Bear in mind that I’ve been sick for most of this month. If I waited til later I’d probably find more specific things.
1. Green things and water. Much like Thailand.
2. Internet at home that’s fast enough that I don’t have to spend hours on it to get anything done. It’s also made sickness much less hard on me, because I can talk to people between my six hour naps.
3. Getting to use my sleeping pad for the first month ever.
4. The cutest kids in the world(I know I haven’t been to Africa yet, but I still feel like I’m qualified to say that). They see us on the streets and get so excited to yell “Hello!” as we walk by. There’s one shop where there are three little boys, and they come running and screaming as if we could disappear any minute, “Hello! Hellooooo! HELLO!” and then burst into sweet little giggles as soon as we say it back to them.
5. How all the little shops are also people’s homes. One night we went to the pharmacy around seven, and the whole family was eating their dinner at a table behind the counter. The dad smiled and stood up like it was totally normal to have his meals interrupted by customers, got us what we needed and went back about his life. His kids of course were standing on their chairs to look at all of us, and the mother kept saying something to them in Khmer, which I’m assuming was probably something like “Quit waving to the white people and eat your dinner,” and I just love moments like these because it’s like the whole little town is a part of everybody’s lives.
6. The ladies at the tienda down the street from us. It’s funny that we keep calling convenience stores “tiendas” when they were only called that in Bolivia(not even all of South America), but when you start a habit in your first month it inevitably carries through the whole rest of the Race. Anyways, there are three of them, two older ones and a middle aged one, and they always wave to us when we walk by. They get extra excited when we buy something. I love becoming a regular at places like these everywhere we go.
7. The little girl who shows up around the boys’ dorm all the time. She gets her separate bullet point from the rest of the kids in the whole country because she’s that special. One of our first days walking by there, she burst out of the store next door, squealing like she’d found her long lost mother and threw herself into Whitney’s arms. This is now a pattern: she runs out and jumps on whoever she reaches first. I call her my little parrot because she knows zero English but when I talk to her she repeats every word, just how I say it. Last night I was taking my shoes off to go inside and wondered where she was, then suddenly behind me I hear someone yell “HIIII!” in my identical voice. (It would be a little creepy if she weren’t so darn cute) I picked her up and asked “How are you?” and she says “Howww arrrrre youuu?” I said “Can you say ‘I am fine’?” and she said “I am fine?” like a question and everything.
8. Our hosts. They’re both from India but met each other here. They cook amazing food and they’ve hosted lots of Racers before, so one of the first things they said to us was “This is month 8! We know you need to rest!” It’s a perfect month for us all to get sick.
9. These college kids. They are impossibly smart and so much fun. My favorite type of ministry is when I see the same people every day, and this month I have my own class of seven who I teach for an hour a day. Since they’re so smart I mostly just have conversations with them because the workbook is so easy it takes like 30 minutes for the official lesson, and I’d always rather hang out with people than make them do organized things. My classes remind me of my Bible studies with my cabin when I worked at camp and I love it.
10. Peanut butter and jelly for breakfast every morning, because I’d thought I wouldn’t get another one until I get home.
11. SLEEPING. We don’t start ministry until 10:30 every morning, so I can sleep in a bit and still have time for a good long time with Jesus before I have to get anything done.
