I want to start off by saying THANK YOU to all of you who
have commented, emailed, supported, prayed, encouraged and simply loved on me
these past 11 months. I know that I couldn’t have done it without all of
you back home. I would love to meet up with as many of us as
possible when I get home. Call or email as soon as you want!
I know people will have tons of questions about these
past 11 months so here is a post to try to answer a lot of them. They are
all pretty random and it’s really long so I don’t expect you to read it all. Sorry there’s no pictures but I’ll make a picture blog later. And if anyone can guess why I used 152 you get a prize. 🙂
Favorite country:
1. Montenegro
Favorite ministry:
2. English conversation in
cafes in Montenegro and Vietnam
3. Bar ministry in Thailand
Favorite food (there’s
lots…and I have the recipes to most so let me know if you want to try them!!):
4. Green salsa from
Montenegro
5. Hummus, veggies and pita
in Isreal
6. Ovaltine shakes in Thailand…yes,
Ovaltine. So delicious!
7. The 11 cake from Romania
8. The chocolate chip
cookies we made in Ireland (sorry Dan and Beks!)
9. Pad Thai from Thailand
10. Chapati from Africa (like a flat bread
thing)
11. Mandazi from Africa (like a donut)
12. Mama Cha Cha’s fruit juice in Tanzania
(complete with avocado…yum!!)
13. Dango from Africa (a pea dish…I can’t
explain this one except it’s dang good!)
14. Doners in Turkey
15. Cambodian coffee
Favorite church:
16. Discovery Church in Galway, Ireland
17. The English speaking church in Turkey…it was
a breath of fresh air being in a service full of mostly American missionaries
where everyone spoke English!
Favorite mode of
transportation:
18. Airplanes
Favorite living conditions:
19. Stan & Vicki’s or Martina or
20. Daniel’s both in Niksic, Montenegro
Favorite place to run:
21. Bar, Montenegro because of the Adriatic Sea on
one side and the mountains on the other OR
22. Phuket Thailand around the dam where we held
our 7k and half marathon race!
Favorite place to shop:
23. The market in Phnom Penh, Cambodia
24. The little African shops where you can get
jewelry for less than a dollar.
Least favorite country:
25. Cambodia…for the sole reason that I just
really don’t do well in constant heat
Least favorite ministry:
26. Door to door
Least favorite food:
27. Cow piece (a plant…not actually a piece of a
cow) in Kenya
Least favorite church:
28. Pastor Cha Cha’s in Tanzania…only because we
were literally at church for close to 10 hours on Sundays
Least favorite mode of
transportation:
29. African bus…between the no A/C, the Africans
who don’t open the windows for “fear of getting a cold”, plastic on
the seats, chickens running around your legs and no idea when the next bathroom
stop is…it made for not so enjoyable travel experiences.
Least favorite living
conditions:
30. Pader, Uganda…a small cement room with no
electricity and only 2 tiny windows that didn’t allow air flow that 5 girls and
all of our stuff (which includes 5 air mattresses, 5 packs, 5 backpacks, 5
purses and 3 mosquito nets craftily hung up) crammed into. Did I mention
the typical day was around 108 degrees? Needless to say, it wasn’t my favorite.
Least favorite place to
run:
31. Cambodia…I got chased by wild geese.
Not fun. OR
32. Turkey due to the enormous amounts of people
and stoplights
Least favorite place to shop:
33. Ireland OR
34. Turkey…everything was so expensive!
Fun facts about the past 11
months
35. I watched You’ve Got Mail in each of the
11 countries we lived.
36. I collected wooden spoons in most of the 11
countries for my sister, mom and myself. We like to sing into spoons.
37. I read a ton of books including all of the
Narnia books and the whole Harry Potter series.
38. I ran a half marathon in Thailand with Kendra
Baird while the rest of our teams ran a 7k.
39. I got to take a safari in Tanzania.
40. I rafted down Class 5 rapids on the Nile River
in Uganda. I prayed A LOT.
41. I got my nose pierced in Thailand.
42. We technically survived a hurricane in
Ireland…while living in tents.
43. We had 7 countries and 10 contacts where we
were no World Race team had been before (Romania, Montenegro (3), Israel,
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Cambodia (2))
44. I ate oatmeal in every country I could which
surprisingly was a lot of them. I’m kind of known for all of my oatmeal
eating. It’s like a little part of home, I guess!
45. I went to the hospital on 3 continents…in
Turkey for this weird eye growth I had; in Africa when I thought I might have
malaria (thank God I didn’t…); in Thailand about a week after my African (our
first time in Thailand) visit since I still wasn’t better (don’t worry, they
fixed me); and then again in Thailand for an unknown blistery rash that had
developed in Cambodia (a reaction to something similar to poison ivy I was told)
46. I probably won’t eat rice (unless it’s in
sushi) for a good year after I get home. I’m so sick of rice.
47. I have currency from every country (minus ones
that used the euro…it was too valuable!). I’d be happy to show you it!
48. My team spent the entire month of Tanzania
doing the workout Insanity every day. It was our “family fun
time” (I was in charge that month haha). We all have a love/hate
relationship with Shaun T. and his ridiculous sayings now.
49. A big group of us went to a water park in
Vietnam for Brandy Chaffer’s birthday. Holland almost chopped her finger
off but overall it was a good day.
50. It was freezing cold in Turkey so I was able to
find yarn and knit scarves for a bunch of the girls on my squad. It was
so much fun!
51. In Romania Holland and I made a vow to wear
nail polish the entire year. We would pick out the ugliest colors and
wear them proudly.
What is the list of countries
you went to in the end?
52. Ireland
53. Romania
54. Montenegro
55. Israel
56. Turkey
57. Kenya
58. Uganda
59. Tanzania
60. Vietnam
61. Cambodia
62. Thailand
How did I spend my holidays?
63. We celebrated Halloween in Istanbul, Turkey in
the girls’ gigantic hostel room. We all dressed up and had a dance
party.
64. We had Thanksgiving dinner overlooking the
Negeve Desert in Arad, Israel. All of us girls made amazing food while
the boys had a good old American football game. I pity the people who
have large families…cooking for 40 people was a feat in itself!
65. Christmas Eve was spent in Istanbul, Turkey
getting Starbucks and a Turkish Bath with the girls and eating at Chili’s with
everyone. It ended with a Skype date with my dad so he could read me Twas
the Night Before Christmas complete with the book my fabulous teammates
found for me!!
66. Christmas Day was spent with an early morning
Starbucks date with Michelle (which we had prayed about way back at training
camp!) and Leslie, opening up our stockings and gifts as a team, having an
amazing breakfast complete with fruit salad, a big group get together with lots
of treats, games and Christmas music and then a Skype date with my family while
I enjoyed some white hot chocolate.
67. New Year’s Eve was spent in Nairobi, Kenya
playing games and having a worship service.
68. We were in Pader, Uganda for Valentine’s
Day. Holland and I had spoke at Alice’s school’s church service and we
went back to her place for lunch where Alice made us heart shaped
chapatti. After dinner we walked into town to buy “Rolexes”
(egg and veggies wrapped in chapatti…a team favorite). Then the boys surprised
us with a special date night complete with chick flick and pop.
69. I’m sad to report that I forgot about St.
Patrick’s Day. We were in Tanzania with little internet access and I
spaced it. Sorry Grandma!
70. We had Easter in Hua Hin, Thailand. It was
during one of our debriefs so our lovely coaches brought us Jelly Beans,
Cheeps, and chocolate! We had a worship service on the rooftop that night.
Myth busters… we heard so
many rumors before getting on the race. I’m here to bust them.
71. I heard contact solution is impossible to
find overseas or is insanely expensive. FALSE. I found
contact solution everywhere, including Africa, and most of the time it was
cheaper than America.
72. You can get any toiletries in Africa. FALSE.
They have some of the cheapest toiletries on the race and had tons of
American brands as well.
73. In Africa you starve because there’s no
food. FALSE. I ate the most food in Africa. Our
contacts would literally fill our plates up for a second time if they feel we
didn’t eat enough. One month we had another team’s pastor call our pastor
because he was concerned that the Americans weren’t eating enough.
74. In Africa you’re dirty all the time because
there aren’t showers. FALSE. We were expected to
take showers every single day in Africa to stay fresh.
75. Girls gain weight and boys lose weight on
the World Race. TRUE. I wish this was false but it’s
not. The boys typically lose muscle because of lack of protein and the
girls gain weight due to lack of vegetables and copious amounts of
starches.
76. You’ll never have electricity or running
water. FALSE. We had one month in Uganda and one week in
Cambodia with no electricity but the restaurant next door in Uganda had
electricity so we could charge our computers and we had a generator run for 3
hours a night in Cambodia. We had running water every month except in
Romania and Uganda.
77. You have to walk miles and miles with your
pack on. FALSE. Most of the time you take it from the
bus/plane/train to a vehicle and from the vehicle to wherever your staying.
78. You shouldn’t bring hair dryers or curling
irons because you can’t use them. FALSE. There’s electricity
everywhere so there’s no reason you shouldn’t have them if you really want them.
79. You should bring performance gear. FALSE.
Some of the guys like it but 99% of us girls never wore it unless we were
working out.
80. You need a pack and not a rolling
suitcase. FALSE. At least for our route you totally
could have done with a rolling suitcase easily. Callan is still bitter
about this.
81. You should need Chacos. FALSE.
If you wear them back home by all means bring them on the race. If
you hate them back home you’re going to still hate them on the race.
Trust me.
82. You shouldn’t bring a purse.
FALSE. Most girls (and lot of guys!) bought purses a few months into
the race. It was so much better than carrying a backpack everywhere!
Different forms of toilets I
used
84. Normal, American style toilets
85. Porcelain squatty potties (sort of looks like a
toilet seat on the ground but the places for your feet are ridged…)
86. Roberta, the wooden outhouse in Romania with
the floor that looked like it was about to cave in at any moment and a
“seat” that could give you splinters. Where I spent most of my
time in Romania.
Different forms of showers I
used
87. Normal, American style showers with a tub and
all (this was rare…very rare)
88. Normal, American style showers that was right
next to the toilet and sink so by the time your done showering the whole floor,
toilet and counter are soaked. Most common in Asia. Not my fav.
89. Timed showers (I think it was $2.50 for 4
minutes?)
90. Bucket showers. Here’s a bucket full of
water, go into a outhouse style room with a small drain hole and have
fun. (Most common in Africa where they expected us to shower every day to
“stay fresh”)
What was the best thing I
packed?
91. Probably my raincoat. It rained
everywhere. Seriously.
What was the stupidest thing I
packed?
92. I brought a sarong that I bought in
Brazil. I didn’t want to throw it away and I literally never used to so I
ended up having to send it home.
Random things I missed this
year
93. Marnie’s granola
94. Cooking
95. A normal, English speaking church service every
Sunday morning
96. COFFEE CUPS!! A plethora of good quality
glass coffee cups are going to be a sight for sore eyes.
97. Chocolate chips
98. My dad singing made up songs about me
99. Lazy Saturday mornings with my sister drinking
coffee and talking about nothing important
100.
Carpet
Things I’m going to
miss from this year
101.
Hearing worship songs in different languages
102.
Learning to cook traditional food from different cultures
103.
The random “what in the world is going on” adventures that happen so
often…typically every travel day is like this.
104.
Having “is this really my life?!” feelings typically on a weekly basis
105.
Knowing that if I ever need somebody for whatever reason, there’s always
somebody around
106.
Having Godly people around me 24/7.
107.
Worship times with my squad in all of the random places (bars, rooftops,
deserts…)
108.
The plethora of books our squad passed around this year!
109.
Seeing our coaches and squad leaders sporadically throughout the year.
110.
Free tables…when our squad gets together a table of random stuff (shirts,
pants, bug spray, etc) that people are getting rid of. It’s where you
trade in your old stuff for “new” stuff for free!
Random things I’m not
going to miss from this year
111.
Packing every month, sometimes two or three times a month
112.
Having no alone time
113.
Having to talk to my family through Skype
114.
Not being able to read labels. You never know if you’re buying shampoo or
laundry soap! Ok, it’s not really that bad but it’s still quite a
challenge.
115.
Restaurants without food regulations.
116.
24 hour bus rides
Betcha’ you didn’t know…
117.
Most Africans don’t like to open the windows on buses for “fear of
catching a cold”.
118.
For breakfast in Romania, we had white bread with a one inch thick layer of
butter (or at least it seemed like that much) topped with salami and red
peppers. Every single day. This is normal.
119.
In east Africa most everyone eats with their fingers. They roll up their
ugali (cornmeal with the texture of Play-doh) in their hands and then use it to
scoop up their beans, meat, etc.
120.
In Turkey they basically bypass Christmas (which makes sense since it is mostly
Muslim people who live there) but put on a huge production for the New
Year. Huge.
121.
In Israel everything and I mean everything closes at sundown on Friday
and doesn’t open until sundown on Saturday for Shabbat.
122.
Kentucky Fried Chicken is everywhere. Even more prominent than McDonald’s
and Starbucks
The first thing I’ll drink
when I get home
123.
A skim latte from Caribou…preferably at the airport when I get off the plane.
First thing I’ll eat when I
get home
124.
I arrive home at 8:30pm and I’m assuming after 34 hours of travel I won’t want
a meal so I’m planning on having Caribou coffee ice cream mixed with Moose
Tracks ice cream topped with dark chocolate chips and peanut butter
chips. What can I say, I have had mediocre ice cream for 11 months.
Things I learned about God
125.
He has a great imagination…just take a look at the world he created!!
Every place is so different from one another with trees and plants and insects
that I’ve never seen before.
126.
He’s HUGE. This world is huge and He’s the God of this WORLD. He’s
the God of Africans and Asians and everyone in between. I loved seeing
just how vast He is.
127.
He’s personal. He wants me to come to Him with things I’m struggling with
and things that bother me. It helps me process things when I talk to God
about them. He made me, He knows me better than anyone ever will so why
not go to Him first.
128.
He’s never changing. He’s the same now as He was back in Abraham’s day.
129.
He’s not asking me to change the world; he’s just asking me to do be faithful.
130.
I’ll never fully understand Him. Which is a good thing of course…but I
love it when He revels new parts of Himself to me.
A few lessons I learned on the
race (not that I’ve perfected them but I’m grasping them better than I did 11
months ago)
131.
Trust God in everything…particularly that he has a plan and it is a GOOD plan
even if I have no clue what he is doing.
132.
Just because I’m leaving somewhere doesn’t mean that God is leaving the
people. He’s still working in their lives. Their story is not over
yet.
133.
I may be the seed, I may be the reaper, I may just be the water or sun and I’m
ok with each of these steps. Each step is vital to a person coming to
know the Lord and I’m happy to do the part that God ordained for me to do, even
if I don’t really know which part it is. It goes along with the trusting
one.
134.
I’m a girly girl and that’s the way God made me. I came on the race
afraid of becoming a smelly, unfashionable tom-boy but God just showed me that
I’m still able to love and appreciate fashion without it being too big of a
priority in my life. I still love fashion but in a much healthier way.
135.
Patience and grace with others. Funny story…I started praying for this
in Montenegro and within a couple days one of my teammates had accidentally
dumped an entire cup of coffee on my brand new Bible. Whenever I read
Matthew I’ll always remember that time.
136.
Boldness with my faith. I am more open to tell strangers why I’m in their
country or talk to them about Jesus when before I was so hesitant to share my
faith.
What was the hardest thing
about the World Race?
137.
It’s different for everyone but for me it was missing my family. Being
away from them made me realize just how much I love them and how special they
are to me. I am completely blessed with the family God gave me.
Most influential person that I
met
138.
Alice from Uganda.
Why?
139.
An amazing woman who survived having the LRA invade her community and home,
having to deal with losing family members and friends, not being able to leave
her home, seeing girls as young as 7 taken from their home to become wives of
LRA soldiers and come back to build a school for girls affected by the war,
literally changing their lives and giving them a future.
Hardest person to leave
140.
Pearl in Thailand.
Why?
141.
I’ll probably never know if she ever gets out of the bars and out of
prostitution. All I can do is trust that God will protect her and lead
her to Him in his timing.
How has my view of America
changed since traveling to so many different countries?
142.
I love America and I always will. Being in other countries made me so
thankful for the country I live in and all of the freedom we have. I
think one thing I realized is how unaware Americans are to how good we have
it. When talking with someone about laws in America we realized that
literally all of the laws we have are for our safety…to keep America a safe
place to live. Even the annoying things are great! I also realized how
unaware of other country’s issues we are…although I’m pretty history/geography
ignorant so maybe it’s just me. I think it’s going to be so important to
keep up to date with things that are going on in other countries and support
others in any way possible.
Would I do the World Race
again?
143.
I would do it again for the first time but not again for the 2nd if
that makes sense.
What am I doing next?
144.
Good question…hopefully find a job either in Duluth or Minneapolis (anybody
know of any?!) and get some roots. I’m looking into selling jewelry for
SHE (the organization in Thailand) on a consistent basis…I already bought a
ton of jewelry to sell back home so if you want any, just let me know, it’s
beautiful!
A bit of advice for future
racers…
145.
When you pack your bag, take out half of the clothes you initially wanted to
bring. And don’t take stuff you don’t want ruined or won’t want to part
with. I didn’t take this advice…trust me, you’ll thank me if you do it.
146.
Bring a spare set of headphones. I can’t tell you how many people lost or
broke their headphones.
147.
Make sure you’re uploading your pictures onto something other than your
computer (an online web source or external hard drive)…you never know when
your computer is going to crash, even if you bought it brand new right before
the race.
148.
Weight really does matter…buy the lightest tent, sleeping bag, sleeping pad,
etc that you can find.
149.
Take malaria meds. And if you feel like you’re getting sick in a malaria
prone country go to the doctor right away. It literally costs a few
dollars to get checked and if you get on meds right away it’s a lot better and
could prevent you from weeks or months of sickness. No joke.
150.
If you’re a girl who wears jewelry and makeup back home bring at least a couple
pieces of jewelry and a little bit of makeup. Even if you put it on just
once a month (like I did in Africa) it will help you maintain your
femininity. You can buy fabulous jewelry in both Africa and Asia.
How can you stay in touch with
me post World Race?
151.
Email of course… [email protected] OR
152.
Cell phone 763-464-5726 (which my Mom is so kindly bringing to the airport for
me)
