We are currently in San Jose, Costa Rica about to start our three day journey to the Philippines. Since it is the end of month three, new squad leaders were chosen from our squad, which meant some teams would need to change . My next blog will be all about our team changes, however I wanted to share some fun facts about our last few months in Central America. I hope you enjoy! ~You get excited to see your 8 inch gecko, Checke, scurrying across the ledge in your room because that means free pest control is on the way. ~You sadly realize you will never need an alarm clock because when 6 am comes, blaring Reggatone, compliments of five Honduran boys, will steal you of your cherished sleep. ~Dodging bulls, pigs, and cow poop piles while walking down the dirt road in front of where you live becomes almost second nature. ~The first thought that comes into your head when you see a vehicle is “I wonder how many people we could fit in this car?� ~You use anything you can find to catch your teammates throw up in…pots, pans, bowls, buckets…you have to make do when four-six people are sick at once. ~One way transportation to a location 30 miles away can take upwards of four hours. ~You perfect the art of using the bathroom lights as a means to let you know when the shower heater is on. ~It takes you a month to realize that the wonderful smell you always smelled while in the bathroom was actually the toilet paper. Scented TP is the norm when you have to throw it away instead of flush it…quite a genius idea actually. ~Getting to internet requires a two mile hike, jumping into the back of a random person’s pick up truck for the remaining mile to the main road, a 30 minute bus ride to a bus station to catch another bus, and a three hour bus ride. ~If you wear something new or smell good people are guaranteed to comment about it. ~The last mode of transportation home is the back of a pick up truck, you find a way to make 38 people and 9 daypacks work. ~Traveling in crowded buses and trucks frequently involves questions such as “Is that your hand I am touching? Mary, is that your hand on my lower back?�, both of which get the answer you were not hoping for. ~You go from brushing your teeth with bottled water to drinking whatever drink is put in front of you without questioning the water source in only a matter of a month. Thank you house to house in Central America! ~After using outhouses for the majority of the month, the site of an actual porcelain toilet fills you with sheer joy. Enough joy to take a picture of the beautiful throne that actually flushes! ~House to house includes crawling under and going over barbed wire, jumping across creeks, and bush whacking fields that have not been touched by a human in years. Despite the fact that you were gone for eight hours you only managed to go to four homes. ~Conversations almost always come back to what type of food you wish you were eating and the general state of your bowels. From these conversations you decide that the runs are better than the nones. ~Your backyard changes regularly and at any given point can include a volcano or a jungle. ~You always have a song prepared to sing or a message to preach at all times in the event that you are called up during the church service, which happens a lot since you tend to be the honored guests. ~You don’t even hesitate to drink out of the same three liter Pepsi as 12 other people, because after nearly 30 hours of traveling you jump at the chance to consume any form of caffeine. ~You always have toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and a headlamp on you at all times. ~The 10 second rule no longer applies….if you can wipe most of the stuff off it is still eatable. ~Become quite skilled at hurry up and wait…. ~A shirt is considered clean until it stinks too bad. You don’t worry about stains because they give your clothes character. So far Ashley holds the record at four days of wearing the same shirt. ~Every possible medical question gets directed your way since you have two letters at the end of your name…R.N. ~A toucan flying through your kitchen and the sounds of monkey’s in the jungle don’t even phase you any more.
~A five hour Guatemala-to-Honduras bus ride turns into 17 hour cross country adventure.
Our awesome,cozy 17 hour van ride to Honduras.
Our gecko friend Checke
~Learning you don‘t have the right to any personal space. Thank you Honduran public transportation system. You sure do know how to pack 300 people in a single school bus.
The six reasons why we could never sleep in…I miss them SO much!
~Asking the simple question of “what do you want to eat� turns into a 15 minute conversation as you try to figure out what you can make with eggs, rice, and pasta.
The night we fit 15 people in/on top of our contacts small SUV.
~It doesn’t even alarm you when you are asked to hold the bus driver’s pastries so you can take their place on the gear shift.
Our favorite part of our three mile hike…SO beautiful!
~You are taken aback when you are responded to in English and you don’t really know how to handle it, so you continue to talk to them in Spanish.
One of the many times we ate whatever was put in front of us…we would often pay for this later.
~You have used so many outhouses that you begin to rate each one you go in. Cement toilet and floor is an upgrade from a wood toilet and a wood floor. The wood tends to get a little soggy and when it is the only thing separating you from the bottom of the toilet, things can get a little iffy.
This was our first outhouse experience. Little did we know this was actually a nice outhouse…
Army crawling under a barbed wire fence when we were doing house to house evangelism.
~You begin to go by the motto of “You never actually know what is going to happen until it has actually happened.�
The day we made some of our food fantasies come true..thank you Thanksgiving!
~You figure out a way to pile nine people into a moto taxi meant for four for a 30 minute drive.
Volcan Concepcion on the island of Ometepe, Nicaragua, where we lived for 9 days.
~You and your teammates decide to use toilet paper as earplugs during the worship at church….loud worship music takes on a whole new meaning in Central America.
One of the Toucans that would fly into our kitchen, that was attacked my our dogs.
~The milk and cheese in your kitchen is thanks to the cow in your yard
