You may recall my last adventure with the volcanoe, so this time I wore the proper foot wear, just in case, packed wet wipes, snacks, sun screen and a large water bottle–you know, just in case. Our tour was literally scheduled to be three hours, but in any event it should go longer, I was not going to be caught off guard this time!
I saw a whole new world on the river today. Homes, churches, “stores,” resting right on the shore. I snapped a few photos like a good tourist would and imagined what there lives must be like, living off this river. In the midst of my wondering, my thoughts were suddenly interrupted when we ran into a small, canoe-like boat. “Oh no we crashed,” ran through my mind, but then children jumped in on either sides of our boats from theres. I’m pretty sure my entire team screamed and one of us yelled, “PIRATES.” When we took a second to catch our breath, we realized these were “trained professionals,” selling refreshments to tourists along the river ride. We kindly said no thank you and like something out of a movie (very Peter Pan like) they leaped into their boats and off they went to the next boat full of tourists. I’m pretty sure we laughed at that for a good five minutes. I also appreciated Keet’s comment, “During times like these I often wonder what my friends are up to back home.”
Another favorite memory of mine was realizing a boat was coming up alongside of us and me looking over seeing a small child with a huge boa around their neck–literally inches from me. I almost jumped into Keet’s lap at the sight of that thing. “Lady $1, you hold.” “Kid, $1 if you get that away from me.” YIKES! Apparently, we tourists will buy anything! 
Before we knew it, we were docked at a “pit stop,” where we were encouraged to take a look at the crocodiles in a cage and then offered drinks for purchase on this floating rest stop, (yes, it’s times like these I chuckle and think, this is my life). We each bought a can of pop and decided we didn’t need to stay any longer and we got back in our boat. 
THIS IS WHERE THE FUN REALLY BEGINS!
(Because you know, I can’t go anywhere without some fun occuring).
Our boat motor wouldn’t turn over and our [teenage] driver chuckles looks at me and Keet and says “uh oh, boat broke, we all swim back together.” [Insert nervous laugh here.] “Haha, Good one, Pa,” we told him…I only wish he was joking. No, we didn’t end up swimming, but we had quite the adventure on our way back to shore. The motor finally clicked over and we were on our way. About four minutes out though, the motor gave out again. We were now just floating along in the river. I started to laugh and thought, “yup, this would happen to us…” We soon became quite the attraction ourselves. “Look at the Americans stuck in the boat.” At least three people took our picture and when you can’t beat them you join them, right? So I started waving and smiling or nodding my head every time another boat passed us, all the while our driver worked frantically to try and fix the motor. When our motor finally was fixed the steering cable snapped in half and thus, resulting in more wait time. SO WHAT DID WE DECIDE TO DO? SING & PRAY. Why not? I’m sure they got a kick out of it, I know I did. We were praying for our boat in the name of Jesus and singing to His glory–laughing through it too! We could have easily turned on each other, or been frustrated, but no, we praised God, we laughed and we made some memories! God has such a sense of humor, I see it daily in my life and I’m so thankful for it!
Our prayers were heard and soon the boat was running again. However, being stalled for so long made us drift up on shore a bit and get stuck in the mud. A little canoe-like boat with a boy selling drinks came by and offered us more drinks at this time. None of us were in the mood for drinks and quickly turned him down. Seeing that we were stuck though, he roped his boat onto ours and it was almost as if he yelled, “hit it” and threw his boat into gears and pulled us out. We were so grateful to him (and felt bad for not buying his drinks) that we all gave him a dollar–needless to say, he made a killing on “saving us” instead of selling us drinks. I called him our Little River Hero.
Well, no other major events happened after that. THANK THE LORD! We made it back home for lunch. Our tour didn’t end up being three hours, more like four, but it brought our team that much closer and gave us a few good laughs along the way! Hope you were able to get some laughs out of God’s good humor today too!
Blessings!
