I have always read these blogs and thought to myself, “I will never write one of those blogs. Everybody’s doing it.” After being on the field for 4 months though, you start to understand the reason behind these blogs entries… It actually becomes quiet funny, because you find yourself day to day noticing things that wouldn’t normally happen in “real life” and its usually followed by the comment, “yep, this is how you know your on the World Race.” Like I said. Funny, but true. I am going to do my list a little different. I’m gonna just give you my top 10 list up till this point in the WR… Truth is, I could list 100’s of these. And yes… these are based on true events. HAHA
So with that said… Here we go!
#10 You know your on the World Race when… You forget whether you’re on a bus, train or plane – our coach went over a bump in the road and the first thing I thought was ‘oh crap! Turbulence!
#9 You know your on the World Race when… You climb under your mosquito net and onto your sleeping pad on the hard concrete floor at night and don’t think anything of it – I realized after getting in that I wasn’t wishing for the time I would have a bed again, it just felt perfectly normal.
#8 You know your on the World Race when… You are in random places and you see random white/American people and you get so excited you cannot contain yourself! You don’t care where your at, you immediately go out of your way to run into them, if only just to get to speak to somebody for 2 seconds that understands you language. And, its disappointing when they don’t feel the same excitement for you.
#7 You know your on the World Race when… Having diarrhea for 17 days straight doesn’t alarm you anymore, because it becomes a normal occurrence.
#6 You know your on the World Race when… You give up on deodorant because it no longer does ANYTHING, showering only happens maybe 1 time every two weeks (when it does happen, ITS FREEZING!), and you realize that it really doesn’t bother you to be filty 24/7. You get to the point you don’t even realize that you haven’t changed clothes in over a week… Oh yeah, and its completely normal for the girls to have leg hair as long as the men.
#5 You know your on the World Race when… You are on one of your many many flights, probably upwards of 14 or 15 hours and the pilot comes over the intercom. He proceeds to announce that after supper, they stewardess will be passing out free ice-cream and drinks. All of the sudden a group of about 40 World Racers jump to their feet, start clapping, cheering, and getting rowdy because anything thing having to do with free food brings joy to your life.
#4 You know your on the World Race when… It becomes “normal” to kill mambas and cobras while gardening… Ugh. No, I was not the one doing the killing. I was keeping my distance as much as possible.
#3 You know your on the World Race when… You are living in a VERY VERY small house, with 3 teams total (about 21 racers), a Mom, and her 3 african children. You cannot find anywhere to spend time alone because you cannot go outside after 7pm due to fear of catching malaria, and because of WR policy, you are not allowed to go anywhere alone, so… You set with your head phones on, not watching a movie or listening to music or anything, but you figure that if you have on your head phones, nobody will try and speak to you.
#2 You know your on the World Race when… You are at your World Race Christmas party shindig and you are playing the “white elephant” or “dirty santa” game. One of the african women playing the game with you, unwraps a 72 pack of baby wipes that she, in reality, probably could really use for her infant back at her families hut. Suddenly you find yourself contemplating someway that you can get her prize instead of yours, because you know, that next month you are in “the bush” of Africa where its only you, the squatty potty, and probably no trace of toilet paper.
Coming in at the #1 spot…
You know your on the World Race when… You are in South Africa at a Friday evening night market. There is an african woman sitting at the end of your table eating. She gets up from the table and leaves some food laying around. You wait a few minutes and realize, she is probably not coming back. Without much thought you think, “FOOD!” You proceed to the end of the table and box up her 3 left over egg-rolls in a random “to-go” box that you found laying around and take them home because for the ENTIRE MONTH you have eaten nothing but peanut butter & jelly sandwiches EVERYDAY for lunch.
Yep… We did that. Haha! Love yall!
