more on Panama

We had a wonderful trip to Panama over New Year's week.
I got to see and touch the Pacific Ocean for the first time! We stopped for lunch at a beachside restaurant. It was very hot on the beach. The sun was brutal.

We are glad to be back in the U.S. where we can put toilet paper in the toilet instead of in a trash can next to the toilet. It's funny the things that are luxuries other places that you would never imagine. Running water to wash your hands was another from this trip. We used a lot of antibacterial wipes.

The trip was probably the most posh mission trip I've ever heard of, especially to a foreign country. We rode in a very nice, pretty new minibus that had air conditioning, and all the places we stayed (slept) had air conditioning and hot water showers. Yes, it was nicer than Camp Sumatanga (pool camp at least). These creature comforts did help us to rest better and hopefully work harder, but they left cold-natured me wishing I had brought more long-sleeved shirts and pants! I was prepared to be stifling in the heat and humidity! We were stifling at the community multi-use building where we worked painting.



It was not air conditioned (duh) and there was no running water. There were two toilets that were operational if you poured collected river water down the bowls. I installed new toilet seats on them.

The children of the community where the center is located are very sweet. They helped us paint some. I wish I had been able to speak to them more, but some of them spoke a language native to the Ngobe Indians and only knew Spanish from school, and I only knew a tad of Spanish.



Anyway, it was a great trip, we were so blessed to go and meet the people there, experience their culture and the ministry that is going on there. I hope we can go again sometime and visit the building that Peter helped build walls for in 1999 and we helped paint in 2005.