If you’ve been on the WR, you can relate to many of these. If not, you’re just going to think World Racers are the strangest creatures to walk the planet- and for these 11 months we just may be.
These are things that have become normal in my life…
- Knowing a few phrases in a lot of languages and speaking the wrong ones for the country I’m in
- Eating rice for breakfast. And lunch. And dinner
- Drinking 3 cups of chai a day
- Looking forward with great anticipation to travel days by plane. Air conditioning, my own seat and a free meal. Luxurious!
- Having so many things lost in translation
- Learning to make myself comfortable wherever I’m at- a train station, airport when a flight is delayed ten hours, a coffee shop
- Having internet once a week
- Losing track of how long I’ve worn clothes without washing them- and putting them on anyways
- Carrying toilet paper in my pocket. One time without and I’m not forgetting again…
- Giving a 30 minute sermon with a 5 minute notice
- Sitting 2- or 3- people to a seat in a vehicle. 19 people in an 8 passenger van is the record right now
- Sitting in a 4 hour long church service and having no idea what’s being said because it’s in another language
- “That would make a good blog” is something I or a teammate say daily
- Washing my hair once a week is sufficient
- Choosing a restaurant based on the mouth-watering pictures of western food, only to find those pictures have been printed off the internet and aren’t even on the menu
- Going to bed with the sun and rising with the sun
- Noodles served for breakfast
- Eating meat is always an adventure. Usually any meat we eat was alive just a few hours before. And amidst the chunks of meat in the pot are all the bones and various organs
- 4 hour church services
- My teammate’s 17” computer is our big screen for movie nights
- Fruit is served as a dessert
- Walking into a grocery store after not having one for months and being overwhelmed by all the options
- Wearing the same pair of sandals every single day
- Finding every reason to celebrate any holiday- like half birthdays- just to add a change in days that might be monotonous
- Living in an endless summer
- Washing machine = me, a bucket of water, and soap. Dryer= the good ol’ sun
- Sleeping under a mosquito net
- Finding great joy in being served hard-boiled eggs for breakfast. I’ll take that over noodles or rice any day!
- My packing cube of clothes doubles a pillow. I love multi-functioning things
- Bathroom becomes a point of daily conversation among teammates
- In Africa, calling “pants” “trousers” because if you call them “pants” people think you’re referring to underwear
- Breaking a sweat in church from dancing so much
- Referring to countries instead of months. Instead of saying something happened in October, I’ll say it was in Nepal
- Hoarding pens, ziploc bags, toilet paper, and sugar packets
- Everyone on facebook chat is in the room because everybody else is halfway around the world with a 12 hour time difference
- The water turns brown when showering. Even if I just showered the day before
- Children in Africa shouting “muzungu!” (white people) as I walk down the road
- Children running after me chanting “Hello, How are you?, I am fine” -the only English words they know
- Referring to other white people as “muzungus”, even after leaving Africa
- Going for so long without seeing another white person that I have a freak out moment when I do
- Sleeping in a different place an average of every six days
- 2 pairs of pants, 1 skirt, 2 shorts, and 8 shirts is a sufficient wardrobe
- Sitting together with my team long after a meal is over just to fellowship and hang out
- Sharing the Gospel over and over….and over and over
- Praying for health before a meal and really meaning it because there’s no telling where the food came from or what it is. It’s working because I haven’t been sick!
- Saying more greetings and good-byes than I ever thought possible
- Experiencing God way outside the box I didn’t even realize I thought of Him in
- Spiritual warfare takes on a whole different meaning
- God giving me His eyes and heart to see the world and people through
- Having a feeling of helplessness at seeing so many broken and suffering
- Learning to depend on the Lord like never before
- Casting out demons
- Being stumped at something to say next when preaching or sharing with someone and having the Lord give me the words to say
- Alone time is sitting with ipod in and eyes closed in a room with people
- Seeing people completely sold out to the Lord despite living amidst persecution
- Being more vulnerable and open than I’ve ever wanted to be
- Learning things about myself that have never even crossed my mind
- God showing up in ways I’ve never seen before
