Et cetera : World Race: Vinton native Rose Huber now in Thailand

World Race: Two girls from Thailand gather around Rose Huber and her camera.

The World Race is anything but a vacation, says Rose Huber.

The daughter of Jim and Conni Huber of rural Vinton is in the midst of a 10-nation world tour, working with a team of Americans who help people in a variety of ways.

We asked Rose for an update; below are her words:

Well. The World Race: 11 countries in 11 months... for the women on our squad, it is only going to be ten countries because of the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, so we stayed in Kenya for two months instead of one.

Our first month in Kenya was the hardest month for me, so I was not looking forward to the second month at all. I didn't want to be in Africa anymore, and I especially didn't want to be in Kenya anymore. We lived in a nice house with a very nice Kenyan family that first month, but there were a few downfalls:

1: No running water. It was amazing to me how a house that nice, a house that is bigger than the first floor of my house in Vinton, would not have running water but rainwater in buckets. It worked, but it was a huge pain.

2: Our contacts had never hosted a team from the West before. They were so kind to us, but they constantly overfed us and made us drink so much tea. I feel like a whiner even typing that, but after a month of it, it gets pretty exhausting.

During our second Kenyan month there were 18 people living in a three-bedroom, one bathroom house – it was overwhelming, to say the least. However, this month we started doing a ministry that I feel God held us in Kenya to do: We ministered to street boys.

Mostly this looked like just loving them – loving people everyone is too uncomfortable to notice, who are just easier to ignore. It was hard work. We showed up at a park every day where a lot of them slept. There were boys from about age 8 up to their 20s, living on the streets, sniffing glue, scrounging for food and running from the police. We would bring them food and talk with them, trying our best to just treat them like any other boy we might come into contact with. We told them about God and Jesus and the love He has for them, and that He sent us to care for them.

But we knew that we were only there for a month...Would they even remember us after we left? Would they remember what we said, would they remember that we were kind, or would they just go buy glue and keep on as before? We didn't KNOW that going to that park would make a difference, but we knew that if we didn't go we would lose the opportunity to make a positive change. So we went anyway.

That's where I met Joseph, who I ended up bringing to the hospital to get his arm fixed. He was a nice guy, with a bone was sticking out of his arm. With six days left in Africa I didn't really want to get involved, but there was no way that I could just leave him like that without even trying. So I did, and I still get updates about him. He's getting better.

About Asia

Thailand was a breath of fresh air. I love Asia and will probably live here one day, at least for a while. I loved seeing all the Thai people, seeing the swirly-looking language, and eating Pad Thai. It was great.

We got to our ministry site and we were blown away – we got to live in a beautiful house, everyone got their own bed (I hadn't had my own bed for three months) and there was hot water and AC! It was great. Our hosts were an older couple from Oregon who were extremely hospitable.

It was so nice to be around Americans again, around a culture that we understand. Then we started ministry: Manual labor on a property where a new children's home is being built.

Every day we got up between 6:30 and 7 and were out at the site around 8. Let me tell you, Thailand is humid and HOT. Every day was in the 90's with high humidity and bright sunshine. I'm all for helping children, but this is definitely not the way that I would choose to do it. It was hard to choose joy while doing manual labor, and it was hard to continue to pull weeds when no one was looking!

But we did it, and trust that our work that month made a difference. In the evenings we went to the children's home. These children were placed in these homes because they were at a high risk to be trafficked into the sex trade. We have been to a lot of homes and orphanages during the World Race, so it was difficult to remember that this one was any different. It was only when I heard the girls tell me that they wanted to go home or that they missed their families that I remembered: They aren't here because they are alone.

They are here because those that are closest to them can't be trusted to keep their innocence. And that is really sad. The youngest girl at the home, only 2 years old, was found by chance. When one of the house parents was at the market, there was a woman there selling a child.

This is unusual but not unheard of in Thailand, so the house mom went up to her and asked, "Are you really selling her?" I don't know the details of why, but she really was. They arranged to meet and the house mom brought all the legal paperwork necessary to bring the child to the home. It's easy to look at the beautiful faces of the children and have fun with them, but it's important to remember that those are the stories that are underneath each one, and those are the things that are, at times, difficult to acknowledge.

Living in community

The last thing I'll mention is living in community – we are never alone.

It's beautiful and it's difficult. We are constantly with our team members, and maybe another team as well. I have a team of five other women that I live with. This is my favorite team of the race (I've been on four teams now).

It's hard to always be around people, but it's amazing to always have people around who care enough about you to call you out and up into a better place. It's amazing to know that you have a group of people around you that are for you and want the best for you, even if that means saying hard things.

My teams have encouraged me and grown me in ways that I didn't know was possible. They see things in me that I didn't see in myself – both the good ones I cultivate, and the bad things I try to throw away. It's not easy, but it’s worth it. My teammates are Jill Schulenberg from Oregon, Brittany Baker from California, Hosanna Sheeley from Indiana, Missy Hollinger from Ohio, and Katie Howard from North Carolina. Their blogs are:

www.jillschulenberg.theworldrace.org

www.brittanybaker.theworldrace.org

www.hosannasheeley.theworldrace.org

www.missyhollinger.theworldrace.org

www.katiehoward.theworldrace.org

www. rosehuber.theworldrace.org

Rose also shares many photos on her Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/rhuber403?fref=ts

Not a vacation

One last thing: The World Race is not a vacation. It's hard work. We get one day off a week, and we live on a budget of $10 a day for lodging, food, and transportation.

Sometimes we love the work we do, sometimes we don't. Some days we get to hang out with the nicest, cutest kids ever and other days we are standing in stifling African prisons, hoping that just one small thing that we say will make a difference. Sometimes we find ourselves exploring ancient ruins or hanging out with tigers and other days we roll out our sleeping mats on the concrete floor of a school, just hoping that the cockroaches and spiders will stay away as we sleep.

Is it for everyone? Maybe not.

Is it worth it? Absolutely.