Posted in Culture
by Lindsey McDonald
on 7/10/2008
As my team spent this past week in the Honduras rainforest, I was reminded of a previous adventure I had in a rainforest. Rewind back to the month of May to a little beach town known as Manzanillo, Costa Rica, where four of us were staying and helping out a pastor. Our last day there we decided to go on a long hike thru the rainforest.
We woke up early and headed out. I wasn't expecting it to be difficult so I wore flip flops. We started out along the beach enjoying its beauty and watching the crabs scurry away from us. Having hiked parts of the rainforest earlier, we were familiar with the beginning of the trail, but as we entered deeper into the forest we came across an abundance of wildlife; frogs, huge spiders, interesting looking worms, beetles and monkeys! Also, the deeper we entered into the forest the more muddy it seemed to become. Remember I was wearing flip flops which do not work well with mud. I kept getting stuck and eventually one flip flop broke and was quickly followed by the other. So there I was only 30 minutes into our four hour hike with no shoes to protect from the rainforest floor. Thankfully, Jenn was there to witness my mishap, and after a little sympathy and a whole lot of laughter we decided to move on. I continued the rest of our hike barefoot trying to avoid the red ants and other crawly things on the rainforest floor.
entering deeper into the forest (cameron, jenn, brandon, and in the left hand corner my finger)
A look at some of the interesting wildlife in the rainforest:
As Jenn and I caught up with Brandon and Cameron, we came to a clearing where we could hear monkeys hooting and hollering at each other but were unable to see them. There seemed to be a debate on whether we should go off the trail and try to find the monkeys, but we continued on the trail. At this point the trail was even more muddy than earlier and as I began to slip, I blindly reached for something to balance myself; a tree trunk completely covered in thorns (pictured to the right). The good news: I didn't fall in the mud. The bad news: I had 3 inch thorns sticking out of my right hand. In shock, I began pulling the thorns out of my hand, and as people came to see what happened I began to uncontrollably start laughing. What a crazy hike this was turning out to be!
After the shock wore off, the pain along with tears began to flow. The tears were more based on my feelings of discouragement than the pain. I felt defeated by the rainforest. I didn't understand what it had against me, but I was not going to let it continue its defeat. So when asked, “Do you want to turn back?” The only logical response was, “No.” Instead we walked down to the bordering beach, washed the blood off my hand and took a little break. (pictured to the left my bloody hand and broken flip flops. this was taken during the uncontrollable laughter stage)
Feeling refreshed, once again we entered the rainforest. We took a different trail this time and ended up stuck knee deep in mud! As we were crawling our way out of this mud pit, a husband and wife spotted our dilemma and thanked us for showing them which way not to go. The woman was very friendly and began conversing with us as we struggled to get to the other side where she was. In the midst of our struggle Jenn (pictured below in the knee deep mud) had an encounter with a huge rainforest spider which she ended up killing. When the woman realized Jenn had killed the spider she became very upset, and gave Jenn a lecture on the harmony of the rainforest and how she had just disrupted it. She concluded her lecture by advising Jenn that the next time a spider is in her way she simply needs to calmly and politely tell the spider to move so she may pass, at which point the spider would respond by moving.
As I finally climbed out of the pit the woman commented on my not having any shoes. I told her about having lost my shoes earlier to previous mud and proceeded to tell her about my mishap with the thorny tree to which she responded with a gasp and a command for me to hold out my hand. My immediate thought was she must be a nurse, but as she grabbed my wrist, closed her eyes, and began waving her other hand over my hand followed by swift movements like she was pulling something out of the air around my hand, I concluded she wasn't a nurse. In fact later I learned she was a Colorist, similar to an interior designer but different. Her love for animals though has driven her to seek a second job as some type of animal therapist, I forgot the name. What she was doing with my arm is the therapy she does with animals, cleansing their auras to remove pain. After what felt like forever she finally let go of my arm and we talked about why we were in Costa Rica and travelling. She was very excited to hear about where we had been and even shared some of her and her husband's adventures in other countries. Finally the point came where we had to go our separate ways and say our good-byes.
Though the woman was more passionate about nature than most, she reminded me of how much God delights in his creation. How nature just simply being nature is glorifying to God, and how we are created to live in community with nature. By the end of the hike I was enjoying not wearing shoes, the mud between my toes, and watching the ants scurry around gathering food. I also had time to reflect on the "Man vs. Nature" attitude, its negative connotations, and how it should never be "Man vs. Nature" but always "Man living in community with Nature".
While in Guatemala, I learned that not only is Guatemala famous for its delicious coffee, but also its chocolate! Apparently, the Mayans had many uses for the cocoa bean from medicinal to food, and invented many various ways of cooking and flavoring it. Having heard this, I decided I needed to try some of this Guatemalan chocolate and maybe find a way to even buy some before I left.
One of our last nights in Antigua, Traci and I went to an internet cafe. As I was waiting for her to finish up what she was working on, I began reading all the brochures and advertisements on the walls inside the cafe and even made my way outside to see if there was anything interesting posted out there. At first glance there didn't seem to be anything out there, but looking again, I noticed something in the shadows. There was a small white sheet of paper with black ink on it. If it had been a different circumstance, I probably would have passed it by, but bored and curious I began to read what it said. Much to my surprise and excitement it was an advertisement for a Guatemalan chocolate store. I admit that I was skeptical due to the poor advertising which did not even mention the name of the store or the address, but I wrote down the two streets it claimed to corner and the name of the cafe it said was across the street, and hoped it was a legit place that still existed.
Arriving at the hostel later, I was excited to tell Jenn about my new discovery. We had been talking about Central American chocolate ever since we heard about a chocolate factory in Costa Rica, and had a cocoa tree outside of our house when we were staying in Bamboo. I also knew I could depend on her to go on a quest for this chocolate store or place whatever it was. So we planned to scope it out our next free afternoon and much to my surprise even with the minimal amount of details I had about the place most everyone else wanted to come along as well.
The following Monday afternoon, nine of us ventured out on a quest for what we hoped would be a cute little chocolate store with a variety of chocolate. I'll admit I was imagining the store in the movie Chocolat: bright colored walls, organized and mouth-watering display cases, and good looking, friendly people. What we finally walked into though, at first to ask directions for a seventh time but eventually with some disappointment realized that we had reached our destination; was a dark store, with cluttered counter tops and walls, and an eccentric, middle aged, American man behind the counter. The only way I recognized it as the place was because it was across the street from the cafe and there were cocoa and coffee beans on the counter along with a few other bagged items that looked like they could be chocolate.
Sadly, I don't remember the man's name, but during the short time we were there he expressed to us his passion for and faith in the cocoa bean, his hatred for President Bush and capitalism, and he told us about his website which has nothing to do with chocolate but seems to be more of a collection of his thoughts and theories on America and history, etc. Sorry, I don't remember the web address to share. It was obvious the guy loved to hear himself talk though and when he mentioned he was born in Texas I quickly blurted out that I was from Texas. This led him to announce that he had once written a poem about Texas, and he began to enthusiastically recite it for us. “Remember the Alamo!” he exclaimed, and that is all I remember of it. He was reciting it so quickly and it got to the point where it was awkwardly long, especially since he had another customer outside of our group waiting for him to ground up some coffee beans.
As I watched him reciting what became a never ending poem, I kept picturing Gene Wilder in Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and began hoping that Oompa Loompas would appear from behind the counter and join in his recitation. Finally, he concluded but not without first informing us that the poem is originally one hundred pages long. I couldn't help but be intrigued by this man. What had inspired him to write a hundred page poem about Texas? Where had his passion for the cocoa bean come from and what brought him to Antigua, Guatemala? Sadly, I never asked him these questions. I am thankful for whoever taught him to make chocolate and instilled in him a passion for the cocoa bean, though, because he definitely makes some delicious chocolate. Even without being beautifully displayed, the chocolate still managed to be pretty darn good.
One of the biggest hits amongst our group was the mix of unsweetened cocoa, honey, cinnamon, and chili powder. In all honesty, it looked like poop in a bag, but tasted so good. The only way I can think to describe it is a chocolate covered red hot or hot tamale, but even better. In all of his creations he only used honey to sweeten the chocolate. It was solely pure cocoa and honey. Many claimed it was bitter and decided they didn't like it, but I loved it. Most of the Guatemalan chocolate I have come across is definitely more bitter than sweet, but I think our group decided that if you like coffee than you will like Guatemalan chocolate.
The next morning, I made Jenn return with me to get a few more things. When we arrived at the shop one of the doors was open so we walked in, but we didn't see anybody. Uncertain of what to do we walked back out deciding that we would yell “Hello!” and walk in again. After a couple of “hellos” the man shot up from behind the counter looking flustered and surprising us. Maybe we had woken him up I'm not sure. As we contained our laughter, I quickly picked out what I wanted and after a few awkward moments and a random conversation we said our final good-bye and thank you to our eccentric Willy Wonka friend.
If anyone loves making businesses look good and enjoys marketing, I know a place that has a lot of potential and needs a lot of help in Guatemala. Or if you ever happen to take a trip out to Antigua, Guatemala I would recommend you stop by and visit the corner chocolate store across the street from the Rainbow Cafe. Even if you don't care about chocolate, you should stop in and visit. You might get a chance to hear a recitation, and if your lucky enough maybe it will be the poem about Texas.
On our one hour and a half ride back to Antigua, Guatemala from the Pacaya Volcano, our van became overheated. The driver told us all to exit the vehicle and wait. As another tour van pulled up behind us four people from our tour were loaded in there, but we were not as lucky. So we waited. There was a convenient store close by and Jenn decided to buy everyone popsicles, which made us smile for a couple of minutes. We were all worn out from the hike up the volcano, and some of us were worried we were going to be late for our date with the hospital that afternoon. So as we sat there, unsure of how long we would be stranded, we tried to make the best of it by chatting. Most of the time, though, in my head I was thinking, “Please God, get me out of this situation.” At one of the times I was thinking this; Sarah interrupted me and excitedly told me she had just seen a girl walk by with a chocolate covered frozen banana.
...If you have ever seen the show Arrested Development, you would understand Sarah's excitement. Since Africa my team has ended many days with an episode or two of Arrested Development. If you have never heard of it, it's a silly show that used to come on Fox about a dysfunctional family and the housing development business they own. In this show the family also owns a frozen banana stand, and many hilarious things happen at and to this banana stand. This is why Sarah came expecting I would share in her excitement....
But sadly at that moment, I was too consumed with myself to actually share in her excitement and simply responded, “Oh really? Great.” Not the reaction she was hoping for, but also not allowing herself to be affected by my lack of excitement; she went on a quest for the frozen banana stand. A couple of minutes later, I hear Sarah speaking in Spanish to a couple of girls asking where she could buy a frozen banana. I looked at her and laughing said, “Sarah, you are not seriously asking those girls where to get a frozen banana?” I don't think I realized until that moment how serious and excited she was to find this frozen banana stand. Bored sitting on the curb thinking and staring out at the road, I decided to join Sarah in her search for this banana stand. Turns out it was a store not a stand and was only about 30 feet away from where we were sitting. As we walked into the store, we didn't realize how many options there were for a frozen banana; chocolate, white chocolate, chocolate and nuts, white chocolate and nuts, or white chocolate and chocolate. Feeling a little overwhelmed by the options we simply went for the chocolate covered banana with nuts. Fifteen cents and a couple of photos later, Sarah and I walk back to the rest of our group with huge smiles on our faces.
This is us with our frozen bananas doing one of the chicken dances from the show...
please don´t judge us. it´s just a very entertaining show and we were very excited.
It's hilarious the funny things God uses to bless your day and bring you joy. Who would've thought in a tiny roadside town of Guatemala, while waiting for an overheated van to start again, Sarah and I would find God's love in a chocolate covered frozen banana. I love that God is so intimate, he knows the simple things that will delight us and if we take the time to actually recognize those simple things as God's provision it brings about even more joy, because you know you are loved and cared for by something So Huge and So Powerful and So Good!
Also, I realize that if it hadn't been for Sarah and her excitement, I would have totally missed out on the love God was offering. There I was sitting only 30 feet away from something so excellent for a good twenty minutes before Sarah and I even became aware it was there, and once I became aware it was there I still didn't jump up to receive it. It makes me realize how important community is. I am many times blinded to what God is doing, and need passionate, excited people to point it out to me and walk alongside me towards it.
Posted in Team Updates
by Lindsey McDonald
on 6/24/2008
Welcome to the Antigua Guatemala Installment of the Colleen and Sarah Photo extravaGANZAS!
This month we left the the guys behind for some ¨manistry time.¨ We have no idea what has happened after the taking of this photo and we may be better off that way...
The 4 Team LESS girls, Traci and Krystle from Ignite and 5/6 of the Beloved Ones headed to Antigua
After 10 months of traveling we found that many of us fit right in with the backpackers... and others found their flair for Guatemalan Culture... well maybe just one in particular.
Antigua is a BEAUTIFUL city with many historical sights, cobblestone roads, old cathedrals... and adorable elderly people.
Here are several photos from around town:
One morning a group of us headed up to Pacaya, an active volcano only 2 hours from our little city!
Jackie, Sarah and Lindsey in front of the Volcano... and the whole group of World Race hikers.
Parts of the rock were hot enough to do this to marshmallows... and to the soles of shoes if you don´t step carefully!
There were a few close calls... but we all made it back safely.
We spent time in a hospital for mentally disabled children and adults. We made lots of great friends with the amazing women and children who live there.
Colleen and Gloria... who loved her makeup and always had lots of jewelry on display
Krystle and Lupe with her award winning smile
Kari and Gloria hugging over our lunch outting to a local chicken restaurant
Jackie and Rufina became instant friends
The whole group on our way back from lunch
Every day it was amazing to see local people and missionaries spreading love around the hospital
This is Dick playing with Byron in the park. There is not nearly enough space here to explain how much we love him and how wonderful he is... consider this a sneak peak into future blogs.
a great candid shot of Lindsey loving life in Antigua
Lest you should think we forgot... here are some of the ¨unique¨ sights from our time in Antigua
When our friend refused a photo with Colleen for the third or fourth time... she decided to take matters into her own hands... and chase him through the streets
One day there was a party slash competition at the hospital. From what we can gather... people were divided into colored teams with mascots... and then completed tasks all over the hospital. Here you will see Team Bear crossing the pool and Team Construction Paper Donkey running off to their next event.
What competition would be complete without a rainy character dance-off in the courtyard...
At first glance... Sarah thought she was looking back in time when a bumble bee came running by.... but in fact, they actually made more than one bumble bee costume for children... to be worn by adults.
Finally, there was a concert at the hospital one afternoon... and much to our surprise and enjoyment we found out that Willy Nelson doubles as a xylophone enthusiast in Antigua.
Well, that´s all for now... see you at the next... extravaGANZA!!
Posted in Team Updates
by Lindsey McDonald
on 6/23/2008
Hey Everyone,
I´ve been in Antigua, Guatamala this past week and a half volunteering at San Pedro´s Hospital. It has been amazing and challenging. Please read Hope for the Helpless by Traci VanSumeren, Chosen and Seen Through God´s Eyes by Kari Stembel, My Amiga by Jackie Zuiderhof, and Face to Face with the Forgotten by Colleen Foley. All our beautifully written about their experience at the hospital this week, and explain a lot of what each of us have experienced while here.
While in Antigua, we did also take some time to visit an active volcano and roast marshmallows on top of it. Very thrilling! I enjoy being able to say I hiked and roasted marshmallows on top of an active volcano, but I don´t know if I will ever do that again. I think it is a once in a lifetime kind of experience for me. You should read Renee´s post: Guatemala: Marshmellows and Lava and Kari´s post: Roasting on a Volcano to see some great pictures of our adventure.
I think we have all truly enjoyed our time here. Tomorrow June 24th we will go back to our original teams. Jackie, Sarah, Colleen and I will meet back up with Kyle and Danny in another part of Guatamala. Krystle and Traci will meet back up with Aaron and Seth and travel back to Nicaragua along with the Beloved girls and meet up with the rest of Ignite.
Team Less will be spending the rest of this week in Guatamala. Danny and Kyle will be doing construction in a village while the girls will be helping around Chris´and Donna´s, our contacts, house; painting and whatever else they need us to do. Friday and Saturday our team will head to a beautiful lake for a couple of days and Sunday we will leave for the capital city of Honduras to meet up with our next contact. All in all our team is trying to do and see as much as we can and are just enjoying being around each other as we begin our last month out.
Posted in Team Updates
by Lindsey McDonald
on 6/21/2008
Our team recently spent 2 amazing weeks in Panama. We hope these pictures will give you some insight into our experiences.
... so welcome to the latest Colleen and Sarah photo extravaGANZA!
Danny and Lindsey preparing to overwhelm the taxi drivers with 6 people, 6 packs, 6 backpacks, a guitar and few purses...
Hydration is very important when you are visiting the Panamà Canal
Jackie, aka J Money, doing her thing wherever and whenever she can
Our first weekend we got to go to Campamiento, an annual youth retreat for the high school...
One of these things is not like the others... (Note the miracle taking place: you are witnessing over 100 teenagers on the beach by 6am for morning devotions and very energetic games)
Kari and the Staff splashing around
Sunrise
Several days during our week we got to go to the Comador (a feeding center). It was run by an adorable Grandpa-man named Bernardo. We helped paint chairs, make a table, pour cement and serve food to all his little friends.
Colleen documents the morning zone out trend from our team waiting for the bus.... versus Sarah.
Kyle helping Bernardo put together a table
Just a Grandpa doing what he loves to do.
Carlos
Saving some for later?
Three cheers for food... (and Americans with cameras!)
Here are a few pictures from our time at the school. We got to follow teachers around and teach English.
Hard at work
Teacher Colleen and one of her amazing students
On Saturday we got to attend the International Day of Prayer! It was a big festival at the school... complete with a performance by the students of cultural dancing. No captions for these ones... just some beautiful photos.
These are a few pictures of our host family:
Matteo really is this cool
Pedrito, Pedro and Maria at dinner one of our last nights
Posted in Culture
by Lindsey McDonald
on 6/20/2008
Oh the 4th grade. Looking back I remember it being one of my favorite school years. Not because of the subjects but mainly for the various class competitions and projects my teacher, Mrs. Anthony, would involve us in. One of my favorites was the Miss Clean Queen competition which involved a drumroll announcement, a tiara and a sash. I should mention my class was all girls due to the school separating boys and girls until high school...don't ask me why. I honestly don´t know, but don´t worry there were no boys competing for Miss Clean Queen. Anyway this clean queen competition was intense and involved having to keep your desk area super clean for an entire week. I was the 3rd in my class of 30 to win it and was very proud of myself. I think my mom was more shocked than proud due to the fact at home I couldn't keep my room clean for a day. Another favorite memory of 4th grade was when we were assigned an oral report on a famous Texan and I was assigned Ima Hogg. Yes, she is a real person and no she does not have two sisters named, Ura Hogg and Wera Hogg. Okay maybe that's only funny in Texas. But I had the priviledge of doing my report on her and even dressing like her, since part of the project involved dressing like your person. Call me a nerd but I really enjoyed that project.
So why all this nostalgia about 4th grade? Well, a few weeks ago in Panama I was blessed by a bunch of 4th graders, when I had the priviledge of teaching at Emanuel Collegio Bilingue school. It was such a great experience! I switched between two 4th grade classes and fell in love with the students. They were so cool even at 9. I loved reading stories to them and even sharing some of my own stories with them, such as the time I was in Mozambique and had an encounter with a spitting cobra. They were such a great audience and even clapped when I was done. Besides telling them stories, I loved helping them understand something and seeing their expression when they did finally understand. I loved hanging out with them during lunch time and talking in Spanglish about our families and what I was doing there. I loved how they made fun of my Spanish. I loved how excited they would get when I entered the room and sometimes there would even be clapping. I also loved how by the end of each day I would have a stack of about 15 notes from different children full of encouragement! I don't know if I have ever felt so loved! It was such a blessing and I will never forget those 4th graders or Mariella, their original teacher, who let me interrupt her classes for that week.
Mariella and I
my lunch buddies
an attempt at a class photo
Ashley, my favorite 4th grader
(okay I know your not supposed to have favorites, but her notes were the best and at the end
of each day she always found me in the hall to give me a hug goodbye)
So now mixed in with all of my other dreams and thoughts about my life after the race there is the desire to teach elementary school, which is funny because I distinctly remember a conversation I had a couple of years ago with my mother, who is an amazing teacher, where I told her that I would never want to be a teacher. Funny how things I swore I would never do like teach or go back to school seem to be things that I now desire to seriously look into when I return.
Posted in Culture
by Lindsey McDonald
on 5/22/2008
A couple of weeks ago 8 of us left San
Jose and went Southeast to the Carribean. We each had our different
reasons. Some desired to scout out opportunities in Panama to give
the squad some direction before arriving next month. Some wanted to
see and experience as much of Costa Rica as they could in one month,
and others just needed to get out of San Jose and get their hands
dirty. Whatever the reason for leaving, we embarked into the unknown
representing each of the 4 teams: Ignite (Krystle and Aaron), seven:eleven (Brandon, Cameron, Christie), Beloved One (Jenn), and
Less (Jackie and myself).
Our first stop was a little village
called Bamboo, where the eight of us helped work on a church:
painting signs, mixing concrete, laying bricks, and whatever else
needed to be done. After a couple of days we separted. The four (Aaron, Christie,
Jackie, and Krystle) who desired to scout out Panama left and
Brandon, Cameron, Jenn, and myself stayed in Bamboo. With Aaron, who was fluent in Spanish, gone we were forced to speak and understand Spanish on our own. Thank goodness Brandon and Cameron have Spanish skills, because Jenn and I ...well, let's just say in Jenn's words, we have "une petito" skills :). During the rest of our stay in Bamboo we helped a couple of men build a floor at the local school (ok well technically we moved a lot of dirt), and we were given an opportunity to work with the US Army and PeaceCorps helping load helicopters for a mass bridge building project going on in remote villages. It was definitely a cool experience and we met some fun people.
From Bamboo we went to another village called, Margarita. There we were connected with a pastor and we helped him harvest gourdes (pumpkin/squash-like things) for extra income for his family. We also participated in two of his church services performing a skit, leading them in a few songs, and telling them about what God's been doing in our lives (thankfully we had an interpreter that night). We also took the bus one morning to the Panama border in search of some killer shades for Brandon, and other important necessary World Race items.
the pastor and his wife
the gourdes
the team
the border
Our final stop was Manzanillo where we stayed with Pastor Jose. Originally from Panama, Pastor Jose has lived in Costa Rica for two years planting a church while his wife, children, and grandchildren are still in Panama. Out of all of the people we met along the way, I think we got to know him the best, cooking and eating every meal together and helping him build a Sunday School room for his church. We also participated in one of his church services and he was so grateful for our company and our help. He was such a nice man and cooked us red snapper one night, my favorite! We also were able to spend a lot of time at the beach getting swallowed by waves and one day even went on a rainforest adventure! All in all it was ten days in community and service with amazing people in the beauty that is Costa Rica! Gloria a Dios!
Posted in Team Updates
by Lindsey McDonald
on 4/16/2008
We wanted to make a really special photo blog that would capture the really amazing, powerful, meaningful couple of weeks we experienced in Botswana. Seriously, it was amazing... but upon scanning our photos... it seems that it is more appropriate to do this photo blog. Here's a glimpse into another part of our world.
Before we went to Botswana we spent some time in Pretoria and Johannesburg:
Normal Things: passing the time on a street corner, waiting for our ride
Multitasking: we cleaned our pores and practiced driming to share the love of Jesus all at the same time. Please note what a Holy experience Lindsey is having.
Several mornings in a row we practiced packing our bags and the car... only to unpack them and return to our cabins later in the morning. However, when the big day came we were ready... and we were on our way to Botswana.
Upon arriving in Botswana we were surprised to discover that we weren't living in the bush, but rather in a gorgeous guest house...
And we got to drive a Benz... once. But it was really awesome. Danny even found a pair of bling bling Grandma glasses.
The rest of the time we rode in the back of a pickup truck. It was really windy. We always looked exactly like this. Always.
Except when we got bored... and started to pick on each other. Don't be worried, Sarah only had minor wounds from her beating by the loaf... Colleen kissed it and made it all better
.
The pickup took us to lots of interesting places... and got us in touch with our inner selves...
Everywhere we went we met some really amazing people from Botswana:
Meet Felix.
There was always something to laugh about.
We met some people with common interests... like the little mermaid... and head hugs.
Some of us even found love...
Looking Back... in Botswana we really got in touch with our African roots:
After a rigourous tryout... Sarah made the South African rugby team... and then went into the past and won the world cup. She's really good at rugby.
Kyle did his best to blend in. He sprung for a precision haircut. Please observe the perfect 90 degree angle at his hairline... as the stlyist is applying Hair food... before he brushed the hair for no less than 10 minutes. Kyle makes this look goooooood.
Kyle did his best but Lindsey actually became African... note the puffy sleeves and the sweet tambourine skills.
We spent some time reflecting on the last 8 months of our lives, what the World race has meant to us, and how dreamy that George Clooney is.
We're back in South Africa for debrief now. We'll be flying to Latin America on the 20th to start the last leg of our Journey. Don't worry... we have plenty of memories to share... and even a few souvenirs for you lucky folks back home.
Costa Rica, where four of us were staying and helping out a pastor. Our last day there we decided to go on a long hike thru the rainforest.
whether we should go off the trail and try to find the monkeys, but we continued on the trail. At this point the trail was even more muddy than earlier and as I began to slip, I blindly reached for something to balance myself; a tree trunk completely covered in thorns (pictured to the right). The good news: I didn't fall in the mud. The bad news: I had 3 inch thorns sticking out of my right hand. In shock, I began pulling the thorns out of my hand, and as people came to see what happened I began to uncontrollably start laughing. What a crazy hike this was turning out to be! 
hand and took a little break. (pictured to the left my bloody hand and broken flip flops. this was taken during the uncontrollable laughter stage)
she was pulling something out of the air around my hand, I concluded she wasn't a nurse. In fact later I learned she was a Colorist, similar to an interior designer but different. Her love for animals though has driven her to seek a second job as some type of animal therapist, I forgot the name. What she was doing with my arm is the therapy she does with animals, cleansing their auras to remove pain. After what felt like forever she finally let go of my arm and we talked about why we were in Costa Rica and travelling. She was very excited to hear about where we had been and even shared some of her and her husband's adventures in other countries. Finally the point came where we had to go our separate ways and say our good-byes. 
since we heard about a chocolate factory in Costa Rica, and had a cocoa tree outside of our house when we were staying in Bamboo. I also knew I could depend on her to go on a quest for this chocolate store or place whatever it was. So we planned to scope it out our next free afternoon and much to my surprise even with the minimal amount of details I had about the place most everyone else wanted to come along as well.
. 
