*Disclaimer: “Chapter 0” is under the “About Me” tab*
Okay, here’s the deal. Way to many people have read this thing, so I guess I will do my best to take this seriously.. When I say way to many people I mean I was literally expecting around 10-20 and at the moment we are well over 350. Like what, who are you people? Anyways, now that, that’s out of the way lets get down to business.
At the point of writing this I have been in Ecuador for a week now and could probably write a blog post on that alone but there is a ton that we need to catch up on. First up is training camp! From August 10th – 20th everyone in my squad met up in Gainesville, Georgia and went through a training camp where we met the rest of our squadmates as well as our leaders and anyone else that is involved in our race. Going into training camp I was completely underprepared… I joined the race late and by the start of camp didn’t know anyone or really anything. I’ll be honest stepping off of that plane into the middle of the Atlanta airport was one of the most nerve racking things I have ever had to do. That may seem dramatic but I am being serious, I do not like to be uninformed, I like to know exactly what is going to happen and I like to be organized and have a plan…(My mom would say otherwise but that is besides the point) but I stepped off of that plane looking for faces I didn’t know and for friends I didn’t have yet. I still remember turning the corner and seeing all of the other racers all color cordinated and realizing that I didn’t even know my team’s color… I was too nervous to even go talk to anyone so I went to get food instead. Some random grandma came up to me and thought I was in the military so I explained to her about the race and what all I was doing and after that I mustered up the courage to go introduce myself and meet my squad. I still remember my conversation with the lady who was directing people to their teams. “What squad are you?” “I don’t know”….”Okay what color?” “I don’t know that either” *Much longer pause this time” “Well i’m not really sure how to help you”. You never get a second chance to make a first impression and man is that one that I would like to have back. Eventually I ended up meeting my squad, where my first impressions were hopefully better. Everyone was super nice and accepting once we got past the “Who are you?” “Are you sure your supposed to be here?” stage and my deer in the headlights look finally went away. Overall training camp was incredible. Tiring, smelly, and stressful, but incredible. I once again could probably write a whole blog in itself based on those ten days alone. Here are some bullet points from camp.
– Everyone on the squad is awesome.
– Bucket showers are horrible.
– Rain is annoying.
– If everyone smells, nobody smells.
No but seriously camp was great and it was a great experience to learn and to bond with these people that I am going to be spending the next nine months with. All of the lessons were great and the worship was like something I’ve never experienced. If you want a play by play of training camp I would suggest looking at somebody else’s blog because I am so behind that I really need to move on because this thing is already way longer than it needs to be. Long story short training camp was great and it was such a relief to meet everyone. I know i’ve already said that but oh well. Training camp was great.
Now we move on to the dead space between training camp and launch, wish I had a name for it but i’m not really in a creative mood right now so I think I will just call it “September”. (I’m funny sometimes.. I swear.) September was slow, real slow. Then all of a sudden it was over before I knew it and I needed more time to say goodbye to friends and family. It hadn’t really set in that I was embarking on this journey. (Sidenote: put off packing until the absolute last minute. I haven’t noticed anything essential that I left behind yet but it’s only been a week so updates are to come in future blogs.) I wish I had taken advantage of “September”. Nonetheless I headed to launch in Atlanta on October 2nd. Launch was great, it was awesome seeing everyone and hanging out for a few days before heading to ecuador. At the moment all 55 of us are living in one house in Quito, the capital. Quito has been amazing, the weather is great, I am starting to pick up spanish and I’ve basically mastered the national game of ecuador, “How many people can we fit in this bus?” My team is currenty working with an organization called Remar, its been incredible serving and helping those people, we will be in Quito until the end of the month before heading off into other places in ecuador. Sorry if this seems rushed, I am going to try and update once a week. All the prayers and support have been amazing.
