I realized we missed biting solid food and actually needing to chew because all of our food was so mushy. We ate a lot of rice and greens. Our favorite things we got to eat were noodles and also salad made with oil, lemon, and salt.
– Never had I ever eaten a baguette every morning for breakfast. Straight up, we ate bread with peanut butter and jelly every morning for the entire month. At our lowest point, we didn’t have peanut butter and jelly so we put spoonfuls of sugar on our bread. I still regret that.
– Never had I ever prayed and worshiped outside in the midst of a storm. The rain was pouring, but we stood our ground. Maybe this was because our teammate had just gotten a poisonous snake bite and we were praying for his safety, but this was not the last time we would worship in the rain without a care that we were getting drenched while in Mozambique.
– Never had I ever owned a capulana. Capulanas are essentially large pieces of cloth that are potentially the most versatile thing on this planet. Every woman in Mozambique owns and wears one. A capulana can be a skirt, dress, towel, blanket, baby carrier, sun blocker, and so many other things that I am unwilling to take the time to type out!
– Never had I ever driven two and a half hours just for KFC because we wanted it that badly. I am somewhat ashamed to admit we did this twice. The first time it had been about two and a half weeks since we’d eaten meat, so the cravings were real.
– Never had I ever hand washed my laundry. It’s quite the ordeal and time commitment, but a good time to bond with friends and talk about life.
– Never had I ever had 105 bug bites at one time. The first time I cried on the race was over my bug bites. I remember begging my team to tell me if I would ever stop being itchy and being irrationally upset when they couldn’t tell me when it would stop. I also remember laying awake at night and scratching until I was raw. I have scars now that I’m praying will go away.
– Never had I ever drank coconut water straight from a coconut that was just picked from a tree, and cut open with a machete. A teammate of mine refers to coconut water as nature’s gatorade. Count me in.
– Never had I ever used a human litter box. We stayed in a very traditional village for a few days where there were small wooden shacks where you just peed right in the dirt.
– Never had I ever swam in the Indian Ocean. At the time, we were staying in the village I just mentioned and my team was facing challenges and spiritual obstacles many of us had never come across before. It took me awhile to realize that I’m not sure how to explain what we experienced over those few days, but trust me when I say that in the midst of the most difficult few days of our first month, visiting the ocean brought us so much joy, freedom, laughter, and rest.
– Never had I ever eaten pig meat from a pig I watched being slaughtered earlier that day. This also took place in the village. Note: There was still hair on the skin when the pig was served to us.
– Never had I ever been painfully pelted with what we called “The Grapes Of Wrath.” This grape-like fruit was everywhere in Mozambique and would fall from the trees and hit us hard. It stained our clothes, but honestly, its existence is worth the pain because they are so delicious! They’re like a sour/tart grape with a big seed in the middle. I learned in Swaziland that they’re called tincozi in SaSwati.
– Never had I ever rode in the bed of a truck for hours while rain poured. It was cold and somewhat painful, but honestly, I had a blast.
– Never had I ever prayed I wouldn’t be able to sleep if there was something God wanted to work on in me. I regretted that prayer for many sleepless nights, but the freedom that came once he revealed what it was he wanted to do and I responded was worth it.
– Never had I ever held a baby goat. I fell in love with a baby goat that lived on our compound. We named him Lorenzo and I know they’re going to eat him eventually, but that didn’t stop me from loving him and calling him my baby goat while I had the chance.
– Never had I ever gotten a spider bite. Also, the bite got infected. It was quite painful. Luckily, my friend, Katie, likes gross things and she performed surgery on me one night. Funny enough I ended up having another bite that got infected, but I’m all better now.
– Never had I ever seen such freaky bugs. Speaking of spiders, the spiders were HUGE and super fast. One night I encountered the world’s creepiest bug in my tent, and it took me a good ten minutes to kill him. At one point, I straight up cut that sucker in half and he was still alive. Riddle me that.
– Never had I ever bought such cheap, delicious fruit. We went to the market in the mornings and were able to buy awesome fruit for just change in USD. I really liked going to the market. Our host also had us get the bread for breakfast and taught us how to ask for it in Portuguese. It was super crowded in the bakery every morning and everyone pressed against the counter, so you had to fight for the attention to get your bread without waiting forever.
– Never had I ever fought so hard for acceptance from a child. One of the wonderful women who worked at our compound had the most adorable son and when we first arrived, he was not about us. He was really shy, but he finally started to like me because I would pick him up and help him reach the trees. He always wanted to pick leaves.
– Never had I ever made tea from leaves I picked straight from a tree. Two words: convenient and delicious.
It took me 100 years to start this blog because I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to capture the beauty, challenge, impact, joy, pain, excitement, or adventure of what I experienced my first month on the World Race. Blogging is hard because it’s not good enough, but neither are pictures or talking about it. What is good enough is living it. I hope I’ve given you a glimpse of my life in Mozambique, my first of 11+ homes on the race.
This blog post is longer than I planned and I still haven’t even told you how much I LOVED our ministry host and the people who worked at the compound and did ministry with us. I haven’t told you how much I enjoyed the church services or how beautiful the locals sounded when they sang. I haven’t told you about all the truth my teammates spoke into my life or about the empathy I gave and received. I haven’t listed all the hilarious quotes from the month. I haven’t told you the trampoline was my favorite place to hang out and that one day I balled my eyes out on that trampoline reading my “When You Miss Mommy” letter and listening to Sleeping At Last. I haven’t told you that one day my teammates and I sat on that same trampoline, pouring our hearts out for hours, and drinking coke, which had become such a rare and special treat. I haven’t told you about all the letters from home that ministered so profoundly to my soul because God moved me to open just the one I needed at the exact moment I needed it. There were new faces and foods; there was heartbreak and growth and ministry. Now I’m doing it all over again, in Swaziland- learning new people, culture, and routine, and in one week I will leave and do it all over again in Madagascar. But this one’s for Mozambique, my first month on the World Race- far more challenging but more importantly, far more life-giving than I could’ve imagined.
