Week 55

Well plum dandy, what a fun, fun week it was.

It started with the celebration of the Revolution of 1925 which is basically when the Panamanians came into San Blas and tried to take out their nose rings and mola (traditional clothing) and all their traditions and force them to adopt the Panamanian culture and they fought back. Everyone wore traditional clothes and they had their chicha fuerte and they put their flags up. The Kuna flag is a swastika with yellow and red stripes and it still throws me off. 

We also had a special surprise trip to the Panama City, just us and the Zone Leaders for a leadership conference. It was shocking and fun cause usually San Blas doesn't get invited. I got to see all my friends and receive the Chick-fil-a sauce my parents sent me and buy new ear buds for pday calls home.

The most eventful day of all was yesterday cause we had a baptism. I filmed a FUN video the second day I was here about how they have baptisms here but the internet here is actually so bad that it would probably take a full day to send so I'll just tell ya and you can all pretend you're seeing my fun video. When we have baptisms we go to a different island. Basically we just have a shopping island, a baptism island, and a proselyting island.  

Anyways so on Saturday night we go to the guy that lets us use his panga (his boat) to get to the baptism island and he goes ¨yep everything's all good, I'll take you tomorrow to the other island¨ and we were like ¨ok and it's for sure for sure?¨ and he goes ¨yeah¨ and we go ¨100%? cause if not it's ok we just need to find someone else¨ and he goes ¨NO don't even worry Hermanas I'll be there¨ but of course on Sunday the hour arrives and he doesn't show up or answer his phone for half an hour and then when we finally get ahold of him he goes ¨oops ahh sorry can't¨ so after much searching we found a panga to take us but it was a little, well, en panga. That's panama slang for sketchy and in very bad condition. There were no seats or anything, it was just a bare metal boat so we got mega sprayed in the face with ocean water all the way there and back but it was FUN and happy. Albeniz (on his birth certificate it says Albaniz cause they messed up so he says ¨here in Carti they call me Albeniz but in the city they call me Albaniz¨ so the joke is that all you kids at home have to read his name as Albaniz but for us here it's Albeniz. ok? ok. ok. but anyways yeah he's the guy I wrote about last week who I met before and he is a baptized man! Ahora si, ahora si. 

Then after we got back we had to run a bunch of little errands and when we finally got back to the house we were very wet and tired and covered in salt and sand and we walk in the house and see a BIG BOY spider on the wall. Like probably the biggest-boy spider I've ever seen without it being a tarantula (I wanted to exaggerate it and say it was bigger but probably it was about the size of the palm of my hand). Anyways, Hna Lopez and I were like ¨no U kill it¨ for a few minutes before we see this guy walking by and call out to him and he goes ¨oh pfft these are just normal hermanas, don't worry¨ and smashes it with his bare hand and rips his legs off. it was memorable. 

What else. oh yes. my fun series

Kuna Tradition of the week:

One day we were helping this girl gather river water and we asked her how she met her husband and all that. We learned that in San Blas if you get caught talking to someone of the opposite sex after dark, you have to pay a $100 fine and if they catch you again, they force you to get married. The way they get married here is "por la hamaca," es decir, they put the soon-to-be newlyweds in a hammock together and swing it and then they have to get out and bathe each other and then they go back and swing in the hammock and repeat that process 4 times and then they're married. We were like ¨wait so like you didn't even want to get married?¨ and she just goes ¨´sta duro aqui¨ (it is hard here)

And now for your dulegaya lesson, I thought I'd put together a list of words that vaguely resemble English that I've learned this week:

igi wachi nika? = what time is it? (wachi, watch)

igi mani? = how much does it cost? or the literal translation would be "what money?"

sappy = tree, haha

orman = old man

soogar= sugar

And that's all for this week. But HEY I've progressed a lot this week in dulegaya. Now when people ask me simple things I can respond and after teaching with a little bit of dulegaya and seeing how they pay WAY more attention and understand better gives me lots of motivation to keep practicing. One day I want to film a kuna lady explaining something to us cause its the funniest thing ever, they use lots of hand motions and make all these sound effects to help us understand and it just tickles my funny bone in a way that nothing else can and I don't know how to explain it to other people.

Anyways, the only other thing I wanted to say is that my testimony has been strengthened and is being strengthened that the Lord is at the head of his work, that he knows how to do his own work, and that he allows us to participate only so we can feel the great joy that comes from it. Sometimes on this tiny island everything just feels just a little out of control and actually crazy but I've seen and can testify from little miraculous moments that when we recognize and allow God to do his own work instead of relying on our own experience and ability, things go a lot better.

Also the kids playing outside the church just yelled ¨Hermanas! We found a new game!¨ and what they're doing is sticking their faces in the sand to make a mask of sand but its getting in their eyes and probably its time for me to go, bye!

Baptism Beach

In the boat on the way to the baptism

Tender memories of getting soaked from head to toe cause the boat we took to the baptism island was very wimpy and small.

Mission Leadership Conference

Me Bringing my Poly Sauce to Every Corner of the Earth

All 3 of my MTC district Hermanas have been Hna Montero's companion!

Crab in bucket-shower pipe

The baptism island explanation video I mentioned

As I explain in the video, a little crab was in our water well. The second half of the video is me trying to fish it out after he fell in.

Riding back with the Zone Leaders

My mom has a friend in the choir whose husband and son were planning a trip to Panama, so she asked me if I wanted her to send anything through them and I said "ChickfilA and Polynesian Sauce!". So she bought me the 8oz containers of them and then when her friend's family got here they went to church and saw our mission nurse and asked her if she knew me and she said yes! So she brought them with her to the conference and I was able to pick them up from the mission offices at the conference this week. Truly a miracle for my taste buds 

When we were at the dock about to go back to the island, the ZLs left to go talk to somebody about our boat. We were waiting for a long time and wondered where they went and then we turn and see them riding on this little four wheeler. It made us laugh

(almost) all my hermana friends in one picture!

The big hut where they hold their congreso, also ft. the Kuna Flag that looks like something else

The Kuna Flag

We got news that back on the mainland, Gisela (Leandro's mom, a woman that got to know super well) got baptized! And it was fun that Hna Strong, my mission mom got to be there for it!

Our shower 💖 there's no door so when it's windy we feel extra exposed to the elements

I was eating a tortilla with parmesan and marinara sauce as a snack (cooking is hard after dark but I'm always hungry) and Hna Lopez thought it was gross and hilarious so she took a picture