4 hours, two security check points, a bazillion pot holes and one throbbing headache from the road, we finally arrived in Yaviza, Panama at the end of the Panamerican highway. We passed by many two story grass-roof huts, locals on horses, people on their porches, and yes the green, green foliage of the jungle.
Our hosts are from Columbia but minister in the jungle of Panama. They literally live at the end of the Panamerican highway. Their mascot is a sloth and monkeys eat mangos off the trees in the morning. We sleep under mosquito nets and cook outside under a grass hut roof. It is pretty awesome! I also killed my first chicken (or rooster). His name was Senor and he took a long time to die. They hang up the chickens by their feet in the kitchen. That is also when I decided to kiss the chicken on the beak. He tasted really good and they also fried up some of his intestines for us to taste. They weren’t my favorite, but it wasn’t terrible. Latin Americans utilize everything, and I mean everything on the animal. They love their animal intestines and cow stomachs. haha. This American stomach can’t always keep it down, but it is interesting to try and etiquete in this culture. You eat what you are served.
They have a ministry for the children in Yaviza. Alot of these kids are from disfunctional families. Either their parents are never there or some are alchoholics. The kids come after school three days a week and the ministry teaches them Bible, helps with their homework, feeds them, teaches exersises and more. We get to hang out with the kids, teach English and do Bible skits and love on them. It is so fun! I am in my element: working in the jungle and showing the love of Jesus to precious little kids! On Tuesday and Thursday we get to work on the finca (a property of land) that our hosts bought to plant Plantains and coffee to help fund their ministry. They are clearing the land right now and that is what we are helping with. Robinson, a Wounan man who lives with his family at the ministry and is being discipled by our hosts, was cutting up logs with a chainsaw and we were stacking them into piles to burn. We were covered with dirt, chainsaw dust and mosquito bites. Once everything is cleared, their vision is to plant plantains and coffee. Plantains take 9 months and coffee takes 3 years. They purchased the property of 11acres for $10,000!!!
So let me tell you how we got to the finca! After hopping into a car and driving for about 10mins, we got out a river. It is a pretty brown, muddy river that had a good current. There were wooden steps down to the river but no boats on that side. They were all on the other side. Directly opposite was a hut and a couple buildings where a man lives and owns some boats that would take us down the river and to the finca. After yelling awhile, he didn’t show up and so Robinson found a boat upstream and came and picked us up.We crossed the river where there were more boats and had to jump over on to get into the next. The boats are long like canoes but skinnier. We traveled down river until we got to a fork and then began to travel upstream for about 10mins. The men who were paddling had quite a workout, but Robinson who is indigenous can handle that boat like it is nothing at all. One of the girls saw the eyes of a crocodile, but other than that it was just a beautiful trip up the river. After we got to the finca, we climbed up the muddy bank.Everything was fantastic! The jungle is fantastic! I love this life.
