Panamanian Hospitality

From David in northern Panama - hello! The walk continues for the unity of Christians & what a week it's been. Panama is beautiful in both landscape and people. Since the last entry I've walked 369km including 106km over the final 2 days! It feels like another year has gone by this week. In the city of Santiago, after 5hours of following misleading information on where I could sleep I was finally assisted by two students from Europe who came to my aid & shuffled me off to a cheap backpackers hostel on the other side of town - they even bought me dinner! On the road to David I've stayed at a missionary boarding school in Tole, with a wonderful Padre in San Lorenzo and in a family hostel in Divisa at no charge, but the highlight was my stay in El Higo. I'd walked 45km and arrived just after sunset in the tiny town on the edge edge of the mountains to find there was no church & no hotel. A local guided me to the only shop in town where I could buy my dinner & then through chatting with the other locals was invited to put my hammock up at the home of one of the young men. His name was Adolfo. I followed him & his little daughter down a steep, unlit path through Banana trees & across a small stream to his home on the other side - a one room tin shed no more than 2m x 2m, no running water, no electricity. His wife was waiting for him & he explained who I was & what I was doing & she welcomed me with a smile. I set my hammock up under the make-shift verandah & then sat with Adolfo under the star-lit night & slowly chatted about everything from Australia, to how he likes to cook rabbits, to how far down the mountain the coyotes come! Late in the evening he retired inside & I rested in my hammock with his guard dog beside me. Swinging gently I gazed up at the stars until eventually falling asleep. In the morning, just before sunrise, Adolfo cut some lemon grass & boiled it. For breakfast we sat & shared his lemon grass tea & ate a bread bun each. He shared that his family was 250km away in Panama City & that he was travelling back to them the next day without his wife & daughter. With a great deal of anguish he told me that he couldn't find work in the local area & so had no option but to leave for some time to earn money. After a moment of silence he said he wanted to give me something & he popped inside & came back out with his daughters old minature plush Dino toy (from the Flintstones) and placed a small cross around its neck. He handed it to me and said, "Remember me". I placed the Dino toy on my pack & gave him my one photo of home & asked him to pray for me & unity. He placed the photo up on his wall next to his small collection of photos someone had taken of his daughter for him. We shook hands & as I left he quickly cut a section of suger cane for me to eat as I walked. The 53km walk that day was a filled with mixed emotions - sadness at his plight & yet overwhelmed by his generosity. Please remember him in your prayers! Other points of interest from this week include walking past a 'sound off' between a pack of coyotes and a family of Baboons - I decided not to get involved... and I also lost a little more of my already dented smile when a truck flicked a rock up off the road just as I was smiling, remembering Rob Stich's impersonation of Bruce McAvenney on the Late Show many years ago. Two chipped teeth for my efforts. If I was more aware I could have caught the 100km/hr stone between my teeth and spat it back out. Obviously caught off-guard... Tomorrow is Christmas for me as I get to pick up my brand new boots! The hole in the sole was getting mighty big to, so just in time. Please continue to pray for unity & if you haven't already, please set your alarm for 4:01! God bless, Sam of the Jungle.

Surgery on the hop

Greetings from Nata in central Panama! It's been another eventful week, this time with some minor surgury in a town called La Chorrero. For 2 months I've been trying to walk with a wounded big toe. The wound struggled to heal & over the past month it had resulted in an in-grown nail. I was in a lot of pain every step! I was dreading having to see a doctor as cost is a major issue for me, but I'm still gob-smacked at what eventuated. I meet Padre Jose, who, struggling to understand my poor Spanish, took me to his English speaking friend. On the way over I managed to communicate to him that my foot was badly injured. Incredibly, his friend was a doctor & the Padre was quick to ask for help on my behalf. By the time I left La Chorrero some 24 hours later I'd had an initial consultation, 30min surgery to remove the nail and part of the wound, a follow-up consultation at which I received a pack of supplies to keep me walking & healing and a night in the towns best hotel to rest up - ALL at the expense of the good (or should i say great) Dr Rolando and his wife Dalia. It was his contribution to the mission! Now there's a model of Christianity if I've ever seen it. Ask & you shall receive and don't worry about the cost, it's all pre-paid! i couldn't believe their generosity. I've now covered over 100km with my new improved toe & I'm thoroughly enjoying the change-up. The wet season is fast approaching here with the first big storm rolling through last night so that should make the next few months interesting. My 1st pair of boots are nearly worn through & my hopes of having them re-soled were dashed when I discovered that South & Central American stores don't stock size 16 soles. Nor do they stock size 16 boots. So in the end I emailed Paddy Pallin (adventure store) in Australia & they are sending a brand new pair of Scarpa's across sometime over the next few weeks. Thank you James McQeen! That's all from here for now. Remember, it's all pre-paid - please pray for unity! And no, I haven't yet found a restaraunt to spend my 40cents at... Ciao, Samo.
ps: I had a ball reading the comments / names on the last entry. Great to hear from everyone! God bless.

Goodbye South America

As I wait for my aircraft at Barranquilla Airport it is time to say goodbye to Colombia & South America, home for the past 5months! I was on target to walk the entire 370km journey across Colombia but fell short by a painful 30km! I ran out of food and water on the final day in the middle of a 65km stretch of wilderness. Oh well, 340km straight isn't too bad :-) Colombia is beautiful and suprisingly very peaceful & dare I say, safe. Due to a 5007m high mountain, Christobal Peak, the environment & climate changed dramatically from the arid cactus & thorn bush dominated Rioacha area to lush rainforest & fast flowing rivers. It was stunning. I finished one days walk after sunset & was joined for the final 5km by a 70yr old farmer. He chatted the whole way. To himself. I was concerned at first but then decided a 70yr old farmer in gumboots wasn't really a high risk factor. I simply walked on & took in the night rainforest, lite up by a million fire flys & the sound of hundreds of frogs in chorus. Upon arriving at our destination he kindly gave me 40cents to buy some dinner and disappeared into the night. As I walked around Christobal Peak over 5 days I saw many mountains that surrounded its base & often wondered, upon seeing a high peak, whether it was Christobal Peak itself. Each time though I was unsure and concluded that if it was, it didn't look 5007m high! Just before sunrise on the 5th day as I walked away from the mountain range I turned around and there, silouhetted against the dawn sky was the most enormous mountain I've ever seen. It was more than double the height of the other mountains I'd been walking around & literally took my breathe away. Wow. It reminded me of the 1st time I ever saw an eagle - I saw a large bird one day and asked dad if it was an eagle. Dad replied, "No, it isn't big enough. That's a hawk." A few weeks later I saw a bigger bird and asked dad again if that was an eagle. Dad laughed & said, "No, it's just a big hawk." I was a little frustrated and asked how exactly he could tell the difference. Dad quite simply said, "Believe me, when you see an eagle, you'll know." Such a dad answer, but a month or two later I was watching another 'hawk' some 50m away and as it came into land it touched down over 200m away, not 50m! It was enormous & to be honest scared me a little due to its size! It was unmistakeably an eagle - I 'knew'. As to was that mountain unmistakeably Christobal Peak. So what does true unity look like? Perhaps we could let our imaginations run a little & think what true unity looks like, or perhaps we have even seen glimpses of it, but most things we see at the moment are 'hawks' or 'foothills'. Regardless of what it may look like, for now, the invitation is to pray for it and, be assured, that if we are blessed to catch a glimpse of it before our time is up, we'll know. And it will undoubtedly induce a wow factor of 10. See you in Panama! Sam.

Happy Easter

Happy Easter to you all! How was your 'Holy Week'? Mine was just about normal - well, apart from sleeping on a kitchen floor with 4 rats, getting into a scuffle with a drunk guy on the highway that landed him under house arrest by armed soldiers, a 2nd degree burn to my bottom lip and a split big toe. Oh yeah, the real Carribbean experience... I've crossed the border into Columbia and am on the coast now. I've found a group of Capuchins (Franciscans) who I spent yesterday with and will again today. I'm happy to just sit a chat and eat their delicious food! As I've been walking I've become aware more and more of the many people who have faith but are not united with the church for various reasons. I've often heard people say that they want nothing to do with the church because of scandals, abuse, hypocrisy, relevance, etc of the church. Prayers directed in this particular area of disunity is well worth our attention as well! On a lighter note, the walk from La Mohan to Paraguapoa was one of the most satisfying I've had. A 10km long boat ride across Tablazo Bay and then 35km of unbroken, unihabbited coastal wilderness along the Maracaibo Gulf. I did meet to Indiginous cowboys on their horses going for a beach ride and finished my day in an Indiginous house with a 'traditional' toasted ham and cheese sandwich! Congratulations to the organisers of both "Light to the Nations" in NSW and the "Richmond Pilgrimage" in Tasmania - hope you all survived! Please keep praying for unity and for me as I head into another week! God bless, Sam.