The World Race

Tuesday morning we had breakfast with 2 wonderful American girls, one after the other, who are traveling the as part of The World Race.

We first met Rachel when I invited her to join us for breakfast. I immediately recognized her North American accent and it turns out she grew up in Wisconsin and attended University of Wisconsin – Madison. Rachel was happy to join us, was very friendly, and we started right in with our incessant questioning.

After graduating from Madison 7 years ago with a degree in English and religious studies, Rachel got a job working for a Christian magazine doing customer service work – answering phones, talking to people about the magazine, etc. Although this job was paying the bills, Rachel did not enjoy it. After a few years of working for this company Rachel was ready for a change. She decided to move to Georgia where she initially stayed with family friends, renting the granny flat on the lower level of their house. She got a job with an Internet marketing company and was able to put her degree to use and do something she was passionate about.

For 5 years Rachel poured all of her energy into her job where she was doing writing for company, something she loves. They were a start-up company and she really felt like she was doing something important. After 5 years, however, the company downsized and Rachel’s job was eliminated. She was very angry that they eliminated her position after all the time and energy she put into her work and the difference she was able to make for the company.

With this change in her situation Rachel took a week off from her life in Atlanta and went up to a cabin in the woods to try and figure out where to go from there. Rachel’s faith is very important to her and she spent the week praying and asking God to show her the way, where to go from here. During this week God made it clear to Rachel that she had been given the gift of time. In Rachel’s words, God showed her that “you have the time to do what you want to do.”

Upon returning to Atlanta Rachel started researching what she could do from this point forward. When she came to the homepage for The World Race she starting crying, she knew she had found what she needed to do. She immediately applied for the program, in February of 2014, and left America only 5 months later, in July. Rachel sold everything she owned, dropped her remaining items off at her parent’s place in Wisconsin, sold her car to her younger brother in Wisconsin, and had left her entire life behind in America.

Since July, Rachel has traveling to 4 countries in South America – Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia – as well as Japan and Malaysia here in Asia. She had been traveling in a group of 43 young adults from America, with one Canadian and one Costa Rican. The program brings them to 11 countries around the world where they spend 1 month in each place doing service project and spreading the word of God. The program costs $16,000 for each participant, which they must raise themselves through donations from friends, relatives, and anyone willing to donate.

Rachel mentioned that she comes from a “dysfunctional family.” I did not ask more on this – although I wish I would have. Her father was not very supportive of her decision to go on this trip, as he did not support the idea of her spreading “her western god” to people in other cultures. (I will be very honest here, I am glad she brought this up because this would be my reaction as well.) In talking about her father’s reaction she elaborated on this criticism of the program explaining that they work with Christian organizations that are already established in these communities. The people who use these organizations already know that they are Christian – they are not spread god’s word to anyone who is not already familiar with it.

With each organization they work with, in each community, they help by doing what every work the organization needs done. They do not come in with their own agenda – to teach English, or distribute food, or build houses – but rather fill in whatever gaps need to be filled in that community at that time. And most importantly, according to Rachel, they give the people who are currently working there a break. As Rachel explained, many of the organizations they have visited so far are short on staff, not short on money. At one orphanage they helped at there was a housemother who lived at the orphanage and was responsible for 13 kids during the overnight hours completely on her own. As volunteers there they were able to offer her time to rest and were able to assist her with her workload, making her life easier if only just for one month.

The first 6 months of the trip have made a large impact on the way Rachel thinks about international relief and humanitarian work. She had learned about what works (working with local organizations that are already well establishing in the community) and what doesn’t (large organizations coming in and trying to “fix” a community’s problem). She had learning that much different can be made by simply loving people. She sees the work that they are doing as “being light in a dark place.”

The trip has also changed Rachel as a person. She has learned to “go with the flow” and not plan so much for what is ahead. She enjoys greatly the work that they have done but does not see her life as being dedicated to long-term missionary work. As far as what Rachel will do when she returns to America – she hasn’t thought about it and doesn’t plan to until she is done with The World Race.

In addition to Rachel we also met Adrienne, another American on the same program. (We spoke with them separately and I am starting to prefer talking to people on their own. They are more honest, more open, and one person cannot dominate a conversation which I possible when you have 2 people together.) Adrienne is 23, from Louisiana and graduated from LSU with a degree in psychology in May of 2013.

During college Adrienne worked as a domestic assistant for the very wealthy owners of a large fast-food chain. She made good money at this job but was on-call pretty much 24/7. At a moment’s notice she was expected to help with whatever they needed. Adrienne was great at her job and upon graduate they wanted to keep her on full-time but Adrienne was not interested. Despite the great pay ($18.95/hour after taxes) she was not interested in continuing with the long hours and lack of free time.

Instead, Adrienne decided to work as a leadership development coordinator for her sorority, Kappa Delta, traveling the country working with chapters, as they needed it. For this job she lived out of her suitcase from August-December and January-May. (As I’m reading this I am wishing I would have asked about this – with this job she likely had little free time. She didn’t have a home or apartment as she traveled continuously for 9 months, except Christmas break. I wonder how she saw this job in comparison to the last one as they both likely gave her little free time.) Midway through the year, when she was home for Christmas break, she helped one of her friend, Kristen, pack for her The World Race trip. At the time Adrienne didn’t know anything about the program. While she was helping her friend she found herself getting mad and jealous because her friend was going and she wasn’t. Adrienne assumed the trip only left in December and since her job was based around the school year she figured she wouldn’t be able to go.

As she was leaving the friend’s house she stopped to talk to her friend’s mom who mentioned that trips leave at many times throughout the year, not just in December. Adrienne went home, was up all night researching the program and applying. That was December 28^, 2014. She left in July. She hasn’t looked back since.

Like Rachel, Adrienne isn’t really planning for her return to America yet. And this trend seemed to continue with other volunteers from their trip that we spoke with. Adrienne may want to move to New Orleans (where I told her I would visit her one day). She is interested in doing ministry work either in New Orleans or leading shorter term trips for college students around the world. But she isn’t trying to think about going home – and that’s probably a good think.

Learning to live in the moment seems to be something travel teaches everyone. There isn’t a point in planning because things never work out according to plan. Being open to possibilities and being flexible provided experiences better than anything that could be planned. Living in the moment is key, not wishing for the future or focusing on the past.

I want to wish the best of luck to Adrienne and Rachel. Can’t wait to hear how the trip turns out.

If you want to follow their journeys around the world shoot me and e-mail at annabelle.c.joyce@gmail.com and I would be happy to pass along their blog information.