On the Move: Panama!!

This week GAP Costa Rica went to Panama for three days because we have to be out of Costy for that long every 90 days because of the visas we have. So we got up at 1 in the morning and left for Panama to be there when the border opens up. Some of us stayed up and watched movies, others slept till 1. Looking back, I wish I had gone to bed because my plan of sleeping on the bus backfired when I couldn't get comfy enough to go to sleep, but the adventure continued anyway! We walked across the border on an extremely sketchy bridge that I was almost certain was going to fall. It is an old bridge that has been "fixed" by putting planks of wood over huge holes. However, we survived without damage so I suppose it wasn't too horrible. One more hour and two water taxis later, we were at the hostel! Although, it was more of a cheap resort than an actual hostel. It was practically right on the beach, from my room to the beach it was a short 5 min walk. What did we do as soon as we got there? Ran to the beach. I cannot tell you how much I absolutely LOVE the Caribbean. It wasn't all glitz and glam, though. We definitely roughed it with one backpack each, lots of carbs and starches for meals and showers weren't main priority. The next day we spent the morning at a nursing home. That was super interesting and new. One girl, Myra, made friends with a lady who is quite like her, an older man sat with us and told stories, he was fluent in English, we danced and sang praise songs in Spanish and English, and I'm pretty sure the guys were flashed by more old women than was desired but they were super happy we were there! That afternoon we went snorkeling. That was difficult due to the jellyfish that were around this week! I managed to not get stung, I even held one! I also found a conch shell but left it in Panama because it's illegal to take things out of the ocean and take it home. Which is totally dumb, what happened to finders keepers, losers weepers?! Oh well, I might live without it... Anyway, that night we played volleyball and had a weenie roast. For those of you who know my absolute hate and disgust of hot dogs will be proud to know I had 3. They really weren't horrible when roasted over the fire! We made s'mores with Chikeys as well! The next day we went to a village on the island we were staying on and played with the school kids! As we were walking up we heard drums and assumed that when the drums stopped that they would immediately jump us and eat us, but they were super civilized and sold us delicious bread for 50 cents! Such a pleasant surprise ;) there we danced and sang Spanish and English praise songs again! The kids loved the music and games we played with them. Another bizarre sight was walking up the seeing some of the boys cutting grass with machetes. That was another reason we thought they wanted to eat us, but you know, it happens. Some people shared testimonies in Spanish to all the kids before we left. When we left there we had the rest of the day at the hostel to have lunch then relax. At the beach, some of the island kids we had been playing with found us and swam in the ocean and played volleyball with us! However, there was a great loss on the beach that day. I have gone through my second pair of flip flops since I got here. I was exploring on rocks and the left one just ripped apart. Sorta ridiculous actually! That led me to walk through the jungle bear foot. Now THAT was awful. BUT I did see a monkey walking back from the beach that day, so that kinda makes up for it. My plan for next semester is to bring 5 pairs of old navy flip flops with me instead of just one. The next day we got up, had breakfast and headed back to Costa Rica! 6 hours on a bus with 43 other people was super fun *sarcasm*. Needless to say we were very much in need of showers and sleep when we got home that night. It was a fantastic three days filled with ministry and really awesome bonding time together as a GAP family. I love each and every one of them and I'm so happy God brought us all together for this amazing year!

Peace and Blessin's

Allysa

Me holding a jellyfish!!