When I was on Team Liora during the first four months of the Race, my teammate Jen wrote a monthly “Sometimes” blog, highlighting some of the crazy, funny, or “only on the World Race” moments that happened to herself or members of the team that month. I’m no longer on a team with Jen, so I decided to try my own “Sometimes” blogs…we’ll see how it goes! All of the following instances happened to either myself or a member of my squad this month!

 

Sometimes in Nepal…

You use a water bottle cap to eat a teammate’s leftover rice because you can’t find your spork.

You crash into a tree while paragliding.

Your teammate nearly falls off a cliff, then proceeds to show everyone how he almost fell off a cliff. Thankfully, he never actually falls off the cliff.

Your host tells you there are 100 steps to the top of the mountain, which turns out to mean 738.

Your 7-year-old buddy swipes his hands quickly through the campfire, and no one bats an eye.

GAG ALERT: You make the mistake of looking down into the squatty potty at night, with your headlamp on, and discover that it is crawling with maggots.

Your 13-year-old buddy informs you that the knife she’s using to peel the potatoes is also used to kill cocks and goats.

You lose your wallet while riding up the winding, bumpy mountain road…and amazingly, someone finds it and returns it to you.

You see the China border but don’t take pictures for fear of the armed guards.

You are offered three dinners in one night, one of which includes ox tongue.

You make a quick decision to do “canyon swinging,” which means jumping off of a bridge 525 feet above the ground, free falling for 328 feet, and then swinging back and forth over a river at 93 miles per hour.

You ride on the roof of the taxi with the bags to make room for the mom and two kids who are coming with you partway. While you are up there, a car full of drunk Nepali men stops alongside the vehicle and tries to convince you that you’d be safer if you came with them.

Your team becomes very adept at utilizing assembly lines for construction projects.

You are woken up at 5 am by the loudest rooster you have ever heard in your life.

You hike somewhere between 5 and 8 miles up and down the mountain, with your big pack, to reach the village where your ministry site is located.

You learn that to create the foundation of a school, you need to collect rocks, and that said rocks are located by a river down a scary steep trail (eventually it comes to be known as “The Death Trail”).

You use pieces of hay to clean out the dirt from under your nails.

You wash your hair under a spout in the middle of the forest.

You decide personal hygiene is not as important as people make it out to be.

Instant coffee becomes a delicacy.

You write blogs while sitting on the front porch as a chicken and her three chicks walk around under your chair.

A Nepali “Poet-Man” serenades you, staring deeply into your eyes, while you wait for your chow mein.

You walk across the river in 12 different locations to meet the bus that is driving you from the mountain back to town.

For safety’s sake, you are forced to travel a certain stretch of road beginning at 11 pm as part of a military escort.  It’s basically Nascar.

You freeze to death during the car ride because your Nepali seatmate, who gets carsick, refuses to close the window.

You see sights that few people get to see, do things that few people get to do, and thank God for giving you such amazing opportunities.