Update # 7

Today was a day out on the town! We began our morning at 9:00am when the Hoffman's host came to pick us 4 up at Delores' house. They were so excited to take us out and show us the ins and outs of Panama. They had 2 guests with them...my reader's (Jessica) kids. First, they took us to the Botanical Garden. There were animals we have in the US, but there were some that we've never seen before. There was one that looked like a mixture between a pig and a hippo. Ha! It was the most weirdest looking animal. There were so many animals I couldn't describe it to you. We saw tucans, vultures, jaguars, monkeys, crocodiles, and different kinds of birds. The place was beautiful. That is one thing about Panama that the teams loves; it's the amount of green and trees and mountains that there is. You always feel like you are in the tropics. So, we spent a couple hours walking around the garden. We found a beautiful bridge that went over a swamp like thing. As I went to take a picture on the bridge, I glanced in the icky brown water and barely saw a head and some eyes looking in my direction..it was a crocodile! There were no fences, no walls, no nothing to separate me from the crocodile. I then froze, yelled and said, "Ummm, that's a crocodile, I don't think so!", and took off back to the path as fast as I could. Everyone laughed and told me that he wouldn't bother me. I still wasn't ok with the fact that there was a "free" crocodile just swimming around while we walk around near it. It freaked me out. But, I toughed it out and made my way (very quickly) to the bridge and took some pictures. We also had experienced a lizard encounter. Jaclyn & I were walking ahead of the group, minding our own business, when the tiniest lizard jumped in front of us causing us to scream. As the group caught up to us, we then pointed out the tiny lizard to the 2 kids. Terry had put his arm out for the lizard to climb on. The little boy (4 yrs. old) with us wanted to touch it but was so scared. Then, Taylor got it on her arm, and the boy tried to put his arm out for the first time, but pulled away really quick. While we are trying to explain to the boy that the lizard wouldn't hurt him, the lizard darted off Taylor's arm and attached to the boy's shirt on his chest. He screamed and slung it off of him so fast, we all began laughing so hard!! It was the funniest thing of the day. The look on that kids face was priceless. As we continued the adventure through the beautiful and "hot" Botanical Garden, Jaclyn & I noticed a huge fake cow. We decided to jump on and take some pictures with the cow. It's fun to be silly sometimes. :) After that tour, we then went to the place we'd all been waiting for...The Panama Canal! We watched a movie (in English) that told the story of the canal, then we walked through a museum like tour to the top of the Locke. We then watched the ships move through the Locke from the Atlantic to the Pacific side of the ocean. It was the most amazing thing we'd seen here in Panama. We stayed there for 2 hours, then made our way down the Causeway, which is a long road down the coastline. There are many restaurants and stores along the coast. We had lunch on the Causeway, and wanted to walk down it. But, the hard rain surprised us, which kept us from walking. We had stopped at a few souvenir shops. So many cute things for such a cheap price. Once we finally got back to Delores' house, it was almost 6:00pm. We had a couple boys that go to church with us, come over and hang out with us. Terry & Taylor wanted to head back to their host's house to take a nap, as did we. We put on ET and watched that (in Spanish...which was interesting) and took a nap. Terry & Taylor wanted to come back this evening to say goodbye, because Taylor is flying home tomorrow morning at 7:00am. We will miss our teammate so much! Taylor has saved us many times because of her fluent Spanish speaking skills. It just won't be the same without her. We love you Taylor!! Well, now the day is over and it's time to prepare for a church day tomorrow. So, we are hitting the sack. Goodnight.

With Christian Love,

Sarah

Update # 6

Hello everyone from Davis Park! Today was a long day for Soldados de Cristo. Our morning started very encouraging with a devo that Terry led, and then we got to experience the hard rain pouring on us during our drive to the school. Our team had a lot of time to do some thinking. Taylor had 1 reader, Terry had 2 readers, Jaclyn had 3 readers, and I had none. The part that is difficult about LST is that there are many readers who don't show up to their appointment, or that we have so many open slots in our schedule that we get a lot of down time. The last readers of the day were 2 teachers that never showed up for their appointment. That topped it off for us. We just shook our heads in disappointment as we left the school for the day. During the quiet car ride home, we all felt a spiritual reminder of why we are really here. We all thought about how we need to be more like Jesus in these difficult times, so we asked ourselves, "What would Jesus do?" We began discussing that it's not how many we have on the schedule, but the importance of those hearts we do touch. We are grateful for the time we have here in Panama, and for the many opportunities to build new relationships. Being reminded of that, it was then time for a party with those new relationships we had made this week. The party began at 7:00. We had pizza, colas, and brownies with ice cream for dessert. After the food and socializing, we started a fun game of Pictionary. Boys vs. Girls! There were about 14-15 of us all together! in Delo res' house for 2 1/2 hours. May I say, the girls ended up beating the boys by 10 points! Yeah!! There was so much laughter and excitement as the night continued. One of the teen boys that was here played the guitar and sang us some songs. A very talented teenager he is! As the night ended around 10:00, we helped clean up the house and are now settled down for bed. Thinking back to how the morning began, to the thoughts we were having in the mid-day, we are finally at peace. Thank you God for guiding us back to you when we drift away! Goodnight church family.

With Christian Love,

Sarah

Oops! Forgotten Blog

Hola Davis Park Family!

Our team has come up with a team name: Soldados de Cristo, which means Soldiers of Christ. Isn't that great!? Well, anyway, just thought that would be fun to share with you. On Monday, we showed up to the school where we are doing LST at 9:00am, and the school was not prepared to have us start that day, so we had a free day. When we realized we had a free day, we weren't sure what we were going to do. But, Raul, which is Delores' son-in-law, found something fun for us to do. So, here is where our adventure started. Raul needed us to come pick him up because his car broke down on the freeway. Does he call anyone from Panama? No, he calls us to go find him and his mother. By the way, listening to Taylor talk to Raul on the phone trying to get directions to where they are stranded was so funny to hear. Terry of course was driving us, and being very patient with the whole thing. Jaclyn and I were in the back seat of Delores' van just having too much fun. :) Once we figured out we were lost, the laughing and frustration kicked in. Besides the fact we were all hungry and just wanted to go home and rest, we couldn't leave our lost friends stranded. I can't tell you how many time Raul called Taylor, and Taylor called Raul to find out where we were and if we were headed in the right direction. During the adventure, we seemed to notice a funny thing about Panama. We noticed, the more hungry and tired we are, we don't pronounce words correctly. For instance, I decided to say "roller sockey" instead of roller hockey. Ya...I don't know what I was trying to say there, but everyone thought it was a hoot. While we were sitting in Panamanian traffic, Taylor was on the phone with Raul, when all of a sudden she pulls the phone away from her ear and looks at us (with Raul still talking like Taylor was listening), she then says with a very serious t! one, "I can't understand what he is saying and I'm getting aggravated." Between the tone in her voice and the look on her face, we all began to laugh. This could not have been happening! It was so hilarious! She laughed about it moments later. I know what you all are thinking...Why didn't you ask for directions? Well, we finally did and they all told us we were headed in the right direction. THEY WERE WRONG!! Once we realized we had been going the wrong way for 1 hour, Raul finally figured out some landmarks that we could see to help us find him. So, once we found those landmarks (McD's & Pizza Hut), after another 45 minutes, Taylor called Raul again, and told him we were here. One thing that Raul never shared with us was that he had already caught a taxi to pick them up. Can we say this trip was a waste of time...sure...but we had a great time doing it all together. Before returning to the "great" traffic in Panama, we parked ourselves at Pizza Hut for lunch. Oh but wait...that's not the end...Terry decided to lose his phone. He said, "I can't find my phone, Taylor, what did you do with it?" Taylor was almost sure she had given him his phone back. Just then, Terry looks down and realizes he had his phone in his hand. This ride was a fun adventure for all of us. :)

With Christian Love,

Sarah