Friday, January 6, 2012

Panama 2011...at long last


It's January.  We went to Panama in June.  It's absurd, I know.  But, I will not be deterred.  There are a lot of people that sent me money or supplies or prayers for our team or notes that they were thinking of me!  And because of them I WILL post pictures from Panama 2011!  In the interest of sanity, you will unfortunately not get the in depth story of the past two years.  The amount of reading is already stacking up on my desk and the semester is only 3 days in.  But, before I begin, I am doing this!  

In some ways the Kuna Islands in 2011 were the same as they always are.  The people are beautiful.  The trip is hard.  The islands are hot.  You feel motivated and exhausted at the same time.  But the trip this year was also very different.  The islands were more commercialized because they were closer to the mainland - in fact one of the Silas actually spoke English.  And the islands were smaller, we were usually done clinic half way through the second day on each island.  Because we were closer to the mainland we drove to the boats instead of flew...that will likely not be happening again now that we've lived through the experience to see another day :)  No soldiers this year, and the team was bigger so there was a different group dynamic.  In some ways that was sad because we had such an amazing group dynamic last year, but in other ways it was good.  You learn different things when you are in different groups, and part of what I love about going on these trips is how much I learn.  We had a service team this year, which was really cool because they did different tasks around the island as people needed help.  We had more translators which was wonderful.  And at the end of the trip we stayed for an extra day in Panama City which was a nice way to decompress and see part of the country that we never get to see other than out the window of the plane.  

Every year, it is a privilege to be part of the missions team.  I am blessed beyond measure to have been able to go, and to those of you who gave me support in so many way, thank you.  



Thursday, January 5, 2012

The 2012 Wishbone

Apparently it's 2012. Classes started yesterday, which means all those good intentions for all those exciting blog posts and all those long talks into the night to catch up with friends and all those to do list items that didn't make the priority list when the semester were in but I was sure would get done during break are back on the back burner. Last semester I was taking 12 credits and could barely keep up with the reading. This semester I am taking 15 credits and working 30 hours a week...riiiight.

So, expect blog posts to not increase readily, however, I am planning to try to post short funny stories to remind everyone who cares to know that I am still alive that indeed I am still alive :) The first of these stories you get today...

When Brandy and I were cleaning up the beach house getting ready to head back home we found the wishbone from the turkey we had cooked that week. We figured we may as well break it and each took a side to pull. 30 seconds later the top of the wishbone that tells you who gets their wish came flying off the top and flew across the room and Brandy and I stood there laughing at the broken pieces in our hands. And that is how 2012 began ladies and gents...expect a rather random and unexpected ride :)