I’d like to tell you what I was thinking
when I was looking at the World Race last year. Then I’d like to tell you what
my year on the World Race was really actually like.
Pre-Race!
I read Jessica Edquist’s blog titled http://jessicaedquist.theworldrace.org/?filename=my-life-aint-glamorous“My Life Ain’t Glamorous,” and my world started getting rocked. I remember
thinking, “there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this, really God?” These
are just some of the experiences from her year, that I just put myself in her
shoes. I imagined tenting three months in Africa, wearing the same outfit many
days in a row, getting dengue, traveling on a 60 hour bus ride through Africa,
getting my hair cut with a swiss army knife, sleeping on floors for 6 months,
doing my hair with a travel hair brush (no blowdryer or straightener), staying
in villages with no electricity, walking 2 hours to a well for drinking water
and showers, living with ac for 6 days out of 11 months, having no working
bathroom, getting my pack stolen, doing hard labor and rarely getting a real
shower.
Then came…..
Training Camp
I never thought I would…..
Sleep under a tarp with the married couples
(Denise and Mike, Casey n Erin and Bambi) in the rain where I pretended I was
in a movie, and it made the experience bearable. There were the cold showers with just a straight up hose to
get you wet. There was the underground church night where I thought I was going
to lose my mind and my faith in God all in one night! There was the minimal
food we were served and I thought I was going to need to pack my pack with 100
clif bars to survive this year. By the end of the week there, I was pretty
confident that I wasn’t going to be able to do the race, physically and
emotionally. What I didn’t realize was that the Race would be nothing I
expected.
My Real World Race
I managed to
escape the “bush” my entire race experience. I lived in houses all three months
of Africa. The only way I tented was in Tanzania because the mosquitoes were so
bad, and that consisted of a tent in the house. If my clothes stink or I’m tired of them, I throw them out
or put them on the free table because I can buy a $2 shirt or borrow from a
teammate. I did get Malaria but it was basically for one day and other than
that I just got diarrhea or a cold in Europe. I did travel by bus in Africa,
but the rides were no longer than overnight, and sometimes the busses were even
nice. I never got my hair cut but
I did think it was a good idea to get it colored in Israel. The guy completely
ruined it and I wish I would have never done it ever! I got braids in Africa,
and that was all of Africa to prevent greasy head. When it comes to sleeping on
floors, well, I only did that a little bit in Hungary and Tanzania when I slept
in my tent. I had electricity every month of the race so the option of doing my
hair was in every country. My team was also the team that had at least two
blowdryers, a straightener and a curling iron. The only reason we didn’t do our
hair regularly was because it was too hot.
When it came to
water, I never went longer than a few minutes before I could get a bottle of
filtered water. The only time I purified my own water was in Bucharest, Romania
at the hostel and occasional times in Turkey when Ralph purified it for us,
from the sink to the bottle. I went through the first 5 months of my race
experiencing cold, bought clothes at thrift stores and basically the coldest
time was in Brasov, Romania when we tented during the awakening. I had fans in
Uganda, and actually didn’t need them in Kenya. In Tanzania we bought fans at
the house we were staying at and gave them to the pastor and his ministry.
Thailand was by far the hottest but we could easily go into town for
air-conditioning. In Vietnam we had it all month and this month we got the one
AC room in the house. There’s
never been a time that I didn’t have a working bathroom or way to wash my body
clean. I did hard labor one day in Kenya. I never got anything stolen, just my
ipod got water damaged when I brought it to the beach in Phuket, Thailand
during our off day. Oh, and I had access to wireless internet 9 months out of
the year.
So
yes, this year has been amazing! It’s not been as physically challenging as I
expected but it’s been an emotional and spiritual rollercoaster to say the
least. Do I wish some things would have been different? Yes, I do. Would I have changed anything? Yes! Do I think my race would have been better if I would have experienced more of the typical racers experience? Maybe. It’s so hard to try and compare my race with other racers, but it’s also hard to ignore some of the most awesome experiences I’ve heard and read about. I think, I would have struggled in some of the circumstances that others were in, but I would have survived. I would have probably made the best out of the hottest of situations and persevered. I would have probably grown in ways that I didn’t this year. To be honest, there are ways that I know I’ve changed and grown and
there are things that are still so much the same about me. I would be lying if
I said that this race completely transformed my life. I’m a work in progress,
and the race has been the most influential year of my life, without all the
crazy things I expected it to be. If I were to look back on this experience I
wouldn’t have wished that I was suffering more physically, but I do grieve the
fact that I didn’t press more into my relationship with the Lord. I either got
more focused on ministry or more focused on community. Either way, I know that
God taught me a ton, and I look forward to sharing more of my heart with you,
but until then…these were just a few laughs about my year.
