My Panama Button

Those of you who who are very observant may have noticed my new 'Read about life in Panama' button. There are a number of very exciting aspects of this button.

1) The reason the button exists is that my Pastor has been putting together the 'stock report' for our Panama trip and is going to reference my blog in there for anyone who wants a (much) longer and (possibly) more humorous take on the trip - and thus those people who have never checked my blog before need someway to get to that post without sifting through myriads of posts about a person they may have never met

2) I made the button. yes - it's true. I made the picture in Macromedia Fireworks (as in started with a blank screen, ended with a cool graphic), and figured out how to link it so that it was an actual button that took you to the Panama post.

3) It works - pretty amazing really :)

Stop and Stare

I absolutely meant to post about this rainbow last Wednesday because it was so beautiful and then by the time I got home I totally forgot - why is my brain losing the ability to remember things? Thankfully Alison reminded me with her post. It was definitely one of those moments you had to literally pull off the road to take in the moment. To add to the fact that is was incredibly clear and bright, you could see the entire half circle, AND it was a double rainbow!

Office Days

Not exactly the same as the laptop at a coffee shop, but not bad all things considered. I mean, I do have dolphins playing in the harbor outside :)

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Baby Steps

Well, I made my first baby step into the land of coupon shopping. It really was rather successful. I spent $17.23 and saved $25.47 - pretty impressive. I believe I have settled on a process that will in fact save us some money, but will not drive me insane. There is no way I can handle the full blown coupon cutting world - I just don't have the patience or time for it - however, having read through the Southern Savers website - which by the way I HIGHLY recommend - I understand a bit more of what I can do to cut down the grocery bills, and so I'm going to start small and build up if it seems as though I can. Thus, presently I will watch the deals at 3 stores, cut coupons just on Sundays from one paper, and follow the Southern Savers blogs for ideas on deals and such (actually, that is the main way I can handle this - that woman is amazing!). It definitely will involve more planning on the meal making, and errand running, and involve going to more than one store for groceries each week, but if I'm saving $25 on a $42 bill I think it's work a few hours of my week...well, it's probably going to be in the double digits at first when taking the whole week into account, but it was similar with the budgeting, lots of time at first, and now I just need to spend a few hours twice a month. So, baby steps we shall go and see how it pans out...wish me luck!

Pizza Pizza

Last night Sandor and I decided to venture into uncharted territory for us - pizza making. I'm not talking buy a pizza shell and put stuff on it - we've done that before. I'm talking, get some flour and crushed tomatoes, make the dough, the sauce, and saute the toppings and put it in to bake. It was quite fun - AND in the end, really only took us a bit over an hour.

So - first make the dough - I used this recipe I got from a book Alison recommended to me called the Wooden Spoon. Based on the delicious crust it made I think I'll be making and eating a whole lot of bread out of that book!

Meanwhile, I put Sandor in charge of the sauce. I got that recipe from the Home Ec 101 blog. We've been wanting to try some recipes from them before, so it was fun! Complete with basil and oregano we've been growing on the porch this summer.

While the dough was rising and the sauce was simmering I sauted some onions and mushrooms for a topping...

45 minutes later you have bread ready to roll out...

top...
and bake...
And there you go! A few pepperonis on Sandor's side and extra cheese (of course).

It was pretty thick crust so I think we'll do half the dough next time, and a little less sauce. Otherwise, I'm pretty impressed with our first try!

Really?

It is 11:00pm. I have been attempting to convince myself I have been adding incorrectly since 7:00pm. And, I think I'm done that useless effort. For whatever reason our spending for groceries is through the roof. And since we are on a budget one section of the budget being through the roof either means you need to stop spending in another arrea or you need to figure out how to save in that one. And so I find myself looking at the Southern Savers website. Really? I'm not happy about it, but unless someone wants to do it for me I think that tomorrow I will officially need to enter the world that I could define as my hell - coupon cutting, following grocery store sales, knowing when weekly specials come out, or when coupons will be doubled, or...ugh, just the thought of it makes me want to puke.

Coffee Shop Morning

this is how i should do work everyday!

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Weight Changes

It'd official - the marathon is off. I can't say that I'm upset by it - actually, if we're being honest I'm really happy. I haven't been training like I should have been and the stress of knowing that and yet still not having the time to train like I needed to was not all that great. Plus Rachel decided not to do it a few months ago, and now Brandy can't do it with me either, so that leaves me to run by myself. Running 26 miles, less than trained, by myself sounds like a less than enjoyable experience so I decided just to scrap the whole thing. Instead my mom, Brandy and I are headed to Florida to lay on the beach for a weekend. Hey, why not?

While I gain weight since I won't be running, Leia will be losing weight. She was officially put on a diet by the vet yesterday. We've been suspecting she is a bit overweight for a while, and I have been attempting to cut down on how much food is out for the cats to eat. The problem is there are two cats, so I feel bad not leaving food out in case Mishu wants to eat. And, then I've found Leia eating the dog food if there is no cat food in the bowl. Thus, we have entered into the land of time feeding our animals. We've always worked on the free feed option, which is far less effort on our part. But, Leia has forced our hand. She weighs 15 pounds and it apparently supposed to weigh 8 - yeah, no minor overweight issue for the feline.

Perhaps I should look into a cat treadmill?

Graduation Day

Today was Sandor's graduation day. Granted there was no playing of pomp and circumstance - no walking down the aisle when you did an online program and the college is in Michigan (well unless you live in Michigan). But it was exciting none-the-less. He started his second bachelors two and a half years ago...possibly even three years, I've lost count at this point. And so when he submitted his final discussion board item today and the graduation fee was paid, he is technically done. Now, don't get me wrong, I'll feel a lot more certain about then when he has diploma in hand, but it's good enough for a celebration just to be done classes.

So we celebrated. We took a bike ride to Folly and ate at Locklears sitting on the pier and then rode back. It was awesome! I mean what can be bad about a bike ride on a warm, breezy day and eating fried shrimp while watching the waves in the ocean? It is 6 miles each way, so not a bad distance, and the view is worth it!


I don't know why I'm making this weird face?

We got back around 7:30 (before it got dark, which was key), and so I decided to finally put away all the stuff that has been sitting on my table since Brandy was in town last week, as well as all the stuff I put on the table after running errands yesterday (the table was getting a little out of control as you can guess). One of the items on there was a bag I bought to sew my mola onto. And thus, after a little time with the sewing machine - vwa-la!


Pretty cute, eh? I also finally got around to cutting and arranging the flowers that Sandor got me two days ago - they look much nicer without the plastic.


So, now I just need to change the sheets on the bed and take out the trash and off to bed I will go...well I guess I should put the dishes away so I can stack the dishwasher before we got to bed as well...it's not like Sandor is going to be ready to head to bed anytime soon anyway, he is in Battlestar Galactica land - I can hardly complain on his graduation day.

Half Mental Health Day

Today I left work at noon-thirty and decided to not come back. Actually, in all honesty I decided it before I left and claimed the hours for it. It was a long time coming. First of all I can tell I need to take some time off when I finish doing something at work and sit there staring at my desk not wanting to figure out what I need to do next. The amount of time between staring moments was steadily decreasing. Secondly, since I got back from Panama I've been wanting, actually needing, to take a day and do all the stuff that's been stacking up on my list of things to do. Why do all the things that need to be done during working hours involve driving all over town so you can't really accomplish them all once you fall behind and have a stack of them? So, errands run, I headed to Barnes and Noble to entertain myself until I had my adjustment and then off to church to watch some snotty nosed kids...really, I'm going to need to stock up on the immune health items this year! While I only was at Barnes and Noble for an hour, it was somehow more relaxing to be there when I was suppose to be at work :) Pumpkin spice latte in hand, and a few books to look through, a run-in with a friend and a wonderful talk - it was a little slice of heaven, and the highlight of my day. Now I'm ready to go back to work tomorrow...and actually work.

Oh, to be a cat

This is how they spent their day...

Rough life!

On being grown up

At about 12:30pm today I decided on a good definition for being an adult: 'finding yourself on a Labor Day eating a PB&J while pulling out everything to clean the bathrooms, instead of finding yourself laying on a beach'. I had big plans for a lot of laying on the beach today, but it didn't really pan out. When it comes down to it someone has to clean the bathrooms and after putting it off, or being too busy to do it for the past 3 weekends we had come to the point where I really could not justify one more shower before they were clean. Then I finally put away the last of my stuff from Panama (the stuff that involved me tearing things out of the 'random' closet, in order to stuff more things into it), which also really really needed to be done. And now, it's 3:00. Since I live close enough to the beach, and I've already let the dog run at the dog park, I think I'm going to take a book and a chair and head down to grab the last of the rays of summer sun. Not exactly what I had envisioned, but it will have to do. And tomorrow morning I will not feel like I don't want to touch the sides of the shower as I shave my legs...always a plus.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego

I LOVE the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Possibly one of my favorites in the whole Bible, topped only perhaps by the story of the criminal on the cross beside Jesus. So, when I hit the book of Daniel in my reading through the Bible I was very excited (because that is where the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego is). The thing is, I'm reading a chronological daily Bible, which means that it isn't going in order of the actual books, but in order of actual time. It's kinda cool to read through chronologically because they you start to understand where all the prophets fit into all the kings and where all the kings fit in relative to the fall of Jeruselem and such. So, I hit the first chapter of Daniel back on August 8th because that is when Daniel (renamed by Nebuchadnezzar as Belteshazzar), Hananiah (renamed to Shadrach), Mishael (renamed to Meshach), and Azariah (renamed to Abednego), are carried off to Babylon. It was not until yesterday (which I actually didn't read until this morning), that I got to the story of the fiery furnace! So, if you would like to enjoy it as well, feel free to do so in Daniel 3. You will not be disappointed!

An Afternoon Jog

This afternoon after work I headed out into this glorious early fall weather for a little run. It's not going to last much longer before we return to the summer heat a few more weeks, so I figured I should live it up! Kaylinn didn't know what she was signing up for when she insisted that she join me :) Sandor rode along on the bike and grabbed a few things from BiLo to finish off our dinner plans...which I just finished and were delicious! Next up, heading to bed and not having to set an alarm! Welcome Labor Day weekend!

Bapa ben duck kway

...or to those who speak English...God bless you! I did not learn much Kuna, however, I did master that and 'gune, gune' which means 'chew it up' (we handed out worm pills to everyone, so I heard them tell the kids MANY times to chew it up). While I don't know how many times I heard someone say 'gune, gune', we do know that we saw over 700 people in 5 days of clinic! It was intense! But let me start at the beginning because it was quite a ride...

You may remember back to the day I packed all my items into a backpack and readied myself to head down to Panama for 10 days. Two days later I headed to church with my backpack to go to the 8:30 service, help pack up the bags during sunday school, teach the kids during the 10:45 service, grab something to eat, and head to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time, checked ourselves in, went through security and boarded the plane...and then we waited... As it turned out a major rainstorm moved in pretty much right when we started boarding the plane. The rainstorm had been going on for quite some time at the Atlanta airport, which was where our layover was located, and so our plane was told to wait until the Atlanta airport could accept our flight. As it turned out this was not just a moment. It was over 2 hours. By the time we got to Atlanta our plane to Panama City was long gone and so we headed on up to the International area in the airport, Angela and Pastor got in line, and the rest of us sat down...to wait...again. The woman behind the counter (once they got there) tried to get us on any plane she could, but in the end there was no way we were getting to Panama City one moment sooner than the exact time we would have been there, except one day later. Angela's sister lives in Atlanta and graciously offered to allow all 10 of us to stay in her house that night, and so after a quick bite to eat we headed down to meet her and her husband at the car rental spot, caught a shuttle to pick up our van, and were headed off to the suberbs of Atlanta. Angela and her sister made a quick stop to pick us up some things since our toiletries bags were packed nicely away in the bottom of an airplane somewhere, in addition to as many blow up air mattresses as they could find. Once we were all at the house, our wonderful hosts headed to bed (because they had to get up to go to work in the morning) and we sat down to pray before heading to bed as well.

I will go ahead and give you a heads up that there is a lot of praying ahead of us. I'm going to need to side track us a moment here - feel free to skip to the next paragraph if you want. In Revelation, John says that we overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. Based on everything going on in my life (and the lives of people around me) right now I need some victory and so I'm going to give some testimony to God's power. At every step of this trip God overcame our obstacles - and he invited us to join in that overcoming through our prayers. If I learned nothing else from this trip, I learned about prayer. We were given so much direction from our prayer time, in addition to support, comfort, unity, confidence, and peace, it was amazing. At our last meeting prior to leaving for Panama, Angela told me that what she really is hooked on from the mission trips is seeing God's power, and while we hadn't even yet stepped foot out of the US, I started that night to see what she meant. I really got a lot out of this trip, but in the end I got more out of this trip spiritually than I did physically. Yes, I truly enjoyed the experience and am grateful that I was able to experience it and help the world in the way that I did, but in the end what I gained most from this trip was a deeper relationship with God and a greater appreciation for who he is (not just what he does). It was an awesome experience!

So, back to prayer, Lenny felt that we should set up an all night prayer watch, and one person would take each hour to pray while everyone else could sleep. So pray and sleep we did. I had the 2-3am watch. Let me just say that I am glad I had gone to all night prayer vigils at church before, because otherwise I would have been a bit more intimidated by the thought of praying for an hour in the middle of the night. It may not seem possible, but it really did go rather quickly. And when you were sleeping it was comforting to know that someone was praying over you. And thus we passed our first night.

We woke up the next morning to Angela's adorable nephews running through the house, surprised I am sure that there were 10 new people for them to play with in the morning. After some pancakes, some zerberts, some hide and seek, and a van ride back to the airport, we resumed our trek towards Panama. This time we were much more sucessful and actually made our way out of the country, through customs, and to the hotel in Panama City relatively painlessly. We ate dinner at the hotel, and headed to bed to rest up before heading out to the islands the next day...however, there was one catch...during prayer that morning, three of us had felt we should continue the all night prayer, and the women decided to take the first night in Panama, so we set up our order, took our final normal showers (I didn't realize just what this meant yet), and 5 of us went to sleep. That night I think I had the 3-4am shift, and again it went rather quickly, I slept well during the other hours of the night, and before we knew it we were headed to the airport to fly out to the coast.

And then the trip got really interesting! (I know you thought we were going to actually be doing something by this point, but alas, more waiting) Now, my church has been going to Panama for I think 6 years, and to the Kuna Islands for 4 years. They know the general drill as far as what they need, who to talk to and the like. We had, however, prior to ever leaving the US been given a word that our trip was going to be attacked through travel. We had seen it already in the fact that we were an entire day late, and that since we had missed our charter flight to the coast instead of just re-booking us, they told us we needed to re-buy all our tickets the next day. We accepted it for what it was and kept on going with the flow. We had obviously prayed quite a lot over the whole travel situation, knowing that it was going to be a problem, and being that it was our major hurdle at present in just GETTING to the islands. So, somehow it didn't come as a total shock when we arrived at the airport and they said that the rules had changed and we needed a signature from the director of health to be allowed to take the medication to the Kuna Islands. And thus began our third day of waiting. First they needed the papers with what kinds of medication we had, then they needed the expiration dates for all the medication, then they needed Lenny and Angela's licenses (Lenny is an MD and Angela is a PA, which allows them to dispense medication), then they needed Pastor's minister license (this by the way had NEVER been needed in the past and Pastor had only put it in his bag when he went to get his insurance card because Lenny felt that we should all have our insurance cards on us just in case)...you get the picture. Eventually, they got the OK to go down to the minister of health office, Pastor, Lenny, Angela, and Brother Jerry (the pastor in Panama City who travelled with us and translated for us) headed across town to get that, literally were the last people in line before lunch, headed back to the airport, we all boarded the airplanes, and (comparitively speaking) in short order we were on the coast. The landing was interesting to say the least...not exactly what you normally see as far as a landing strip is concerned, but it does the trick.

It is at this point that we actually finally got our cameras out and so you can now start enjoying pictures along with the story :) However, before we continue, let me introduce you to the cast of characters you have heard me mention and will hear me mention in the future...

Tina and Jennifer (waiting) at the airport in Panama City. We did lots of waiting and praying in this airport. In the end, those doors there behind Tina and Jennifer led to our planes which took us to the Kuna Islands...well almost there anyway

Megan and Brother Jerry on the plane to the coast. On the flight we ate our quickly purchased lunches of rice, beans and plantains. Can I please talk about plantains for a moment? Why are they never as good in North America as they are in Central or South America? We must do something wrong. Due to some mis-communication on the timing of the second plane, Megan and I had literally just purchased 3 meals (1 fork of which ended up under the metal detector and not in one of our hands), which we split between the 5 of us, because, well we didn't know when we were going to eat again, so you go with what you got. I therefore used my plantains as a utensil for my rice and beans, and it was delicious! On a side note, my hands never got this close to my mouth again until we were back in Panama City and I had taken a 'normal' shower again :)

Chad and Lenny carrying bags to the boats. Yes, Lenny has a backpack on his front, back and is carrying two suitcases. Really, I did offer to carry one, but in the end the guys did carry most of them. To their credit they were each 50 pounds (the max a check-on can be, and let me tell you they were right on, we were using a scale at church to make sure we had as much as we could), and they tried to carry as many as they could as often as they could so we didn't have to. See, chivalry does still exist :)

Sam with one of the women and a mola she was sewing. These molas were incredible.

Pastor with one of the pastors on the islands

Angela with one of the men on the islands - ah, I LOVE this picture! Beyond the obvious height difference, this guy is especially hilarious to me because he came to the clinic about 5 times that day in a different shirt each time, I guess thinking we weren't going to recognize him. Once he finally realized that we were only going to give him one bag of tylenol no matter how many body parts he said hurt he settled for taking a picture with Angela. To be quite honest he seemed pretty excited about it.

And apparently Robert was so busy taking so many pictures that he didn't actually get in any of them! But, here is one of all of us and he is in the front (ha! you can't hide from us Robert!). In this picture you can also see Navas and Tina Novia (her name isn't really Tina Novia, but that is what we called her, so that is now her name) who live on the Kuna Islands and travelled around with us translating Spanish into Kuna and serving as our introductions to the Silas (leaders of each of the islands) and such.

Here by the way is the landing strip on the coast (you can see it through the plane windshield) - yes in a plane that size you can also see quite easily into the cockpit. And the infamous bags full of medicine - yep there were a lot of them - 20 bags full of meds, vitamins, glasses, toothbrushes, toiletries, and hammocks

Ok, so we have finally made it to the Pacific Ocean, now onto the actual islands themselves. Travel to the islands obviously involved boats. Now when I say the word boat, I am certain that you have a specific idea in your mind...let me go ahead and clear that image for you and instead give you this one...

Megan 'helping' Lenny put his lifevest on

yeah, it was not your run of the mill boat ride for sure. All the bags were packed into one boat, and all of use were packed onto the other (yes, I mean packed)

We were told that the trip would be an hour and a half, so we settled in for a long ride. Considering how hot it was the salt spray from the waves felt kinda good on your face and while you were about 3 inches from the water, the seas were pretty calm that day so it wasn't all that bad. I'm sure it helped that I'm not really as scared of the open ocean as many people. Plus, land wasn't all that far away, you could see it in the distance. So, we are enjoying the ride (well I was enjoying the ride), and about 45 minutes in we arrive at our destination. Oh, it just took less time than expected you say...no, it's just that Panamanians have no concept of time. It was a running joke (started by Jerry, who is from Panama so he is allowed) that everything is 20 minutes. When is the plane going to leave - oh, in about 20 minutes (that would be 2 hours). How long is the plane ride - oh, about 20 minutes (that was actually 20 minutes). Do we have time to go to the bathroom - sure, we won't start for about 20 minutes (that would be 2 minutes). So in essence, I stopped trying to figure out when we were going to do anything and just waited for it to happen. Because of the delay in getting to the islands we only spent one night on the first island. It was the smallest of the three we visited so it made sense. At each island we were planning to have a clinic during the day and then a service at night. Since we didn't get to the first island until almost dinner time we skipped the clinic for that day and planned instead to do a clinic the next day and travel that afternoon to the second island.

I think the first thing I noticed about the Kuna Islands were the kids. Granted, I am drawn to kids, so it seems logical, but, they were also the first thing we saw...and there are a LOT of them (comes with the territory when there is no birth control). When we pulled up to the dock it was full of kids. FULL of kids - we were in essence movie stars. Navas, Jerry, Pastor, and Lenny went to meet the Silas (in essence the person who determines what is and what is not allowed to happen on each island - Navas had spoken to each Silas before we arrived to make sure it was OK for us to come, but when you get there they go visit them to be welcomed). That gave us some time to look around, and gave me a moment to take in where I was.

Once we are officially welcomed, we can get to work, so, first things first - find where we are sleeping and set up the hammocks. Everyone else had been on a trip before and so brought their hammock. I gave $15 to Navas who went and bought me a hammock, Robert hung them all, and thus - our bedroom was born.


We had our first meal on the islands which consisted of rice and crab meat. The crab was awesome, however its deliciousness was only possible through a bit of fortitude. You see they had obviously caught us this delicious crab from the waters surrounding the island (only make sense). The problem was there is no sewer lines on the Kuna Islands, which makes you a little less sure of the health of the animals living in the water. But, when in Rome...you buck up, thank God that you have food to eat, and eat.

So, moving on. We held a service that night. It was an amazing experience! I had years and years of Spanish in high school, college, and grad school, and even lived in Ecuador for a month, but I hadn't spoken it in probably 6 or 7 years, so sitting in a worship service sung entirely in Spanish was a wild experience! And, just to spice it up, some songs were in Kuna, so if I was trying to translate them I would all the sudden realize I didn't recognize any of those words. It really was rather awesome to just sit and take it in even if you didn't know what they were saying. A church on a nearby island had come over and led the singing. In fact, with the exception of one night they came to every island we were on and led the singing - it was beautiful. By the end of the week we joked around because we did actually know most of the songs since there were only about 5 of them. The thing was, they were perfectly happy with just singing those 5 all night. They were happy just to be able to have someone lead them in singing. It was just the first of many humbling moments, when you realize just how incredibly blessed we are.

When Pastor did eventually preach it was a whole different experience as well. He preached, then Jerry would translate to Spanish, then Navas would translate to Kuna, and then Pastor would talk again. It was pretty cool to watch.

After service we headed back to our rooms and sat outside just taking in the fact that we were there. It was at this point when I had Spam for the first time...I don't know that I would ever want to eat it in the US, but man, was it delicious at 10pm on a hot night in the Kuna Islands! And then...I took my first 'shower'. I use that term loosely. You may note that I did not show you a picture of the aforementioned bathrooms. Well here it is...

The little hut had two sides. On the one side was a bathroom, on the other side was the shower. You notice the walkway? It is poles laid down beside each other. And it was across the poles...at night...in the dark...with only a headlamp to guide me...and in flip flops that I walked to find this...


A drum of water with a bucket in it. Cold, dirt water as we liked to call it. Megan led me through my first Kuna Island showering experience, handing me a towel and clothes over the door and giving me words of encouragement like 'just hold your breath and keep your mouth shut...and thank God for Hepatitis A shots'. In the end, I was cleaner (I think), cooler (for sure), and I didn't slip and fall in the water, so all in all it was a success.

When we got into our rooms the first night Tina asked me if I minded spiders. I told her I knew they were there, but I didn't really like them so I chose not to think about them (more fortitude for the moment). After we left the island she showed me this picture...yep that is the wall of our rooms. ugh!

The next morning we set up and started our first clinic. Being new to the clinic scene I went with the flow and tried to do the best that I could. There was just one problem - the translators didn't show up...you see the very confused look on my face in this picture? It's because I am attempting to understand this woman's symptoms in Spanish.
Once we got rolling it was good. Most of the things people said were the same (if you had no hospital and were going to get to see a doctor one time in a number of years you probably would have had all the same symptoms over the past umpteen years as well), and we did have people who translated from Kuna to Spanish, and they would speak the Spanish really slow for us. Megan and I were the triage - meaning, we got their name and age, and wrote down their symptoms. Unless it was just headache or body ache we passed them back to Angela (who did have a translator) and Lenny (who had Jerry walking back and forth between us and him so we could get some in depth descriptions of things that may need more than a 'how many days has that been happening' which was impressive that I could even get that out)
Angela and Lenny would then write the 'presecriptions' and send them to the pharmacy. If they had told Megan and I they just had headaches or body aches, we would write the prescription for tylenol and send them to the pharmacy. The pharmacy would then dispense all the meds and Tina Novia helped them translate the directions that we had pre-printed in Spanish into Kuna for the people who didn't speak Spanish.
I am not kidding you when I say that I was the hottest that I have ever been in my ENTIRE life towards the end of clinic. When we finally closed up shop we actually stood out in the sun because there was a tiny bit of breeze there and so it felt better than in the shade with nothing.

Being that is was a relatively small island we finished up clinic around lunch time. Had the most delicious lentils, rice and plantains that I've ever had (honestly, I ate two full plates and could have eaten more if I did think I would puke from my stomach being so full), and after about 20 minutes (in Panama time...i.e I stopped keeping track) we loaded onto the boat and headed to island number 2 - Naranja Grande.

This trip in the boat was a bit more challenging. You can't tell from our smiles...well actually you may be able to. Do these smiles say 'yes, our boat is taking on water so quickly that Pastor is actually bailing it out of the boat with a random broken bucket that we found'?


Well they should, because he did.
As soon as everyone was seated in the boat we saw the water shooting (I'm serious when I say shooting - as in steady stream that has height to it) into the boat. We yelled up to the front to let them know it was leaking - their answer...it is OK...no really, it's leaking...yes, it's OK...Jerry, can you translate, I don't think they understand...(Jerry translates)...yes, it's OK...and, well they were right...it was OK. There was a good 3-4 inches of water in the bottom of the boat when we got back out than there was when we got in, but we were at Naranja Grande. Oh, I love traveling outside the US - things are never boring!

First thing we noticed on Island #2 was again the kids...this time, however, it was not a matter of noticing kids because I am drawn to them, or just because there were a lot of them. You noticed the kids because they were staring at you...constantly...this was the wall outside our room (i.e. out room is through the holes they are looking)

this was the view from our side

You would think that one could not lay down and relax being watched like this, however, one would be wrong. Siestas in the hammocks was definitely one of my favorite things about the Kuna islands! Tiny fan blowing air on your face and it's time to nap!

...granted, it is less than ideal when you hear kids screaming the entire time because when they take breaks from watching you they are playing outside your room, but you know - you take what you can get!
We set up everything so that we could start clinic the next morning, held a service that night, took a shower and headed to bed. The shower on Naranja Grande didn't have the poles you had to worry about slipping on, and I had one bucket shower under my belt, so it went a bit smoother.

Another night of prayer, another day of clinic and lots of translation. The good thing was I was starting to think of words in Spanish that I had forgotten that I knew...always handy.

the line outside the clinic

lone translator to the rescue!

Lenny with a family

the pharmacy on Naranja Grande

me with Tina novia

Something else we brought with us in addition to meds, was reading glasses. It was amazing to see how excited they were to get the glasses, but again, it's just a reminder of what we take for granted. The suitcase full of dollar tree glasses really was priceless on that island.

a few of them we couldn't help but make fun of, I mean really, look at these glasses!

the women were probably the cutest - they put the glasses on and determined if they worked by threading their needle and starting to sew their molas - they also didn't realize you could take off the tag in the center that said the magnification number. Pastor said they saw a guy walking around the island with the tag still on it like it was a sun shade for his nose.

That night we had a MAJOR storm. You may be able to see the sideways rain in this picture.


It was craziness. While we were eating dinner they held tarps up over the holes in the walls so that we wouldn't get wet. It was unbearably sweet. We ate dinner, prayed, changed clothes and entertained ourselves until the rain stopped - it wasn't that hard with this group.

Eventually the rain did stop and we held service as planned. It's always helpful to have God on your side :) New day, same plan - pray, breakfast, clinic, lunch, and then we were off to island #3!

the kids carried our water and suitcases across the island - they were cracking us up


As always, there was waiting.



This time it was because there was a Sila from another area visiting the Sila on the island we were, so our group needed to wait to be greeted before we could unpack and set up. The visiting Sila was there to ask for aid because his entire village had burned down. I guess it doesn't take much when the huts are made from palm fronds and the houses are as close as they are. Thankfully we had extra medicine that we sent along with the Sila, as well as sending some clothes and towels that we didn't really need considering we had closets full of them at home.

you can tell they are silas because of their hat (well you can now that I've told you - I didn't realize that until someone explained it) - also the tie is pretty distinctive

Once the hammocks were again in their place and dinner was being made I was informed that it was time for a yearly tradition. It is apparently a necessity to at least once try on the traditional Kuna clothes, and thus you get me looking like this...

somehow I think that even this little kid pulled it off better than me :)

You get the general picture as far as what the days and nights were like. We had 2 more days and then headed back to Panama City and home. It truly was an incredible trip. There were sad moments...
adorable moments...

funny moments...


beautiful moments...
and plain old normal moments, that are only considered normal on the Kuna Islands...

but they were all moments that I hope to never forget. And when I found myself commenting on how nice the shower was on our last island because you could stand in the grass while you were cleaning yourself with cold, dirt water, I knew that I had been on the Kuna Islands for a bit too long. :)

oh, and did I mention it was hot?