As of today, December 14th, 2014, I have officially been on the race for 100 days. A little crazy, right? So what all has happened during the past 100 days? You’ve probably heard about the big things here and there, but what about the little day to day things you haven’t heard about? I won’t tell you about all 100 days, because I’m fairly convinced y’all wouldn’t read all of that… but here are some days that had semi-significant, fun little things that happened during them!
Day 1: I woke up, said goodbye to my boyfriend and my dog, loaded my pack, hopped in the car with my parents, and headed to launch. The race officially began.
Day 2: I said goodbye to my parents, and embraced the fact that my team was now my family.
Day 4: We flew out of Atlanta, out of the states, and arrived in Panama for month one!
Day 5: I got to see the Panama Canal.
Day 6: The official first day of ministry on the WR: we went to a nursing home and then returned to the YWAM base and crushed aluminum cans with a hammer. (Yes, that was my ministry for several hours that afternoon.)
Day 9: I gave my testimony in front of a church for the first time – during which a herd of cattle passed right by the front door.
Day 16: I swam in the Pacific Ocean for the first time in my life.
Day 22: The first medical emergency of the race: one of my squad leaders stepped on a rusty nail and it went 2 inches into the side of his foot.
Day 25: I watched Father of Lights for the first time and my viewpoint on God was shattered. I realized that my Creator can’t – and never will – fit into any box I try to put Him in. He is more majestic that I will ever humanly be able to understand… And that’s awesome.
Day 28: I got to go (try) surfing for the first time in my life during debrief in Jaco, Costa Rica!
Day 37: I handwashed clothes for the first time. (Side note, I haven’t had personal access to a washer and dryer since. Although I have paid for my clothes to be washed in a machine twice since then.)
Day 38: Survived an earthquake in Los Guido. Don’t ask me how big it was, because I don’t know. I know it was big enough for me to feel the concrete floor I was laying on ripple beneath me.
Day 54: I got my first tattoo in San Pedro, Costa Rica. Because it was on my foot, I proceeded to walk back through the streets of San Pedro, and then catch a bus to San Jose, and then walk through San Jose to catch a bus to Los Guido, and then walk the streets of Los Guido back to our ministry site – all with only one shoe on.
Day 61 – 62: I celebrated my 23rd birthday on the race, went to bed, and woke up at 11:30 with food poisoning – or some sort of sickness. Let’s just call it the “WR sickness.” I proceeded to spend the rest of the night either on the toilet, throwing up in the toilet, or sleeping next to the toilet. Two of my teammates also got the same sickness in the same night. You can say we were praising Jesus for indoor plumbing, and that we each had our own toilet.
Day 63: God broke my heart and opened my eyes to effects of poverty on His creation.
Day 71: The day I found a rat, whose body was bigger than my hand, on Ronny’s bed. The rat proceeded to sneak out the window and was never to be found again.
Day 78: The day I was laying on the floor and Ronny spotted a tarantula six inches from my legs.
Day 79: I developed an itchy rash on my neck and head. I asked my teammates to check my head for lice, but they insisted that lice doesn’t leave a rash. So I assumed I was having an allergic reaction to something, and moved on with life.
Day 83: Thanksgiving Day! My squad ate a huge Thanksgiving dinner by candlelight since the power was out.
Day 84: Brad taught me how to play a song on the guitar for the first time.
Day 85: I hiked up a 720m tall volcano and proceeded to volcano board – essentially, I sat on a wooden sled – down the side of it. CNN says it’s the #2 thing on thrill seeker’s bucket lists.
Day 87: The day I said goodbye to the men of Free Indeed and went through my first team change. For this month, the girls and I have been given the team name of “Sojourners of Christ.”
Day 88: I anointed someone with oil for the first time.
Day 96: I asked one of the nurses to check me for lice. After visiting 2 doctors about the rash that I have now had for 2+ weeks, both were insisting it was an allergic reaction. However, Benedryl and Hydrocortisone were doing nothing. Since I knew lice was going around the ministry, I was afraid I would be the last one to know I had it since my head had been itching for days now. Turns out, the rash was from lice – thousands of them – that somehow the doctors, my teammates, and I had all missed for the past 17 days. I officially became the first American to bring lice into this ministry site in Honduras.
Day 99: The first time I weighed myself since starting the race, and discovered I have gained 13 pounds since training camp…
Day 100: I found a Wal-Mart!
This journey has been crazy, that’s for sure. It’s been hard, it’s been frustrating. But it’s also been wonderful, and amazing. And if one things for sure, I wouldn’t trade the past 100 days for anything… (Except maybe those 5 days we were in Tugri – inside joke for Warrior and Free Indeed).
Since this month wraps up my time in Central America, I’ve decided to do a Q&A blog at the end of December! So between now and Dec 31st, send me any and all questions you have about Central America. Questions about food, ministry, site seeing, the world race, sleeping arrangements, my favorite things, my least favorite things, etc. Anything! I’d love to answer it!
