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)