Here is the other half of the questions I received for my question Blog!
Enjoy : )
I received a lot of questions about living conditions/food/showers/beds ect. So I decided to break it up by country and answer the same questions for each country since everything changes every month.
Month One – Puerto Rico:
People: I worked with my team of 6 and another team of 6 and we worked alongside an entire church. The pastor, worship band, youth, as well as the congregation.
Sleeping Conditions: We slept on the floor, on our sleeping pads, in a children’s classroom at the church and actually had air conditioning! (this was the first and only time we had air conditioning the whole trip)
Bathrooms/Showers/Laundry: We were able to use the two bathrooms in the church and three (ice cold) showers connected to the kitchen. We hand washed our clothes the first half of the month and then the pastor offered to do all of our laundry for us at his house!
Kitchen/Food: We used the outside kitchen that was connected to the church. People from the church made us meals Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays and the other days we made our own food. All of the food that was cooked for us was one of my top two favorite foods I’ve had on the race!
Month Two – Dominican Republic:
People: This month we lived with and worked with our squad of 45 people alongside our hosts which the husband was Dominican and the wife was American and also four of their eight children.
Sleeping Conditions: We slept in our tents all month on a slight incline of a mountain. It was way too hot to be in the tents during the day but it always cooled off at night. We had chickens and cows roaming by our tents daily and there was a goose coop right next to us. Which fun fact, they are never quiet!
Bathrooms/Showers/Laundry: We shared one toilet with 45 other people. Which when you had to pee in the middle of the night and knew you had to hike up a mountain to get there, you usually ended up going in the woods. We all showered in a waterfall and hand washed our clothes in the river.
Kitchen/Food: We took turns helping our host cook meals for our entire squad over an open fire in the outdoor kitchen. Since we had to feed 45 people the portions were not the size we were used to and following the traditional meals of the Dominican meant – bread and coffee in the morning, a ‘big’ lunch, and bread and juice for dinner, which was something to adjust to for sure.
Month Three – Bolivia:
People: This month is was just my team, FireStarters, (6 people) that worked at an orphanage all month.
Sleeping Conditions: We slept on the floor, on our sleeping pads, in a children’s daycare classroom at the orphanage. We had a fan, but I still have never been so hot inside before.
Bathroom/Showers/Laundry: We had to walk outside to get to the bathroom which conveniently had the toilets and (cold) showers in the same room! And we also had our own sink in the classroom we slept in! We could wash our clothes with the orphanages washing machine once a week and hung our clothes to dry.
Kitchen/Food: We had a small propane stove in our room that we could use make hot chocolate to drink with our bread in the morning, which they provided for us. Lunch and dinner were made for us by the orphanage and we didn’t even mind that the portions were small because our stomachs were already not agreeing with the small portions they gave us, all month long.
Month Four – Peru:
People: I worked with my team, FireStarters, and another team of 7 people this month. We lived with our host who was a single woman and helped her with a free kindergarten on the outside of town.
Sleeping Conditions: We slept on the floor of the roof of our host’s house and since we were surrounded by dessert and our stuff was all outside, a layer of dirt settled on our beds every day. I put my tent up on the roof halfway through the month for cleanliness and some much needed privacy. It is a pure, yet rare joy when you know no one can see you when you’re sleeping!
Bathroom/Shower/Laundry: We were able to use our host’s two bathrooms and even though those two showers were cold, we occasionally got to use her personal bathroom and get a lukewarm shower! We were able to either use our hosts washing machine and hang dry our clothes, or walk to the laundry mat and get them washed and DRIED!
Kitchen/Food: We grocery shopped and cooked for ourselves all month and used our hosts kitchen. We made sure we got our fill of meat and fresh fruit since Bolivia deprived us all of that.
Month Five – Ecuador:
People: This was my first month with my new team, Abundant Joy, and it was just the 7 of us. We worked with a couple where the husband was from England and the wife was from Ecuador. We taught a lot of English classes and helped with Vacation Bible Schools.
Sleeping Conditions: We got to sleep in bunk beds with (somewhat) real mattresses this month!
Bathroom/Shower/Laundry: This month our bathroom was connected to our bedrooms and our showers were hot! Which was great because Ecuador was surprisingly cold. My team got to use our hosts washing machine one hour a week and hung dry our clothes if it wasn’t raining, which was rare.
Kitchen/Food: We shared the kitchen that was on the property we were staying at, but it was detached from our sleeping quarters. We bought and cooked our own meals all month. (This has been the only month we had an OVEN! All of the other months so far it has only been a stove top)
Month Six – Panama:
People: This month I was again with just my team, Abundant Joy, plus Megan who is one of our squad leaders of our whole squad (there are four of them and take turns living with a team for a month) We worked with a missionary family and their two interns who are all missionaries to Panama from Cost Rica.
Sleeping Conditions: We slept on the floor, on our sleeping pads, of an empty house that the church we were working with owned. There were three small bedrooms so we got to split up a little rather than the usual of sleeping all in the same room!
Bathroom/Shower/Laundry: We had our own bathroom in our little house and although the shower was a PVC pipe coming out of the wall and the water was cold, I actually invited the cold showers every night because it was sweltering hot in Panama. I have never sweat so much in my entire life! Once a week two of us would take the teams laundry to the laundry mat to get it washed and DRIED (as you might have noticed from the caps, a dryer is a rare and extremely beautiful thing to world racers)
Kitchen/Food: We cooked our own food at our house, but were often times spoiled by delicious homemade cooking from our host at her house.
Month Seven – Costa Rica:
People: This month is again just my team Abundant Joy and this month we have our squad leader Sam living with us. We are working alongside a couple, the husband is from Switzerland and the wife is a Native Caribbean woman from Costa Rica. They are active in their city council to “help influence the government for Christ and set an example”. They are opening a Christion library for the community as well as fixing up a house they just got that they want to turn into The House of Restoration for the community. Their vision is for it to be a place with open doors for people to come to and find help and hope. They also are planting an organic garden in the back yard to help feed the struggling families in the community! It is an honor to be a part of helping them with all of this this month.
Sleeping Conditions: Although it is a big ‘fixer upper’ and still has a ways to go, we are staying in the House of Restoration that our hosts own and we are helping to fix it up during the days. We sleep on our sleeping pads on the floor of our living room.
Bathroom/Shower/Laundry: Our bathroom is attached to our house which is lovely! However, we usually have to use a bucket to flush the toilet (keep in mind you never flush your toilet paper in any of these countries! The plumbing isn’t strong enough. So I have not flushed toilet paper down a toilet in eight months). Our shower is another charming PVC pipe coming out of the wall, but at least this month we have tile in our shower rather than just concrete! We take our laundry down the street to a laundry mat/café for a wash and dry once a week.
Kitchen/Food: We have a kitchen in our house, however you cannot move too fast or hard otherwise the floor boards would fall through the floor due to havoc the termites caused on the houses wooden foundation! When we aren’t cooking rice and beans for ourselves, our host comes over and makes us traditional Caribbean style food, which is what my other top two favorite food I’ve had comes from. There is nothing quite like cocoanut rice, homemade empanadas, and sugar glazed chicken!
** Note: when I say ‘we cooked for ourselves’ that means we were grocery shopping with our $4 a day per person budget. Which usually means lots of eggs, beans, rice, cornflakes, bread, milk, PB&J sandwiches, and apples. It’s not an extravagant life we live food wise. Unless our hosts spoil us!
What is the weirdest food you’ve had so far on your trip and which American food do you crave the most?
The weirdest food I’ve eaten so far on the race is definitely Guinea Pig. Not only could I not really get over the fact that it is a common household pet back home, but also that the presentation was literally like a Guinea Pig had been dropped in a fryer and then put on a plate. Not too appetizing (definitely doesn’t “taste like chicken”). I’m not one to turn down a new experience though so I can say I did it, but never again.
What American food do I miss the most?? Let me try to slim down my ongoing list… I definitely miss our East Coast thin crust pizza. Pizza is definitely not a Latin American specialty. Also, seafood! Let’s be serious, with me being a poor missionary I cannot afford it. And believe it or not, I miss normal, refrigerated milk that comes in a gallon! In the last six months I have only seen boxed or bagged milk that you only put in the fridge after you open it. It does not taste like milk and it rarely gets very cold.
What has been one of the most surprising thing you have learned so far?
As surprising as it sounds to people who know me, I have come to learn that I am way more of an introvert than I thought. Maybe it’s just the fact that living with at least 6 people, sometimes up to 14, literally twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, for eleven months straight makes me long to be along. I thought this whole living in community would be easy because I am such an extrovert that loves to be around people all the time and the more the merrier. Always having someone to talk to was a dream. But I have come to find that introvert time and not talking to or being talked to at all is wonderful and something I regularly crave. Even though on the race the most time alone you get is either in the cold shower, with your head phones in and your eyes closed, or pulling your sleeping bag over your face when you’re sleeping on the floor in the same room as six other people. As I’m sure it will pass after being home for a bit, I would surprisingly classify myself as an introvert at the present moment.
(Me laying under the seats, on the floor of an over packed bus)
Are all of the teammates you started with still serving?
Yes, all of the teammates from my past team and present team are still on the World Race with me. At the end of month four our entire squad (45 people) had team changes. This was just to mix things up, refresh the community living vibes as well as some team leaders were given the choice to step down if they wanted a break from their responsibilities and because of that the dynamics of teams would be different. So an overall team change-up was done. This is why I started with Team FireStarters and I am now on Team Abundant ‘AJ’ Joy. Out of the 45 squad mates that launched with me in January only 1 of them decided to go home early, at the end of April.
Have you observed any unique cultural customs or habits that you’ve grown to admire or appreciate?
Hospitality! People in the Latin culture are so hospitable. The more the merrier. They love opening their doors to friends, family and, what Americans would describe as strangers but here if they have known you for an afternoon – NEW friends! If you’re hungry, you need a place to sleep, something needs fixed, or an afternoon cup of coffee, they don’t bat an eyelash. Their house doesn’t have to be freshly cleaned, their children don’t need to be in the best mood, and there could be aunts in their sugar bowl. They are more concerned about meeting your needs and making you feel welcome than they are about how they are perceived by their new friends.
What is the strangest animal you have seen?
The most disgusting animal/insect we have come in contact with was an Alacran in Puerto Rico. This is a poisonous centipede/scorpion that although it is an insect, it eats rats. It was about 10 inches long and crawled up my teammate’s neck while she was sleeping and stung her on the hand when she attempted to throw it off. After medication she was fine, however her hand continued to swell up like a balloon, off and on for two months.
I helped milk a cow in Bolivia so we could have fresh milk for breakfast the next morning. I’ve seen sloths lazily chilling in the tree tops here in Costa Rica and of course dogs, cats and chickens roam the roads and yards here like they own the place.
However, my absolute best experience thus far with an animal was here in Costa Rica when I was walking on the beach and after watching the monkeys jumping around in the trees above us. I decided to attempt to feed it a plantain chip we had with us. After I held it up, a monkey came all the way down the branches to hang off the lowest branch and reached down to take it right out of my hand!
Do you find that you have had a problem with bugs/bug bites?
Is that a serious question? I presently have about 25 bug bites on each elbow because it is the only thing I can’t keep inside the blankets when I’m sleeping. And don’t even think about leaving some food on the table for ‘a little bit’ it will be covered in either ants or fruit flies in T – 2 seconds upon you walking away. I firmly believe that the United States is the only country that uses screens on their windows and makes sure there aren’t random holes or cracks in the floors or walls so bugs can’t get it.
(this is literally on a good day)
What do you miss most from home? (Family and boyfriend don’t count)
There a lots of obvious things I miss, but allow me to open your eyes to some things you probably hadn’t thought of. These are some items off of my: ‘Things I definitely took for granted’ list that I have been formulating in my journal over the past seven months:
Couches – I guess they don’t exist in any of the places I have been because even in houses, they aren’t like home. I miss having a comfy couch to curl up on after a long hard day off work. The plastic chairs are only so comfortable for so long.
Hand Towels – They don’t exist here. So you always resort to drying your hands on your pants, even if that means they end up dirtier than they were before you washed them.
Hot Showers – I feel like this should go without saying. I challenge you to take an ice cold shower tonight. And if you think you’re tough and it wasn’t too bad, I challenge you again to take an ice cold shower in October! : )
Bug Proof Houses – I’m sure you can understand after my previous Q&A
Carpet – I literally have not seen it since my house in January. It just makes sitting or laying on the floor so much more comfortable and your feet aren’t instantly dirty when you walk around on it.
Free Public Bathrooms – Yes, you usually have to pay to uses public bathrooms here. And they still rarely have hand soap and definitely not paper towels.
Alone Time/My Independence – Due to the ‘buddy system’ for safety, I literally cannot think of the last time I have been alone other than in the bathroom. I miss having my independence to get in my car and leave and go wherever I want whenever I want. We never have that freedom on the race. We work as a group, together, all the time.
There are more, but I could be here all day and this blog has already grown longer than I expected!
Oh wait, I miss clean feet & Starbucks!!
Thank you so much for all of your questions. I hope you have a better glimpse into my daily, absurdly odd and yet now normal, life!
