Robbed again... Nice weather though

Hello from Nandaime, Nicaragua! The final 150km out of Costa Rica was lively with a lot of media coverage prompting people to stop regularly to say hello or hand over some food or water. A particularly big thank you to Jonothan & Roberto from BeatFM (www.ritmodigital.net) who stopped regularly with a conversation & food. When I finally made it to their home town we gave each other a tour of our respective states via Google Earth. It was great to be able to spend more than just 5mins with someone. To finish off Costa Rica I found myself walking through Jaguar territory so singing loudly was the order of the day! The Padre on the frontier gave me a tour of the surrounding mountains in his ute but it was very soon time to let my feet do the touring again. I've now covered around 3500km on foot & no, the new boots still haven't arrived. I'm using a mixture of tissue paper & tape to keep the inside of the boots from ripping my feet up. It's sort of working. Nicaragua is a beautiful country with rolling countryside following the shore line of a massive lake with huge volcano islands spotted all over the place. I have found the people here difficult at times though. I was robbed again, but this time from the comfort of the place i was staying in on my first night here. Someone in the house lifted my spare cash from inside my passport leaving me with only a few dollars to make it to the next town. They took about a weeks worth of allowence. It was a disappointing start to the country. I've also been heckled a lot in the two days I've been here. I even had a 4yr old kid stand outside his house & give me a mouth full as I walked past. He was an angry little fellow. Almost as good as the 2 guys who heckled me from their horse drawn cart... Still, I have a lot to pray for & be thankful for. I was able to speak at an Assembly of God Church last night & then to meet with the Catholic padre here. The more I walk & pray the more I learn about the disunity of Christians & the travisty this is. I keep being reminded though that the fundamental foundation for unity is prayer & a desire to be united. A fellow I chatted with back in Costa Rica commented that we'd all be united if other churches just read their bibles. He then began to point out the errors of many churches & left it at that. Yes, correcting errors in theology etc is an elementary part of unification but one of the big problems I've noticed while walking is that many people are happy to cut down other churches but will then refuse to listen in turn. It's always someone elses fault... Let's start with self. I've also learned that I don't know all the words to "With or Without You" by U2. I´ll work on that. Peace folks! Sam.
"Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit through the bond of peace." Eph 4:3

On the road again - north Costa Rica

Hi everyone, how are you all? I´m back on the road four days behind schedule but doing fine. A particularly big hello to all the people back in San Jose who helped me out in so many ways - thank you. Damian & Tatiana, you guys are living saints. The court proceedings were tiring mainly for the fact that the translator couldn´t understand my Aussie accent & so we kept going round in circles. It took nearly 4 hours to take down my testimony of a 5min encounter. I know I can tell a tall story, but seriously, 4hours? The court case will rap up in a few months time. It was a real mental hurdle for me to get walking again & it wasn´t helped too much by having a guy walk in front of me within the first couple of km´s holding a large pocket knife. I was glad to finally catch sight of the half eaten mango in his other hand. Some food for thought; I´ve spoken to a few people along the way who have used a closing remark along the lines of, "Well, I guess in the end we´re all just brothers and sisters in the Lord and that´s all that counts." This closing line hasn´t sat well with me since I first heard it but I only realised why the other day - it´s tolerance (in the weakened form of indifference), not unity. We aren´t called to ´tolerate´ each other but to love one another into complete unity. It´s actually a very easy trap to fall into & calls for prudence in not allowing the search for unity to fall short & merely become passive indifference. In other stuff, my boots still haven´t arrived. I´ll post a photo with the next blog to show you what my old boots currently look like. They aren´t in good shape. I finished todays walk with 2 bleeding toes & a nasty blister. Damian & Tatiana (from San Jose) have ordered a second pair for me so they should be here soon. I hope. The big positive to come from the mugging has been the media exposure. Multiple newspapers & tv stations have carried some sort of story & a good percentage of people now know who I am & what I´m about. It´s great to have people stop on the side of the road, not to ask what I´m doing, but to tell me they are praying for unity. The pilgrimage rolls on & so does life. Thank you to everyone for your support during the past week, hopefully nothing like this will happen again. That´s wishful thinking though :-) God bless and please pray hard! Sam.
ps: Happy birthday Soph! (presents in the mail, for sure... via Panama)

Highway Assault

It's 12:40am & I'm exhausted. Today I thought I'd be writing about the challenging crossing of the Costa Rican mountains suspended within raging tropical storms, or about the scorpian bite that floored me. Perhaps even write about the radio interview with Light FM in Melbourne to air on Tuesday morning or the large photo & article in the Costa Rican national newspaper & coverage of the walk4one on the nightly news. Maybe even write about the beautiful hospitality of Damian & Tatiana Burger here in San Jose... but that's not where the week has ended up. In fact, I've only just arrived home from the San Jose Courthouse following a road side assault. At around 2pm, with my very first group of walkers (11 in total) accompanying me to the next destination, we crossed a large bridge high above a canyon. As we approached the end of the bridge four young men with shirts tied around their heads ran across the highway & acted to walk past us, only to spread themselves along the group before producing long-blade knives which were speedily thurst in our direction. Being at the front I had the honour of getting the leader of the gang who was insistent on getting his knife as close to my abdomen as possible. One by one they frantically stripped us of everything valuable & lined us up against the railing as traffic continued to flow past. With a final grab for jewellery the four men ran off down along the bridge with my backpack, 3 other backpacks, cameras, mobile phones, wallets, watches & sunglasses. Incredibly, as they started to run, two motorbike police rode past & we were able to draw their attention to what was happening. I swear, within 30 seconds there were around 10 police vehicles screaming through the traffic as Damian & I gave chase on foot across the bridge. Our sprint through the highway traffic though soon came to a rapid hault as the Police began to open fire on the 4 thieves as they made for an escape down off the end of the bridge. The four men split & made off in different directions through the canyon & no one was apprahended, but the circus had only just began. With 6 lanes of traffic stopped, police cars everywhere & a news crew on the scene it was hardly the place to quietly debrief & regroup. To cut a long story short though, three bags were eventually recovered (including mine, though minus $2000 worth of gear) & one man arrested. Everyone was visibly shaken from todays proceedings & we thankfully did get an oppurtunity to eat a late lunch together, debrief a little & pray - including for the four assailants.Damian, Tatiana & I then spent a couple of hours at the police station followed by another couple of hours at the courthouse playing "flip the coin into the cup" while they processed the arrest. We had the oppurtunity to later meet the man they had arrested - he was 16 years old. He was incredibly ashamed & very quite as he stood there looking at the floor. We introduced ourselves & I explained why we had been walking. I gave him a World Youth Day postcard/invitation & Damian popped some rosary beads into his hand. He looked up, smiled & said thankyou, before tentitavly extending his hand. We each shook hands & he once again bowed his head & returned to his cell. Two hours later I saw him entering the court house still holding his postacrd and beads - the kid wasn't the ring leader. His name is Danny if you'd like to offer a few prayers for him. Finally though, we are back home & contemplating nothing more than the blessings of a comfortable bed. Tomorrow will be a non-walking day as I try to sort out replacement gear (including the camera - sorry, no pics this time round). Many of the others still have mobile phones, watches and cameras unaccounted for as well so it will most likely be long day for them too. They are the Costa Rican World Youth Day group for 2008, so we hope to meet each other again in Sydney & perhaps, at pilgrims end, finish what we started. God bless, Sam. Goodnight...
"Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails." 1Cor13:6-7

Playing Catch-up in Costa Rica

Christmas came and Christmas went - no new boots. After waiting 7 days in the city of David they still hadn't arrived so I'm now playing catch-up in Costa Rica as I try to get back on schedule. In holy boots I walk... And the hole is getting bigger by the hour. The post office in David had closed down 2 months earlier so the mail system is in a shambles. A seperate package sent from Tasmania (World Youth Day Cards) on the same day arrived 4 days prior to my arrival in David, so we're at a complete loss as to where the boots are. If they were stolen I feel sorry for the guy who opens it up to discover a size 16 pair of boots. Good luck selling them! David was very frustrating for me. I had very little to do, was staying in a pensioners hostel ($4 a night!) & had no one to speak to for most of the time. I met a few Padres & the Methodist Minister, who was a gem of a bloke. He was so hospitable and genuine - a man with passion & humilty. His wife is battling cancer so he has a lot on his plate as can be imagined but it was, from what I could see, bringing out the very best in him. Please pray for them. If the boots do arrive in David the fellow at Caritas, Xiegdal, will send them on to me. Xiegdal went out of his way time after time to help me out & still is. Thanks mate! The one funny thing to happen in David was as I trudged back to the hostel one afternoon I found myself walking alone through the afternoon down-pour. I whislted away as I walked & as I stopped at an intersection I finished my little tune off with a 'wolf wihstle', not really thinking about what I was doing. At that precise moment, a young, attractive lady happened to step out from the corner right in front of me. She was taken back by my apparent brashness & turned quickly, crossing the road. My spanish is pathetic so apologising would have been futile & so I just stood there in my embarrassment. I continued my walk & a few minutes later I was over my slip-up. I found myself gazing at the buildings on the other side of the street as I walked but then realised that someone on the other side was looking back at me. I re-focussed & realised that, yes, it was the same gril - & she thought I was staring at her. Once again, she turned her head shaprly and stormed off. Oh, the humility. I was glad to make it to the hostel & lock myself in my room. I'm now on the Costa Rican coast & almost back on schedule. A bloke on a motorbike pulled over to say hello, having no idea who I was, & I couldn't believe my eyes, he was wearing a World Youth Day t-shirt! Turns out he's coming to Sydney so I invited him to come & stay in Tasmania before hand (if you are from outside Australia, check out www.wydtas.org.au to see how you can be spolied by the local parishes & stay in on of the most beautiful places on earth enroute to World Youth Day in July 2008!). Lots happening in the upcoming week but I'll leave that for next weeks blog... God bless and please keep praying! Sam.
"May they brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." John 17:23