Only on the World Race (Part 1)

It’s been three months since I left Tennessee for this 11-month journey called the World Race. So far it has been full of highs and lows, good times and bad. There have been times I have laughed and times I have cried. But one thing is for sure, life on the World Race never fails to surprise me.

With that being said, many things I would have considered absurd before the race have now become a normal part of life. So, with the help of my team, I put together a list of such things.

Only on the World Race would…

1. Your teammate quotes scripture – Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil – before venturing outside to the bathroom that’s crawling with critters. 
2. You take your shower stuff to the mall in hopes that the gym will let you buy a one-day pass just to use their shower (turns out a shower isn’t worth $9).
3. You get excited when the toilet flushes with the first bucket of water, and give up by the fourth. 
4. You pitch your tent on top of a bunk bed because you’re lucky enough to have beds, but not lucky enough to escape the mosquitoes and cockroaches.
5. Your no longer categorize your clothes as “clean” or “dirty” but by the amount of times you have worn them.
6. You get excited because you understood all four questions you were just asked in Spanish and you were able to reply back.
7. You constantly discuss things you will never again take for granted – a sink with running water, free public bathrooms with toilet paper, air conditioning.
8. Asking a teammate to smell a clothing item to check if it’s still okay to wear occurs at least once a day.
9. Bus drivers ignore you because they don’t believe that 6 American women are going to the slums.
10. You get blessed with beds two months in a row but you actually miss your tent and sleeping pad.
11. Laundry takes at least 2 hours and you promise yourself you will never complain about having to do laundry in a washing machine again
12. When your teammates ask when you last took a shower, you ask if a baby wipe shower counts.
13. You walk into the bathroom stall and acknowledge the spider/scorpion that lives there.
14. You ride in the back of a truck with at least 10 other people everywhere you go for a month.
15. Peanut butter becomes a necessary food group.
16. Most of your conversations revolve around foods you miss from home.
17. You become amazed and stare at people when they speak to you in English.
18. You actually begin to like coffee, when you wouldn’t touch it before the race.
19. You fit 25 people into a 15 passenger van.
20. You eat a lot of mystery-meat.
21. You play Sardines in the dark at a school in Honduras.  
22. You get use to cold showers.
23. You wear a backpack everywhere such as restaurants, church, and the grocery store.
24. You ask the bus driver to stop by a tree on the way back home so you can pick mangos.
25. You begin to use Febreze as perfume.
26. You stop by a creek for a swim and use the drain pipes as water slides.
27. Attending church services in Spanish becomes normal.
28. You leave popcorn kernels in your pack and mice invade your room.
29. You get stared at everywhere you go.
30. You finally get adjusted to life in a new country, only to find it’s time to pack up and move to the next one. 

I hope you enjoyed reading these as much as my team and I enjoyed reminiscing and laughing over the moments that would have once seemed ridiculous to us but are now just part of our everyday life.

This blog is Part One of a series of blogs I will write over the course of this year titled “Only on the World Race.” Be on the lookout for Part Two in the next couple of months.