– Worth mentioning now since it’s playing while writing this, but the village knows 3 American songs and plays and sings them over and over every day. Right now they’re playing their favorite – Waka Waka by Shakira. The other 2 are I’ve Got a Feeling by BEP and of course they love Bieber like the rest of the world – so they sing Baby a lot.
– Took a shower in the “shower stall” which has a huge hole in one of the walls so I’m completely exposed to anybody who wants a peek. Luckily the girls were at the river.
-Physically fading from lack of nutrition. Getting difficult to eat rice and soy sauce with my hands meal after meal. Slept past 9, took a 2 hour nap, and now it’s 8:15 and I’m ready for bed. Praying for energy.
-Speaking of bed- unfortunately, it’s band practice tonight. Double unfortunate – my bed is 3 feet from the drum set. Let’s see if I can make it until 9.
– Just discovered the giant spiders jump. Encouraging.
– One week anniversary at our village. Hoorah!! Celebrated by stringing an entire green bean field. We’re turning into pros.
– Tedium is setting in. Played a marathon 18-hand game of spades. Kyle and I lost, but really we all did because it’s not even 2:00 yet. Tried to name all the countries. Got 193 out of 195. Luckily I had killed time by doing this before and looked up the ones I missed. Only 4 more days to entertain ourselves – it can be done.
– Insanity is also setting in. Kyle stood over the dog and yelled domination at him repeatedly while flexing his muscles. I’ll spare the other details so Kyle can keep some pride.
– Clouds cleared tonight – best night sky I’ve ever seen. There are perks to being in the middle of nowhere. It’s crazy to me people can see this and believe there is no God.
– Ashley and I went to the river to bathe/do laundry and on our way back our dog Trey started barking at something in the bush. Locals go in and shortly return holding what we later discover is a jungle rat by it’s tail. It’s like a gigantic rat with beaver teeth. Exciting animal encounter, but far from the day’s most exciting because…
– We had a real legitimate tarantula sighting in the church tonight. Kirsten was the unlucky soul who discovered it. She let out a shriek of terror that brought half the village over. Even they were scared. Don’t worry – a village killed it so we’re safe..ish. I’m moving back into Kyle’s tent though.
Day 11 – Sunday, February 6
– Incredible news!! After church this morning a man comes to me and says ‘Leave, Monday’ repeatedly. I say no we’re leaving Tuesday. We go back and forth until we discover it’s not a question, it’s a statement. We’re leaving a day and a half early! Kyle got a ride out to the cell tower and got a text out. We’ll be picked up tomorrow at noon! Hallelujah! Crossing our fingers all goes smooth! Please..
– Nope. I knew it was too good to be true – we received word at 7:30 tonight there was miscommunication. One more day. Devastating – at least we got a (slightly early) chicken farewell dinner. I wash it down with a glass of my tears.
-Quote: “It’s Super Bowl Sunday.” – Kyle, as we waved our hands and danced while singing Malaysian songs during church
– There’s a Super Bowl champion and I have no clue who it is. We spend our last day with our favorite past times: a nap, reading, cards and a river bath.
– FREEDOM!!! We get our tractor loaded and head out. We wait at the next village for our ride to come. We’re supposed to not get out until noon, but it shows up at 10:30. God’s smiling on us today. We drive for a while and get into town where I immediately pack down some fast food. Chicken sandwich, french fries, 2 Pepsis (shows how desperate I was) and later a Snickers. My stomach’s going to hate me later, but I don’t care.
So that’s my time in the jungle. The next 4 days we spent in another city in Malaysia being spoiled by an incredible church family there. They’re definitely in the minority surrounded by Muslims and it was really encouraging to see their dedication to Christ and spreading the Word. They took us to beaches and bowling and fed us like kings. We all nearly cried when they served us cinnamon rolls. I’m going to post one more blog talking more in depth about what I learned in the jungle. I gave you a comical look, but despite the crazy stuff that happened it was a good place to be.
Finally, travel prayers would be much appreciated. I start a long travel stretch tonight getting from KL to Bangkok and then flying out to Central America where we’ll arrive on the 20th including a long layover in Los Angeles. God bless America and Chickfila. So update you from the road or from Nicaragua where we’ll be this next month. Oh yeah and we’re getting to go to 12 countries so we’ll be in El Salvador and finish in Nicaragua. Only one continent to go – thanks for taking this journey with me. Love you all.
