Our World Race: Guatemala, Nicaragua, Philippines, Thailand, Cambodia, possibly India, Nepal, Botswana, Swaziland, Ukraine, Albania, and a day in America.
America? On the Race?? We’ve stepped out of our culture to spend almost an entire year forsaking our taken-for-granted comforts and living in villages in developing countries, sleeping in tents, eating local food, taking bucket showers, shaking tarantulas out of our clothes, and in the middle of that we’re going to the U.S.?
Yes. And it felt like a dream.
In a rare occurrence our squad found ourselves making a layover in the grand, old U.S.A.
It was my first time flying into L.A., and we flew in at 7:00 pm. After spending over an hour flying over deserts that I didn’t know existed in such vastness in the U.S., L.A. appeared lit up against the night. It stretched out infinitely in all directions, and it seemed as though I was looking down into the night sky and a million stars. Have you seen this place from a plane? Do you have any idea how big it is?? This, after seeing the mountains and small cities of Central America disappear. All I could think was, ‘What would someone from Guatemala think, seeing this for the first time?’ It was incredible.
And we landed.
There in the midst of my race, after saying goodbye to my family for a year, I got to spend an evening with my Great Aunt and Uncle. I got to hug family and talk about life.
In the midst of my race, I went to Target. Two months is not enough time for me to become bewildered or jaded towards stores such as Target. All I though was, ‘Nice. This place smells like Target.” It felt refreshing and familiar.
In the midst of my Race, my aunt and uncle took me to a nice restaurant where the waiter put the napkin on my lap, even though I was disgusting and wearing gross clothes and hadn’t bathed for a few days. And I got to select desert from a cart!
In the midst of my Race, I spent the night in the Hilton with some girls on my squad. I took my first hot shower in a month (it was a long one, for which I have no words) and slept on a real bed in an air conditioned room cuddled up in a comforter. I wish I had been able to appreciate that part more, but immediately after laying down and saying something along the lines of “Oh my gosh…wow…”, I was asleep, even as the big screen TV continued to play American comedies. I also have no words for that bed. There are no words…
Then, walking out of the gleaming lobby with it’s huge chandelier and through it’s giant glass doors, we took our rental car (driving on the Race?? What?!) back to the airport where we learned about our flight delay!! Which meant that most of that fantastic day was spent wandering the snazzy international terminal, eating fancy cupcakes and sushi, and spraying ourselves with free perfume samples, all while feeling cleaner than I had in months.
I think I’m doing a bad job of explaining how surreal it was to find ourselves in this position, after spending a summer in mental preparation of the inevitable goodbye we were giving to our culture. It almost felt like we were cheating. Or being given the best gift ever. Either way, we were effected. Asia suddenly seemed bigger, and so distant from our own culture. It was like having two beginning to our Race. And this time, we were going much further.
So what did I think of the U.S.? Well, I had only been gone 2 months. I wonder how my view will change after the whole year. But I thought that it was wonderful. I think that we in America are so, so blessed. So blessed. How crazy that of all of the places in the world, we were born where we were. America, no place is perfect, but I love you. And you hold my family, and that is why I love coming home to you.
When we boarded the plane to Asia it seemed like a bigger leap than it had before. Asia is so much further away than Central America, and this time there would be no breaks to come home to our country. This was it.
I am curious how this interlude will effect the perspective of the people on my squad in the coming months, and the role that it played in our Race all together.
