Panama Day 3

Okay, now for Day 3! If you missed Days 1 and 2 click HERE!

Since we were delayed a day getting to Panama that meant that we were going to drive a 6/7 hour drive on Thursday morning before our scheduled events that afternoon. So we left Panama City around 5:45 a.m. and headed west! Get ready for picture overload, but I wanted to keep them on here for our memory too.

A bus stop in one of the cities we drove through.

My first Panamanian meal - McDonald's Egg Mcmuffin w/ a hash brown and an orange juice! Ha!

There were bright colors everywhere! I took this picture to show the girls how they decorate McDonalds in Panama!

Here is part of our mission team outside of MckyD's.


As we were driving on the highway we'd see random horses tied up on the side of the road eating grass. It was kind of neat. Not something you see in Kentucky everyday!

We stopped at a place that had a couple of vendors set up, so some of our team could buy a Panamanian hat. I just got the girls some fans and a little doll there.

The mountains along the sides of the road were beautiful!

Selling bananas off a truck.

Here are their road signs. David (DAH-veed) is where we were headed.

We stopped in Santiago after traveling a few hours to eat lunch and just about our only choice was MckyD's again! It was pretty good though. I almost got the Pollo (PoYo) McCrispy, but resisted and instead got a Pollo Wrap.

Please meet Ronald and his two brothers! :) Someone commented on facebook that if Brian had on a red hat then they would have been triplets! Hehe!

More hills/mountains. Thought this one was neat with the trees going up only one side.

We didn't see a lot of horses being ridden on the side of the roads, but there were some.

For Thursday afternoon we were scheduled to do discipleship training for the adults & children's activities at the Ngöbe village up in the mountains outside of David. In this village they have a church and about 20% of the tribe are Christians. The lady in the picture above was wearing a Ngöbe tribal dress and she was standing at the road as we turned to go up into the mountains. We were able to get the girls one of these dresses.

We had a lesson for the children and a craft for them. It was simply amazing to see the look on these children's faces as we taught them and then our sweet translator, Jessica, spoke to them in Spanish. They were absolutely beautiful, kind, respectful, and just so precious.
They loved having their pictures taken and then loved even more when I showed them their image on the screen!

Here are some pictures I took of them:

To say that we fell in love with these sweet faces would be an understatement.

We finished before the men speaking did so I grabbed some red yarn that we had left over and began tying strings together. I showed a few of the kids how to tie them between your hands to make the cup & saucer. Pretty soon all of the kiddos came back there with us and started watching us. Bethany, another team member, showed them how to do another trick with their strings. They LOVED it and it kept them busy for about 30 minutes while the adults were finishing up. To think it didn't take anything battery operated or charged to keep their attention, just a simple red string.
(Photo courtesy of Bethany)

Precious.

Here are their restrooms and a random chicken that was wondering around.

Almost the entire time we were up there on that mountain it was storming. There was lightning flashing and thunder rolling and the rain just poured out of the sky. But to be honest, it didn't phase what was taking place. I have never been a huge fan of storms, but I never felt more peaceful during those hours that we were with this church and it was coming a thunderstorm. When it came time to leave I wanted to stay.

Here are the men that spoke and their translator. From left to right, Bro. James, the translator (sorry I didn't remember his name), Bro. Kenny, and Bro. Larry David.

Here is their church with a few missionaries thrown into the mix. :)

Another team had built them a shelter last year. So here is still part of their roof from their old shelter and the new roof! Simply amazing.

Their church pews.

Bro. Kenny and a friend with the church bell! They hit this piece of metal with a rock to call worshippers into church.

Brian with some of the youngsters!

The pastor that lives and works in David is who set up our events with the Ngöbe people. We worked with him for the rest of our trip. You'll get to see him and his precious family on day 4.

After we left the village that night we drove into David to check into our hotel and get a bite to eat.

Here is a picture of our room. It was super clean and pretty nice. Definitely more than what we were expecting! And it had A/C that worked very well!

Just had to throw in this pic! See pretty nice huh?!

Guess what this room cost to stay for one night????

Are you ready???

$35.00!

It was considered a single because there was only one bed in the room. The doubles (2 beds) cost $45.00 a night!

They had a restaurant in the hotel and we ate there several different times. The first night I ordered a bottle of water off of the menu and above is what they brought me.
It was called the "bottela de agua grande" and it was HUGE!!!

This is Camerones Apanados with Patacones!

(Breaded shrimp with fried green plaintains)

I actually ordered this in Spanish :) Jessica our sweet interpreter was so proud of me...ha! This was some of the best shrimp I have ever eaten and the patacones tasted a little like potatoes. It was very good!

That is all for Day 3 - stay tuned for Day 4!!!

(Our VBS this week is going great by the way! Bro. Kenny's niece got saved last night!!! Praise the Lord!!!!)

Blessings to you!