Living in Panama 2011-12: I'm Alive!

Today was quite eventful. I had the opportunity to go with a Canadian brother, Paul who has been in Panama for 2 years, and a Panamanian brother Alex in the ministry. This was not your ordinary day preaching, however. We were planning on biking a total of 22 km, out to an area where Jehovahs Witnesses have never been. We talked to many people. Most asked for more literature when we gave them a couple magazines. If they were working, they would stop what they were doing, and all walk over and listen. The people here are so humble, and have such an appreciation for the Bible. A lot of the people we saw were Gnobe, the native indigenous people. Many of them cannot read, so there are sometimes difficulties. But they are simple people, so they progress rapidly.

After about 1:30, we figured we would start heading back. We had gone quite a ways into the jungle, so Paul and Alex decided to continue forward to catch another trail that would be less strenuous, as this little white boy from Vermont was already exhausted. Little did I know what lay ahead of us. The trail that we thought we were meeting up with, well we didn't. The good trails here are very difficult, with lots of steep hills and coarse, loose gravel and rocks. As we kept getting deeper and deeper into the jungle, the terrain kept getting worse and worse. When I asked Paul when we were expecting to get back, he just said: "it's probably better if you didn't know".

We were now traveling, not on a bike trail, but a cow trail. The trail at times became a ravine, with the top well over our heads, and only a couple feet wide. We had to cross a river, and soon realized there was no dry way across. So we picked up our bikes once again and walked through the water. We finally came to some more houses, and after speaking about the Bible, we asked how much longer until we found a main trail. The man laughed, and said: "cuatro horas con un caballo! 4 more hours by horseback, which is really the only way someone should travel in the area where we were.

So, we kept trudging along. We had run out of water, except for 1 bottle, so we began rationing that. The water in the streams and rivers has lots of parasites, and is unsafe to drink. Since we were at the bottom of the jungle, around 1500 meters lower than when we started, you can guess what we had to do. Climb, climb, climb. And then we climbed. We walked mostly, but many trails were so rugged, we had to pick up our bikes and carry them. Then, is started raining. Of course we are so high in the mountains here, that we were actually in the cloud itself. Big fat raindrops, for about an hour. Paul had prepared me for rain, so all my literature was in plastic bags, nice and dry. I actually appreciated the rain, because with the sun and hills, I was getting overheated. So, now completely drenched and well beyond exhausted, we climbed some more. We finally made it to another bunch of houses, and the people asked us where we had come from. When they found out, they could not believe it.

We wanted to call Pauls wife to meet us on the main trail, but didn't have cell service. We climbed again, and were able to make the call. But we still had to get to the main trail, which ended up being another 2 hours. We again climbed. We would get a good stretch of downhill, only to be followed by another steep incline. At this point my legs were starting to cramp, and I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep walking. About half way up another long steep hill, I heard Pauls truck. It was such a relief! Christine, Pauls wife, brought water too, so we quickly drank that. After loading up, we still drove for over an hour on rugged terrain to make it back to town. We arrived soaking wet, covered in mud, and in pain, but with big smiles on our faces.

It was quite an adventure, to say the least. I can honestly say that I have never exerted myself as much as I did today. We ended up traveling 35km of steep hill followed by steep hill. But it was all for a good cause, which made everything worth it. The people we talked to respected us, and our message so much more because of the effort it took to reach them. I really enjoyed myself today, for at least the first 3/4 of the trip. It was exciting, adventurous, productive, and is something I will never forget!

One of the better trails we were riding