Monday, September 8, 2014

23 - The canoe that tipped....


Well, first off we will begin with the question and answer portion. For people who work here on the island, some do a little construction, some work in the energy building, some have their little piece of land in the mountains and they have fruit, and then they sell the fruit. Then there are some teachers, and some army people are out here, but for the most part people either leave the island to go work or just chill. But yes, we do kinda live on the end of the island. There are only 2 things after us, the school and the police station. But there are quite a few little stores here, most of the time it's just out of someone's house. And the funny thing is if you aren't Kuna Indian or aren't directly related to a Kuna, you aren't allowed to live here. They only make exceptions for teachers and missionaries. So that's a fun fact for you! But we eat a lot of rice, lots of rice. But on the boat to the island last week, it was all the elders because it's cheaper to go all together. So I didn't have to find it by myself or anything. 

Spanish hasn't been hard to pick back up. It's learning more that is becoming hard though. It helps to have an American comp to help, but it's still difficult. We made a goal to have comp study every day we study. So like when we aren't home or we are busy, we don't have it. But we try to as often as possible. We get along pretty well though! But these last few weeks have been tough. Either we are somewhere else, or most of our lessons fall through. But even with that we have decent numbers. And to do laundry, you put water and soap in a bucket, let it soak, kind of scrub em with your hands, and then rinse them off. And yeah we shower with a bucket. At the church, we have a little room where most of our stuff is, and we just kinda keep everything in there. And there's a big lock on it too. We just kind of roll up our hammocks and tie them up. There is a separate room that is our kitchen. 

My week was pretty hectic. So we went back to Carti to have divisions with the Hermanas there. The boat ride only took an hour, so that was nice. And I saw dolphins!! But then the hermanas made us pancakes for breakfast! So nice to have a woman cook for me again! ;) And then a kid came and told the hermanas that they needed help. Then a few minutes later they called us and said they needed us to come give a blessing. A kid cut his leg about an inch deep with a can. It was actually a pretty bad cut. So we gave him the blessing. Then a few minutes later one of the hermanas fainted. So then they went to a member's house so she could rest. Me and my comp went back to the church, and he started feeling pretty sick. So I went and bought him some water. Then after the hermana rested for a few hours, we decided to go get some work done on another island about a mile away. But the only way we could get there was by little wooden canoe. My companion and I were in one canoe and the hermanas had a member take them in another. It's a lot harder than it looks! Like 30 seconds into it me and my comp flipped the canoe. So we got soaked! We thought beforehand and decided not to take anything with us. My comp had a Book of Mormon and some folletas but I didn't have anything. So we were okay. But that was the only time we flipped it. And then we taught a few lessons and just searched for a few new people to teach on the other island, then headed back at about 6. On the way back, the ocean waves were like 3 feet tall! We were in this little foot and a half tall canoe! We were terrified! But there were some Australians there, not sure why but they were. And they watched us get into the canoe, and they were telling us 'You can do it!' So we headed out determined and we made it back perfectly fine. I was a little wet because I was in the front but we made it anyways!

Then the next day we tried to make homemade ohaldres, pretty much just elephant ears without cinnamon and sugar. But they didn't turn out so awesome. But then we made the super ohaldre. It was as big as the pan! It was actually pretty good! And then we came back to our island that day. 

Then we decided to go fishing and this is where it gets really funny. So we used crab meat to fish with. We only had 1 big one and like 4 small ones with us, and we were walking past the Baptist church to buy some hooks. And all of a sudden a pretty good sized crab runs across the road. So my first instinct is take it out, so I run after it with bucket in hand, and just smash it like 3 or 4 times. All the people at the Baptist church were just standing there like what the freak just happened. Then we just kinda walk off like nothing happened. So now they probably all think we are crazy! But sadly we didn't catch any fish. We are going to try again maybe tomorrow night, and we are going to try with sardines this time. Maybe it will work better. 

Then like 4 days ago I got super super sick. Like one of the worst in my life time. It was horrible. So I called the mission nurses, and they told me I need to go to a clinic as soon as possible. Luckily we have one on the island. So we get there, the roof is falling in, everything is all dirty. The nurse is wearing like a leopard print tank top. But I had a fever of 102 and they said I have a throat infection. They gave me some stuff to break up mucus build up, some antibiotics, and then 2 other types of pills. It was like 50 pills in total and the total was 9 dollars and 50 cents. For everything. Yeah super insanely cheap! But I'm starting to feel better so I guess it can't be that bad! 

But that was pretty much my week. We only had like 20 lessons last week, which wasn't very good. But we are still trying to get things to work out! 

I'm super excited for Tyler. I hope he does go on a mission. That would be really cool for him and it would be a huge learning experience. But everything is going good here. It's still hard to get used to but it's going good. I'm actually going through the lessons in Preach My Gospel and looking up all the scripture references it has, color coding them and putting the same color sticky note there so I know where it is. So surprisingly, I'm kind of figuring out how to organize things! 

I hope this week goes good. I love you! Keep it real.




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