February 2, 2013- We woke up at 4:30 and started rolling up our sleeping bags and sleeping pads. We hauled all of our bags to the side of the road and waited impatiently for the TICA bus. Saying our final goodbyes to the boys at Zion’s Gate and Tony was just so sad. We crossed the border from Honduras to El Salvador around 10am. It didn’t take nearly as long as I thought it would. As we were driving into El Salvador there was a huge volcano, a ton of beautiful chapels and really cool street art everywhere. I noticed it is a lot more developed then Honduras. It has gated communities, street signs and billboards. The ‘nicely paved’ highway was well marked with speed limit and no littering signs. As we arrived to the beach “la playa Sunzal” it looked like paradise. We are on the pacific coast, the waves are beautiful and there are a ton of surfers. Debrief is going to be amazing!! We got settled in to our hostels and then went to a local restaurant called Sharkey’s; we all had hamburgers for dinner. After dinner some of us walked into “town” which consists of a bunch of restaurants and shops right on the beach. It looked like a scene strait out of the movies; there were surfers with dreadlocks walking around people dancing in the disco lights blasting music. All I wanted to do was use the ATM so afterwards we high tailed it out of there. When we got back to our hostel we got a great surprise…WIFI!! I never thought lying on a hammock and using my laptop would feel like paradise, that is, until we got interrupted by a HUGE frog bouncing around and going into our room. Let me paint you a picture… 3 bunk beds plus one more bed in a room, all 7 of us women, no AC, and then a frog comes in. Yeah, that doesn’t go very well together. One of the boys picked it up to get it out and it secreted everywhere including one of our beds. Time for bed.
February 3, 2013- Even though it was hot last night, I woke up feeling refreshed. It might be the adrenaline from being in a new place, or it could be that the old mattress I’m sleeping on is just a tad cushier then my sleeping pad. We had a 9:00 session and then I met with the worship team. I’m trying to dive deeper into the lyrical talents God has gifted me with. I went surfing today with Elissa. It was only $5 for the board and $10 for an instructor. The instructors, Carlos and Rafael, spoke little to no English. I’m pretty sure all they knew how to say in English was “Hi”. That’s good enough for me because charades is always fun. I wound up getting up a few times but the surf was rough. By the time you get pounded by wave after wave for 10 minutes trying to get out there, you have salt water in your eyes, nose, and mouth. I also would recommend wearing an actual shirt because a tank top does no justice when your bait suit top is getting moved around from the waves. Embarrassing! Ok “fishing for waves” is not really my thing, glad to get that off my bucket list. There are horses all over the beach so when you’re walking you have to watch where you step if you know what I’m saying. Its super bowl Sunday!! Richard the owner of Sharkey’s set up a white sheet and a projector so we could watch the game, even though the whole thing was in Spanish. Sharkey’s made us these amazing nachos for tonight as Kellie would say they are the bomb.com. The rest of the night consisted of me practicing worship for tomorrow morning with Fretah and Emily Peterson, and of course using wifi!
February 4, 2013- Woke up and the whole village had a power outage so not everyone got to eat breakfast or take a shower. I lead worship with Fretah and Emily Peterson. Ken, Bruce and Cinda met us at our hostel for our daily meeting. It was very exciting to see them! Daniel and I went to town to exchange the pants I haggled for because they were just too big on me. Daniel also told me I was a walking fashion crime in them. We rushed back because my team was leaving to go to lunch together at 11:30. We walked to two different places to try to find $1 pupusas. It’s nice because El Salvador uses America currency so its way easier to tell the actual price of things. Well finding $1 pupusas were a bust so we went into town and ate at this awesome little local restaurant. I got the best burrito, it had fresh avocado and it was only $3.50. After we were done eating we went to our debrief at 1:30 at Bruce and Cinda’s hotel. We talked under the tiki hut by the pool and sat on hammocks, it was so relaxing. They surprised us and brought a bunch of candy and cookies from home and Pamela even got her favorite candy hearts! After our debrief we went and had our bible study on the rocks off the shoreline. It was so beautiful having the wave’s crash up on the rocks. After we were done Elissa and I walked back to the hostel to use the internet and grab my camera. Afterwards we headed back into town and halfway there we were informed that all the shops were closed. It’s okay because it was right around sunset and I went to take some really amazing pictures down by the beach. We had tacos and the local restaurant Sharkey’s for dinner. After our session we went to a random funeral that was going on in the community. About ten-fifteen of us just went to sing a few songs. They brought us in the room with the open casket and we prayed over them and then left. It was honestly one of the craziest experiences I’ve had yet on the race.
February 5, 2013- After our 9:00 session this morning I had a one-on-one with Bruce and Cinda. It was really nice to share with them a bit of my testimony and the vision God had given me for the future. Afterwards, I went to the little town and went shopping with Elissa. We me up with Julia, Pamela and Kellie at this sandwich shop for lunch. I am starting to get blisters on my feet from walking in the sand with my chacos they are so abrasive. Our team and Jakes team went to the waterfalls at around 1. We hiked down about 1,000+ feet (which obviously means the way back is uphill) needless to say the waterfalls were beautiful. There were rocks you could jump off anywhere from 10-30ft. The water was crystal clear and freezing cold. It was worth every penny! We got back around 6:30 and had steak hoagies for dinner at Sharkey’s. Afterwards some of us went to this restaurant called Jaguars for some dessert and live music.
February 6.2013- Woke up at 8 and had the worst night sleep so far. It was far too hot to be comfortable. We didn’t have session today so I went to Sharkey’s for breakfast and got an egg and crème cheese bagel. My new favorite! Afterwards I rented a surfboard with a few of the girls and we just went out with one of the locals. The team leaders were separated from the rest of the squad today so we had a fun little get together on the beach and had our first annual Chris Scott sandcastle building competition. Love Story tried to build a light house but it crumbled at the last minute and became a volcano. GPS won first place by making the world. We had a few random people that were walking the beach judge our competition. We all went swimming afterwards and played ultimate Frisbee. About half of us decided to go to town instead for some shopping. I came back early for a nap and woke up for dinner at Sharkey’s. I am so thankful we had salad because it was really refreshing after a long day in the sun.
February 7, 2013- After session we had a boy’s and girl’s day. All the girls met in, our squad leader, Kat’s room and we did avocado facials, mani-pedis, and the best part was it was air conditioned! We broke into teams for lunch and afterwards all met back into Kat’s room. We all wrote our fears down and casted them into the ocean around sunset giving them to El Salvador which translates to “The Savior”. We had BBQ burgers for dinner at Sharkey’s and then spent the whole night packing! It was so fun having girl time laughing and giggling with my teammates asking the Lord to give us mercy for it being so hot this month and how we hope we having running water at our ministry site. If you want a good laugh look up why roosters crow. Off to minisrty in the morning….
