“Racer Life” is one of the most exciting, scary, intense, joyful, challenging, and crazy things I’ve ever done! Before coming on the Race, I had no idea how this year would work, and I still have no idea what life looks like on any given day. People have so many questions about what life looks like on the Race, and some people have asked me about different aspects of Racer Life. Here’s a Q&A-style peak into my Race experience!
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Megan C: What was your journal entry the day that you went to the Taj Mahal? “TAJ MAHAL! So beautiful, such a fun day. So worth the money to get a tour guide. Then we sat in the airport and watched Anastasia and has some really fun time as a team.”
Erica B (who I miss at an 11 out of 10, since she asked): Have you been able to keep your backpack organized? How is it living out of a backpack? It’s not nearly as bad as I expected it to be. The large majority of my stuff is contained in 4 stuff sacks and a backroom carrier, plus the random contents in the lower compartment of my pack (hammock, hammock straps, rain jacket, etc.). I’ve gotten my pack-up time down to about 10 minutes! It’s nice knowing exactly were something is when you need it.
Lisa L: What’s the funniest cultural oddity that you’ve seen? In pretty much every country we’ve been in, people have peddle carts and sell food on the side of the street. Sometimes, their carts are attached to their motorbikes so they can drive around with their food carts. A lot of times, they’ll play music from their carts. In Cambodia, the song of choice to play from a food cart is “The Virginia Company” song from Pocahontas. It makes me laugh every time I hear someone playing that song as they drive down the street.
Aaron P: What’s something American that you didn’t expect to see in Asia? Rangerovers, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, and a lot of Frozen, Batman, and Playboy branding
Megan B: How long would it take to get from here (Colorado) to Cambodia? I looked it up, and Google Maps says that Colorado is 8,389 miles from Cambodia. The flight from Johannesburg, South Africa to JFK Airport in New York is about an 18-hour nonstop flight, so I’d say that it would take a 50 (or so)-hour nonstop flight to get from Colorado to Cambodia, if such a thing were possible
Erica B: How has your faith changed? Prayer has transformed from an action into a lifestyle. Prayer and constant conversations with the Lord are the only way to make it through the day; there are so many times when you’re hot, sweaty, uncomfortable, and just wanting to opt out and quit, and you can either chew on your discomfort or take it to the Father. I’ve realized that He’s so much more soverign than I can ever realize, and is also so much more gracious and loving than I could understand in a million years. I guess the best way to explain it is that I’ve started to realize just a small bit of the vastness of, well, all of it… all of Him.
Kristen F: What’s one word to describe your Race so far? Choose
Brianna L: What advice would you give your pre-race self if you could? I would have bought a thicker sleeping pad, only taken about half the medicine that I brought with me, and would have told myself to pray for my team and ministry hosts long before I met or worked with them. I also would have advised myself to only pack 40 lbs. in my big pack because international baggage restrictions require way less poundage than you can get away with in America.
Nathaniel B: Have you stayed in a hotel? What was that like? We’ve been living on a pretty tight budget, so we tend to stay in hostels (basically community hotels) instead of actual hotels. We’ve actually staying in a hostel in every country we’ve been in! We stayed in a hostel in Delhi, India that had a very “hippie” vibe to it, a hostel in Mui Ne, Vietnam that was actually a beach hostel so people slept in tents on the beach instead of dorm rooms, and a hostel in Phnom Penh, Cambodia that had a “party” vibe to it, complete with a rooftop restaurant! I love hostels and have thoroughly enjoyed experiencing different ones around the globe!
Erica B: What do you miss the most? I’m going to have to break this one down categorically a bit. Overall, I’d say my family; I know the distance is totally healthy and good, but I also got incredibly close with them (especially my parents) over the past year and there are so many things I want to tell them on a daily basis and simply can’t. I miss mac and cheese more than I can explain, and with all the heat, I’ve really been missing the Colorado snow.
Aaron P: What kind of music do they play over there? Most people listen to either very traditional music or Asian Pop (which we heard A LOT of during the Khmer New Year when neighbors were hosting karaoke parties each night). While teaching, I’ve made references to people like Justin Bieber and One Direction, and my students haven’t known who I was talking about, which is half refreshing and half blows my mind.
Marie B: Did you celebrate Easter? We ended up celebrating Easter in 2 parts. Easter Sunday fell on the last day of the Khmer New Year, and our host sisters’ cousin wanted to drive us around in her husband’s truck (or rather, she wanted to sit in the truck bed with us while her husband drove all of us around). One of the traditions on the Khmer New Year is to spray your friends and neighbors with water guns and then throw baby powder at them (which we were unaware of until this truck ride) so, low and behold, we got absolutely drenched by people wielding water guns and water balloons as we drove through neighboring villages, and then promptly covered in baby powder. It was a complete blast! The next Sunday, we celebrated Easter as a church, and each church member brought a portion of their crops from their farm to share with everyone for a group lunch. Both days were such wonderful celebrations!
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Have a question about “Racer Life”? Submit it in the comments of this or any of my past blogs, and I’ll answer it in my next Q&A blog!
