It would be an understatement to say The World Race is hard on you. It’s taxing on you emotionally and physically. I’m going to tell you a little bit about the physical toll The World Race has taken on us. So here it is… 11 signs The World Race ages you 11 years in 11 months:
- You have a little less hair and have discover some premature natural highlights.
I wish I could come up with a good excuse for the balding and graying, but I imagine it’s just a combination of it all.
- The dark puffy circles under your eyes have become full time residents.
Every month we load a bus for up to 4 days to travel to the next country. On top of these monthly travel days, when we change continents we cross up to 14 time zones. It seems by the time we have recovered from long travel days or jet lag we are packing up for the next round of adventure.
- You can fall asleep on any kind of transportation.
We have traveled using just about every kind of transportation. Plane, boat, bus, train, van, taxi- you name it and we’ve used it. We frequently travel through the night and unless you want to go 48 hours without sleep you figure out how to make it happen.
- When you show pictures of yourself from just a few months before launch the response never fails to be, “wow! You look so young, how old were you?”
Again, I wish there was a great excuse for this, but it must be a combination of everything.
- You talk obsessively about our pets like they are your children.
We miss our friends and families so much and can’t wait to be reunited with them. We won’t lie though, the thought of being reunited with Le Peep and Ice House makes us pretty excited too. Most of our teammates have a special little friend at home we know every detail aboutJ.
- You can’t stay up passed 9:00 p.m.
Every month ministry is different. Two months ago in Cambodia we were preschool teachers, last month in Swaziland we lived at an orphanage where we gardened and tutored, and this month in Botswana we are evangelizing at local malls and universities. Some ministries don’t always come naturally to us and we have to really put ourselves out here. By the time we get home we don’t have the energy for much more than eating and sleeping.
- You pull a hamstring running to the kitchen to get some ice-cream.
Let’s just say a year of sleeping on the ground takes a serious toll on your body.
- The good news is you have an extra 10- 20 pounds of cushion to break your fall when you collapse from pulled muscles.
A typical World Race diet includes carbs, carbs, and more carbs. We’re living on a $4 a day food budget which gets you a whole lot of rice and bread, but not much of anything else. Some months we cook, some months we eat out, and other months our hosts provide our meals. This has contributed to some of our best and worst experiences of the year. In Cambodia we were wined and dined daily with the best local cuisines. On the contrary, in Bolivia we were served an exciting mystery meat each night which I’m quite certain was the source of the parasite I discovered months later.
- An exciting Saturday night consists of a tenacious round of phase ten where we refer to each other by our grandmother’s first name (which lucky for me is the sameJ… love you Grammy!).
It’s not typically safe to be out after dusk so we’ve become creative with how to entertain ourselves.
- You are no longer aware of the odor you produce.
Unfortunately good personal hygiene isn’t always feasible. One regret I have from this year is not taking a picture of our bathroom each month. Without going into too much detail the toilet and shower situation are often less than ideal. One month 45 of us shared 1 frigid shower. On a number of other occasions we spent the month using a bucket, the same one that is, to flush and to shower.
- Wearing adult diapers doesn’t sound like such a bad idea.
Travelers’ diarrhea is a real thing and since we are always traveling it has become a real thing all the time. We long for the day when a solid movement isn’t considered a victory.
Writing this blog gave my team and me a pretty good laugh. We have aged physically a great deal more than you would typically age in an average year of life. A few times I’ve wondered what my friends and family will say, or rather think, when they see us for the first time in a year. But, the beauty of it is God has shown me that I am more beautiful now than I have ever been before. “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” 1 Samuel 16:7.
When I was little I loved rocks. My mom would buy me little geods that looked like plain rugged rocks on the outside, but were beautiful crystals on the inside. With each chipping away of the exterior, the remarkable interior is revealed. This is what God has done for me this year. He has molded me and refined me. He has chipped away at me exterior to reveal the hidden beauty inside. He has shown me how to find my identity in Him alone. The freedom He gave me when I finally realized this has been worth it all!
