Day 8- Back to Yaviza!!!

Today has been fun.

I'm still feeling a little on my own... i guess whatevers' whatever.
Angel is cool to talk to. I know that some people are getting on my nerves a bit, adn she's talkign me out it, helping me keep it under control. I'm actually ready to go home, i really miss my family!!!
The kids of the village are so cute. they helped us bring our luggage to teh canoes. It's so nice that they help us this way!! they offer it!! they're very strong, too. You have kids that are 7 years old carrying 30-40 pounds of luggage at a time!! At least the luggage is lighter now... thank goodness we're not taking the medicine back!!
We had an interesting start this morning. The engine didn't want to start!!! we sat in the boat waiting for the engine to be fixed for about a half hour...
To pass the time, we were tossing hacki sacks to the kids {who were up higher than us on a cliff} and they would toss them back. We conversed with each other, and we through snacks back and forth from one side of the boat to the other. it was a lot of fun!!! I think half the stuff landed in the water. Jesse {s} sat two 'rows' up from me. {i was at the very back of the boat.} Last time we were in the canoes, HE was in the very back, and I would splash him with water everytime he fell asleep. {the boy slept EVERYWHERE!} so i think he was glad that the situation was revered. {actually, i know he was, he kept splashing me!!}
I had angel and Amanda pray over the engine, that it would start working and that we would get to Yaviza safely. About 5 minutes later, the engine started. {Can someone say amen?? Hallelujah!!!}

During the canoe ride, I saw a lot of wildlife {again}. There was a lot of ducks this time.

I thought it was majestically beautiful to see the top of the mountains from the river this morning. You could see the tops of the mountains, and part of the middle, but mos tof the middle of the mountain was covered in these beautiful clouds, and the sky was so blue and clean from the rain the day before!!! I wish my camera was working so I could take a picture, because it was SO lovely!!!!! God's handywork is a majestic piece of art, indeed.

I bought some jewelry yesterday. {I had a lot posted for yesterday, so i'm telling you about it now... otherwise this post would be really short :P)
The cheif allowed some of the villagers to come up to our hut with stuff they were selling. I bought some stuff for my mom and I.

Okay Pause:
Angel just asked if i had a spare hairtie, so i gave her the one that i was using at the moment. {i didn't need it then.} she hands it to jesse who is now using it and another one to have his hair put in pigtails. He already let us paint his nails!!??!! Geez, what a guy will do when a girl is around :P

Moving on...
something else happened this morning.
Okay,let me backtrack a bit so you'll understand what i'm about to tell you. A few days ago when i was prescribing for Chris, a man came in, and after being diagnosed, showed Chris two little sculptures made out of a nut. {hand carved and painted, very intricate}. one was a dragonfly, and one was some other bug thing. The man said he would cut chris a deal, and that the objects could be purchased for $8.00 each. Chris told the man he would have to wait, and that he had to see the other patients first. Well, Pastor David, in one of his many sparks of generosity, bought both pieces from the man and gave them to Chris.
This morning, as we are packing the rest of our stuff up, Chris pulls me aside and gives me the dragonfly piece. He told me that he wanted me to have it since i was the one prescribing for him at the time. It really made my morning that Chris would share his gift that Pastor David had given him. {if your reading this, Chris, then Thank you again!!}
It was one of those special things that kicks off your day. ^.^

back to the present~
I think that the river is so beautiful. I've never seen anything like it!! it's truly majestic!! My camera couldn't even begin to capture the unrealistic beauty that is the Darien Jungle. {althouhg, i wish my camera was still working. at least i have 7 days of photos!!!}

OS now.. it's been a while on the boat. I've written in black ink on my arm because of the lack of paper. {i'm runnign out of journal space, which is crucial, so i'm saving it...}
I think my mom would kill me if she was here watching my write on my arm this way. Many others, too, actually. I need to take it off before going home. :P

So.. you know those things in life that make you feel absolutely beautiful?? Take this moment right now. It's lightly sprinkling on the river, i'm surrounded by beautiful and lush greenery, it's calm and quiet, and i'm here to just soak it all in!! It's as if i'm looking at a beautifully created masterpiece, and that i've been put there by mistake, or as if i get a sneak peak at something so beautiful that I'm not actually supposed to be apart of. It puts a smile on my face and now people are looking at me weird. they'll get over it. ;)

I was so comfortable, actually, that i slept for 2 hours on the boat. Now i have some serious tanlines from my sleeves on my arm.
So, i'm going to backtrack again to somethign that happened last night.
We were performing the Hat skit, and i forgot to put the white hat on Jesse's head!!! Ana elbowed me right as we were walkign away and whispered, "the hat! the hat!"
The hat was in my pocket, along with toys. the music was still in my favor so i turned around, whiped the hat out, and while iw as putting it on his head noticed that a bunch of toys had flown out of my pocket and onto the ground. It was very dramatic. {the toys were there to give out to the kids, seeing as it was our last night in Union Choco.} All the songs went really well, too!!
RANDOM: Bananas. Did you know that plaintains {bananas of a different kind} grow on awesome trees that only sprout the fruit once in the life of the tree?? {it only takes ten months for a tree to grow and sprout fruit.} So, instead of just picking the fruit, they chop the entire tree down!!! THIS i have a picture of. The kids like when this happens because then they have a new plaything. I thought it was pretty interesting when i first heard it, and wanted to write it down before i forgot...




When we got to Yaviza, we found this plant thats similar to a fly trap. it was really cool, if you touched the leaves, then they closed. it felt like touching.. air.
Other than that, the team just chilled for a while, and talked. It was nice to just relax for a bit. We tried another new fruit. It's small, round and green. there is no name for it, but it's similar to a lime except its jsut as sweet as it is sour and it's a seed... that you suck on but don't chew. Very odd fruit, but good all the same.
While we sat, we looked at each others pictures {and took some more goofy ones!}
Pastor David once again showed his generosity to us by purchasing soda and chips for us to snack on. How sweet of him!! Beef and Rice was lunch, which was really good!!!

Side note: it's now the second day of taking Defloquine. only 5 more days to go...

I was called into the Hot seat for tonight. {hotseat: During our meal, the entire team takes turnes saying something nice about whoever is on the hotseat.} Honestly, i don't think the team knows how much it helped that i was on the hotseat during this time. I really didn't want to be on it at all. I thought it was going to be fake or forced, or a simple compliment that you would give a stranger off the street. I was getting a little negative about it, actually, because i didn't want the attention. God really worked on my heart, though, and it turned into a huge blessing!!! so much so, in fact, that i wrote what everyone said.

... you have a beautiful voice
... I love the way you do worship with Jesse

... I'm thankful you're singing because it makes my job easier {jesse}

... I love your smile/laugh, it's contagious!!

... I Love how random you are {amanda}

... Your Awesome at prayer

... I love how you throw yourself into the things that your doings, even if you don't exactly know what your doing. {chris}

... I love how when your unsure of something that your doing, you pray and ask God to do it for you so he can help you {kathy}

... I like how you pray for people sincerely and how you know what to pray for even though you don't understand the language

... I like how you act with the kids, how you play and have fun with them

... How you learned all those spanish songs and how you pronounce them so well.

... I'm glad to have gotten to know you {or know you better}

... She can do everything!! I needed someone to draw, she can draw. Someone to sing, she can sing. And did you knwo she did the myspace for Evident??? {Jerry is the drummer for Evident} {as said by leah and jerry}

... Your Singular Wit!!! {ugo}

... How you are always laughing/how contagious you are when your happy!

... I sometimes forget your age & how young you are because you have wisdom beyond your years, but at the sametime have a child like humor about you. it's a good combination!!

These things really lifted me up, and I was genuinly surprised at the sincerity behind the words, it really meatn a lot to me that people thought I was doing a good job. It kind of made the other things i was thinking of and going through {throughout the week} vanish.

... in other news. I bough this really cool handmade mask today. we also get to take a walk through the town today!!!

Somethign else that i've noticed today is this: our team was told to NOT wear american flags and such because we don't want to appear prideful aobut our country to these people. we also went through basic etiquette of the area; eat all your food, etc. we were reaching out to show the people we respect them. They did the same for us, because we've been seeing people wear american flags on their shirts everywhere we go!! it's been quite an adventure.

I'll post the rest of today's entry in another blog, because this one is getting very long :P