Back again...

After thinking about Panama being my next excursion, I realized I was wrong. It was the Dominican Republic. My father was asked to preach a tent crusade there and we were invited to come along. I remember the warm tropical weather and delicious chicken and rice served to us several times while we were there. I remember walking into the lobby of the church wondering why it was filled with stacked mattresses?  I was later told that most of the people who attended the services lived so far away that they would rather sleep in the church on one of those thing dirty mattresses than miss out on church. I remember sweet people and good coffee. I remember scuba diving in the murky Dominican  water, and rafting through rapids where parts of Jurassic Park was filmed. Then came Panama...

Panama was one of the most memorable trips I ever went on. Not because of its location, but because of the length of time I spent there. My brother and I decided to attend Florida State University in Balboa, Panama in the spring of 2004. Our travel voucher given to us while in Honduras enabled us to fly round trip to our destination.  We were apart of a group of 9 students attending this study abroad semester. We spent the first few days on campus getting acquainted with the staff and school. Once we were familiar with the school, and signed up for classes we ventured out to find an apartment in the city. It took us a few days to find the right one in El Dorado, Panama. It was partially furnished,  located in a high rise apartment  building, and a 10-15 min (depending on your cab driver) drive back and forth from school.  We were crazy about being there and began furnishing our apartment with pots and pans, food, and anything else we could think we would need to make ourselves comfortable.We went grocery shopping at the REY. Being frugal, we put our funds together and decided to purchase a 10lb bag of pancake mix. That pancake mix lasted us the entire time we were there. We made chocolate chip pancakes, mango pancakes, papaya pancakes, cinnamon pancakes, strawberry pancakes and anything we could think up. The challenge was to out do the other in our pancake skills. We bought an ugly rug, a lopsided fruit bow (that now sits above my moms cabinets) a Panamanian cheesecloth coffee filter and many more treasures to fill our little place. In order to find our way back and forth from the apartment to the school we took the bus all around the city and got lost just so we could find our way. We crammed into brightly colored, loud and crowded school buses squeezing our way into a spot. The buses vibrated with reggaeton and  the sound of the coin attended announcing the next stop. After a month of being in the city and taking the bus back and forth to school for a meager .45 cents I finally worked up the nerve to taking it by myself. I made many friends on those trips to and from school, church,  the mall, and the grocery store and it gave me a great opportunity to practice my Spanish. God always had his hand on me. I remember once I had to go to the dentist and I took the bus into the city several times by myself to get my procedure taken care of. My brother and a friend of his were taking a trip to the island Bocas del Toro and I had a dentist appointment. Being boys, they didn't want to wait around on me and decided to go ahead giving me directions to find it myself. I was so nervous. I had to make several stops and the last one was a little unclear but I wanted to go so I went to the bus station and got on the bus. On the last bus I was sitting with my hood over my head trying to sleep (it was always so cold on the buses) and I felt a tap on my head. It was my brother. They had stopped and gotten something to eat on the way and delayed their trip. I was so glad to have found them. We stayed on an island called Bastimentos. It was a small island just a water taxi ride away from the congested Bocas del Toro. The island was owned by a retired Navy officer. The story is told he bought the island and everyone called him crazy for doing so because it was a huge swamp. His years of experience in the Navy allowed him the knowledge to dredge the island and make it a beautiful resort. He built stilted bungalows with open windows and mosquito netting over the beds.They were beautiful. He had a small restaurant  built on some high rocks overlooking the ocean. I remember having red snapper. I remember paddling a kayak around the island and being able to see the fish clearly through the water.
Every weekend was a different adventure and I cant remember them all but will note the most memorable ones. One weekend my grandparents came to visit us. They gave us 4 days to work with. We packed those 4 days so full they were a whirlwind. We picked them up from the airport, whisked them away to our little apartment, instructed them to take one change of clothing each and put them in our back packs. We took them downtown to the causeway, through Casco Viejo, went shopping in the artisan market then got on a bus and headed towards Isla Grande. They were 66 and 61 years old at the time. They experienced the joy of the Red Diablo's and enjoyed fresh empanadas and fruity smoothies. We hiked to the top of the Island and swung in hammocks at our hotel. We swam in the hot summer sun and enjoyed fresh caught fish for dinner. It was a memory I will never forget.
As students we were taken on several trips. One of our many trips was a white water rafting trip. I can't remember the name of the river we rafted, just the crazy ride. During our  ride our guides would occasionally stop to show us something or for us to get out and take a break. On one occasion we stopped and hiked up mossy covered rock with water flowing down it in various places to a huge waterfall on top. Once at the top we took a break and dove into the pool of water below the waterfall. On our way down the rock my brother got the bright idea of putting on his helmet and scooting down the mossy rock where the water was flowing. Nothing gave at first. After a few scoots he suddenly went about 3 feet in the air and landed on his bum while continuing to fly down the rock into the fast moving current. I didn't know whether to howl with laughter or be scared to death. His body hit the rock in in every way possible before meeting the water. I remember the feeling of fear taking over the humor. I hurried as fast as I could and saw the guide reach out and grab him and pull him up into the raft. I was halfway down the rock before I slipped and fell the rest of the way down myself. Once at the bottom I was also pulled onto the raft by the guide. I was later asked by my brother if I were trying to do what he did. He was nervous about his experience and said he had no control over his body. When we made it back to the city and went to the internet store the following day to make our call home, my mother asked us what we had been doing at the time the incident happened. We told her the story and she began to tell us that the Lord had led her to pray at that very moment for us not knowing what was going on. Even in our crazy adventures God has always had his hand on us.
We visited the city of Boquette and toured a coffee plantation. I have always loved coffee so this was very special for me. I learned the differences of beans and how to taste the difference in flavor. We camped out under the stars in Boquette and made a fire.
For our spring break we decided to venture into Costa Rica. We spent a day or two in San Jose and tried many different foods, shopped in the market and met many friends. We went to Volcan Poas to see the volcano. We visited La Fortuna and swam like crazies under the waterfall. We met a friend at La Fortuna that would become a lifetime friend. He was a crazy Colombian named German.