Bathroom Quadrafecta

Making the decision to head back to Peru was one of the most difficult
decisions on the trip. We absolutely loved Chile, but knew that Peru
was where we were supposed to be.

The city of Arequipa, Peru turned out to be one of the nicest places
we've been on the entire city. Nicknamed "The White City," Arequipa
was built almost entirely of white volcanic rock from an eruption 1500
years ago. It's Peru's second largest city and it's a gem.

We headed to a Nazarene church on Sunday morning and met with some
great missionaries for lunch afterwards. We were really hoping to
build another house or an addition or something, but no doors seemed
to open up.

After lunch we met back up with the pastor of the Nazarene church and
talked to them about their needs. They were in the middle of a pretty
big building project, but they had stalled at getting their electrical
work done. For 13 months the bulk of the church has been without
electricity because they didn't have anyone who was able to do the
work. We decided to tackle the job not knowing what we were in for.

We bought a few more electrical tools and showed up on Monday to work.
For those of you who don't do wiring, there are empty pipes put in the
walls and floors for pulling the wires through. Within 5 minutes of
showing up at the church, I tried to do a few test runs of putting
wires in the pipes and the first 5 pipes were all blocked. I almost
just packed up our stuff and left.

Wires don't make tight turns very well. Instead of sharp 90 degree
turns, you're supposed to make big sweeping bends so the wires can
just glide through the pipes. Because they made all sharp turns, we
basically had to rip up their concrete floors with hammers and
chisels.

Not very fun, but I work with some of the best guys in the world who
didn't know enough about electricity to know how miserable that job
could be, so we pressed on and got it done in 3 long days. We pulled
thousands of feet of wire, hooked up ceiling lights, wall sconces, put
in emergency lighting, and installed dozens of outlets. When all was
said and done, it turned out to be a cool good deed.

Now we've started our journey back to Lima. We decided to splurge a
little and see what a real first class bus is like. Oh. My. Goodness.
First of all, instead of sitting in the terminal with the other
people, we had a special lounge. This lounge had the first quadrafecta
public bathroom of the ENTIRE trip. "What is a quadrafecta bathroom?"
you ask. It had a toilet seat, toilet paper, soap, and paper towels.
Uh-mazing.

We get on the bus and we're treated to legit blankets and pillows and
free headphones. Why headphones? They don't play the movies and music
on the bus speakers. I shed a little tear. Plus, we have wifi!!!

Speaking of movies, we have gone through a little ritual a lot lately.
Whenever we turn on the tv and see something we really like, it is
always at a part with no talking for like 5 minutes. We sit there and
watch it only to hear them begin to speak Spanish. That's usually
followed by Jordan, Cory, and I shouting some term of displeasure. At
least this bus has movies with English subtitles. Even when you
understand it, it's no fun watching tv in Spanish. One other funny
thing is that I had shrunk down some tv shows to watch on the
blackberry. Elias and I were watching, but the audio had gotten out of
sync with the mouths and that was driving me crazy. It didn't bother
Elias and then I figured out why. Most of the tv he watches is
English dubbed in Spanish so the mouths never line up. Haha.

I'm getting pretty retrospective as the trip comes to an end, so I
decided to make some lists about the trip. So here they are in no
particular order.

Things I wouldn't change:
- The guys on this trip. Sure, there are a few additional people I
wish could have come, but I wouldn't trade these guys for anyone or
anything. They have been so easy to travel with and so great at
keeping on mission. They're amazing guys--but you already knew that.

- The trip itself. So many people told me to just pick one country or
one missions organization and explore that. If we had limited
ourselves to just people an organizations that we could have
researched from the US, we would have missed out on 90% of the great
experiences and ministry opportunities we had on this trip.

- My backpack - A surprise gift from Keri, my Kelty backpack has
performed flawlessly on this trip. It's been in some of the nastiest
bus luggage compartments known to man with nary a thread out of place.
It pained all of us when the all of the bus companies in Peru STAPLED
our luggage tags to the straps, but we survived. Actually, all of the
backpacks held up well from Cory's Northface to the $70 Coleman 65
liter bags Elias and Jordan got from Walmart. In fact, if you plan to
do some hiking and don't want to spend a lot, I'd suggest you go grab
a Walmart bag before they run out.

- Space Bags. The peanut butter in the Reese's cup that is my luggage.
I'm not talking about the ones you vacuum out, they are the ones that
you roll the air out. These bags have survived daily use on my 2 bike
trips and other various packing duties before this trip. They not only
save space, but keep nasty dirty clothes separate from the clean
stuff.

- Taking buses instead of driving. Driving probably would have been a
tiny bit cheaper and a ton more flexible and possibly more comfortable
for all but the driver, but buses were the way to go. We never got
lost, we were able to travel overnight, we never got hit up for a
single bribe, and to be honest, the roads down here are a nightmare.
We made the right decision.

- Skipping El Salvador and Northern Peru. Those were two places that
we definitely had no business being. Southern Peru is gorgeous and
much safer though.

Things I would do differently.
- I would have brought better clothes. The 3 pairs of Eddie Bauer
convertible shorts/pants were a lifesaver on this trip and at $25 were
probably the most expensive pants I've bought in 10 years, but I still
wish I would have gotten some higher end ones. I really didn't like
them as shorts and because they were on clearance, I had to go with
sizes that worked but weren't perfect. Considering that I wore these
about 75% of the trip, it would have been worth it to spend $75 on
pants I loved. I also would have brought a really nice sweatshirt.

- I would have spent more time in Guatemala. As the trip went on, we
learned how to find opportunities, but I wished that we would have
spent more time exploring opportunities there in the beginning. I
definitely want to go back. The same goes for Columbia. I know a lot
of people were worried about us being there, but Bogota actually felt
like one of the safest capital cities on the trip.

- I would ignore the missions advice I got at my expensive private
university. I was told over and over again that when you are a guest
of someone on the mission field and they put food before you, you
should eat it so you don't offend them. Screw that. That's just
stupid. There has to be some way to explain to people that I'm a sissy
American and my stomach can't handle your food. If I've traveled 8,000
miles and I've built you a house or done electrical work for you, I
think I've earned the right to not eat your food. If you're offended,
I'm sorry.

- I would bring an ebook reader (i.e. a Kindle). Good English reading
material is hard to find and I didn't think about bringing an e-reader
until last minute. By then, the 2 I wanted were out of stock. I wound
up buying 5 or 6 magazines from 2008-2009 for $1 each in Columbia.
That was nice, but the ebook reader would have been better.

- For a group of 4 people, it would have been well worth it to bribe
the bus driver $20 to keep the radio and tv off.

Other Random Thoughts
- I don't miss my material possessions. I woke up yesterday thinking
about this. Everything I've needed for the last 2 months has had to
fit in my backpack. I love my tv and my computer and these projects
would have been a ton easier if I had my tools, but these things
aren't the necessities that I once thought they were. I don't see
myself selling all of my stuff when I get back, but it's nice to know
I can live without it.

- Can you believe that I haven't driven a car or ridden a bike in 60 days?

Favorite Countries (I'm referring to the country itself, not
necessarily the people:
1. Ecuador
2. Colombia
3. Costa Rica
4. Arequipa, Peru
5. Chile
6. Guatemala
7. Panama
8. Honduras
9. Nicaragua
10. The rest of Peru
11. El Salvador.

Most beautiful sights.
1. The Sacred Valley in Peru
2. The mountains of Ecuador
3. The drive through Costa Rica
4. The drive leaving Guatemala
5. The McDonald's sign in Arica, Chile

I know the trip isn't over yet, but I wanted to take a moment to thank
all of you who have been following the blog and have been praying for
us and supporting this trip. It absolutely means the world to me.

Dichotomy

I've spent a lot of time in my blog poking fun at the ridiculousness
that is Central and South America. To someone raised in middle class
America, the rest of the world is a crazy place... but maybe I'm the
odd one.

Less than 2% of the people in the world own a car and yet I usually
own 2 or 3 by myself. Nearly a billion people will go to bed hungry
tonight and about the same number don't have access to clean water,
yet we in America have plenty of both. I don't think that we should
feel guilty about this, but this trip has been a constant reminder
that OUR world is not THE world.

So what about all the whining about bus drivers and onions in my
pizza? Let's just say that my worst day in South America is better
than my best day plumbing a house in America. This is an amazing
place.

Make no mistake, I believe that I live in the greatest country on the
face of the earth. Through none of my own doing and simply luck of
the draw I was born an American. As I talk to people down here, I
don't think the average person has any concept of how much they've
been given from our country. When I was sick I was able to go to the
doctor and practically be given medicines that were developed in the
US and that I still would have to pay a fortune for in the US.

People everywhere have been extremely nice to us personally, it's just
really hard for me to hear people say that America is selfish when I
know that money gets taken out of my paychecks and sent to rebuild
Pisco. Maybe that's how God feels when I complain about onions in my
pizza :)

Update: We are in way southern Peru again. We struck out on
opportunities in Chile and rather than have to go farther south only
to come north again for our flight home, we headed to Arequipa.
Tomorrow we are starting the monsterous task of wiring a big Nazarene
church. They've had their building completed for a while, but didn't
have anyone capable of wiring it. I'm hoping me and my 3 newly
christened electrician friends can do the bulk of it in 3 days, but we
could use your prayers. It's big and it's complicated.

Blur

It turns out Machu Piccu is a pretty difficult place to get to. You
would think that one of the biggest tourist attractions on the
continent would have a little easier access, but it takes several
buses, taxi rides, and a train to get there.

After a long bus ride to Cusco, we decided to just go ahead and take a
taxi to the Sacred Valley, which is the jumping off point to MP.
Surrounded by mountains on all sides, this has to be the most gorgeous
small towns that I've ever seen.

That's pretty much the last thing I remember for about 24 hours. I was
just plain sick. I encouraged the guys to go on without me to Machu
Piccu. Maybe I'm just weird but I've never had any real interest to
visit there anyway. I definitely would have liked to go with the guys,
but there wasn't any way it was going to happen.

The next day I woke up still weak, but I was able to eat a pancake. We
hung around the town and watched some (ok, a ton) of tv and the guys
got in a pretty cool good deed. We decided to go out to dinner and I
was going to give pizza a shot because I figured it would be
predictable. I ordered a personal pepperoni pizza. When I got it, it
had peppers, onions, and mushrooms (3 things I DESPISE on pizza)
hidden under the cheese, which made it impossible to pick off. I
scraped the entire top of the pizza off and just ate crust. Having
only eaten 1 pancake and 1 tic tac in 48 hours, our waiter was lucky
he didn't ask how my food was. Of course, that's pretty much been the
story of South American food. You can be as broad as possible
("without vegetables") or as specific (listing every vegetable you
don't want on your food) and they're going to cram it in there anyway.
It's beyond just being picky about vegetables, though. The general
rule south of the border for Americans is "if you didn't wash it
yourself or you can't peel it, don't eat it."

So we took another long taxi ride back to Cusco, and found the only
bus leaving during the day to Chile. It was Ormeño. That's the company
that canceled our bus leaving Columbia and then was late the next day.
We weren't thrilled, but customer service outdid themselves this time.
Since it was our only option, I pulled out my credit card and got
ready to pay the bill. Despite at least 10 Visa and Mastercard signs,
we were informed "we don't take credit cards." Cory and I hit the ATM
and got some Soles. When we got our tickets, they were for a different
bus company. That's when we found out that Ormeño "doesn't go to
Chile." Nice. When we got on the bus, it was about 100 degrees. We
talked to the guy about it and we were told "we don't have air
conditioning" and "the windows don't open." It was a long night. I was
awake for pretty much the entire night. The smell of indigenous foot
cheese was unbearable. I tried tucking my nose in my shirt, putting my
pillow over my face and chewing "Menta Intensa" tic tacs, but nothing
helped. I almost stuck a tic tac up each nostril, but I thought that
might be going too far.

We arrived at a town close to the Chilean border where we got off the
bus and that's where we found out we had to take a taxi to another bus
terminal. We took 2 taxis with the other Americans we had met in Peru.
We were actually kind of embarrassed when our taxi filled with 5 men
pulled up to the second terminal blasting Justin Bieber. We don't pick
the music.

We arrived at terminal 2, but instead of a bus, Ormeño had setup for
us to actually finish the journey in a taxi. First class all the way.
Well, when I say us, I mean the 4 of us and a random Peruvian woman
carrying insane amounts of toilet paper and Inca Cola. 6 of us in a
1990s Crown Vic with all of our stuff. It's a beautiful thing.

The awesome news is that we are in Chile and it looks great. We almost
cried when we saw a billboard for a McDonald's. We haven't actually
seen said McD's, but it gives us hope that Chile's going to be a
magical place.

On the way to Machu Picchu

Peru has been a lot different than the other countries that we have
been to. We've heard a lot about the dangers in various parts of the
country and that's what actually led us to Pisco. It may be chaotic,
but it's a slower speed chaos. As opposed to the taxis and buses we
have been taking all over, Pisco is filled with tootoots. They are
enclosed vehicles where the driver sits in the front with a motorcycle
handlebar and 2 (or in our case 3) people cram in the back. There's
one wheel up front and 2 in the back.

Driving here is utter madness. There really aren't any rules. On a
road that we would consider as being one lane in each direction, they
easily drive 4 and 5 wide. One minute you're driving on the left, the
next you're on the right. There is constant honking and squeezing in
amazingly tight places. It's not really dangerous because you're
almost never above 15 mph, but it's still crazy. That's actually
another thing--since we arrived in Guatemala, we have been shocked
that we have never made body contact with another vehicle. That's
pretty incredible considering that there have been at least 10 times
we came within an inch. In fact, the only car accident we saw on the
trip was 2 days ago. The 4 of us had just driven in 2 tootoots. About
15 seconds after we got out of them they both slammed into each other
pretty good.

During our extreme makeover project I kept wishing that we could build
something bigger, but when we finished the build I realized that we
had done exactly what we were supposed to do. I feel that it was
definitely a hand up and not a hand out. A lot of people in Pisco sit
around and wait for people to give them something. This family was out
there working and just needed some help to get over the hump. Plus,
the girls who are ages 6, 8, and 10 were definitely old enough to get
their own room and old enough to appreciate it.

Oh and speaking of the Good Deeds Fund, when I started it I took a lot
of grief from individuals who didn't "get it.". I understand that
there is a lot of need in the US, but the GDF has added so much to
this trip. I wasn't sure if people would actually give to it in the
beginning, but you gave and gave and gave. I don't have the computer
in front of me, but you gave around $2,600 and we still have around
$900 to spend. There's more good stuff to come.

As I write this I am on a double decker bus. Jordan and I have the
worst two seats on the bus -- top level (second class) in the back
row. I've felt a little queasy (and I don't normally get motion
sickness), but as we've been weaving through the Peruvian Andes I'm
feeling a little sick. The girl in front of me was about to puke, but
I gave her a Dramamine and I think it kicked in just in time. That
wasn't a 100% selfless act. Someone threw up during our epic 36 hour
bus trip in a totally different compartment and it managed to run
under the door into my section. I'll pass out Dramamine to the whole
bus. Plus it knocked her out, so she's not reclining into our knees.

Extreme Makeover: Peruvian Home Edition

(This is a simulpost with the Good Deeds Blog...I will post another
blog with my thoughts ASAP)
Ok...so we're not exactly Tye and his crew, but we try. After
visiting some of the most devastated regions of Pisco, we quickly
figured out that we were not equipped to go into those areas and just
start building. We were pretty sure that we would have either been
mobbed or had our tools stolen.

We did, however, meet Jimmy. Jimmy was the man who sold us our tour to
the islands. He lived with his wife and 3 daughters in a single room.
One of the things that stuck out to us about Jimmy was that he was an
extremely hard worker. He would get up at 5am and drive his toot-toot
(a motorcycle-ish taxi vehicle). He would work in the tour company
from 10am to 5pm and then after eating dinner and putting the girls to
bed, he would go out and drive the toot toot again.

Thanks to the help of many donors, we were able to build them a
bathroom, a new kitchen, and renovate their back room so that for the
first time Jimmy and his wife had a room separate from their 3 girls.
We also built bunk beds (and bought mattresses and pillows) for the
girls. (The bunk bed had more wood than their entire house. The family
joked that if there was another earthquake, they were all getting in
the bunk bed!).

The opportunity to see the looks on the girls faces as they went into
their (still unpainted) room was absolutely priceless. They climbed
all over the beds and seemed so joyful to have a place that they could
call their own. We bought the girls pink paint so they could paint
everything. They will be sending pictures in a week or so.

It didn't seem right to build a kitchen and not fill it with food, so
we went to the grocery store and got all the food that the four of us
could carry. It was very cool. We bought everything from big
quantities of staples like rice and beans and milk and chicken to
luxuries such as cereal and cookies. Of all the gifts that were given
to this family, it was the food that made them cry.

The icing on the cake was meeting the people from Pisco sin Fronteras
(Pisco without Borders). It's an organization where 20 and 30
somethings from around the world come and donate their time and skills
to take on projects in the community. It was an amazing place. I wish
we could have done more with them. They have done so many cool things
with so few resources. We were able to donate the drill, circular
saw, jig saw, hammers, and all the hardware and other miscellaneous
tools that we had leftover from the project to them.

As a town, Pisco was far from our favorite, but the relationships we
built and the things that were accomplished in just a few short days
will stick with us forever. We also want to thank Jen, Amanda, the
Mackeys, Debby, Annie, Ruth, Rebecca, Sandy, Courtnay, Mary, and some
other people who gave anonymously for contributing towards this
project. Your donations had a huge impact on this family.

Devastation

We read in our guidebook that there was an 8.2 earthquake down here in
2007, but that really couldn't prepare us for what we saw once we got
here. When you go out on the roof of our 5 story hostel (the hotels
were the first buildings rebuilt in the area), it's nearly impossible
to see a building that doesn't still have damage 3 years later. 70%
of the homes in the area were completely destroyed.

While Pisco doesn't have the dark, dangerous feel of the northern
cities, it's pretty obvious that the people here are pretty beat up.
The US and other countries gave lots of money to help rebuild this
place, but most of it didn't make it to the actual people. Instead,
they've built homes out of bamboo and tarps and whatever scraps of
wood they can find. We're not talking about a few houses, we're
talking about thousands upon thousands of houses. No plumbing. No
running water. 35,000 families that used to have nice adobe homes now
live in plastic.

When we visited the villages, it became really obvious that we weren't
going to be able to provide even a drop in the bucket to help these
people. As we walked from house to house and heard the stories and
saw the homes, people began to argue with each other about who should
get our help. I felt so helpless to alleviate these people's
problems. In fact, the people were so desperate (although they
treated us kindness) that we feared if we brought tools and materials
in that we would probably cause a mob. We didn't think it was very
wise for our small group to work there.

We went in a different direction. Earlier in the day, we met Jimmy.
Along with everyone else, Jimmy lost his house and had begun to
rebuild. Jimmy is the guy who sold us our tour to the islands
yesterday. He looks to be in his 30s, has a wife and 3 young girls
all living in one small room. 5 people. 2 beds. They built a separate
kitchen outside the house and that's about it. After doing some
talking with them, we decided that we are going to be able to move
some walls and doors and build the girls a bedroom in what is
currently the kitchen, build a new kitchen, build a bathroom, and make
a place for Jimmy and his wife in the existing house.

We know that we can't help everyone, but we can definitely help this
family. It's been a long day and we have another few long days of
construction ahead of us. I'll share a few pics of the earthquake. If
you take away some rubble and some power lines, the city pretty much
looks exactly the same.

Oh, we did get to visit the poor man's Galapagos today and see
penguins and sea lions and all that stuff. It was really cool, but
today was about the people.

Oops. We're in Peru -- Part 2

Note: This was supposed to have posted yesterday with part 1.

Part 2 - Sunday 3:11pm

We have been traveling for 26 hours. Our electronics are dead and you've missed a lot. We got to Piura around 10pm on Saturday and it was an absolute dump. The difference when we crossed the border was astonishing. We left the beautiful landscapes and amazing atmosphere of Ecuador and landed in what felt like Mogadishu. The only place in our Hemisphere that could even compare to Peru was El Salvadore.

 

Even though it was very late, we decided to catch a bus farther south to Trujillo. We got tickets on the upper level (second class) of a double decker bus and went to look for some grub. When we had first gotten to Piura, we had seen all these people grilling meat on the streets. It looked and smelled good, but by the time we had gotten our tickets, most of the grills had packed up. I finally found one and we were so excited, until I realized that we could identify the facial expressions of the chickens on the grill. Off to the gas station we went. We grabbed hot dogs and headed back to the terminal.

 

When we got on the bus, I went through the usual routine of establishing how far the seat in front of me could recline. The only difference was that this time the guy had reached behind the seat and felt that it was my knee before he repeatedly smashed it. In fact, I awoke in the night from a dead sleep to the guy making one last attempt to fully complain where I promptly placed his seat in the full and upright position.

 

After 10 whole minutes of driving we got stopped for 45 mins for our driver apparently hit a cone. I wasn't out there, but I'm pretty sure the police were just looking for a bribe. We eventually got back on the road only for the bus to break down 10 mins later. The lady in the row ahead of me was repeatedly banging on the glass telling the bus driver "let's go!".  I guess he thought we were sitting there taking a break after 20 mins of driving.  We sat for over an hour waiting for a replacement bus.  There really wasn't any kind of instruction so I decided to go to the luggage compartment and I was in a foul enough mood that I bear hugged both my bag and Cory's and walked to the new bus. I was pretty determined that our bags were going with us. It was a good thing.

 

Let me paint a picture for you. The bus was parked on the very edge of the road with MAYBE 1 foot of sand between the bus and a 100 foot drop (steep hill, not a cliff). I made the treacherous trip, but our bus driver didn't. Well, he did, but he was carrying luggage from the other bus. In losing his footing, he decided (wisely) to drop the passenger's bag which I watched roll all the way down the hill. We looked at each other. He shrugged and went about his business, leaving the bag.

 

We got to Trujillo, Peru at around 8am, and found that it was only slightly better than the previous 3 towns in Peru that we had been in, so we bought tickets for Lima on a 9:30 bus. Thus began another food search which after a few of the worst street vendors and restaurants that I've personally seen, led us to another gas station. We also bought something that was a cross between a Jamaican beef patty and an empenada.

 

Our bus left 30 mins late, but this time we were in first class. Since Cory and I had stayed up till 5:30am talking, I slept a good bit on this bus. We awoke at the nicest restaurant that we had seen in Peru (that's not saying much). Jordan tried to order the guinea pig (it's called puy), but they didn't have time because they have to kill it fresh and we were on a tight schedule. Cory had Chinese rice (with hot dogs in it) and the rest of us had steak and rice and fries. It was our first real food in 48 or so hours.

 

The culture here is so different. It's one thing for people to jump in line, but here people will literally push you out of the way. When I was fully loaded with my backpack waiting to order food, you had a 16 old girl actually use 2 hands to push me out of the way to order at the register. That's been happening the whole time we've been in this area. I'm a good foot taller and a lot bigger than almost everyone here, so that's pretty bold. After watching 4 people jump the line and no one seeming to get upset, I literally went from the back of the line to the register, ordered my drink (while the girl was already looking in the fridge from someone else), plopped my 2 soles (Peruvian $) on the counter and walked away. It's a different world here.

 

As we have gotten outside of the northern cities, the scenery has turned breathtaking. We have spent hundreds of miles driving along the Panamerican Highway with sandy dunes on the left as far as they eye can see and the teal waters of the pacific to our right. This is the Peru I have been hearing about. I love it.

 

We don't have any intentions of spending the night in Lima. We will catch another bus (that's 4 if you're keeping track) for the 90 min ride from Lima to Pisco. Pisco is the jumping off point to what they call the poor man's Galapagos. It's supposed to be a wildlife wonderland with penguins and all sorts of exotic animals.

 

I don't know if there's gonna be a 3rd part of this blog, today, but I hope so. Our electronics all have low batteries from the long trip. The Phillies game ended 18 hours ago and I still have no idea what happened. Hopefully I can get the internet somewhere and send this. Our bellies are full and the scenery is breathtaking, so don't worry about us.

Update: We are safe and sound and rested in Pisco.

Oops. We're in Peru

Have you ever woken up one morning and kind of accidentally found yourself in another country?  Ok, it's happened to me a few times, but I don't think that's normal. I really don't know what happened. I woke up earlier than everyone else, so I went to the internet cafe and posted my blog and answered a few emails. I went back to the room and got the other guys and we went back to a different cafe to work on our finances and answer the rest of our emails. After another call to our person who was showing us around, we just couldn't seem to catch each other. We decided to go to the bus terminal and research bus tickets for tomorrow.

 

Before I knew it we had found a bus ticket that was leaving in 2 hours. We sprinted back to the hostal, grabbed our stuff ate some lunch and our on our way to Peru.

 

You should probably know that we bought our tickets to fly home on Nov 14 from Lima, Peru. So anywhere we go from this point, we are going to have to return to Lima. With our end date fixed, if we want to go farther south, we need to get there soon.

 

A few days ago, we spent a lot of time praying about and discussing our schedule. The short version is that we are not going to Argentina and we are going to Bolivia?  Once we started looking at our schedule, it was pretty obvious. The original thing that kept us out of Bolivia was that there is a $135 visa to enter it (it's good for 5 years), but when we started looking at it, we were going to spend that in bus rides from Chile to Buenos Aires and back, and we would save at least 100 hours on the bus by going to Bolivia instead. It's supposed to be an amazing country.

 

Also, by shortening the trip from the three months to two months, it has allowed us to expend our daily budget. Now we don't have to draw straws to see who's fasting each day and our bathrooms are attached to our hotel room. Last night they even gave us SHAMPOO in our hotel room. That's a first on this trip. For the last 40 days I have been using my 5 in 1 that I put in a 12 oz coke bottle. Well a week ago, I downsized to an 8 oz bottle. What's 5 in 1?  On this trip it has been my shampoo, conditioner, body wash, hand soap, and laundry detergent. Seriously. It's versatile stuff. I kinda figured if it's good enough to get the stank off my body, it would probably work on my clothes.

 

It also looks like we are going to get to go to Macchu Pichu (google it) and a few other cool places along the way.

 

I had mixed emotions about ordering our plane tickets home. It will be sad for this trip to come to an end. We have really bonded as a group. After 40 days we haven't really had any fights and we are just really enjoying what we're doing. On the other hand I'm ready to be back in the US. I'm just sad the Ft. Lauderdale airport doesn't have a Taco Bell for our 6 hour layover.

The Benefits of Smoking

Ok this is important enough that I'm going to post it as my blog and the good deeds blog. It's long and complicated, so follow along. :)

 

We arrived in Loja after a 5 hour bus ride and had a quick meeting that we had hoped would land us some opportunities...it didn't. So we had a 5:30 meeting that our host was 30 mins late for and then she had to bail and reschedule for 9:30pm. She was an hour and 45 mins late for that meeting, only to take us to a loud, hot, smoke filled club. She has been incredibly helpful to us, but this atmosphere just wasn't working.

 

If you know me, you know that I can't stand smoke. It makes me angry. After about 20 people blew smoke in my direction, I felt like I wanted to punch someone, so we just took a cab and went back to our hostel.

 

We were supposed to meet with some orphanages the next day, but after the previous night, we were just ready to go in our own direction and find some places by ourselves. We heard about an orphanage, but the directions we had lead us to a Catholic home for seniors.

 

The nuns who run the place were less than enthused with our presence. They must not have read our blog about taking the other nuns to the mall, so there was no Sister Act 2. After a hasty tour of the place we were heading towards the gate, this woman screamed out in English (who are my peers?).

 

I should back up for a moment. When you're backpacking, you're limited to 5-7 days worth of clothes max, so every item is important. I had made fun of Cory for wearing an old First Baptist Youth shirt that had listed a bunch of people from the bible as our peers on the back. It's not that it's a bad shirt, it just wasn't very cool either.

 

So this lady asked us to come in and explain the shirt...and that's where we met Sarah. She was totally isolated from the rest of the population on the other side of the home and she is a phenomenal woman. Born in Austria, she speaks 17 languages fluently and has visited 127 countries and yet she was all alone.  Not being Catholic (or even a Christian) she was isolated from everyone...unable to move. She literally had no hip after receiving a bad operation 4 years ago.

 

She has been in movies with Elizabeth Taylor and even Shakira!  Craziness. During the Cuban revolution, Che Guavara hid some defectors at her farm in Jamaica on their way to the US. I would have absolutely thought she was crazy if I hadn't seen pictures of some of these things with my own eyes.

 

I was amazed that she immediately recognized that Jordan was Persian without him even saying his last name. She had lived in Iran for 3 years and said that it was her favorite country. She actually cried and sang him some songs in Farsi. She was so happy to be able to speak it one last time.

 

The moment she found out I was a pastor, she began to cry. She knew that her life was almost over and that she had lived it for herself. She had been asking the people at the home for THREE years to bring a pastor to her to tell her about Jesus, but they wouldn't do it. So, she asked me to tell her and I did. Today she decided to give her heart to Jesus and to try to live the rest of her days being a light in that dark place. And the only reason we were in that room was because I hate cigarette smoke, Elias asked our front desk clerk to give us (yet another) set of bad directions, and Cory wore that stupid shirt.

One of the other cool things is that we were able to go into town and find a pastor of a local church who was willing to start visiting her.  She had been suicidal and felt like there was no hope for this life or the life to come, so we felt like it would be really important to have someone follow up.  I have to admit that I was a little scared that we would leave the country and that she wouldn´t ever have another visitor again, but the pastor actually called her BEFORE we made it back to the nursing hime and agreed to start meeting with her regularly. I thought that was pretty amazing.

 

Thanks to gifts from Mercedes, Philip, and Donna, we were able to buy her prescription glasses (she had none and couldn't read anything), a large print bible, some groceries and hygiene items. I think the icing on the cake was a bouquet of fresh cut flowers for her room. Their gifts also went to buy medicine for a woman with muscular dystrophy, and food for her, her daughter (who is a single mom) and her young grandson (who also got a sweet soccer ball). We were trying to buy some medicine for the daughter, but we couldn't, so we bought tons of food so they could use their own money to buy the medicine.

 

So what started out as a terrible night followed by a lousy morning turned into the best day of the trip so far.

To see all of the other good deeds blog entries, visit http://yourfundsatwork.blogspot.com

Too Much Cowbell

I'm sorry, but there's no way I can write this blog without whining a bit about the Latin American bus drivers. After getting up at 4am to catch the bus, I we got settled in and I fell asleep. I awoke to more blairing calypso music with an insane amount of cowbell. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as too much cowbell.

 

After about 2 hours of this torture, the bus driver decided that we had enough, so he turned the floor over to a salesman.   This wasn't your normal salesman. This was a 60 year old man wearing a headset and had a speaker attached to his belt. Yes boys and girls, his terrible sales pitch needed amplification.  He was selling random no-name medicines to cure ailments such as parasites. He had all sorts of visual aids and everything. On a bus. He spoke for FIFTY minutes. He explained the ailments of Sylvester Stallone, Julia Roberts, and even Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson???  Do you know why Michael Jackson is dead?  Because he took medicine from a quack!!!!

Do you want to know the craziest thing?  At least half the people on the bus bought pills!  Maybe it was because during one of his illustrations he actually set something on fire. On a moving bus. Gotta love this place.

 

Maybe I need to change my poll question on my blog. I guess for now you can answer in the comments section. All of the bathrooms here have signs about washing your hands, but 99% of them don't have soap. What do you do in this situation?  Are you more sanitary NOT washing your hands than touching the nasty sink that no one else had soap at?  Hand sanitizer has worked in this situation, but what if that's not available?  Good thing I have my Hep and Typhoid shots.

It Just Got Epic-er

Yesterday (Sunday) was another great day and was even more epic than our trip into the Amazon.  We woke up early and headed with Diego in the 4x4 pickup for Mt. Cayambe. Unlike our cable car journey a few days ago, we headed up this one in the truck.

 

The weather went from hot to blustery as we climbed the barely passable roads. In fact, I would easily say that these were the worst roads I've ever been on. We bounced and bucked up the mountain. We forded a river and dodged cows, pigs, chickens, dogs, and even donkeys.

 

As we neared 15,000 feet the diesel engine struggled to get enough oxygen to run (and so did I). We finally reached the end of the road. From there it was all hiking.  It was the most insane ride of my life.

 

 As soon as I got out of the truck, I was pretty dizzy. Due to the relatively warm weather (for this altitude), the snow was a decent amount above us. I knew their was no way that I was going to do any difficult climbing. I told the guys to go look for the snow and I climbed another 500 feet of altitude's worth of rocks and decided to hang out. At that height, breathing was pretty rough, but the scenery was even more breathtaking. It was the first time in a long time that I was able to just be alone and sit down and enjoy some solitude.

 

The guys did reach a little bit of snow, but I was enjoying where I was. I was literally in the clouds. It was an amazing experience that I will never forget.

 

We all met back at the truck and headed for the most incredible lakes I've ever seen. It was a giant lake with huge mountains strewn throughout it. Over and over I wish that I had a big enough camera to capture things exactly as I've seen them. You just have to be here to appreciate the beauty of this country. It's absolutely true that the eye never gets enough of seeing. On every car and bus ride I just stare in awe of my surroundings.

 

One thing I love about some of the countries down here is that the traffic lights go from green to green and yellow to red and before they turn green again, they turn yellow and red. This gives people the opportunity to start honking before the light turns green. Love it!!!  I wish we had this in NJ. It's so hard to wait for the light to turn all the way green to start honking. My goal is for the red light to be still pink before I honk!

 

Also, Cory bought a guitalele. It's like a small guitar:ukelele (sp?). It's really cool. Now he is a content guy! 

5 Guys in a Van with Candy

We had another amazing day in Ecuador. We actually forgot to set an alarm to meet the pastor at 7am. Fortunately I woke up at 6:07 on my own (or God woke me up :)

We got up, met the pastor and ventured into the Amazon Jungle. After all the bumpy bus rides, a few hours in a van on rocky roads wasn't too bad and the scenery was magnificent. We saw waterfalls, white water rapids, wild pineapples and cocoa trees.

We set out to visit 3 villages and see what was going on. We came to a small village where the Baptist Church had already been completed. We talked to some people in the town and took some pictures. We climbed a giant hill where we could overlook the entire village.

This is where we met Mateo. He's a cute kid and we all took pictures with him and just had a good time overall. Before we left, we headed to the center of the village and began to give out candies to the few kids that were around. Before we knew it, we had around 100 kids out there. It was incredible. I think they were coming from surrounding villages.

The funniest part was that at the end of our time handing out candy, Mateo came back out and handed me a papaya. It was pretty cool. So I've been carrying around a papaya all day.

We headed to another village where they were replacing the roof on their temporary church. It's really important to the Christians in these indigenous villages to have an actual church building. They want a place that's entirely set apart for God.

The most amazing sight of the entire trip came between the second and third villages. We came upon a stream where kids ages 4-6 were out there washing their clothes in the river. They weren't just dipping their clothes but they were just going about their business banging their clothes on rocks and scrubbing their clothes with soap and a brush. There was no adult present. They were just doing it. In America we are pretty happy if our kindergarteners don't eat the glue. How are these people not the most advanced civilization on earth???

We visited the last village and saw their building in progress. These buildings are so simple. I'm pretty sure 3 guys could build a church a week for $1000 each.

We didn't get to do any electrical work in the villages, but there's a huge need for it. They have power out here but the houses aren't wired. Sometimes several huts share one light. There's just no knowledge of how to hook this stuff up.

We also visited the hotel that we would be staying in about an hour outside the Amazon. It's a nice place and it's $7 per night. Oh and FYI, diesel is $1 per gallon here and gas is $1.40.

I had another fun event happen today. After the first village wiped us out of candy, I went to a little store and pretty much bought them out of lollipops, gum, and small candies. (The lady gave me $9 in nickles, dimes, quarters, and 50 cent pieces). We gave this candy out at the last 2 villages. When we got on the bus for Quito, I still had a fair amount of candy left. I tried to get Elias to give it out, but he didn't want to, so I decided to do it. For some reason the locals got a pretty big kick out of the big gringo making two rounds through the crowded bus passing out all sorts of dulces.

Back to my title... I guess there's not a stigma in Ecuador about 5 guys in a blue van passing out candy to kids. We had a stream of them following us the whole way. You haven't seen a hardcore kid until you've seen a 4 year old sprinting barefoot down a rocky dirt road and jumping on the bumper of a moving vehicle just to get some candy.

The Amazing Thing About This Trip...

I'm sitting in a church I'm not supposed to be in that's located in a town that I'm not supposed to be in. Maybe I should back up a few hours.

After wandering around Puyo, Ecuador and finding nothing yesterday, we got up this morning and checked our email and ate breakfast. We had read online that there was a Baptist ministry center here, but we couldn't find any contact info. We asked people in restaurants, people in the hotel, and even cab drivers, but no one had even heard of it.

So we headed to the bus terminal to catch a bus to Tena, our next town (where we also didn't have anything lined up). As we entered the bus terminal, I decided that I wanted to go get a water for the trip. One of the weird (and frustrating) things about Central and South America is that every store or market booth has nearly EXACTLY the same thing. One market may be totally different than another, but every booth will have nearly identical items. I really don't get it. If someone would ever catch on that people like variety, they would probably be rich.

I walked down the aisle of 10 identical stores and felt like I should pass by the first two stores. I walked to the third store and got my water (25 cents) and a pack of Tic Tacs (30 cents!) and the guys came over and bought some Cokes. Elias gave one more try asking about the ministry center and it turns out that she's Baptist. We told her what we were doing and she put us in a cab (and paid for it) and sent us to her Pastor's house.

After meeting with the pastor and sharing our mission, he agreed to show us the ministry they're doing in the indigenous areas tomorrow. A church from Canada used to come there and it costs basically $200 for a week of food, lodging, and construction materials in this area to do a mission trip.

Then we asked him if there was anything we could do for their church. I guess that's where I should fill you in on another decision. A few days ago, I decided that I needed to buy some simple electrical tools here. Electrical work is something many people need down here and I have the skills, so I bought 2 full sets of tools for $11 and we came to the church and fixed 10 light fixtures as well as some other little safety things around the church.

I think today has been so indicative of our trip. When we have our radar up and our hearts open, it's been amazing some of the doors that have opened. Oh, and we asked the pastor what we should bring to the village tomorrow. He suggested that we bring some candy. Guess whose store we're going to buy a bunch of candy from?

One last thing...we took the pastor out to lunch. We all got a huge bowl of some sort of delicious pasta soup, grilled chicken, rice, homemade fries, salad, and dessert. The total bill for 5 people...$13.

An Incredible Day

If you saw a funny pic at the beginning of this blog with a little kid and an old lady, there's a funny story about it. (If you didn't see the pic, it means I screwed up when I posted my blog).

 

Diego, my foreign exchange student brother from the mid 1980s was working when we arrived to Ecuador, so he gave THAT picture to his wife so she would recognize me. Haha. I love it. I think she was expecting a little kid. And how happy did I look in that pic?  I was with my great great great great (seriously) Aunt Edna. It was one of the 1.7 million pictures taken of me as a kid and the reason why to this day I hate having my picture taken (or picture "made" for my southern friends).  It's also the reason why you see about 5x more pictures of the other guys than me.  We did get a lot of good pics today including some with Diego's son Daniel who was named after me.

 

We had an amazing day on Wednesday. We got to sleep in a little bit (for me that was 6:50am). After catching up on some email we ate some breakfast and took a drive to the mountains. We took a cable car up to 13,400 feet and then hiked the next 1000 feet (which is a lot harder than it sounds). The guys went a bit farther up another hill, but with my asthma I knew it was a bad idea to go any farther, so Diego and I chilled at 14,400 for a while. It was very cold and very windy.

 

After an amazing lunch that even included homemade tangerine and raspberry sorbet we headed off to the equator. Before I tell you about that, I have to stop and tell you a bit about the food. I've always heard that Ecuadorian food was terrible, but we haven't had a bad meal here. This place is second only to Nancy's cooking in Panama in terms of the food.

 

Back to the equator. We had a great time there doing stupid things in multiple hemispheres.  I got some cool postcards and we headed to...the mall. I have been on a quest through 5 countries looking for a pair of shoes and a sweatshirt. Shoes have been totally impossible here. I had to settle for some insoles in Columbia to make my existing shoes more comfortable...only for them to start ripping a few days later. Sweatshirts are a different story. I'm not a huge guy, but I can't find a shirt that fits me. Sizes run a lot smaller here. Jordan is a LARGE here. My forearm didn't fit in an XL and that's the biggest they have. Oh well, I grew up in New Jersey and survived about a Beka plus a foot of snow (that's 6 feet for non mudlets), so I can survive the Andes mountains with an Eddie Bauer windbreaker and short sleeves.

 

We got up at 4:30 this morning to head to Baños. That's actually a pretty unfortunate name for what's supposed to be a really nice place. This is the bumpiest bus ride to date. If we weren't in a luxury coach, I'm pretty sure my spine would be broken right now.

 

We have a 3 1/2 hour bus ride to Baños where we will spend a little time before taking another 90 mins to Puyo, which is an indigenous area in the Amazon where we will spend the night and try to make some contacts. Friday we will make our way a few more hours to Tena for some more contacts and then we will take a 5 hour bus ride back to Quito. I know you're jealous of our bus rides.

 

Well, I had planned to write more blogs and make them shorter, but that doesn't seem to be possible, so thanks for letting me unload.

Bogota, Buses, and Body Suits

We got a bonus day in Columbia. After going to a late church service at one of the largest Wesleyan churches in the world, we took a taxi all the way across the city only to find out that our bus had been canceled.

 

We definitely didn't mind spending another day in Columbia, but if we knew ahead of time that we were spending an extra night, we definitely would have left our stuff at the hostel, went to an early service, and enjoyed the city. As it was, we didn't find out about the cancellation until 6pm, so the day was pretty much shot.

 

The good news is that they had already given our room away in the hostel, so they gave us a really cool place with a private bath, private kitchen, hammock, loft, and cable tv. I couldn't have picked a better day to have cable because I got to watch both the Phillies and Eagles on tv. Most of the people down here are Yankees fans, or as they call them down here, the New Jork Jankees. Haha. The only downside was that the internet went out in the evening and never came back, so I couldn't post a blog.

 

So, we woke up at 5:15 am and took a taxi across the city, where the driver decided to rip us off on the price (we knew the cost because we had just taken a taxi the other way the day before).  I was pretty mad, but being in a foreign country I let it go.

 

Of course the bus was late in the morning, but we were all in a good mood. After 14 hours of delays and a lot of extra cost from taxi rides and an extra night in the hostel, we were on the bus. There was another inch or two of leg room compared to the Tica Bus, which made a huge difference.  I read a little and dozed a little and really enjoyed the Colombian countryside. To be honest, I thought it was the best bus ride we've had.  I had been reading about this route on other people's blogs and they acted like it was so miserable, but I loved it.

 

We had a few little issues along the way. Just as I had fallen asleep about 4 hours into the trip, the bus driver decided that the entire bus wanted to listen to mariachi music at about 110 decibels. It was ear drum piercing. I finally wound up putting my headphones on and wrapping my jacket around my head to block out the noise. Thank you Katy Perry, David Crowder, and Clark Howard  for saving me from the mariachi madness.

 

The local police decided to pull the bus over and search all of our bags. It actually wasn't bad at all. I felt like they were very respectful of our things. I'm surprised they didn't wear gloves for their own safety, but they were great. It's obvious that the police have done a lot to crack down on drugs. I'm pretty sure the only person to offer us cocaine was an American.

 

After being on the bus for 11 hours they stopped for dinner in the middle of nowhere. I think there's a rule where tour buses in both the US and around the world must stop at an overpriced restaurant where the bus driver eats free, we all pay far too much, and Diet Coke is not served.

 

The bus was pretty empty until we hit Cali, Columbia at about 11pm, where we picked up a ton more people. The chill atmosphere that we had worked so hard to cultivate (by showing episodes of How I Met Your Mother  on the laptop in the aisle) was totally gone.

 

We crossed into Ecuador at about 6am and spent about 2 hours doing immigration stuff at both sides of the border. It was another one of those places where you walk from one country to another and the bus picks you up on the other side.  We had no problems at all. In fact, it was the first time I've gone into a country other than the Mexico border zone without having to fill out immigration papers.

 

After about an hour (9am) we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast. We all ordered the simplest thing on the menu...carne asada and baked potatoes and the weirdest looking beans I've ever seen. The four of us ate for $18, which was great. Other than the beans and it being a little salty (and no Diet Coke :) the food was wonderful. I've had a lot of warnings that I'm not going to like Ecuadorian food, but so far so good.

 

We are at the 25 hour and 31 minute mark of the trip and so far so good.

 

If you've stuck with my blog this long, you've earned some more random info.

 

For those that sent me comments and emails about "only" having 9 stamps on my passport, I have been to 17 countries where they didn't stamp it and to Mexico over 100x where they didn't stamp it, and contrary to what Texans say, when I went to Texas to visit Keri, they didn't even ASK to see my passport. And I have 10 stamps, by the way.

 

The malls and stores in Columbia (and to a lesser extent in Central America) all feel it's necessary to put girls in their brand name outfits throughout the stores. So if you go into the toilet paper aisle, you'll be met with a girl in a fairy costume telling you why her tp is best. Gillett razors had girls in skin tight outfits shaving guys. We pried Jordan away before he paid his $2.

 

You can tell that you're not in America because they really get ticked if you want to make a substitution on your meal. I'm sorry that I don't want lulu juice, but I should be able to buy a different drink. One of the other weird things is that 2 people can order the same food and get different things. When Cory and I ordered ribs, he got baby back and I got normal pork ribs. Jordan and Elias both got arepas and Jordan's were cooked and Elias' were raw --and the waitress did her best to assure us that it was supposed to be that way.

 

We are getting dangerously low on How I Met Your Mother episodes. We're into season 5. That is terr (wait for it) ible.

 

Elias has been really bold with asking for pics. He decided that he wanted a pic with some Columbian soldiers. Always having our amigo's back, the 3 Americanos walked in the other direction. So, after asking for a photo, the military made him get out his passport. Haha. Oh Elias. After checking his ID, they posed for pics with all of us. I guess all our pretending that we didn't know him didn't work.

 

I made sure to tell the pastor of the Wesleyan church in Bogota that Philip who works at Disney said hi. It was a great church. I'd love to go back.

 

I'll end with showers.  The shower heads in Central and South America (if they have hot water) usually have the heater built right into the shower head. I thought this was brilliant until I actually used one. They almost never have hot water with any pressure. You either get a dribble of warm water or a spray of cold water.  Plus, as you'll see in the pic, they look kind of dangerous.

 

 

 

Who in the world?

Who in the world voted "other" in my poll? haha

On to Ecuador

I've actually tried a few times to make it to Ecuador, but thing's never worked out.  It's kind of the same thing as Los Angeles. I was in California at least 20 or 30 times before I ever made it to LA. One time I was about 30 mins away, when I had to turn around and head back to San Diego. I finally made it there. in 2008.

Our time in Columbia has been short, but good. It seemed like most of the doors closed here.  We had numbers of about 5 ministries that were all disconnected.  Today we are supposed to be going to a pretty cool church, though. So that should be cool.  We will have to bring all of our backpacks because we are checking out of the Platypus by noon (the church has SIX Sunday services).  I'm really hoping someone will be nice to us and give us a place to put our stuff.

We definitely made up for the food we had on Friday.  Yesterday I had both an amazing lunch and dinner.  Lunch was a mixed plate of grilled pork loin, chicken, and steak, with potatoes, salad, and some desert thingy.  It was wonderful.  I'll post pics.  Last night I was still pretty full from lunch so I got fruit filled crepes.  They had strawberries, tangerines, apricots, and a bazillion cherries in cream sauce.  Yummy.

I still haven't found a decent sweatshirt. Columbia is cheap for some things and ridiculously expensive for others.  A plane Nike sweatshirt was over $100 and some decent hiking pants were almost $150.  Craziness.  If you know me and my cheapness you know that I'd rather freeze. haha. 

Random site of yesterday... Not once, not twice, but THREE times yesterday we saw a pair of cheerleaders (in uniforms) holding hands rollerblading down the sidewalk.  What's even more weird is that each pair was wearing different uniforms.  Strange.

Finally!!!!!!

I can't believe that I'm finally in South America!  We woke up early this morning and headed off to the airport. I really like Copa Airlines. They covered our backpacks in thick plastic bags to keep them clean. They served a real meal on a 75 minute flight. Crazy.

 

We breezed through customs and I got my 9th passport stamp. When we went outside the weather was a perfect 67 degrees.  The city was beautiful.  The people have been amazingly nice. People directed us to the official taxi stand where they charged us half of what the regular drivers were wanting to charge.

 

As we drove through the city, I was pretty amazed. This place is pretty close to the size of New York, yet it feels open and airy. There are bike trails and bridges all the way through the city. The police and private security make things feel safe without wielding AK-47s like northern Central America.

 

We found the Platypus hostel. We have a room with 4 beds and high exposed wood beam ceilings. The place is probably 100 years old, but it feels well kept and inviting.

 

We ate probably the worst meal of the trip today. I guess I should say I pretty much looked at the worst meal of the trip. I ordered chicken and it had hair on it. Not like someone's hair, but like the chicken had a 5 o'clock shadow. I didn't touch it.  I did eat the potato. The other 3 guys ordered Cow Feet. I didn't even know they were edible. They're probably not. They had fur too. The weirdest part was that when we walked into the restaurant there were menus with Carne Asada and Hamburgers and there were empty glass Coke bottles all over the place. Every time we asked for one of those things, they said they didn't have it. Finally at the end of the meal we asked why they had all those things on the menu board and they said it was because it was from the restaurant that used to be there. And they only served pineapple juice and lulu juice. I don't know who or what lulu is, but I don't want its juice.

 

I'm going to have to buy a sweatshirt. After sweating 2 nights ago from a broken AC, we are all of a sudden in a place with cold nights.

 

Tomorrow we are going to try to find a good deed or two around here and explore the giant commercial part of the town, but so far Columbia has been one of my favorite places.

Panamania

Panama has been a great country. In terms of wealth, it's a stark contrast from Nicaragua and Honduras. It is also a place where we seem to have a lot of open doors. We are working on a photography mission trip to here and through Costa Rica and Nicaragua if Yebbie, Jamie, Ashlee, Keri, Janna and any of the other girls with cool cameras are interested. Basically, we would go into villages (even some thatched roof-type places) and offer free family photos to the entire town. It would be a good opportunity for the churches to get to know the people in their towns.  Also, most of the people in these areas don't have nice photos of their children.

 

There's one random thing I forgot to tell you about Costa Rica. We went into Burger King and ordered their new special...Hamburguesas Mexicanas. I kid you not, it is a Whopper Jr with 3 Doritos on it to provide "Mexican spice.". Haha. Elias was insulted.

 

We have had some good meetings down here. We really clicked with a pastor who ministers to people of the Kunas tribe. They live in thatched roof huts in a place that you have to ride 3 hours by bus then 2 hours in the back of a truck then 1 hour in a canoe to get there. The couple was just really young and cool and we seemed to have a lot in common. The Kunas are one of the shortest people groups in the world. I was trying to think of a creative word to describe them but I'm never one to use big words when diminutive ones will do. Anyway, we had a great time with them and the 2 other pastors that we met on the trip and I hope we can come back and do trips here soon.

 

If you're into clothes shopping, Panama is the place for you.  They have clothes here super cheap. I just bought 3 pair(s) of socks for 99 cents.   One of the weird things about the stores here is that checkouts are often in the back of stores and they're at these giant squares. There are about 15 cashiers and no sort of line. People just run when a register is open. Very strange.

 

Today I got to do some good physical work. We went to a church and installed the electric for a new computer lab and fixed some things around the church. It felt good to do that kind of work. It was a little difficult not having my tools, but it was worth it.

 

Guess what?  Tomorrow I'll be in SOUTH AMERICA!  How cool is that???  I've been hearing stories of SA since the mid 80s when we had a foreign exchange student come from Ecuador. The place seemed so out of reach, but tomorrow...we'll be there.

 

One last thing. Airlines are known for damaging the straps on backpacks, so it's been suggested that we put our backpacks in laundry bags. I forgot to get one before I left and I had been looking all over Central America. What's weird is that even though no one carried laundry bags, everyone had these washing machine covers. Who puts a cover over their washing machine???

To All My Short Friends....

I survived another long Tica Boooos ride.  The ride itself from Costa Rica wasn't very eventful.  It rained a lot of the way and since I was sitting on an aisle seat, I couldn't really even see out the window.

 

All of the real excitement was on the bus itself.  Being 6'2" tall and rather large framed, most bus and airplane seats aren't made for me. I try to be respectful of the person in front of me by not driving my knees into their back, I usually have my knees pressed against the metal frame of the seat.

 

Without fail about 10-15 times per ride, the person in front of me insists on pulling the handle and repeatedly bashing their seat back thinking that somehow my legs are going to shrink. I guess they don't teach physics down here.  Haha.

 

I had a really "special" guy in front of me on this trip. During the heavy rains, the roof of the bus was leaking on his wife's head. He was just kind of staring at the dripping water until I finally took my coat off and made a tent from the overhead compartment to the window curtain to catch the water. As I was sitting there freezing, he thanked me by constantly bashing my knees. Nice.

 

So, for all of my short friends out there...I know that everyone likes to recline their seats all the way back, but sometimes it just isn't possible to do it without breaking someone's legs.

 

Overall, I love Panama. It's a beautiful city. I've been hearing about Panama almost all of my life. When I was young, we had a foreign exchange student (Diego, whom we plan to visit on this trip) and he used to talk about visiting Panama. Also, my stepfather Rich (one of the greatest guys I've ever met) served in the Army in Panama back in the 70s. It's pretty cool to actually be here.  They say that Panama City is just like Miami, except people speak English here.

 

We were so blessed to have real home cooked food from our missionary friends, the Hubbards. I really enjoy going out to eat, but you can only do so many food courts and roadside stands before you just want some real food. I had a real hand-formed hamburger and actual salad with real fruit. You can't possibly imagine how good that tasted.

Ready to Ride

***This blog was written on Sunday, Oct 3. I have a new blog for today coming up later

I'm sitting here on the edge of my seat ready to go to Panama. I loved Costa Rica, but I'm ready to go on.

 

I made the mistake of dressing nice this morning. The Tica buses are notoriously cold so I decided to wear a decent shirt and decent shorts. Then we took a walk to the fresh market to get some bread.  It was soooo hot and now I feel all nasty.  Not exactly ready for a 15 hour bus ride.

 

Oh well, I feel like I'm ready to be back on the mission. The we will be spending the bulk of our time in Panama with a missionary, so that should be pretty cool. Over the next four countries we have some great places to stay. Once we leave Peru, though, we have some tough decisions to make. We have to decide if we are going down into Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay or if we're heading back to Central America or if we're heading home.

 

Our last decision about whether or not to go into South America was pretty rough on us. It took us about 3 days to finally make what we felt was the best decision. It was pretty stressful.

 

This trip has really made me want one of those old Toyota Land Crusier trucks. They're all over the place down here. I'll have to take a pic of one for ya.  I sold my Camaro before I left so when I get back, I'm gonna need some wheels.

 

It's kind of funny because we've all gotten into a mode of watching 2 sitcoms before we go to bed. We have one of those tiny netbook laptops with a 10" screen and a 5-way headphone splitter. So some nights all 4 of us way the wrong way on a bed and watch a few shows. It must be quite a site.

 

 

Taking nuns to the mall

Costa Rica has been rough for me. It's a beautiful country, but I've just felt in turmoil. I've been sick since I got here and our plans have been totally up in the air. Basically, we've spent all of our time in the capital. I'm feeling better though...just in time to go to Panama.

 

We leave for Panama tomorrow at noon, but I hope that this isn't my last time in Costa Rica. Even if it's just for vacation, I'd love to come back.

 

My impression of Costa Rica is that while there are definitely needs here, there is a stark contrast between here and the rest of Central America. Costa Rica is much more developed. Much more urban. In general, they're fairly well off.

 

That doesn't mean that we didn't go out looking for good deeds though.  We had a blast with today's deed, but before we get to that, there is one thing that I wanted to mention. Not every good deed makes it onto the blog. Sometimes the person who gave the money didn't want us to put it up and other times we just felt like it we should keep the good deed between the person who gave the money and the person who received the gift.

 

Today I literally opened our guidebook, looked at the map, said a prayer, pointed my finger and off to AlaJuela we went. We jumped on the bus and as we got closer to the town Elias woke up and told me that he didn't see the ocean. I guess somewhere in our conversations he missed the memo that we weren't going to the beach.

 

We wandered around the town a bit and eventually found a pizza place where we got some calzones and spaghetti. We asked the owner of the restaurant if he knew there was an orphanage or something and he pointed us into the right direction.

 

You'll have to read the good deeds blog but let's just say the day ended with us taking nuns to the mall.

 

So, with my stomach pains and broccoli allergy I haven't shared many insights of my travels.  First of all Costa Ricans are TERRIBLE with giving directions. In fact, I've figured out that their only goal is to tell you to go at least 3 blocks away so they don't have to admit they have clue of both where they are at or where you're trying to go.

 

I thought I'd have more insight for Costa Rica, but that's pretty much about it.

Blur

Costa Rica has been kind of a blur for me. My broccoli situation kicked into high gear on the trip here and I've basically been sick the whole time here. As far as capital cities go, San Jose has been the best of Central America. Somehow though, this isn't the Costa Rica that I wanted to experience.

 

We went to an orphanage outside of SJ today. It was an amazing place...the nicest orphanage I've ever been to. They had 35 children spread out over 4 or 5 houses. They had 2 inground swimming pool, a huge covered sandbox, and lots of other great stuff.  The people who ran it were great. I don't know that it's the kind of place that needed a ton of help, but it's nice to see how things can be when they're done right.

 

For me, it was just nice to take the 70 min drive out of the city.  Tonight we're couchsurfing and having a good time, although we're party poopers and in early for a Friday night.

 

The big thing looming over us is our decision of whether or not to venture into South America.  It's going to be a pretty big expense and with the upheaval in Ecuador, a big chunk of our open doors are now closed. If we're all honest with ourselves, we know that there are opportunities that we wish we would have taken in Central America. I have a feeling that our work here isn't done.

 

I'll keep you posted.We're making a decision tonight.

Standstill

If you're wondering why there has been a lack of blog updates...there's a very good explanation.  We've basically been at a standstill.  Jordan and I have been sick and the weather's been dreary.  I had literally opened the web browser and loaded Expedia to start looking at flights from San Jose to Quito, when I got an email telling me that Quito had been shut down because of an attempted coup.  Sooo, with Quito out, we are pretty much blocked from our main agenda in South America.  Our only real option is to fly to Uruguay in southern South America and do the trip from south to north, but that's going to be expensive. So we're waiting and praying and trying to figure out what in the world to do.

Broccoli

My comida china (not the cat Comida China) apparently had a little more in it than rice, shrimp, chicken, and pork. I must have gotten a bit of broccoli in it. That's actually pretty common for me at Chinese restaurants. When I got back to the room, my lips were burning, but I thought they were just chapped. From there it went to full on blisters on my lips and hives on my body.

 

Benadryl didn't do the trick, but it did knock me out for the better part of 2 days. The good news is that when I got to Costa Rica I was able to get the same meds that I take for this in the US. We'll see in a day or 2. So far it hasn't gotten worse.

 

Our last day in Managua we met a fantastic couple. They're building a school and I love the way they're doing things. The construction itself is great, but I love their philosophy even more. 

 

They decided to start at the K-3 level and decided that if a child doesn't start with them at K-3, they can't ever get in the school. I know that sounds harsh, but kids are different down here. They're raised differently. They're not disciplined. They run wild. They don't respect anything. This is a place where when people are done with their food they just throw their trash on the ground and don't think a thing about it.

 

So, this school is trying to change the culture of the kids from 3 years old up and so far it's working.  They fully believe that one day a future president of Nicaragua will come from their school and I fully believe them. We actually liked them so much a few hours after our meeting we went out to Pizza Hut with them and hung out a few more hours.

 

We got to San Jose after a 9 hour bus trip and arrived in pretty soggy conditions. It's pretty difficult to get oriented when you get to a new country. Our guidebook even said that the people in CR don't generally know where they're at, much less have the ability to tell you how to get someplace. After our 5th set of bad directions it was raining pretty good. I was uncomfortable with my hives and blisters, Cory had a stomach ache, and Jordan had a sore throat so we paid $15 each for a hostel. That's too much money but we are dry and it's clean and I think it comes with some sort of breakfast.

 

This morning (wed) we are probably going to take 5-6 more hours of bus rides to get to the Caribbean. That area seems to be where the doors are open and while San Jose is the nicest city we've been in since Guatemala City, I've still had enough of city life for now.

Soggy in Granada

Last night after dropping off our laundry, we went and got some Chinese food. Most of the mall Chinese places looked kinda sketch, but this one was amazing. I got fried rice with chicken, pork, and shrimp...a massive plate for $3. I had so much left over that I brought it back and fed some to a little kitty. We named him Comida China (Ko-Mee-Dah Chee-nah). He had a friend nearby that I named General Tso, but he was more skiddish. In the middle of the night I could see Comida sticking his arms under the door.

 

It's basically rained since we got here, so we haven't been able to do much. We made a trip to the market to look for a hammock, but it was a sloppy mess.

 

Jordan finished cutting Cory's hair this morning. They were using the clippers and the battery died, so Cory slept with a pretty punk haircut.

 

We had a break in the rain long enough to eat some delicious pizza at an outdoor cafe in this beautiful city. It was one of those great moments where you feel truly alive.

 

Tomorrow we leave Granada and head back to Managua. We'll buy our Tika Boooos tickets and head to Costa Rica on Tuesday. That should be a 9 hour trip. On Oct 3 we will make the 17+ hour drive to Panama and that should put us in South America on Oct 8.

 

Weirdest line of the night...Jordan to Cory, "Dude, the back of your head looks amazing."  I don't think I've ever heard those words before.

 

Oh and for all my Philly fan friends, I'm pumped about the Eagles and Phillies :)