Pa to Panama on two wheels: Long time no write

Ok so I haven’t written anything for the blog in forever. So for all my fans out there here is a little tidbit. Honestly I’m not sure where to start. I’m not even sure where the beginning is but I’ll give it a whorl.

The last while has been very hard for me, emotionally I guess. I really miss my community and the loving, caring and pursing that takes place. I’ve felt everything from hopeless, dry, dead, disconnected, smashed, silenced, helpless, angry, frustrated, disappointed, proud, giddy, and thankful. I long to be back in my community and fellowship with everyone there. At times I have felt that this trip has been a waste of my time, and that I’m not able to use any of my gifts, and that I’m not making any progress in my story. These are things that I still struggle with at times. It takes a lot of energy for me to stay connected to my feelings and stay aware of how they are affecting me; it also takes a lot of effort for me to convert my thoughts/pictures into words that make some type of sense to those reading them. So the combination both of those taking a lot of my energy I had to choose, and obviously I didn’t choose writing. But now I will.

So Costa Rica, that’s where we are at and have been for quite awhile, minus the last few days in Panama. We have stayed in here at the Pura Vida missions base outside San Jose, but onto the good stuff. So coming into Costa Rica Chad wanted to try and get into San Jose in time to go to church on Saturday evening. Well we had some delays and then we hit rain but we still had hopes of making it there.

waiting for a ferry that ended up being full

after finding out the ferry was full we road the 5 hours around

And then the Rain began

So we are riding along in the mountains, its getting dark, it has been raining but for now the rain has kind of subsided, Chad was leading, then I think Dwayne, Nate, Laban, and I. Something like that, anyways there was some traffic backed up because of a slow truck, well a passing lane emerges and cars scurry to try and get around the slow truck. The passing lane is full but the oncoming traffic lane is wide open, which is basically the same thing as a motorcycle lane you know. So Chad whizzes by all the traffic with Dwayne and Nate in close pursuit, Laban and I are working our way up through traffic as well just with a bit of room between us. Well Chad gets on the radio and says that there are cars coming. In the mean time the truck goes from the right lane to the left lane, seemingly leaving the right lane wide open, so doing what any of us would of done Dwayne cuts it over and starts running up the right lane only to find out as soon as he gets over there that the lane simply ends with a large drop off, leaving him bouncing along right next to the semi with no available road. Well Dwayne made it past the semi and tried to jump back up onto the road over the 6 inch high lip. Well next thing I know I see Dwayne flipping sideways right down the middle of the road right in front of the semi and almost into oncoming traffic. Somehow mid roll Dwayne gets his feet under himself and runs off the road. I didn’t see his bike but figured the truck must have run it over. My instincts kicked in and I as soon as I saw Dwayne rolling I gunned it up though the remaining cars and off the road up past the (now stopped) semi till I saw Dwaynes bike laying on the road (not run over thankfully), I jumped off my bike (a thought went through my head that we needed a picture of this) but I figured we had better get the bike off the road and make sure everyone is ok first. No sooner did Dwayne and I have his bike picked up I turned around and about a dozen people appeared from nowhere and flocked around us. Everyone was making sure Dwayne was ok and wanted to help in someway. We rolled the bike off the road and assessed the damage. What was about to take place was my highlight of Central America. Dwayne sees his busted off shifter lever and foot peg along with the dangling turn signal, picks up his foot peg and says with a passion “this is going to cost me!” as he throws his busted foot peg right into the ground, I laughed inside. With a lot of zip ties we managed to rig up something that resembled the foot peg that broke off, and then continued on into San Jose.

a cop showed up to make sure everything was ok the sped off

While in San Jose I rested, ate, rested, hung out, rested, worked on my bike, changed tires, took a nap, wrote some letters, rested, then one afternoon I helped the Vida 220 team (8 students living at the base while studying and serving in the community) evacuate women and children from Los Anonos, which is a very poor community on a very steep hill with a raging river at the bottom. There was landslides, houses swept away, and people steeling tin and steel for drug money. We basically helped people take all their belongings to higher ground. We moved quite a few concrete sinks. And I’m not talking a little bathroom sink either, we are talking utility sinks big enough for kids to take baths in! we also moved quite a few fridges and freezers, all of which were completely full. One of the Vida team members told me that we needed to stay in groups because they would just assume slit my throat and steal my wallet and throw me in the ditch. Well I didn’t have my wallet so they were going to be shit out a luck. Either way my arms and neck were quite sore. It would seem that riding motorcycle around the country side doesn’t keep one in tip top condition.