It´s true …I was super excited to pay 2 whole US quarters for a vanilla ice cream cone at Burger King in El Salvador! Below is a snippet of our week of travel adventures accross Central America written by Erin Winget. Everything you read here is true. However, remember our two teams also had a couple of extra travel days coming from Mexico before this adventure (including a four hour wait at the border because we had to pay an exit fee that could only be payed at a bank…the nearest one being an hour away)!
——————————————
Our bus ride began pretty routine with the whole squad pretty excited to be together and even more excited to have a bathroom on our private bus so that the trip would go faster without constant stops. I dozed contentedly as the bus rolled through Guatemala. Then right around noon our airconditioning system on the bus went out. No big deal. We’re used to being hot. The windows get popped open and all seems well. We cross border number one into El Salvador but no passport stamps which we always secretly look forward to. Oh well. I eat amazing pupusas at the border for one American Dollar. Surprisingly the dollar is the currency of choice in El Salvador. That makes our evening meal stop at Burger King easier. I eat ice cream for dinner because I can and its only 50 cents. A lot of us have forgotten what American money looks like. That is a weird feeling.
Around the time it starts getting dark our bus drivers begin to change their minds about going all the way in just one night and ask us if we want to find somewhere to sleep or if we want to sleep on the bus. Sleeping on the bus is a tempting option just because its free but we know it would make for a rough night. The other option is to try and cross border #2 into Honduras before 9pm and then see if we can make it through to Guatemala. The only risk with that is a national curfew in the country of Honduras because of some political upheaval and we’re not so keen on the idea of spending the night in Honduras. So Kelly, Kyla and I go with the bus drivers on a hunt for a location to house 48 people plus 2 bus drivers. The first place doesn’t have enough water for us to use the bathroom. Bummer. We have no internet access and no SIM cards to call and cancel our reservation in Nicaragua. Double bummer. Bright spot: Around 10pm we find the perfect location just a few blocks from the Honduran border. A cozy little hotel with room to sleep 24 comfortably and just a few cockroaches on the walls but seems relatively safe. Sounds great. We squeeze 48 people in with classic World Race style and plan on leaving the next day at 5:15am. Just a few hours later we’re all right back on our sweaty bus crossing the border into Honduras. Around 7:30am we are approaching the border with Nicaragua but there are miles and miles of tractor trailer trucks backed up along the side of the road. We find out the border is closed and we don’t have a way to exit the country. The option to turn around and go back to El Salvador is quickly eliminated after learning that ALL borders in the country have been closed. There is no way out. What now? Because we are a bus full of “tourists” we are given permission to cut to the front of the line and talk to someone at the border. When we get to the border we get the same answers. No way out. Our response: LET THE PRAYER BEGIN! A few of us leave the sweaty bus to find a SIM card to get on the phone to AIM and let them know the situation and try and call the US Embassy in Honduras and Mark and I split off because there is a rumor of someone near the border having internet. We find the internet in some random house down the road and begin emailing and downloading Skype. Awhile later Mark thinks he hears his name being called and we see Kyla and Jeff running down the road looking for us. “They’re opening the border for us!” Kyla says. We take off running back to the bus not knowing the full story of “how?” and “when?” but knowing we aren’t going to let that bus leave without us.
After only 4 hours of waiting at the border we crossed over to the other side singing worship songs and thanking God for hearing our prayers. We only had to wait 2 more hours to get our passports processed to enter Nicaragua and then we were on our way to Managua. Around 8pm we got to Managua. One team had lodging arranged, 2 teams had transport to their ministry location and the other 4 teams (mine included) were still trying to figure out where we were going to stay the night. A hostel had offered a large room but no bathrooms. Rumors started spreading of the Hilton a few blocks away. No way was that going to happen on our budget. But two men on our teams MAJORLY surprised us all and agreed to pay for our rooms at the Hilton from their personal money. (God Bless them!) It wasn’t exactly World Race style but after about 40 hours on a sweaty bus we loaded our pack onto a dolly to be carted up to our top floor room at the Hilton. That night we all slept on beds that looked like clouds and enjoyed air conditioning and thanked God for bringing us into the country He promised- not just the Hilton- but the safe passage to Nicaragua.
———————————————————————-
The next day my team and Team Clay, who we are with again this month, headed to the Island of Ometepe. This included a beautiful one hour ferry ride across Lake Nicaragua. We have made it safely and are deep into ministry. This place is beautiful and I love the people here. However, internet is not so beautiful or easy. So, I will try to talk about our ministry here as soon as possible. If you don´t hear from me again before then…I´ll be home September 2nd! Love you all!
