28/03/2011 (posted 05/04/2011)
Got up at 5:15am for a morning hike to our final destination. Breakfast was Hojaldras which was a lovely send-off. The Pastor woke all his family up to pray with us before we left and then we were off.
In total the hike was around five hours but this included a break at someone´s house who gave us fried vegetables, spam and coffee. It was delicious.
The sun wasn´t out too much as it was so early but it was so unbelievably humid that we were all dripping sweat from our faces and all over our bodies. It was horrific but felt strangely good to be hiking with all my stuff. It was a proper backpacking experience which I will need to get used to for my travelling.
The journey took us up and down lots of hills, so it was quite a toughie but we had plenty of short breaks and eventually made it. We are probably the smelliest and whitest visitors they´ve ever had but still, we are here.
From what we could fine out from the locals (the Pastor arrived late in the evening) the congregation is very small so we´re guessing it will be a lot of door-to-door stuff.
We don´t have a full week here - we leave on Saturday morning so we can be back in Volcan for one last Sunday service so we just have Tuesday-Friday to do actual work.
We went to the river to wash as soon as we could find someone to take us. It´s a short walk but there is a very precarious drop alongside most of the route which, when combined with the fact that the route is also steeply downhill, means you have to take care. The river itself is fairly decent and calm enough to comfortably swim in.
Most importantly, I could wash the sweat off my body.
The afternoon was free so Jarett, Christina, Jonny and I played Happy Families. I´d forgotten that I had it with me until I found it when I was packing yesterday. It´s better with a large number of people but it killed some time.
Our dinner was rice, beans and spam which I´m getting very used to.
We were then asked to give a forty-five minute service which was a doddle to organise compared to the two hour ones we did last week. Each of us introduced ourselves and shared our testimony or an encouraging thing we´ve seen here in Panama. We also sang some songs and I was able to borrow someone´s guitar.
After the service, a guy asked if I had one of the local hand-knitted bags and I said no. He then took his possessions out of his and gave me his own bag to keep. It was so nice of him and just shows how hospitable these guys are despite them having so little compared to us. It was a very humbling experience.
There is an insane amount of bugs here which are of the biting variety. As I was sitting or standing, my legs and face were being swarmed constantly which was bloody annoying. That´s one thing I won´t miss when I´m back in England.
We are sleeping in their church (no walls just to clarify) so we all set about setting up our beds. Christina has a tent, Jarett has a travel hammock, Andrew and Lissette borrowed hammocks from locals, Bonnie has a massive blowup mattress as does Jess and Jonny has a roll mat.
I have a Thermarest but I just can´t be bothered to have to pack it away each morning plus I don´t want to get it dirty (the floor is just the ground) so I improvised. I lay on one of the wooden benches and put a chair in place on the end where my head will be. I then stretched my mosquito net over the top so the chair raised it above my head to avoid it rubbing my face.
I can only describe it to a certain extent through words - you really have to see the photos to see how awesome a creation it was, not that I´m one to blow my own trumpet. All the locals were watching and laughing but I don´t care.
As we were getting into bed someone found a scorpion walking around. Jonny killed it but it unnerved us all somewhat.
At least I´m sleeping above ground level.
JG
No comments:
Post a Comment