| 1. My favorite dog. We’re taking it all the way back to Cambodia for Bamboo. He has been THE best dog over the course of my Race. He was shy at the beginning…he didn’t really like strangers much. But he warmed up to me pretty quickly, and I’m talking within the first few minutes I was there. He loved having his booty scratched. And he never begged for food, but always welcomed scraps from your plate.
2. My favorite meal. Hello Vietnam!! Thanksgiving was by far my favorite meal. Not only did we get to experience a true Thanksgiving meal complete with turkey, mashed potatoes, and pumpkin pie, but I got to help make it! Helping at Master’s Cup meant that my team helped prepare a giant thanksgiving meal for over a hundred people. It was so much fun.
3. My favorite ride. Honduras takes it for this one. We had to ride in a truck bed up to the schools we were working in, and I was always in the back. Always. It was a beautiful ride. Then one day, I decided to stand up, hold on to the truck, and feel the wind in my hair. And it was absolutely wonderful. It was so freeing standing up and enjoying the scenery and the feeling like I was flying.
4. My favorite ethnic/traditional food. Ethiopia takes the win for ninjara and all the toppings that went with it. So good. But more than that, it was awesome to spend time with the ladies who prepared the food for us.
5. My favorite team bonding experience. Thailand was a hard month for my team. BUT one night we got some Oreos and milk, and just sat around and ate the Oreos and talked for a couple hours. It was a beautiful moment of The Lord uniting our hearts and of us laughing and enjoying one another.
6. My favorite worship moment. Honduras takes the cake for that. We were up in the mountains at a little school, and the kids were singing some songs. Alany started playing “Open the Eyes of my Heart,” and all the kids started singing loudly and proudly–in Spanish. Hands went up in the air, eyes were closed. It was beautiful.
7. My favorite random reunion with the squad. Rwanda brought a lot of random little reunions while we there, because we all went to the same cafe for Internet. But one of the reunions stands out, because we weren’t in the city. Our contact was driving us to one of his other churches in northern Rwanda, and we got caught in a rainstorm, so we had to make a stop in a little town. When the rain stopped, we walked out of the shop where we had stopped, and we saw one of the teams that had been out by themselves for the whole month. We ran out to the middle of the street to meet up with them. And it was such a happy time of reuniting with them.
8. My favorite coffee date. This happened in Croatia. Anna and I went out for coffee one morning, and we were going to individually spend time with Jesus, but then we started talking and processing with each other. And it was just a beautiful time. We laughed a lot.
9. My favorite excursion with a teammate. So, in Albania, Acacia had some old friends who live there as missionaries now, and we got to spend a day with them. They came and picked us up from our Disney Princess Castle, and they took us to their house in Duress. They showed us to the beach. They shared their home with us. They showed us around their Orthodox Church and seminary. It was just a beautiful time of getting to know new people who love and serve Jesus in a different way.
10. My favorite run. It happened in Matagalpa, Nicaragua on a Tuesday morning. It was simultaneously my favorite and hardest run to date. Matagalpa is in the mountainous range of Nicaragua. So we started our run and we ran downhill for 2.5 miles. It was a slight decline. But we could definitely tell is was downhill. Then we had to turn around and run back UPhill. Talk about hard. There were so many times that I just wanted to stop, give up and walk the rest of the way. But the Spirit was working in me and pushing me to keep going. He kept reminding me that I just had to put one foot in front of the other and keep breathing. We finally made it back to our hostel. And, as a huge surprise, it was the fastest we’ve ever run that distance. It was so good. So hard, but good. It kinda reminded me that my life is a race or a good, hard run. There are going to be times when it’s easy to run–downhill the whole way–then I’ll have to run uphill and fight for it.
11. My favorite sleeping arrangement. Honestly, it’s Costa Rica. There have been a lot of countries on my Race that I’ve either slept on a bunk bed or on a mattress on the floor. But there have been a few where I’ve just slept on my sleeping pad on the ground. And those are some of my favorites. But Costa’s sleeping arrangement is awesome.
So we’re in this huge gym in a roped off little area. Two of us on my team don’t have tents. But the other four do. So they’re tents are set up in a half circle against the wall. And Alany and I have a tarp set up in the middle of their half circle with our sleeping pads on it. So we’re sleeping in the center of the circle, in the open air.
Sometimes I wake up in the night and hear mosquitoes buzzing in my ears. But I love it. I feel like I’m camping. But we’re inside. Ah. It’s so much fun!
Also. Just a fun little fact: I was able to eat peanut butter in every single country I went to.
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