In the end, we only regret the chances we didn’t take
Greer King: What situation has stretched your comfort zone the most?
Wow that’s tough, I have almost every day felt out of my comfort zone trying all the new foods, the different cultures, the different living situations, and all the while none of it ever felt or even looked like home. I think handwashing cloths and bucket showers have been interesting but didn’t push me as much as getting called up in front of a whole church randomly and being then asked to “speak a word of encouragement” or in other words please do an hour sermon for us. Then you add in language barriers and translating alongside the fact that I really dislike speaking in front of large groups.
What ways have you found to cope while being away from home and constantly changing locations?
In many ways, mainly through tons of prayers and just being reminded that it will be okay I think I’ve lived a large amount of my life reminding myself that everything will be okay in the long run just not right now. In that, a massive coping mechanism was the letters that I received from people back home that I carried with me. Just getting to read and see the encouraging words repeatedly was helpful and reminded me how loved and valued I am. That y’all took the time to write me, I also wrote in a journal along with writing blogs. I felt in some way that connected me to home specially when people would message me based off reading them and then when we would get Wi-Fi just being able to connect through Facebook or snapchat or being able to call my parents were huge moments for me and brought me tons of joy.
Becca Oakley:Highlights and lowlights of your trip?
Highlight: experiencing different cultures, lowlight being away from my family and not being able to share life with them. Deeper answer. Highlight would be full heartedly falling in love with the children family and culture of Cambodia. Lowlight would have to be always having to say goodbye to host and community after a month of pressing into them and getting to know them so deeply. It literally broke my heart and I left a piece of me in every country.
Maddi Gulstrom: Most bazaar interactions.
Duh meeting you! Hah all jokes aside I think that adapting to any culture can be different, especially when you have a different hand shake for every culture or remembering not to touch a monk at all! I think that the most bazaar one would just be the act of being proposed to all the time, the concept just blew me away and then when it happened it was just strange and after the 10th time you just laugh and walk away.
Elizabeth Rowland: What was one story you’ll always tell when someone asks you about the race? ??
Oh, wow thanks Elizabeth, I think my mind is too crazy to think of just one story to repeat over and over. I honestly will just change stories depending on who is asking me what, but one story I do love to tell is the story about how I fell into an 8-ft. hole at 3 am in Guatemala on our way to the airport to fly to Asia. That is a good story that you were a part of…
Ben: I want to hear all about the food! Best worst and strangest!
Food! Well my favorite place for food was hands down Malaysia. Penang had the best dry noodles and I loved the Pau’s! it’s a breaded thing with meat in it and I ate so many of those! Oh, I also had a thing called Kuai-tiao nam tok, that was probably one of the strangest things I ate that I really enjoyed. Worst? Huh, I would have to say butter jam on bread, it’s just not a good blend and I really disliked all of Africa having it for breakfast with popcorn. yep. Hmm I did eat a whole bowl of ant and ant egg salad which wasn’t bad but wasn’t amazing either. The eggs would pop in your mouth and it didn’t have a texture, so that was nice but it just didn’t have any flavor. I also ate fried frog that was interesting, and had a strange texture, along with crickets, they both tasted like crunchy chicken. Like I said there were times that you were given food by your host and you kind of just eat it because you need the protein or you need to eat something but nothing really every was terrible, just strange.
Tonia King: How tired of your clothes/shoes are you at this point?
I hate everything I own! At this point my runners have holes in them and my Chaco’s sadly are breaking and on their last strap, prayers they last a week! But it gets to a point that all your cloths are stretched out because all you do is hand wash them and they never smell quiet fresh no matter how hard you scrub, and your feet hurt no matter what you put on them cause let’s be honest your shoes are done for.
What does your passport look like with all the stamps you must have?
My passport is insanely beautiful, I am always in love with it every time we get a new stamp! It’s very colorful since we have two visas one from Cambodia and then East Africa! It puts me in my place when I think about how blessed I have been to travel to 19 countries in my life, but I’ve got to say Asia’s stamps are a lot more colorful than Africa’s; they have just been very boring.
Have you had a haircut in the last year?
I have “cut” my hair but not actually had a good haircut, so hopefully I will be doing that the day I get home or the day after we will see how comatose I will be haha
Have you picked up other languages?
Well not fluently, but in every country, I have learned how to say hello, goodbye, thank you, and other simple sayings. I would write them here but in all honestly, I would spell them horribly wrong!
Edwardo: Where to next?
Well as I think about the future I will for sure be spending some time in Washington and I am still praying and looking for connections in New Zealand. If not there, I have been considering Au pair work in Ireland or Finland or who knows a huge road trip down to Chile & Brazil! But the list of every place goes on and on. The amazing thing I have been honored to learn this year among many other things is that my life is not a linear line and I am blessed with the freedom and opportunity that many others don’t have, which is I can travel to almost anywhere, the road is endless.
