I’ve journaled snippets of our days here in Panama this first week, and I think they’re hilarious and also accurately describe life on the field at times. Enjoy!
Day 1: March 17th, 7pm
That was the smoothest border crossing we’ve encountered yet! Well, with the officials, anyway. The squad, on the other hand, is a mix between stereotypical American tourists who have no idea what they’re doing and a bunch of “go-with-the-flow-ers” who just want to sleep and be unbothered.
9pm
We got dropped off on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere in pitch dark. Katie had an international SIM so she let our hosts know the bus just dropped us off. A truck came up about 100 yards away yelling, and Bri looked back at us, shrugged her shoulders, and said, “Sure.” So, we followed her to the truck and assumed it was our people. Right-o we were! That’s generally how these things go when we travel to new places. When someone can spot typical World Racers from afar and speak English to get your attention, they’re probably your hosts. I realize that seems absolutely Ludacris, but it’s just our lives.
Day 2: March 18th, 9am
Bless Katie’s soul; she got us a rest day. I was about to rip my face off after 6 weeks of all-squad ministry and 3 days off.
10am
Alright, my stomach and my bowels have been pretty questionable the past few weeks, but today we’re hitting a high. I am positive there’s an alien inside of me. All I ate were pancakes and pineapple!
11am
The alien has come out. I’m assuming the inflammatory foods I’ve been digesting are not creating a healthy environment for good bacteria to survive in my intestines. Oils will apparently join my diet, because my teammates seem to think they’re the cure-all. I am positive it’s placebo.
4pm
The Lord told me I needed to take better care of my body, and that self-control is a fruit of the spirit. It’s taken me a long time to hear Him the ways I do now, and sometimes I wish it wasn’t that well. I can picture Jesus rolling His eyes at me unceasingly hahahahaha
Day 3: March 19th, 8am
One of our teammates knows sign language, 2 of us speak Spanish, and all of us speak English. Somehow, we still can’t communicate here.
11am
We found a crab! Megan flipped over a rock and he came scurrying out. I have almost 0 mercy for animals because I’m either allergic to them or they’re reptiles, but for some reason I needed to save the crab! I named him Harvey and V and I took him to the beach which is just 2 blocks away. When we got there, I threw him free in the sand and he hurried away, but then we thought we should move him closer to the water because he was pretty dried up. I think I killed him in that transition. He wasn’t moving when I put him back down. We tried to move him again because I refused to believe that after all that he was dead. He moved a wee bit and I decided we should leave then before anything else happened to him. Humans are weird.
12pm
I am actually on Mars. Have you ever seen the movie (or read the book) The Martian? I’m on Mars. I’m shoveling dirt from orange mounds to level ground for a church. Our mission is to repopulate this area, because it is a ghost planet. The beach had literally no one there, and for miles upon miles there is nothingness. Restaurants, cabanas, hostels and hotels; deserted. Nothing and no one. Mars.
1pm
We are super low on water supply, but I can only laugh. The other 3 went on a mission today to get us food and water, but the 3 of us here doing manual labor have limited amounts of both. We were told some people drink out of the faucet, but our hosts buy bottled water. Everyone thinks we shouldn’t drink faucet water because they don’t. That leaves us to either boil water for 3 minutes or filter it through a 500mL water system. I just drink it out of the faucet for heaven’s sake. You only lose about 2% of your body weight when you’re dehydrated, and it takes 2 full days without water before you start fainting, anyway. We would’ve been fine (I think).
Day 4: March 20th, 8am
We’ve been told by headquarters we’re doing it wrong. I believe the proper wording was, “You’re working harder, not smarter.” Anything else I have to say about that will be out of my flesh.
12pm
We’ve managed to dance to every song that’s been broadcasted and level off about a half mound of orange dirt. Mars is looking dope for 6 women pioneers.
Day 5: March 21st, 8am
My first leadership call since being here. Once a week, we squad leaders seek solitude and wi-fi to hop on a video conference call with the rest of our leadership team that lives in the States. It’s usually the only time during the week I feel a bit normal, but this week is an exception.
3pm
Team time. We believe in cultivating a fun, safe, vulnerable, healthy, and accountable community not only on the World Race, but with Christ followers in general. Thus, team time. The laughs never end during team time with these people. Bri said, “THIS TEAM IS INSANE.” I like it. One of my favorite verses is 2 Corinthians 5:13, “If it seems we are crazy, it is to bring glory to God.” Only real joy can come from the Father, and I love it when we all seem insane. It’s because of and for the Lord that we stand out!
4pm
Liv and I decided to make stuffed peppers. The oven is in Celsius, and she asked what it’s supposed to be in Fahrenheit. I know! 9/5(degrees C)+32! She said, “The calculator on my phone has a converter.” Frickin’ technology stealing my joy, and we don’t even have wi-fi!
Day 6: March 22nd, 9am
I’m in heaven spiritually because I get to work with boys who have autism today! Whoop whoop! Despite getting to spend extra intentional time with these kiddos today, my heart hurts knowing they don’t get education, attention, and stimulation they need on a regular basis. Panama school systems are some of the worst in the world, and when you add special education into that, you can imagine how inadvanced it is. I teeter on the line of helpful and not in these situations, but the Holy Spirit told me, “Better to love a kid for a day than not at all.”
10am
My patience was tested with the boy I’m working with. Thank you, Jesus, for fruits of the spirit that we get to challenge ourselves with on the daily. I’ve missed this a lot, though, because my mercies are high for people with disabilities. Estefan and I played with Legos, read books, played on the iPad, colored, and, his favorite, learned the alphabet by tracing letters. I adore him.
1pm
I’m having inner turmoil about the whole Panamaian education system thing and the fact that kids with disabilities sit through school with no help. It’s actually probably hurting them to sit in those classrooms. However, that’s the realness of systematic oppression and poverty in the world. We can’t help everyone in every part of every country, and that sucks. At the same time, they do need help! I am just going to pray the rest of the day over this problem and I have faith that God can provide improved systems and missionaries. It doesn’t seem logical, but I know prayer is our best weapon. If I hear anything revolutionary I’ll report back.
Day 7: March 23rd, 9am
We were told we didn’t have to dig today! I was actually a bit disappointed. It’s a great workout and I’ve missed having a good excuse to act like a bafoon. We just have Bible study with a neighbor this morning.
10am
False alarm. Bible study is cancelled. We decided to continue to make this month interesting and attempted to get to the nearest city. Malls, coffee, and wi-fi, oh my!
10pm
We hung out at a grocery store today and I double-fisted chicken wings. Jesus loves me.
*All names and stories were OK’d in the publishing of these entries.
Stay tuned for part 2, coming this weekend!
