Restless Romantic

I'm Still Here!

2011-12-07T15:51:00.000-08:00

I just wanted to let you know that I haven't abandoned this little blog. I'm just at a loss for ideas I can carry out right now. I really want to get into vintage fashion blogging and selling but the city in which I live is lame in the vintage clothes department. Most of my wardrobe consists of vintage "inspired" material. I have a few truly vintage pieces but it's not enough. I haven't given up, though, and am hoping to recreate this blog in the near future. For now, you'll have to be content with the random, once-in-a-blue-moon post from me.

I have, however, been posting fairly often over at Thoughts From a Journey. Feel free to run on over there and check out my latest post about chocolate coffee and Christmas. ;)

Oh, and look at this! I love finding unique little treasures like this in Google images.

Oh, one more thing. I've recently joined the Matador Network community. If you don't know what that is, you should definitely click that link. If you're a travel, photography, and writing fanatic like I am, then you'll love Matador. And if you're already a member, then send me a friend request!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Lamp Table...or Table Lamp?

2011-11-16T09:23:00.000-08:00

Well, hello! Yeah, I know. It's taken me way too long to come back with a blog post. You'll have to forgive me. My life has been hectic the last few months. I've sort of been in transition mode. Transition to what, I haven't been entirely sure. I just feel like where I'm at right now is only but section of road that leads to something else. I know that life is just that--a road that leads to something else. But don't you agree that some parts of that road seem like nothing more than a means to get to another point on that road? Not that this time in my life isn't important. It really is. It has brought on a whole lot of change in me, and for that, I'm incredibly excited. But enough about that. Today, I thought I'd share with you some pictures of a lamp table I found at an estate sale a couple months ago.

It needs a new lamp shade because...well, look at it. And I need to get that sticker off the top of it. But other than that, it's in great shape. The lamp turns on and everything!

I'm assuming it's from the 70s. I'm not usually a big 70s person but this table was so charming that I couldn't resist.

Do you like my jewelry box? I scored it at the Judahfest annual rummage sale last month. It goes perfectly with my cameos. :)

I hope all of you are having a wonderful November and have plans to eat lots of food with friends and family on Thanksgiving.

I have missed this blog world. I've been out of it so long, I'm going to have to re-establish myself in it. Have a great day, everyone!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Walk in the Park

2011-09-15T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hello, blog friends!

So I was perusing around blog land wishing I had time to come up with a cool post for you guys when I remembered that I do, in fact, have some material for one! This past Tuesday, I spent the day with a new friend I met on Saturday at a bonfire on the beach for The Net. Her name is Kim and she's the coolest! Anyway, we went to Heritage Park in Corpus Christi because we both love old things and Heritage Park is full of old houses. Being that we both love to take pics, we did just that. Kim has this awesome App on her phone that gives pictures taken with it this really cool light-leakage effect.

This last one is my favorite. This is the porch of the house where my aunt and uncle were married.

All of these photos were taken by Kim and me. The ones of me were taken by Kim and the ones of Kim were taken by me...obviously. :P

I hope y'all are having an awesome week and enjoying the change in weather. It's pretty dry here in Texas but the temperatures have begun to drop. This is something we're all thankful for. Now, if only it would rain!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Hello Again!

2011-08-31T14:16:00.000-07:00

Hello! I know, I know. It's been a while. To be completely truthful, I just haven't had any desire to blog on here lately. I haven't even been creative with my wardrobe or gone thrifting or baked anything or done anything I felt like blogging about all summer. That's not to say my summer hasn't been a blast. It has! I've gone surfing quite a bit, spent tons of time with friends, and made some new friends. I got a car (!) so I can go places and see people and have a grand ol' time. I'm learning the guitar! I've Macrame'd a little over the summer but not much. I've been incredibly busy with work. I'm still working at The Tarpon Inn as a housekeeper. It's been a busy, lucrative summer for us housekeepers. And it's been a hot one! We've been in this awful drought. But it's about to be over, I think! Last week, we had a freak rain shower or 2 in one day and this week it's supposed to start raining and set off a pattern of rainy days. Fall is in the air; I can feel it. That day it rained, I spent the entire day at my favorite coffee shop, Coffee Waves, where it was freezing cold. I firmly believe they turn the a/c to like 60 degrees so that customers will want to buy hot coffees. Anyway, I felt so autumnal in spirit (does that make sense?) and began dreaming of all things autumn.

So anywho, all summer, I've been a complete bum clothing-wise. I kid you not, my every day attire has consisted of shorts and a t-shirt with flip flops. Not much worth blogging about. But since fall is upon us, I think I'm going to start caring about what I look like again. It will be easier to do with the (hopefully) cooler weather approaching. I'll be able to layer! During the summer down here in South Texas, it's extremely difficult for me to have the desire to look nice when all I want is to be cool and comfortable.

Also, I'm about to be living in a house all by myself soon and get this, it has a real kitchen! Not a boat galley with a stove the size of an easy-bake oven. hehe So maybe I'll go on one of my baking crazes this fall and get some recipes up for y'all. I really want to get back into blogging and all that goes with it so hopefully it happens. I can't give you a date as to when this blog will be given new life but I'm hoping it will be soon.

Ta ta for now!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Grand Opening! (And The Tarpon Inn)

2011-06-10T17:49:00.000-07:00

Hello, everyone! I finally opened my Etsy shop! The name? Are you ready? "Lamb-Hamster Jewelry" Haha Go here or here for the story behind that name and check out my shop here! Be sure and 'like' the Facebook page and spread the word to all your friends!

Here's a peak into my shop! The turtle ring is definitely my favorite piece so far. :)

I sold this one! But if you want it, I can totally make more. ;)

Okay, enough exclamation points. How have y'all been? I've been insanely busy. Between working at an amazingly cool hotel, promoting for an amazingly awesome music festival, and Macrame-ing my little fingers off, I haven't been able to find much time to blog. It's mainly work that has me so busy. It's summertime here on the island which means absolute madness. Memorial Day Weekend was NUTS! We had the entire hotel booked with the friends and family of a couple who were renewing their wedding vows at the hotel. Needless to say, my fellow employees and I were extremely busy all weekend. I can't speak for them but I was near dead by Monday. It paid off, though, because we all got $100 tips and thank you cards at the end of it!

I haven't told you much about the hotel I work at, have I? Well, it's called the Tarpon Inn, and like all historical hotels, it's supposedly haunted. I, myself, do not believe that one can roam the earth after death but if believing such things makes our guests happy then who am I to ruin that for them? Here are a couple pictures of the hotel. The first is from the olden days and the second is from present day. The hotel was built back in 1886 when Port Aransas was called Tarpon, Texas (hence the name of the hotel).

That's all I got today. I am, hopefully, going to start looking into sponsoring some other bloggers to advertise for my Etsy shop, so if any of you reading this have any openings, shoot me an email at surfinsarah1590@hotmail.com.

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Opening Soon

2011-05-19T13:08:00.000-07:00

Hey, readers! Long time no post, I know. I've been pretty busy lately. At the beginning of this year I knew I was in for an exciting year. So far, it has been. I have a job! It may sound mundane but it's actually quite exciting. I started looking for a job as soon as I got back from Panama as I was completely broke. I applied at 3 places in my town and got a call on my first choice just about 2 weeks after turning in my application. I am now a housekeeper at an awesome historical hotel. I love it. It's good money and I get a workout every day. haha Besides that it's just cool to get to work in a place that was here even before my grandfather was hangin' out here.

I've also committed to being the promotions coordiantor for JudahFest. JudahFest is a Christian music festival a guy named Judah Hoehne started in Corpus Christi, Texas (about 30-45 minutes from where I live) back in 2008. "His vision was to bring local youth to Christ by providing a FREE Christian Rock Concert." I'm really excited about it and can't wait to get started. I'm meeting with Judah and his fiance, Heather tomorrow night to discuss my position. And by the way, Judah and Heather are by far some of the nicest people I've met. :)

Besides getting a job and becoming a part of JudahFest, I've also taken up Macrame and am hoping to open up a Macrame shop on Etsy soon. If you've been reading my blog for a while you probably remember some posts from my time in Panama in which I mentioned my friend, William and the Macrame lessons he gave me. Well, I took my new-found love for knotting home with me and have now accumulated a nice little stash of Macrame supplies (thanks to my Uncle Floyd and his generosity!). I've made several items and have 5 things ready to put in the shop. My goal, however, is at least 10 so it will probably be at least a week before I open my Etsy shop. I also need to figure out what I want my header to look like. In the mean time, here are some pictures I took of my creations.

I think this first one is my favorite. I was really proud of it when I finished. :)

This one (up) is my second favorite. I actually made it for my uncle but I totally miscalculated the size and it's even too small for me! It just barely fits my wrist. haha I'll be sure to include the inches when I put it in the shop.

The owl is not going into the shop. It's really rough. It was good practice, though. It got the pattern here if any of y'all are Macrame nuts like me. :P

What do y'all think? Would any of you be interested in buying one of my bracelets or anklets? My next projects are necklaces but I'm waiting on some bees wax I ordered before I make those. I want to wax the thread. I can't believe it but I can't find any of the type of waxed thread they use in Panama! Anyway, I have some cool pendants for the necklaces so I'm excited to get started on those.

Hope y'all have been having an amazing week and are in for an amazing weekend!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Gulf of Mexico Crossing: Facing the Monster

2011-04-27T12:30:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I'm so sorry it's taken me so long to get this last post up. Life has become more complex upon arriving home and I'm having a difficult time forming a routine. As a result, I forget to do things. But here I am, finally writing the Gulf trip post. Hopefully I can recall it in all its glory.

Day 1 (March 30th) was a good day. The seas and wind were favorable but the horion was hazy, and the sun was firey orange and cast a strange light over the gray sky. That day my dad voiced his concern that the last crossing would be less than pleasant.

On Day 3 (April 1st) I wrote about the weak wind we were fighting and the urgency felt because of the approaching front. We needed to pick up speed if we were going to beat it in. We spent a great part of our days during that crossing anxiously watching our speed drop and pick up then drop again. One minute we would be doing close the 7 knots. The next we'd be back in the mid 4s. For a long time we rode the emotional roller coaster of thinking we might possibly make it and then losing hope and bracing ourselves for the gale force winds that would inevitably hit us. By Day 4 our chances were about 50/50.

I made this Macrame anklet on Day 3 with some practice thread. I thought it looked pretty cool when I finished so I gave it to my mom.

On Day 5 (April 3rd) we came to the conclusion that we were fighting a current because the wind was howling and we should have been going about 7 knots, but we were averaging 5.5. This was also the day we stopped praying that we'd make it in before the front and started praying that the front would fizzle out.

More birds that landed on our boat and then broke my heart by dying. :(

On Day 6 (April 4th) I wrote in my journal, "The wind is howling, the seas are breaking, and the Esperanza is pitching. We've reached 7.5 knots today and are averaging 6.5. We should be in Lydia Ann Channel in the wee hours of the morning. We'll have to anchor up and then [dock] sometime tomorrow (Tues) because the front is going to hit tonight and make it impossible for us to dock."

At one point our autopilot was acting weird so my dad had us steer to save the autopilot for the night. I was steering with my feet because I'm cool like that. :P

That was my last entry of the Gulf trip. Later that afternoon we were hit by what we thought was the front. One moment the sky was hazy but still blue. The next we were heading right for a big, black, ominous-looking wall. What all lay within that wall was uncertain at the time. But one thing we were sure of was the soon-to-hit gale force winds.

I took that opportunity to grab my camcorder and film the contrast between the clear sky and the big scary monster in front of us. Seconds later we found ourselves engulfed in the mouth of that monster. There was no gradual increase of wind speed. Instead, we were suddenly and all at once slammed by winds stronger than any I'd ever encountered outside the shelter of a sturdy house. After a few moments my dad calmly suggested we go down below in case the top was ripped off the cockpit. We did as he suggested and listened from inside the cabin to the hissing and howling of the wind and the walls of water smack against Esperanza's sides.

At one point my dad said it was alright for us to come out briefly and take some video. Of course, I did this knowing there was no way I'd be able to do justice to the power of this front in just telling the story. By this time the boat was really bouncing around. With every other wave the bow would fly high into the sky and then come crashing down. This would usually result in a huge wave crashing over the deck and my hatch. I hated to see that because I knew I still had a couple leaks in it. Every couple of minutes the "windshield" of the cockpit would take a few buckets of spray. The wind continued to howl and threaten to do damage. Some things out on the deck that were exposed to the elements were lost overboard.

Soon, though, the wind let up and we all breathed a sigh of relief. The Esperanza took the blow well and the autopilot held on. But the seas were still  rough, and little did we know we weren't yet done with gale force winds.

I went to bed early that night but never really fell asleep. In an instant we were being pitched, rolled and tossed around again by the high seas and gale force winds. It was as if we'd been hit by a second front. But this was the front. It lasted much longer than a few minutes.  My whole night was spent in prayer as my dad and 18-year-old brother, John hand steered the boat through the weather. Very unfortunately, our autopilot went out in the middle of it all causing my very sleep deprived dad to have to steer it himself. Thankfully, John is excellent at the helm and did a great job keeping the boat on course so my dad could get rest here and there. As much as I'd like to say I'm as good as he is, I know I'm not. So props to you, Johnny.

In the v-berth I slid back from one side of the bed to another as the boat rolled and listened to the harsh sound of walls of water slamming against the starboard (right) side. The sound struck fear and respect into my heart. It sounded more like a brick wall than water. Don't ever underestimate the power of nature. That trip really did give me a whole new respect for the elements.

My dad says that night was the longest night of his life. No doubt it was. In the morning the sun was shining and the air was crisp and cool. But my dad's appearance was evidence of a hard battle the night before. I don't even know how many injuries he acquired. The Esperanza held up remarkably well aside from the her blown out mainsail. I can honestly say those were the scariest sea conditions I've ever experienced. I actually got a little nervous and I never get scared out there. :P   All praise goes to God for our safety. He was definitely with us that night as He always is.

Since the front passed before we got in we were able to go ahead and dock. We made it in around noon, were checked back into the country by around 4pm, and soon after, I enjoyed my first long, luxurious shower in 5 months.

We're home!

And Tiger Lily? At first she ran away from us when we approached her! We thought she was mad at us. But I think she just didn't recognize us. Once she got a good look at us she walked up to us and let us hold her. :)

It's good to be home. Sometimes, I miss my life in Panama. When things get hectic and I realize how much work goes into modern American living, I really wish I was back in Panama. But then I remember all the amazing people I have here in Texas. I do hope to go back down to Panama and visit some other countries in Latin America, but I don't think I could live there all the time.

Well, this concludes the sailing blog posts. I am sad to say goodbye. This definitely won't be the last travel post I write but it most likely will be the last cruising post I write. My dad has decided he's ready to close that chapter in his life. He has the Esperanza on the market and is hoping to move the family into a house very soon. It does make me sad but if it's what he wants then it's what I want.

As for me, I'm 21-years-old and about to be out on my own, living my own life. Like I said, I'm definitely not done traveling. I haven't had nearly enough of it. Cruising, on the other hand isn't for me. It's a beautiful, exciting, and romantic idea but it's not the most enjoyable mode of transportation. I've done it 3 times and 3 times is enough. I think I'm ready for some air travel now. Life will never be the same for me, and I wouldn't want it to be. The Lord has spoken to me in ways that I can't ignore and called me to follow Him whole-heartedly. I'm not entirely sure where He's leading me but I'm starting to have an idea.

I hope y'all have enjoyed this account of our Panama adventures. I've enjoyed writing it. Even though, our internet situation down there made it less than easy to blog. hehe

Stay tuned for more updates to come! I know I've been horrible about posting but I promise I'll try to be better. :)

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Portobelo to Isla Mujeres: the Caribbean Crossing

2011-04-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

Here is 2 of 3:

It's the evening of March 29^th and we're sitting on anchor in a little laguna in Isla Mujeres, Mexico. We've been here for 3 days watching and waiting for a good weather window. It looks like tomorrow is the day so I'm taking this time while the boat is still and my room is cool and dry to give a brief account of the Caribbean crossing and our short time here in Isla this time around.

After Bluefield we went to Portobelo, Panama to refuel (ourselves and the boat). Nothing too eventful to report for our time there. But here are some pictures. It's a very historical place. The entire town used to be a huge fortress. Now, all you see are ruins but it's still pretty cool.

I wrote all of 4 times during the 8 day crossing from Portobelo, Panama to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. If you read those journal entries you would conclude that the first 3 days were tortuously rough and slow. For day 1 and 2 I didn't even attempt to journal. The seas were in the 15 foot category and the wind was in a bad direction. We seemed to be going nowhere for a long time. The scene from Nacho Libre where he is attempting to live in “the wilderness” yet is still within earshot of the town came to mind every time we would look at the chart and see how close we still were to Portobelo after 3 days of sailing. “Hola, Nacho!” we would joke. You have to joke to keep your sanity in situations like that.

A bubi who befriended us on our way to Mexico

On day 2 I discovered a bunch of my more recent journal entries had been ruined by the water leaking down the side of the bulkhead (the wall) in my room. That was a blow but I think I can figure out what they said in general from what I can still read and salvage them.

By the 3^rd day the seas had calmed down enough for me to journal. In it I wrote of the debates that went on about whether or not we should go back to Portobelo to wait for a better weather window. I also wrote of my dad's considering that we go back to Bocas the morning of day 3 as we were off its coast and the seas and wind were still unfavorable. The thought of cut-and-running (going back) made everyone sick. It's much worse than getting an hour down the road on a road trip and then realizing you forgot something. Thankfully, the seas calmed down and the wind shifted later in the day and we managed to make pretty good time in the last few days of the passage.

My dad fileting a fish

By day 6 cabin fever had really set in. I'd read 'til I couldn't read anymore, listened to TobyMac countless times, slept for as long as I could, and Macrame-ed with the practice thread I had 'til I started running low. Afraid to run out, I stopped by day 6 so that I would have it for the Gulf crossing. One eventful thing happened on day 6, and that was the U.S. Navy airplane that flew right over us. Right over us. I could have seen the pilots had my mom not jumped in front of me to wave at them.

By day 7, I was really bored. Bored doesn't even seem to really describe my situation. The opening sentence of my day 7—and last—journal entry is “I need to get off this boat!”

David's creation, a jar koozie

24 hours later, on the morning of March 27^th, we made it to Isla Mujeres. Here is part of my journal entry for March 27^th.

We finally made it to Isla this morning after 8 grueling days. It was a hard ending to the Caribbean crossing when the autopilot stopped working and my dad had to stay up all night to steer us in. And there was no rest for the weary this morning still. It was blowin' a gale when we came in to anchor, and with the bottom sand being as soft as sugar, our anchor wouldn't hold. Finally, after 2 hours of trying and failing to get our anchor set, a friendly Aussie came over and told us of another place where the bottom was much better holding. Desperate, we took his advice and made our way around the mangroves that protect the anchorage. We passed along a marina and came upon another Pemex dock we'd never seen before. Seeing that, we decided to stop there for water and fuel before going to anchor.

Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We ended up leaving the boat on the Pemex dock while we ran into town to drop off laundry, use internet, and buy some groceries. When that was finished we went and anchored in the little lagoon. We had some trouble at first with the many shallow spots and with the wind still blowing pretty hard, but our Aussie friend came to our rescue once again and suggested we tie a weight to our anchor line to give it a better angle.

Stormy, as we later learned was the Aussie's name, has been a good friend to us for the couple days that we've been here. Yesterday, since our dinghy isn't in working order right now, he gave my mom, John, and me a ride to shore so we could go into town to use the internet again, get some more groceries, and pick up our laundry. Oh, there's a story.

So he gave us a ride to shore yesterday morning and told us to just go back to his boat when we were done in town. We used the internet, ate lunch, had some ice cream, looked at the Caribbean for the last time, got a few more groceries, and picked up our 2 bags of laundry. After all that we took a taxi back to the dock. But Stormy wasn't there. According to a couple of Mexican guys on a sailboat near Stormy's catamaran he'd just left about 30 minutes before to get something to eat. So we decided to just wait for him. When half an hour passed and we all grew thirsty we decided to leave our laundry and groceries on the dock in front of Stormy's boat and run down the road to get something to drink. We ended up finding a little hole-in-the-wall BBQ place with a total of 3 tables in it. Not seeing any other prospective places we went inside, bought 3 Cokes, and sat down at the one free table. While we sat we noticed the food and how much the people eating it seemed to enjoy it. After debating we decided it would be nice to get some for dinner that night. So we did just that, and soon after we left and went back to the dock.

To our surprise and dismay, we discovered the spot where we had left our laundry and groceries empty! “No way,” we all said. No way had our laundry been stolen. No one was around anymore except for one of the Mexican guys we'd talked to earlier. He was on a different boat this time talking on his cell phone. My mom interrupted his conversation to ask him if he'd seen what happened to our stuff. He hadn't. He looked baffled that our things could be stolen at such a place and when he had been there the whole time. He said he would call security.

While he did that we all scratched our heads and fought a sick feeling in the pits of our stomachs. Actually, I became used to the idea of having my clothes stolen pretty quickly. It was the thought of having to tell my dad that didn't appeal to me. Haha It did, however, cross our minds that Stormy may have been by, put them in his boat, and left again. But Stormy hadn't come back, yet, so we would have to wait to find out.

The Mexican man soon came up to us accompanied by a security guard. Apparently, he thought my mom was accusing him and that's why he got security. My mom assured him she wasn't accusing him, though, and things became quite silly when he began to show signs of intoxication. His behavior became quite goofy and he started to flirt with me in broken English. It was—entertaining to say the least. At one point he was suggesting that a Chinese woman who had come by earlier may have stolen our laundry.

A few minutes later Stormy showed up and, in a playful tone, asked, “Missing something?” Relief would best describe the feeling at that point. He ended up having to go to Cancun for propane and asked his friend, the Chinese woman, to go to his boat and close it up in case it rained. While there she noticed our things and told Stormy over the phone about them. He told her to put them inside the boat and she did. So that was that. Mystery solved. And no one had to tell my dad his underwear had been stolen. :P

Today was quite boring as we stayed aboard all day. I'm suffering from cabin fever and we haven't even left Mexico! Ugh, I'm ready to get home. And it's a good thing, because tomorrow morning looks like our opportunity to get out of here.

On the same day we met Stormy we met Deeter, a friendly, old German sailor anchored up in front of us. He's been kind enough to show my dad the way to take the short cut out of here, so that's the plan for tomorrow morning.

I won't be posting this until we get back to Texas so it might be kind of weird reading this as it's written in the present tense. Haha Oh, well.

Love,

Sarah with an “h”

A Day With the Indians

2011-04-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

Hey, everyone! We're finally back in Texas, home sweet home. I'm sorry for my lack of posting over the last couple of weeks. The trip home was insanely hectic. Not the smoothest it could have been. But anyway, over the next few days I'll post the blogs I've typed up for y'all. I have 2 typed up and 1 that still needs typing. And then that will complete my Panama/sailing blog posts. Here is the first one. I wrote it the week before last, I believe.

As I write this we're skimming across the temperamental waters of the Caribbean Sea off Honduras. We're about 3 days away from Isla Mujeres, Mexico—and anxious to come to the end of this leg of the journey home. More on the Panama to Mexico passage later. We've come into calmer waters since we left 5 days ago and I want to take the opportunity to type up an account of our Bluefield experience.

Since before we left Texas more than 4 months ago I'd been planning my own little love outreach for the Ngobe Bugle indians of Bluefield, an extremely rural location in Panama only accessible by boat. The only real contact with the outside world the indians of Bluefield have are the cruisers who sail over there to anchor up and enjoy the tranquil beauty of the tropics in a place truly away from it all. We'd been there once before 4 years ago when we were in Panama then. I remember it well. My friend, Nathalie, a Panamanian girl about my age we'd sort of temporarily taken in, was with us. Our first day there, Nathalie and I took a borrowed kayak out by ourselves to explore. When we came back my family was gone. The dinghy was also gone so we figured they'd gone out exploring. Nathalie and I tied the kayak to the boat (the Exodus, our old sailboat) and climbed back on board. I don't remember how long it was before we found ourselves the entertainment of a group of curious onlookers but it wasn't long. Indian children in their cayukos paddled up to the boat and said nothing, but simply stared—and giggled. Nathalie and I, the silly 14 year olds that we were, ran out of the cockpit and down below in an effort to escape their view. Unluckily for us, however, the portholes on the Exodus were low on the sides, just perfect for peeking through if you're an indian in a cayuko. Nathalie and I ran back and forth from the v-berth to the galley for quite a while trying to hide from the eyes peering through the portholes. Laughter erupted all over the boat, both from them and us. At one point Nathalie tried to use the bathroom but promptly ran out. They were spying through that porthole, too! My family finally returned, though, and the sun went down so the indians were forced to return to their fincas (farms).

The memory of that day always makes me laugh but I think the memory of this last experience will remain permanently inscribed in my heart and mind for as long as I live. As I said, I'd been planning a love outreach for the indians since before leaving Texas. I really wanted to paint the girls' finger nails. It seems simple but these girls know very little of the outside world. And besides, it's the little things that count, right? It actually became a little dream of mine. That dream was threatened multiple times during our time in Panama. The weather wasn't good enough for us to go in the beginning and boat problems threatened to cut the trip short. But in the end, we made it to Bluefield and my dream came true—and then some.

We pulled into Bluefield on March 12^th just before dusk. Just as expected we were soon surrounded by at least 5 cayukos filled with Ngobe Bugle indian kids, both little and big. Two were very little. 2 years old and no life jacket! It was quite unnerving to see such a small thing in a tipsy cayuko. But that's the way they've always done it. My mom talked to them in Spanish for quite a while. Most of the time they just giggled but when they felt the need they would respond with words. Adorable, they were. And completely unaware of propriety and manners.

The cruisers are not only means of entertainment but also a source for goods such as clothing, food, pencils, fishing line, etc. That group alone made out like bandits on what little we had to give them. I can't tell you how much I wished I'd come more prepared. I would have had a lot more to give. I would have had Spanish Bibles and children's books. But we gave what we had—and more. Those little guys are good at discovering what you do have when you think you don't have much. I told my mom to tell the little girls to come back in the morning if they wanted their nails painted. They didn't say anything but instead just stared and smiled shyly. But still, I didn't doubt I'd see them in the morning.

Sure enough, bright and early the next morning I was awakened by my mom. “Sarah! Your friends are here,” she hollered. Completely out of it, I initially thought about my friends back in Texas and thought, “How'd they get over here?” But I woke up soon enough, got dressed, and went outside to greet the little girls in their cayuko. As soon as I was in the cockpit up they came, ready for their manicures. I painted approximately 6 girls' fingernails that morning. And I couldn't help but laugh inside when one little girl asked me to paint her toenails. In the back of my mind I'd decided I wouldn't paint any toenails. That was pushing it. But God has a funny way of humbling us sometimes. I painted not 10 but 20 toenails that morning as well. After the one little girl asked me to paint hers a bigger girl of about 15 named Abigail asked me to paint hers. I cringed when I came to one of her big toes as half of the nail was completely gone along with part of the nail bed itself. For the first time I was hit with the reality of these people's harsh lifestyle. I'd seen their homes on Carenero across from Bocas Town but I was never forced to look at it for very long and I never had to touch it. I'll be honest. The toenail painting wasn't my favorite part of the day but I'm glad I did it. And I'll never forget it. A truly humbling experience.

This little girl refused to come aboard. She was afraid we were going to kidnap her! We tried to coax her with pineapple and toys but as you can see she managed to get those things without coming aboard. haha

Brothers waiting patiently for their cool-aid while the girls got their nails painted. :)

Later in the day we were invited by Abigail to tour her finca. We gladly accepted and followed her along with a few other cayukos to shore with our dinghy. When we got there we found we would have to take a river passage in cayukos. My parents got in one with Abigail, David got in another with some indian kids, and John and I were left in the midst of a group of indians who didn't speak a word of English. One girl, about 13 years-old, whose nails I'd painted motioned for me to come over to where she was. When John and I walked ove she pointed to an old beat up cayuko sitting on the beach with about 2 inches of water in the bottom. She and John pushed it into the water and John attempted to get into it. Seeing how tipsy it was he ran back to the dinghy with the trash bag he was carrying. It held our shoes and my camcorder. He was afraid to lose the camcorder overboard. While he was doing that I got into the cayuko. When John came back he got in as well. But unlike I'd expected, the girl stayed on the beach. We were on our own. I crouched down in the bottom of the cayuko in an effort to keep from sitting in the water and paddled with an old paddle that looked more like an old stick. Thankfully John's paddle was better. We paddled the best we could for a few yards until we came to a cayuko with 2 kids in it. One little girl probably about 7 or 8 years old jumped into our boat and took over my job of paddling in the front. I never thought I'd feel so relieved to have a child drive. I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of one of the most unique experiences I've ever had. (Yes, I was bold enough to bring my camera in that boat.)

At the end of the river stood my parents and David surrounded by a crowd of little indian kids. By the time we reached them my legs were “stiffer than boards” as my journal entry puts it. Sitting on your legs is only comfortable for so long. Somehow, though, I managed to get out of the cayuko and climb up the river bank without falling into the water.

We continued the tour barefoot like the indians since we'd left our shoes in the dinghy. The tour took us through tall, most likely snake-infested grass and up a steep muddy incline. Ironically, we found ourselves on a concrete path that was put in by officials. Why? I have no idea. Maybe for safety reasons. At one point we had to stop and take shelter from the rain in the church, a wooden shelter with a thatched roof. It was open at the 2 narrower ends and benches sat on all 4 sides. The floor was a dirt one and in the middle lay an old cayuko. Next to the church was a smaller shelter with a thatched roof. That was the church's kitchen.

We stayed inside the church for some time waiting for the rain to pass. I needed to delete some pictures off my camera to make room as I'd used most of the disc space up over the past 3 and a half months, so I took that time to do that. It didn't take long for the kids to notice me flipping through the pictures on my camera. They'd already become fascinated with it earlier and would anxiously run over to me after every picture I took to see it on the display screen. Now, they all huddled around me to gaze at the screen as I flipped through almost 4 months worth of pictures, beginning with one of Nacho, our friend, Donna's fluffy tiger-striped cat back in Texas. They giggled and pointed and said the names of the things in the pictures aloud in Spanish. “Gato!” “Langosta!” “Estrella!”

When the rain finally passed everyone began emerging from the church to resume the trail. One little boy of about 10 maybe insisted on carrying my bag for me and I was only too happy to let him. That same boy slipped his hand into mine only a few feet down the road. He looked up at me and giggled and held onto my hand for most of the tour after that. Several times I found myself with 2 kids clinging to my hands. Sometimes it was that boy and a girl or that boy and another boy. Sometimes it was 2 different boys. They would sometimes even rip my hands from each other. I felt very...admired. hehe My brothers and dad took great pleasure in teasing me about “my boyfriend.” As we climbed another steep incline, my dad warned that I would have to marry the boy holding my hand because it was a Ngobe Bugle tradition that a boy and a girl who climbed that hill would be married at the top. He was kidding, of course. I just laughed. Hey, I can't help that the men love me! Hehe Actually, it's kids—and apparently especially male kids—who love me.

When we reached the finca we were greeted somewhat coldly by the aunt of some of the kids. A baby who'd been out to our boat with some of the girls stood beside her naked as a jay bird. My mom talked to the woman in Spanish for not more than a few seconds before the little boy walked over to the edge of the hut and proceeded to pee off of it. Everyone laughed, including the woman. I thought that was such a contrast from normal society in the U.S. Most moms don't allow their children to run around naked for the world to see or for them to pee wherever they please. But it's a different world in the rainforest of Bluefield.

A little ways down the trail was the steepest hill we'd come to yet. And this time it was a drop. My mom took one look at it and refused. The kids wanted to show us their swimming hole and that was the only way to get to it. My parents stayed behind but my brothers and I decided to brave the trail. David took off before John and me so we weren't sure where he was for a while. I managed to free my hands up so that I could steady myself enough to get down the steep mudslide of land. But I remained surrounded by a multitude of little indian boys. And for that I was grateful. Several times I found myself in need of a hand. Once the steep hill was conquered we were led to a narrow path with a drop straight down into the abyss of the rainforest and then down something that reminded me of a staircase but was earth-formed from the roots of a tree, rock, and mud. At the bottom of the trail, I slipped and would have slid down the last bit of hill had the boy behind me not caught me. Yes, I was rescued by a boy half my size, and I'm not ashamed.

The water hole was just that, a hole in between a calm river that snaked through the rainforest and another part of the river that was more rapid-like. The hole caught the water streaming through from the calm side of the river and then slid down the rapids. I imagine the water is pretty clean with the constant cycling. David found it first and promptly fell into it being the klutz he is. Then 2 of the kids jumped in to show off and have their pictures taken. Once I had time to rest my shaking legs we went back up. The trip up was much easier than the trip down. But I have to say, I never did anything so strenuous or challenging while I was in Alaska as I did when I went on that finca tour in the rainforest of Panama. I've never thought of myself as a wimp but seeing how effortlessly those kids hopped and climbed through the obstacle course of rainforest I had to really work at getting through without eating it, I felt like a wimp. They're like mountain lions!

The cayuko trip back to the beach was entertaining. It was me and John in a cayuko with 2 little girls, one who kept trying to talk to me in Spanish while she was supposed to be paddling. She was saying something about nail polish. I think she wanted another bottle but I'd already given away most of my nail polish. But she wasn't giving up. All the way down the river she tried to talk to me, bumping into the bank several times along the way. Screams accompanied by little girl chatter sounded from our cayuko all the way back to the beach.

Back at the Esperanza there waited for me a large group of indian girls in probably 3 cayukos total. They all wanted their nails painted. I was exhausted by this time but I knew I couldn't say no. So I took out my last 3 nail polish bottles and went to work. My parents had left with a Ngobe Bugle man who wanted to show them around on the dinghy so they could see toucans. I would have liked to see toucans but I have a feeling my experience was a tad bit more interesting.

I speak very little Spanish. I've learned quite a bit in the past couple of months but it's still very hard for me to communicate. I did my best, however, and managed to find out the names and ages of my guests and answer the questions asked of me. I lost count of how many nails I painted that day but one set of nails I'll always remember from that evening. They belonged to a woman who looked to be in her late 30s or early 40s. She asked me how old I was and how old my brothers were but I thought it would be rude to ask her how old she was so I didn't. That is, until she asked how old my parents were. Then, I snapped myself out of my American way of thinking and asked her how old she was. “Veinteses,” she said. Twenty-six! I couldn't believe it. I expected to hear at least treintaocho (38). I had to check myself so I didn't say something that would elude to my surprise. Yet another face-to-face encounter with the reality of the harsh life lived by the Ngobe Bugle in Bluefield. She had a baby who couldn't have been more than a few months old. He was paddled over to our boat by another little boy and lifted up by the arm by the woman. It made me nervous to watch it. And when I saw that the baby was naked from the waste down that made me nervous for whole other reasons.

The evening ended, however, without anyone falling into the water and without any other types of accidents. My parents became a taxi service and took some of them home in the darkness of the night. When all our guests had gone home we made it a point to sanitize the cockpit because every one of them was sick. They coughed, sneezed, and wiped their snotty noses. Only by the grace of God did none of us get sick.

The Bluefield indians gave us an experience of a lifetime and I'll never forget it. For nearly 4 months I'd dreamt of the day I would paint fingernails for the little indian girls. I prayed for the opportunity and hoped that those plans would be some of the few I'd ever made that actually came to be. That dream came true—and much more. The greatest lesson God has ever begun to teach me is that of love. I saw the opportunity to paint fingernails as an opportunity to love. And love is the greatest thing there is in this life. It's like Mother Theresa said: We can do no great things, only small things with great love.

Love,

Sarah with an “h”

Carnival in Bocas del Toro

2011-03-17T10:54:00.001-07:00

Friday (March 4), the day before the beginning of Carnival was the first day we experienced the Carnival “festivities.” Loud music boomed throughout the town reaching nearby islands with a steady, thumping, base rhythm. People from all over had gathered in this tiny town and all flocked to the main street where the music was coming from and where the dance show would take place. Beer cans were strewn along the streets as kids kicked them around and whipped each other with whips they'd fashioned for Carnival. The sober and the drunk all stood together in anticipation for what would soon emerge onto the streets. Finally, around 6 p.m. guys dressed in elaborate, red devil costumes, complete with big, scary, creatively decked out masks ran out onto the streets and began dancing and cracking their whips on the pavement. More devils emerged as the music grew faster. Some were red, some black, some black and white, but all were terrifying. Children cried, women screamed, and the occasional brave (or stupid) man would step out into the street to taunt a devil only to be whipped and forced back into the crowd. Some devils were “nicer” than others and were careful not to hit any innocent by-standers while others cared not who they hit. Some invaded the space of attractive women, some fist pounded their buddies, and all engaged in the devil practices of Carnival. Watching this show, video camera in hand, I was slightly amused but more disturbed than I planned on being. This was blatant sin and evil in the form of entertainment and celebration. It was a drunk fest and an excuse for the people of Bocas to be as rowdy as they pleased. And it only got worse.

My dad wasn't with us on Friday so we all went back on Tuesday, last day of Carnival, to watch the devils again. My family sat outside John's Bakery to wait for the parade. I sat with William and his Rasta friends at a closed restaurant across the street and saw Carnival from the eyes of a different group of people. I didn't know it at the time but apparently as I thumbed through the pages of my Spanish dictionary with the intention to communicate something to William a Carnival performer came right up to me and stuck his tongue out in an effort to get my attention. He obviously failed because I didn't notice him. Shows how observant I am. By that night the drunkenness had reached another level and the devils were out of control. One poor tourist woman thought she was having her picture taken with a nice guy in a devil suit. Instead that “nice guy” was a drunk guy and decided to whip her as hard as he could after the picture was taken and then run off. Needless to say, her fun was over in that moment. We didn't stay much longer after that.

But I wasn't finished with Carnival. The following night was the night when all the town would be free to beat the devils. That I wanted to see. I went into town at around 4 p.m. to do some computer stuff at Golden Grill. William came over and sat with me as I messed with my computer and we waited for the devils
It was almost dark when the people began to gather. Suddenly a cloud of people and whips erupted in the streets. Whips cracked over and over again as people beat the tar out of...devils I guess, but I couldn't see them. I was so bewildered that I forgot to get my camcorder. A few minutes later men with whips lined up on each side of the street. William explained that the devils would run through them as the men beat them. I got my camera out for that. Soon a man in a red suit, minus the mask, ran through the cracking whips and down the street. The whip bearers ran after him, caught him, tied him, dragged him back to the starting line, sat on him, and whipped the tar out of him. This happened multiple times. It was absolute madness. William looked amused. He sees this every year. It's nothing new to him. But I was amazed and a bit horrified. I asked William quite earnestly, “Does anyone ever die?” “No!” he said, “Not here.” Not here. I wouldn't doubt it's happened before in other places, though.

So I'm mixed about Carnival. Some aspects of it are rather amusing, like the silly dances the devils would do. But most aspects were not good by God's standards. And as a Christian, they shouldn't be by mine either. Overall, though, I'm glad I went. I'm hoping to put together a little documentary type thing and I think the footage I got of Carnival will be good for that.

We've left Bocas del Toro now and are sitting in the anchorage at Portobello, Panama. If you've been watching our progress via Spot then you know our course has been pretty erratic. We left for Bluefield on Saturday, spent a couple nights there then started making our way to the Chagres. I went to sleep that night expecting to wake up just a few hours away from the Chagres. Instead, I woke up to David's words to my mom: We're going back to Bocas? The weather had turned on us making it impossible for us to get into the Chagres so we decided to go back to Bocas to regroup. This, honestly, didn't thrill me. I miss Bocas but the thought of having to say goodbye to William again for like the thousandth time made me sick. Dramatic? Maybe. But dragging out a goodbye is the worst. Anyone who's ever had to say goodbye knows what I'm talking about. But my dad made the decision to just make a beeline for Mexico instead. So that's what we were doing—for a few hours. Then, the decision was made for us to go to Portobello. Our course wasn't looking good and was putting us at a bad angle (for weather and pirates) so we turned toward Portobello and made it here after a choppy night at around 10am this morning. Sailing out of here should give us a much better angle going home. And hopefully faster if the wind treats us right!

Like I said, I miss Bocas. And I'd become pretty good friends with William thanks to the many delays to our departure, so saying hasta luego to him was harder than I'd anticipated. But we've resolved to stay in touch. And he and Bocas are always in my prayers.

Bluefield was an adventure in itself, and I will get a blog up about it as soon as I can. I'm going to try to do that before we leave Portobello but if I don't then I'll get it typed up and post it when we get to Mexico (maybe). Pray for calm seas and good wind direction from here to Mexico! All I want is to be able to keep my hatch open at night. Sleeping with it closed is like sleeping in a shed in South Texas in the heat of summer.

Love,
Sarah with an “h”

P.S. I have lots of video of Carnival but all video I've taken of the trip will have to wait until we get back to Texas when I have a better internet connection.

Hasta Luego

2011-02-18T19:28:00.000-08:00

Well, that time has finally come. It's nearly time for us to say goodbye to Bocas del Toro, Panama and make our way back to Texas. We're hoping to start making our way to San Blas next week so I thought it would be a good idea to get at least one more post up before then. This may be the last one for a while since I don't know what our internet situation is going to be from here on out—or at least until April when we arrive back in Texas.

I'm sorry for the lack of updates lately. To be honest there hasn't been much to blog about. We've been disabled for the last couple of weeks with a broken engine. Our water pump was threatening to go out so my dad made the decision to send it to a mechanic in Panama City. Long story short that mechanic was unable to fix the pump and neither was the second mechanic we sent it to. After receiving the pump unfixed and sending it back to Panama City 3 times, we were finally able to just track down a new pump via David Cooper, the guy we'd hired to get our pump to and from the mechanic. Yes! Problem solved. But as Murphy's Law states, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. The same day we got the new pump for the engine our dinghy's outboard motor broke. And then our generator broke... BUT all is well now. :)

Macrame-ing

On a better note, I decided a few weeks ago that I wanted to learn how to make Macrame jewelry and meeting William has offered me the opportunity to learn while still here in Bocas. My brothers have tagged along as I've gone over to William's place twice this week to have him teach me some techniques. It's not hard once you get the hang of it but it's also not hard to forget, so consistent practice is very important. The first day William was getting after me. He would teach me one technique then I would give it to John to practice and move on to the next thing William wanted to teach me. While working on my knots I would try to help John and then forget what I was supposed to be doing and mess it all up. William would look at it, laugh, and say, “You need to concentrate!” So I would try again and get it right. Then I would move on to the next technique and botch that up. He would laugh at me again, show me a couple more times, and then watch me as I fumbled with the thread until I finally got it right. He was incredibly patient.

Me and William

Along with Macrame I've been putting a lot of effort into learning Spanish. Since Tuesday I've been bugging my mom (She speaks Spanish) and reading my little, yellow, Spanish dictionary. I think I'm doing pretty stinkin' good. I just hope I can keep with it. One of the things on my 21 before 22 List is to learn Spanish so if I really can learn Spanish before I turn 22 I will be stoked.

This trip has been an interesting one. In the beginning I wasn't completely thrilled to be here. I won't go into the reasons but I will say that Bocas has certainly grown on me. God has used my time here to speak to me in many ways. He's brought into my life people I won't ever forget and given me stories I'll share for as long as I live. I can honestly say I'm gonna miss this place. It's a bittersweet feeling to know that home is just about 5 weeks away.

So we'll soon be on our way to San Blas. We'll probably stop at a couple places along the way and then stay in San Blas for a few days before we start making our way back home. I believe we're planning to make a stop in Providencia on the way to Texas. I remember when I waited in anxious anticipation for this time. But I feel like I've just begun to really enjoy this place for what it is. Isn't that always the case, though? I guess I'm just going to have to come back. ;)

I hope you all have enjoyed our blogs. I'm sure there will be at least a couple more before we reach Texas but this is most likely the last one I'll be posting from Bocas del Toro, Panama.

Before I go here are some pictures of a "Devil Showdown" we witnessed a few days ago. I think this was a dress rehearsal of sorts for upcoming Carnival. During Carnival these devils run around whipping people! I asked William what it was all about and he said it was to remember the time when the black people first came to Panama as slaves. It may be for other countries, too. I don't know. I'll have to do some research on that.

Hasta luego!

Love,

Sarah with an “h”

Macrame Is Forever

2011-02-07T06:34:00.000-08:00

Hola! Back again for an update post on what I've been up to.

If you're a friend on Facebook you know I had an interesting day this past Thursday. I got a Macrame braid thingy in my hair! I feel like the saying should be "Macrame is forever" because this thing in my hair is supposed to last a good long while. One guy said a year while William, the guy who did my braid, said forever. haha He said I can just cut it out when I'm tired of it. But also Macrame jewelry is some durable stuff. The Macrame anklet from this post is at least 7 years old and still in pretty good condition. It's just now starting to tatter.

I'm not sure what's up with my facial expression here. haha!

Anyway, here are the pictures from that litte experience. I really like it. I feel so hippy-ish. :P AND it's like having a piece of jewelry semi-permanantly attached to me. Prepare to see this braid a lot in the future. The question is will I style my future outfits around it or will it just be like this random element of every outfit? haha Who knows? For now, it kind of just goes with my outifts since it's hard to dress like anything but a hippy beach bum these days.

Taken a couple days ago outside the condominium Pat lives at

The actual experience was a good one. I had a very interesting conversation with William and was able to share the love of Jesus with him. :) God is good. Very good.

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

P.S. This spontaneous decision was made possible by my parents as a late birthday gift to me! :)

January 30, 2011

2011-01-30T23:06:00.000-08:00

Yes, yes, I'm fully aware of my lack of posts lately. You're going to have to bare with me for a bit. I'm sort of lacking in motivation these days. Panama'll do that to ya. But tonight I thought I'd share with you the events of January 30, 2011. An eventful day it was. And unexpectedly so.

It started with church at the local nursing home. For the first time since we started going on Sundays I didn't feel completely uncomfortable in the presence of the elderly who didn't speak my language. Last week I actually forgot what "buenos dias" meant and how to respond to "como estas?" in my discomfort. But this morning was different. And everyone seemed to be in a good mood. One woman who usually carries a scowl on her face carried a smile in its absence. She gave me the sweetest smile when I shook her hand and said "buenos dias." Not only that but she really seemed to be listening to our friend, Pat, as she gave her devotion. One gentleman, a man who always smiles when he sees us (especially Pat ;)) listened intently as usual. Josephina, Pat's translator and all of our friend, did a wonderful job singing the Spanish hymns and one man joined in. It was a beautiful sight, a reminder that the smallest act of kindness can do a world of good for someone's heart.

Josephina singing a hymn in Spanish

Pat

After church we parted ways with Pat and Josephina as they hopped in a taxi and my mom, brothers, and I began our walk back into the main town. Just a few minutes into our walk we happened upon a house on stilts with a fluffy, white rabbit sleeping underneath it. We stopped to look at it and the lady who lived in the house came out on the balcony. My mom mentioned the rabbit and the woman said it must be the neighbor's because she didn't have a rabbit. My mom suggested we try to catch it and put it back in the neighbor's yard so we made our attempt. First David tried and failed. It hopped out of his reach. Then I tried a little more aggressively. Working at the Animal Rehab Keep in Port Aransas, Texas must have made me a little too comfortable with animals because I just reached down and grabbed the rabbit not expecting anything more than some kicking and squirming. Well, no, I got more than that. That evil bunny bit me! It bit me hard! I screamed, partly from shock and partly from pain, and got far away from it while holding my left hand with my right as that's where the monster bit me. The bite wound didn't look terrible but I knew it had broken the skin so we resolved to take a taxi to the pharmacy to make sure I didn't need to go to the hospital. While we were waiting for a taxi it started bleeding and turning red and purplish. And it hurt. A lot.

This picture doesn't really do it justice. It was a little more gnarly lookin'. haha

Finally, we flagged down a taxi. The taxi driver said we didn't need to worry about rabies because rabits don't carry rabies but to ask the pharmacist anyway. So we did. I showed the pharmacist my hand and he said I needed to go to the E.R. and get a tetanus shot because the wound was red. Well, that didn't thrill me but I didn't want to die because of a stupid rabbit bite so we took another taxi to the hospital.

Standing outside the E.R. Of course, we took pictures.

At the hospital we were told that because I'd had a tetanus shot within the last 10 years I didn't need another one. So instead of giving me a shot he just prescribed me some antibiotics and sent us to the other side of the hospital where the hospital pharmacy was to pick them up. He didn't even clean the wound! So we made our way to the other end of the hospital, passing through the dingy hallways "decorated" with horrifyingly graphic pictures of diseases (count yourself as blessed if you never have to see a picture of syphilis). Not a nurse was to be found. And when we reached our destination not a soul was in sight. Only one woman appeared from behind a corner making her way out the door to leave. My mom said "hola!" to get her attention but all she said was "buenas," (a short greeting) and left.

If you look closely you can see the thermometer sticking out of my armpit. lol

Finally, a worker showed up and told us we'd have to wait for the pharmacist to get back from her lunch break. Putting 2 and 2 together we guessed the "buenas lady" was the pharmacist. So we waited. And waited. By this time my hand was really hurting. It was red and swollen and starting to tingle. It had been more than an hour since I had been bitten and I still hadn't been able to clean it. So I went to the bathroom but lo and behold, no soap. We asked the worker lady but she had no soap. No soap in a hospital! We searched all over and could not find a bathroom with soap. It's a sad state of affairs and quite frightening when a HOSPITAL has no soap. We finally found some soap back in the E.R. I washed my hand as well as I could with how bad it was hurting and shortly after, it stopped hurting so much. But the pharmacist still hadn't returned. She was late.

Waiting for the pharmacist

We finally decided to just leave. We figured we would find out if I really needed the antibiotics and come back later if I did. Well, Pat found us after we'd gotten back into town as we sat down for some lunch at a little restaurant (it was way past lunch by this time so we were starving) and said she would call her friend who's a nurse and ask her what she thought. We went back to Pat's place after lunch and Pat got a hold of her friend on Skype. I showed her my wound via webcam and she said I shouldn't need anything. If it gets infected I should go back and get the antibiotics but otherwise I'm just to clean it a lot.

So that was my day. Not ideal but it made for an interesting story. I hope it was at least of some entertainment to you. It was for my brothers. They kept telling me, "Sarah, why are your teeth so big?" and "Sarah, what's that white fur on you?" I couldn't help laughing in the midst of my distress. At one point I was asking my mom how to say, "I'm going to lose my hand!" in Spanish because it was hurting and the silly pharmacist was taking her sweet time. I'm a bit dramatic sometimes. :P But I just have all the luck with animals down here! When we were here back in 2004 I had to beat up a monkey when he stole my glasses, and in the process he bit my finger! I'm just going to stay away from Panamanian animals from now on.

Hope your Sunday was less eventful than mine!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Sunken Treasure

2011-01-15T08:22:00.000-08:00

The other day, my mom and I stumbled upon an antique bottle shop in town owned by a man from South Padre Island, Texas named Billy. He lives on his boat, "Just Do It" and has lived in Bocas del Toro, Panama for 14 (or is it 15?) years enjoying the fruits of his labor as he's discovered more than 1,000 old bottles lying at the bottom of surrounding bodies of water. He's also discovered other little treasures as well much to the delight of people like me who can't resist the charm of really old things, especially really old things found in the deep blue.

Yesterday, I went back with $20 in my wallet with the intention to buy whatever I could get with it. I came out with a broken, yet amazing figurine baby doll from the 1800s for just $15. Billy told me he thought it must have come from Germany because he had found another one with a German label on it. I also snatched up an old clay bottle also from the 1800s. Billy said it was a bottle for what they called nickel beer and it came off of a Scottish ship. Nickel beer was just what it sounds like, a beer for a nickel. I think it was an idea to make some money down here in Panama. I tried to find some information on it on Google but didn't have any luck. No,I didn't get this bottle for a nickel. I got it for $5 instead. It was $7 but Billy let me have it for $5 since that's all I had left.

My brother says she looks creepy. She kind of does but I love her just the same! :P

I really couldn't find a lot of information on the history of this area. It's kind of the end of the world down here. My impression is that not many know about it. It was nearly forgotten by the Spanish from the 16th to the 19th century. Christopher Colombus loved it for its beauty but because it lacked what the Spanish desired--gold--they lost interest in it. The English, however, were more than happy to start settlements in the area and begin their lives raising cattle and chickens.

Sometime between the 17th and 18th centuries the Spanish suddenly regained interest in the land, and a Spanish militia was sent to rid it of the people who had already laid claim to a life in Bocas. As a cruel result of this, many of the indians were killed either by the Spanish themselves or by foreign diseases.

In the 19th century English and Scottish families coming from Jamaica, San Andres, Providencia, and even the United States along with their slaves made landfall in Bocas del Toro. This would be the time that what would become my beer bottle and my doll sunk to the bottom of the sea.

Although slavery was abolished in the 19th century after the slaves had arrived in Panama they stayed where they were and began making their living as fishermen and farmers.

Other than settlers looking to make a new life for themselves, Bocas del Toro was a big hangout for pirates during the 17th century. Supposedly, there is treasure buried in various places in the area but none has been recorded found.

That's just a brief history of Bocas del Toro. I didn't even tell you all of it but if you would like to know more here are the links I got my information from:

1. http://ezinearticles.com/?Bocas-del-Toro---Panama-History&id=324794
2. http://casaoceanapanama.com/bocas-del-toro.html#history
3. http://www.lonelyplanet.com/panama/bocas-del-toro/history

If you find anymore information let me know!

Billy has his shop for the sole purpose of earning enough money to keep his Panamanian Goddaughters able to attend school. I don't know how much money he makes from it but I'm sure it's not as much as he potentially could earn somewhere else. People who come here aren't looking for antiques. They're looking for souvenires. But he's content and happy, and that's all that matters. I would love to dive for sunken treasure for a living.

A couple years ago I was set on going to school to become a Marine Archaeologist. But upon my research of the profession I soon discovered that my keen interest in maritime history would not get me through the intense schooling I'd have to do to become a Marine Archaeologist. Too much math. But I think I may still save some money to get my diver's certification so I can pursue this "hobby" of treasure hunting. It's funny. I used to be somewhat opposed to treasure hunting. They're the bane of Marine Archaeologists' existance. But, eh, what the heck!

I find this "treasure" very interesting. It's called a deck prism and it was used as a safe way to light up the cabin below on a ship in the 19th century. You can go here and here to read a detailed description of a deck prism and how it works.

Old locks

I bet you can't guess what the vials above are. It's opium! A couple of hundred and someodd year old un-opened vials of opium. Billy says the opium is a big seller. I don't doubt it with all the druggies in Bocas. The vial on the right is an un-opened bottle of some unknown medicine.

Hope you weren't too bored by my history lesson! I, myself, love history and jumped at the opportunity to share some with you guys. It's always been my favorite subject. I like it even more than English. English is fine and all but it's too...structured. Too many rules to follow. hee hee

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

21 years old and all I really wanted was some pizza

2011-01-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

So sorry for the absence, ladies and gentlemen! We left BocasTown on the 6th (day after my birthday) to do some exploring of the surrounding area and didn't get back until the 10th. And I just haven't had much time to blog. It seems everyone has wanted to use my computer at once and I really only have it at night. And by that time I'm usually so tired. This place takes it out of ya and I don't even know why. It's probably the heat.

21 year-old me!

My birthday was pleasant. Uneventful but I was happy with it. I had good pizza for the first time since leaving Texas. A week before my birthday, we discovered the German bakery and it's delicous looking pizza. So I decided that's where I wanted to go for my birthday.

Half Hawaiin/ half Hawaiin plus peppers and onions for my dad

It seems I've come full circle from my 14th birthday. That birthday was spent in this same town and pizza was my meal of choice then as it was for my 21st. It was a different pizza place that seems to have shut down in these last 7 years but the bakery's pizza was quite sufficient. :)

For my 14th birthday my parents bought me this anklet from a Colombian woman selling her handmade jewelry on the streets of Bocas del Toro. I still wear it all the time and it's probably my most worn piece of jewelry. I'm amazed I haven't lost it.

Today, our good friend, Pat took me out for a late birthday lunch. She asked where I wanted to go and I told her the German bakery because I didn't know of anything else that's good. There really isn't much here in the way of good quality food. Panamanians aren't the most talented cooks. It's nothing against them personally. They just can't cook! So back to the bakery we went. I ordered exactly what I ordered on my birthday: Hawaiin pizza. I love Hawaiin. I also got a banana smoothie. It was lovely. After pizza we went over the Buena Vista for dessert. They had organic brownies made with chocolate from the Cerutti's cocoa farm. I ordered it with vanilla ice cream and ate the whole thing. It was good. It wasn't the best. But it was good, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Notice anything strange about one of the items on this menu from the German bakery? I'm not sure but I think "fungi cream" is supposed to be cream of mushroom. Let's hope so anyway. hahaha

Oh, and here is a picture of Pat's birthday gift to me. I love the colors. Very Panamanian. Very Latin America.

So before I go I have to tell you what I've been reading these past couple of weeks. I've been reading a lot lately but here are some of the more recent books I've finished.

First, The Alpine Path by L.M. Montgomery. She wrote it back in 1917, I believe. It's basically a brief memoir of her family's history, growing up years, and her climb up "the alpine path" or her journey to success in the writer's world. I downloaded it for free for the Kindle here if any of you are interested. It was a quick read and gave an interesting view in Montgomery's personal life.

Second, A Wrinkle In Time. Yes, 'tis true. I had never read it until a few days ago. But I absolutely loved it. What an imagination that lady has! I especially loved the ending. But I won't spoil it for you in case you haven't read it. If you haven't, though, you definitely should.

Last, Northanger Abbey. Northanger Abbey was the 4th (or maybe 5th) book of Jane Austen's that I've read. I love her books because they always transport me back in time. And since I most likely will never be able to actually travel back in time, I enjoy prentending to with Miss Austen's novels. Northanger Abbey was a lovely tale and I enjoyed it almost as much as I did Pride and Prejudice. Someone tell me of an Austen novel better than Pride and Prejudice and I shall be amazed. You can also download Northanger Abbey for free here.

My next endeavor is The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe. It's mentioned in Northanger Abbey so I'm curious to see what all the fuss was about. To be honest, though, I'm a little intimidated by it's size. I'm not afraid of big books in themselves but Udolpho is an old Gothic horror and probably a bit challenging to read. Have any of you read it? If you liked it please tell me. If you didn't don't say anything. I'm determined to read it and if I know it's no good I'll be much less inclined to try.

I hope you all are enjoying the new year so far. If you're aren't yet, have hope for a lot can happen in 12 months! I will hopefully be back in the next couple of days with pictures of some new trinkets I hope to get my paws on either tomorrow or Saturday. ;)

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

The List

2011-01-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

I've been saving this for a New Years post but since my birthday is just a few days away, I'll make it a birthday/New Years post. :)

While we were in Mexico and during one of those precious moments when I found myself with internet access I came across this post on Delightfully Tacky. I thought that list was a great idea and decided to make one of my own. So I did. On the first day of our passage from Isla Mujeres, Mexico to Bocas del Toro, Panama I created my own 21 before 22 list. 21 things to do before I'm 22. Okay, so I'm not quite 21, yet. But I will be on January 5th! I love that my birthday is so close to New Years. It's like I get a totally fresh start every year!

I doubt you can read it in the picture so here it is in type:

1. Fall more in love with God.
2. Sponsor a child.
3. Witness to more people.
4. Become bolder.
5. Sail to Panama with family again.
6. Get involved with ministry in Panama.
7. Learn Spanish.
8. Meet lots of new and interesting people.
9. Make more lasting friendships.
10. Buy travel trailer and live in it.
11. Take travel trailer on road trip through the States and eastern Canada (esp. P.E.I.)
12. Get involved with homeless outreach back home and throughout U.S.
13. Start online college courses.
14. Get published.
15. Go on a mission trip to Haiti.
16. Meet fellow bloggers.
17. Try boxing.
18. Take dance lessons.
19. Pray out loud more.
20. See Bethany Dillon and Jimmy Needham in concert.
21. Learn more about photography.

I went ahead and threw in the trip to Panama because we hadn't actually made it to Panama yet. I also put "Sponsor a child" in there because I have been wanting to do that for a while and, while I'm already doing that, it is an on going thing. So perhaps it's more like "continue to sponsor a child." hehe

I'm working on the first thing on the list: Fall more in love with God. Just in the past week God has really been speaking to my heart. I've just had this burning desire to be near Him more than ever. I want to be like the great men and women of God I read about who are just totally on fire for Him. I want to walk with Christ as though He were physically beside me. That is the biggest thing on the list.

Not as big but still pretty big on the list are "Buy travel trailer and live in it" and "Take travel trailer on a road trip through the States and eastern Canada (esp. P.E.I.)." I don't know that I'll be able to fit both in one year but we'll see. I'm hoping to at least be able to buy the trailer (preferably vintage) this year. I've always wanted to take a cross-country road trip and I've wanted to see Prince Edward Island, Canada ever since I read the Anne series by L.M. Montgomery. I've always had it in my mind that I would do those things but it didn't really become an immediate dream until I saw Elizabeth from Delightfully Tacky doing it. I guess it just hit me that I'm young and perfectly able with a little determination, and I better do it now before I'm not anymore!

I'm really excited about just buying the trailer and living in it, though. I will be content with that for a little while. For the whole Christmas season this year and even now I've been dreaming about decorating my future travel trailer for Christmas. I've already decided that I'm going mash a 5 foot Christmas tree into it. haha Also, I want to adopt a new kitten and train him or her to be a road kitty. I can't wait!! I wish I could take Tiger Lily but I don't think she would like the road. She's too much of an outdoor cat and a huntress. :P

While trailer life has dominated my thoughts and daydreams lately I still hold onto other dreams I have for the immediate future. I'm still trying to get involved in some sort of ministry down here in Panama. I have an idea of my own and there is a missionary family living here that I will hopefully be meeting in a few days.

As for the more distant future, Haiti is still on my heart. I don't know that I'll be able to afford it or have time this year but you never know. If not, I will aim for next year. I'll just let God lead. I don't want to jump the gun.

Starting online college courses is another "if." I don't know that I'll have the money but if not this year then perhaps next year. I'm not in a big hurry, though, as is obvious in this post. I'm just going with the flow. Wherever God leads, that's where I'll go.

As for number 16, "Meet fellow bloggers," well that's something I'm bound and determined to do! There are a few of you guys I really want to meet. Granted, I probably won't meet most of you this year but it's fun to hope that maybe, just maybe, I will. :)

And then there are some small and maybe slightly silly ones like "Try boxing" and "Take dance lessons" that are trivial but still definitely things I want to do and have wanted to do for some time. I really wanted to do the boxing thing at the beginning of last year when I wanted to punch my ex in the face. (NOT Jesse, someone else) teehee But I'm sweet. Really, I am! :)

Some of the things on my list may have a few of you scratching your heads. But that's all right. If you want to know, just ask! I'm too lazy to type out an explanation for each thing on the list, though. haha

I made this list because I wanted to have something to look at and "aim for" this year. But I'm not going to stress over it. Chances are most of the bigger things on the list won't happen in a year. A year really isn't that long when you think about it. But as long as I can cross off a couple big things, I'll be happy. If, at the end of the year, I find myself more in love with my God and living in a vintage travel trailer, I will be totally stoked. Funny combination, I know. But I'm a funny sort of person. :)

Oh, before I go, I have to show you what I found at the local English book shop in Bocas for $5.

Isn't that cool?! I'm so excited. haha I love finding L.M. Montgomery books, especially ones like these that are compilations of her sweet short stories. This one is a gem. It's edited by Rea Wilmshurst, the same editor of Along the Shore, the book I blogged about here. Many of the stories hadn't been published in book form before Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories, and I find that totally neat. Plus, this one is hardcover!

Hope this finds all of you happy and well and enjoying the start of this new year, 2011!

Happy New Year!!

Love,

Sarah with an "h"

P.S. For my birthday, my family is taking me out for pizza! Oh, yummy pizza, I have missed you. :P I'll be sure and blog about my birthday after my birthday has come!

Happy New Year!!!

2010-12-31T22:50:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! 2011 is finally here! We just rung in the new year with the final part of Lonesome Dove on DVD and an incredible fireworks show put on by the people of Bocas and watched from the cockpit of the Esperanza.

Just now, I'm sitting in my v-berth and listening to the sound of the straggler fireworks leftover from the biggest, most beautiful, and most elaborate fireworks show I've ever seen. I thought the Christmas show was good but the New Years one blows it out of the water! I snapped some pictures and streamed a video but I'm afraid they just don't capture the magic. The video refuses to load tonight but here are some pictures. I'll try to have the video up soon.

They popped pretty much non-stop for at least a good half hour. In fact, when I get the video up you'll notice a huge smoke cloud hovering over the town. That's from all the fireworks they've been popping this evening. These Bocas folk like their fireworks!

Happy New Year, everyone!! We're in for an awesome year!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Just Over the Horizon

2010-12-30T20:55:00.000-08:00

2011 is just a day beyond the horizon. It's hard to believe. But at the same time, it really isn't. January 2010 was nearly 12 whole months ago. In a way, it feels like yesterday. But more than that, it feels like a million years ago. A lot has happened this year. Looking back, I can honestly say that it was a good year. Many of you didn't know me prior to this past summer when I began Restless Romantic but believe me when I say that it's been a heck of a year. If you care to know why, feel free to read this recap. If you don't care, well, I can't blame you. But here it is anyway.

I've never done this before, and already I've trashed 2 attempts, so bear with me as I attempt, for the 3rd time, to recap the year 2010.

It began with a battle. Life is just one big battle, isn't it? It seems I must have written hundreds of posts on battles of the soul by now. 2010 began with a battle. My second relationship came to an end on Christmas Eve of 2009 and a whirlpool of emotions stirred within. But, like this post indicates, I was still hopeful for the new year in spite of my pain. In fact, it was this new trial that marked the beginning of a great year.

Beauty from ashes. It's so true, isn't it? Out of desperation I gave God an ultimatum. The Bible study group I'd been attending wasn't working out. I had been going for 2 months now and I had yet to establish any real friendships due to the shyness that had gripped me. And friendship was what I longed for. I wanted to have that support system of like-minded, fellow Christ followers. So I told God that He would have to step in and make it apparent that I was meant to be in that group. Otherwise, I would pack up and leave. Maybe I would try another group later. Maybe I wouldn't. It wasn't that I didn't like the people but I feared that I had blown it by taking so long to break the ice with them. So whether or not it's right to make ultimatums with God, that's what I did. It was all I could think to do.

The next Sunday night (group night), I went rather reluctantly. I don't remember if I was expecting anything to happen or not. All I remember is that something did happen. The ice began to break. I began to come out of my shell. I took that as my answer from God that He did, indeed, want me there, so I went back the following Sunday. The ice was broken even further, so again I went back. Every Sunday it got a little easier to talk to people. Every Sunday my friendships were deepened.

Me and a group of friends at Coffee Waves, a local coffee shop everyone likes to go to.

Since then friendships have grown and new friendships have begun. Some of the best friends I've ever had have only been in my life for a year or less. For 6 years, I had prayed for some strong Christian friends. Really, all I wanted was one or two that I could see and/or talk to fairly regularly. God blessed me with way more than 1 or 2 Christian friends. For that, I praise Him.

Left to right: me, Chelsea, and Becky

One of those friends is Jesse. If you've been reading for a while, you know that Jesse is one of those best friends. Being a pilot in the Navy, he would be leaving soon after we met. In fact, he had already been in Corpus Christi for a few months before I met him and he would be leaving in 2 months since he was nearly finished with his primary training. I didn't know it when I met him but those 2 months would produce one of the richest friendships I've ever known. They would also hold within them more fun than I'd had in a long time.

Just one of mine and Jesse's many adventures :P

In April, Jesse left for Milton, Florida to train for his helicopter license, and he and I embarked on a risky adventure that many of you know as the long distance relationship. We had become more than friends. Very shortly after this, I made the spontaneous decision to spend most of my money on a plane ticket to Juneau, Alaska where I would spend 2 months in the cool mountain air and enjoy the company of my aunt, uncle, and 3 adorable cousins.

One of the many gorgeous views I was blessed enough to lay eyes on in Alaska

The initial plan was to work up there for the summer but I couldn't land a job and eventually decided I didn't much feel like working anyway. For the most part, it was a good trip. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with my Alaskan family--especially Nathan, Lilli, and Brenna. I even learned how to sew and brushed up on my cooking skills! But the end of my time in Alaska also marked the end of my relationship with Jesse. I wrote about it here. It was the most difficult thing I had to endure in 2010 but, by the grace of God, I was given peace and comfort through the words of my dad. The smiling faces and warm hugs of my 3 cousins helped a lot, too. :) When I look back at that time I have to smile and hold back tears at the same time. I miss those kids so much sometimes, it hurts. I'm determined to see them again soon. You hear that, Hillary? You might be seeing me again sometime soon! hee hee

Left to right: me and cousins, Brenna, Lilli, and Nathan

In the 3 months that I was back home in Texas I had a lot of fun surfing with Cody, resuming attendance at Life Group and the fellowship I had missed so much while in Alaska, spending time with Nicole (another friendship that began on a Sunday night), and much more. In October, Jesse was able to break away from Milton to come visit, and I couldn't have been more stoked. Needless to say, we're still great friends.

Left to right: my brother, John; me, and cody

Me and Nicole

Me and Jesse

Also, in those 3 months back home I finally began contributing to Bible study whereas before I had always just sat in my corner and listened. By the grace of God, I trampled fear and was able to write this blog post.

Today, I'm in Bocas del Toro, Panama enjoying the tropical weather, beautiful landscape, and laid back way of life. There's not much to say except that God is amazing.

Left to right: my mom, Elizabeth; brother, David; brother, John; and me

I'm over 1,000 miles from home and surrounded with foreign beauty and people who don't speak my language. Yet, God is still with me. And He is still speaking to me, still revealing things to me, still giving me peace, still pulling me closer.

There's a lot I didn't record in this post, or in any post for that matter. But it's okay because I'll never forget 2010. At the start of this year I never would have guessed that a 6 year-old prayer would be answered favorably, that I would go from the rainforest of southeast Alaska to the rainforest of Caribbean Panama, or that I would be looking at 2011 with eyes wide open.

I do have plans for 2011 but I'm not making them too precise. If there's one thing I've learned in life it's that it rarely turns out the way you plan. Sometimes plans blow up in your face. Sometimes they're just altered. Sometimes life turns out way better than you had planned. I believe that eventually life will turn out better as long as we let God lead.

2010, you were a good year. You were an exciting year. But now, it's time to say goodbye. I'll miss you. But 2011 holds great promise. And I'm looking at that horizon in anxious anticipation.

Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Sarah with an "h"

Merry Christmas and Beware of French Sailboats

2010-12-28T08:31:00.000-08:00

Hello, readers! I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and enjoyed it thouroughly! And if you didn't well, be excited for the New Year because great things await! At least that's what I'm believing. No sense in being negative!

A Christmas tree outside the Reef, the restaurant where my dad picks us up in the dinghy.

Christmas way pretty quiet around here. In fact, I haven't stepped foot off the boat in days. I don't even remember when I last walked around town but I know it was before Christmas Eve. It was just us this Christmas on our little sailboat in the Bocas Marina anchorage. I wish I had something exciting to report about this Christmas but I don't.

One of the many houses decked out in an array of Christmas decorations

On Christmas Eve, my family and I all watched most of A Christmas Story in the cockpit of the boat on my tiny laptop. We didn't watch all of it that night because it was online and the site it was on would only let us watch 72 minutes at a time. So we finished it on Christmas night.

A lot of the people put there Christmas trees outside for some reason. Maybe it's because there isn't enough room inside?

Fireworks popped all evening in town and it sort of became a white noise as I sat in my room on my computer after everyone else had gone to bed. And then, at midnight, the town erupted in a rainbow of big, bright fireworks. I heard them popping louder and faster than before, so I stuck my head outside my hatch to watch the colorful show. By far, one of the best fireworks shows I've ever seen--especially in a small town. Even though I'm pretty sure they weren't, I imagined that they were to celebrate the birth of our Saviour. I mean, the birth of the world's Saviour is a pretty good reason to celebrate with huge fireworks, don't you think?

Christmas Day was just as laid back as Christmas Eve. In the evening we ate Christmas dinner, which consisted of a turkey breast we brought from Texas and had stored in our freezer, mashed potatoes, peas, and stuffing all prepared by my dad. No pies, no eggnog, and no presents. But it was good. We had each other and we had candy. Haha! Yes, candy. My sweet mommy was kind enough to buy us each a bag of expensive American candy from the farmacia in town for Christmas.

After dinner, we watched the rest of A Christmas Story and then watched Elf on DVD. Ah, those are some good movies. I didn't watch all the Christmas movies I usually do around Christmas time because of the lack of movies and battery power to watch them with, but it was nice to be able to watch at least a couple.

So Christmas was uneventful. It wasn't the most exciting Christmas but it wasn't bad. And I'm thankful for it. Who knows where we'll all be next Christmas? There's a chance we won't all be together so I'm thankful for this one where we were all together. And I'm trying to savor this time, even though I often want to smack my brothers. One day, smacking them won't be an option! :P

I didn't get any pictures of Christmas Eve or Christmas Day because there wasn't much to photograph. Although, now, I really wish I had thought to snap some pictures of the fireworks. Oh, well, there's always New Years! But I've thrown in some more pictures of the Christmas town we've recently found ourselves in. And here are some pictures of me and my brothers playing on a see-saw we found in town! This was the 23rd, I believe. I think this is the last time I was in town.

And before I go, I have to share with you some pictures from the adventure we had about a week ago.

L'Aventurier, the Frenchman's boat from this post started dragging anchor and actually bumped into Sailaway, another boat in the anchorage. We were amazed at how long he just left it there. He walked outside in his little underwear things he always wears (not a pretty sight, let me tell you) and looked at it but didn't do anything about it! My dad figured he didn't think himself strong enough to pull his boat off of Sailaway so we ran over to him in our dinghy and helped push while he pulled up on his anchor line. He was off of Sailaway, but not for long. Later, that same day, he dragged anchor again! That time he pulled it off himself, but that wasn't the end of L'Aventurier's dragging escapades. Oh, no.

The next day was a rough day with a bad wind direction that threatened to break us loose from anchor and push us right into the reef in between Bocas Town and the anchorage. Instead of breaking us loose, though, it broke L'Aventurier loose. By the time we looked behind us to see that she had drug anchor, she was already just a few feet away. My dad started the engine, put my mom on the wheel, and went to pull up anchor. Did I mention it was raining? And right as this was happening, the wind began to blow harder and the rain began to fall in much larger quantities. So with rain pelting him and Mr. Frenchman watching from his window (wearing his little underwear things no doubt) without any intention of helping, my dad hurried to get the anchor up.

He managed to get the anchor up before L'Aventurier smacked into poor unsuspecting Esperanza, but we still had one problem. Where would we go? After some debate between my parents (I stayed out of it as my dad was quite unhappy with Mr. Frenchman over there) my dad decided to relocate the boat in the same anchorage. Much to my delight, the internet signal is better over here than it was over there! haha L'Aventurier finally left us last week. He also left us with an anchor with way too much line out that had become tangled up in the coral beneath. My dad had a heck of a time getting it up. Perhaps this is a lesson learned. Old bachelor Frenchmen who run around mostly naked are bad news! No offense if you fit into that category. :P

Other than that, there's not a lot going on right now. We've been trying to get out of here to go fishing for the past couple of days but weather has held us back. Honestly, though, I don't mind it. Before the 26th, I hadn't washed my hair in days. But the 26th came with a late Christmas gift from God: RAIN!! And it's been coming off and on since then. So I'll praise Him for it until He stops giving it. And then I'll praise Him for the sunshine. May I never ever complain about the rain again. Or the sun for that matter. We need them both.

That's all I have for now. I'll try to be back soon with another post. I think it's actually David's turn, though, so you may hear from him before you hear from me (on Hope Floats). Merry (late) Christmas and Happy (early) New Year!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

P.S. By the way, Restless Romantic readers, I'm planning a New Years post and will have it up soon! Hasta luego!

Gloria a Dios en las alturas!

2010-12-23T07:12:00.000-08:00

A Nativity scene set up in Bocas del Toro, Panama

More than 2,000 years ago a little baby boy lay in a manger, helpless yet mighty, the Savior of the world. Because of that baby we are free who have accepted him as the gift of salvation given to us by God Himself. I pray that really sinks in with you this year, because in the midst of holiday shopping and Santas galore many seem to forget the heart of Christmas. Buried beneath the Christmas lights, wrapping paper, turkey dinners, and eggnog is the real meaning of the holiday. Let us bring it to the surface and rejoice in it.

On Sunday my mom and I joined our friend, Pat, as she lead a Christmas worship service at the local old folks home.

Walking inside we were greeted by Pat, a beautiful, happy, and vivacious Florida lady in her 60s, as she prepared for the service. Sitting in the room we entered were around 8 or 10 elderly people, many of whom were in wheel chairs. One man was missing a leg and another didn't look as though he were totally coherent. One woman laughed for no apparent reason and another made strange gestures with his hands, again, for no apparent reason. At this I became just a little intimidated. But the friendly faces in the room, especially Pat's eased my tension.

We began with Joy to the World—in Spanish. Yes, I sang Joy to the World in Spanish. It was sort of neat. I didn't know what most of the words meant but I knew I was singing Joy to the World, and I was content with that. After Joy to the World, Josephine, Pat's friend and translator, read the Christmas story from a Spanish translation of the Bible. I didn't understand much but I understood “Gloria a Dios en las alturas“ which means “Glory to God in the Highest.” I understood because “gloria” is obviously “glory” and she said it with the same inflections in her voice as we do when we read it back home.

We sang Hark the Herold Angels Sing (in Spanish) after Josephine finished reading, and then Pat gave her devotional. It was about the greatest gift God has given us, a relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. It was so nice to hear someone preach the Gospel. Her words were both comforting and encouraging. They made me realize how much I've really missed my Bible study and Christian friends back home.

Faces lit up and upon them smiles spread across. One man, in particular, who sat with a stuffed bear beside him—probably a gift for a little girl—had an expression of pure joy on his face. My heart warmed instantly at the sight of him. The message of hope was one that brought just that to him. And the songs brought pure delight. I couldn't help but smile when I saw how happy the service was making this man.

The closing hymn was Silent Night or Noche de Paz. I still remember that one. I think it was one gentleman's favorite for when the service was over he was still singing, “Noche de paz, Noche de amor...”

A connection was felt with these people as I listened to Pat's words and Josephine's reading and sang the Christmas carols in Spanish. Christ is our common ground. He has come and died for all of us. We may be different in many ways but that is where we are the same. We all need a Savior.

There is much more I could tell you about the service, like the rude nurses who interrupted with loud conversations amongst themselves out of prejudice against Pat and the priest who came in, as he always does, in the middle of Pat's service to deliver bananas and distract people. It was both humorous and annoying. But somehow, it didn't matter. No matter their prejudice Christ was still born some 2,000 years ago and Christ still hung on the cross for all of us. No matter their interruptions Christ was in that place and thirsty hearts were given the Gospel.

May your Christmas be merry and blessed this year. And may you remember why we celebrate.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Sarah with an “h”

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.”

--Luke 2:14

"Gloria a Dios en las alturas,

y en la tierra paz a los que gozan de su buena voluntad"

--Lucas 2:14

Christmas Time is Here

2010-12-18T13:04:00.000-08:00

It's the morning of Friday, December 17^th and I'm waiting to find out if we're going to take the boat to anchor out at Starfish Beach for the weekend or not.

A Frenchman came in on a beast of a sailboat yesterday from Cartagena, Colombia after fighting his way through monstrous Caribbean waves . It was so bad out there that his bow pulpit (the place at the front of the boat where the anchor is) was bent in the fight. Consequentially, he wasn't able to lower his anchor. He waved my dad down while he was on his way into town in the dinghy to come pick us up but he didn't speak English. He spoke Spanish so my dad told him he would be back with his wife, who spoke Spanish, in a few minutes. Once they realized what the trouble was, my dad came back to our boat and dug out one of our spare anchors and line to lend him. So that's why our going to Starfish Beach this weekend is uncertain. We need to get our anchor and line back first because the Frenchman is supposed to be leaving soon.

L'Aventurier's bent bow pulpit

So while I'm just sitting here and drinking a cup of coffee I thought I would prepare a blog post for the Hope Floats and Restless Romantic readers.

Christmas time is a pretty big deal around here, it seems. We noticed it the last time we were here and we're noticing it now. Lots of people decorate their little shacks and not-so-glamorous stucco houses with Christmas lights and other decorations. The other day we passed a tiny, stucco house with a little Christmas tree on the patio. Also on the patio were a couple of Panamanian women, one of whom was painting the house with a fresh coat of purple. It was kind of funny.

Christmas music, in English and Spanish, floats along the streets of Bocas del Toro nearly everywhere we go. I was introduced to a Panamanian girl around my age (she's 24) by our friend, Pat, when she took all of us to her house for the sole purpose of introducing me. Loud music was heard coming from inside and I'm pretty sure it was Christmas music. On top of that, Nolma (sp?) was baking Johnny cakes. That sounds like so much fun! Baking Johnny cakes while listening to Christmas music. Sounds like me in the States. I go bake happy around Christmas time when I have a real oven to bake in. :)

The other day, I was sitting at Golden Grill, the little “fast food” restaurant I go to a lot for the free wi-fi (I buy something, too, of course.) when I looked across the street at the little park and saw a huge Christmas tree! There was a ladder propped up against it and some people were decorating it. I was so excited. I took a picture of it that day and the next night, when it was all lit up, after a kid's Christmas program we went to watch. The program was a story in itself.

There's an elementary school in Bocas called Tangerine School. It's actually the school our friend, Pat, helped start about 7 years ago when we were here last. Anyway, it's where a lot of transplanted kids go to school so kids from all different countries attend it. Pat invited us to their first annual Christmas program and we were more than happy to accept. Back in the States I hunt the web around this time of year for Christmas events happening in towns nearby. I guess you could call it a tradition but it's just something I like to do.

So we went to the program. Guess where it was held. At a local Bar and Grill. Only in Bocas. It wasn't exactly your traditional kid's program. People were drinking long before the thing even started, and I'm pretty sure there were some drunk people there. Looking around at the gathering crowd, it became very clear to me that I had very little, if anything, in common with these people. As the old cliché goes, “I'm not in Kansas anymore.”

Aside from the questionable characters who attended, the program was nice. The kids were cute, and it was neat to hear the old familiar Christmas songs in such an array of accents.

I'm rather amazed at how much it really feels like Christmas here. I was laughing the other day to my mom as I recalled last Christmas and how un-Christmas-y it felt as opposed to this year in Panama! Sort of ironic if you ask me. But then, last Christmas was accompanied by unwelcome circumstances so it's not really all that surprising, I suppose.

Our little Christmas tree

So I'm enjoying this Christmas quite a bit. While I'm already dreaming about next Christmas when I hope to be some place snowy and possibly living in a Christmas decked out travel trailer of some sort, I'm happy with this Christmas season. I'm thankful that I get to spend it with my family. I'm thankful that I get to spend it in such a beautiful place. And I'm trying not to forget why we celebrate. I was reading the first part of the Christmas story in Luke last night when I came to Mary's Song and read in awe. It just blows my mind the faith of that girl. I mean, can you imagine being a 14 or 15 year-old girl and being approached by an angel who tells you you're going to give birth to the Son of God? I'd be totally freaked out. But how grateful are we that she trusted God!

Merry Christmas! Hope you're enjoying and remembering the reason for the Christmas season!

And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant." --Luke 1:46-48

Love,

Sarah with an “h”

P.S. We made it to Starfish Beach as planned! Will blog about it soon.

P.P.S. If you're interested, our time in Central America inspired a post on Thoughts From a Journey. I just posted it a couple days ago. It's dedicated to our American Veterans, past and present.

A Christmas Dream

2010-12-13T08:32:00.000-08:00

Well, this is probably my last opportunity to blog for a few days so I'm going to go ahead and do a quick one for y'all.

I wanted to show you these paintings I found here. This is totally me in a year or 2. I know it. :)

Doesn't that look lovely?

Okay, so I had a couple other things I wanted to show you but the internet is being stupid. I want to throw my computer out the porthole. But I know it's not the computer's fault so I won't.

Hope everyone's having a good week so far and enjoying this lovely time of year!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Reading, Writing, and Christmas in Panama

2010-12-11T18:23:00.000-08:00

Hello, readers! My apologies for the absence over this past week. I've recently discovered that my access to the interenet here in Panama is extremely limited. I don't have it at the anchorage we're staying at because it's 30 bucks per computer per month! Ridiculous. If anyone reading this is planning to sail to Bocas del Toro, Panama beware the Bocas Marina internet fees. I wish the owner would see this post, get extremely angry, and then lower his fees--or better yet, make it free like it ought to be.

Anyway, enough ranting. This weekend we're anchored up off of Red Frog Beach on the island of Bastimentos. (They have free wi-fi, by the way.) It's very near the main island of Bocas del Toro but it's just gorgeous. We plan to do some exploring tomorrow.

A few days ago I typed up a blog for you guys and never got around to posting it so here it is now.

I wanted to tell y'all about something I experienced while out on the great blue. My journal entry for day 8 probably best describes it so here it is:

December 4, 2010—Caribbean Sea—Day 8

It seems this experience has rekindled some lost passion in me. For so long, I've really only written for my blog—for other people. But being out here “away from it all” and surrounded by God's creation has re-lit the fire of passion for writing in me. I'm really writing again. I'm inspired again. I'm floating on the clouds of imagination and pure, untainted, natural bliss.

Before the last leg of our journey to Panama it had been a while since I wrote just for the sake of writing. But I'm doing that again. If ever I'm inspired by something, if ever something in my soul is awakened, I write it down as descriptively as I possibly can—just because I don't want to forget it and because there's something about painting a picture with words that makes me happy.

To be honest, I think L.M. Montgomery is partly to blame for this sudden reawakening. I read Emily Climbs and Emily's Quest out there on the Caribbean. She always does it, that Lucy! I always want to write again after I read her books.

I loved the 'Emily' books. The last one broke my heart and I swear I nearly screamed several times while reading it but oh, what a triumphant and lovely ending!

Only one other book has ever put me through such misery and then made up for it with a joyous ending. It was called The First Violin. I believe I've mentioned it on this blog before but it's an old, rare book written either in the late 1800s or early 1900s. Jessie Fothergill was the author. I think she only wrote something like 3 novels before she died and didn't even live to see First Violin published. But it's an amazing book. If you can get your hands on it, you should definitely read it. It takes place in Germany and it has German dialogue sprinkled throughout which makes it quite interesting.

Have any of you ever read Jane of Lantern Hill? I bought that one along with the 'Emily' books and a couple other L.M. books in a bundle deal on ebay. I think I'll read that one some time in the near future. Right now, I'm reading Revolution in World Missions by K.P. Yohannan. It's not a novel but I'm enjoying it. One must take a break from charming novels every so often. :)

Other than books and writing, I've been enjoying these first few days in Panama. We haven't done anything terribly exciting but we did score some free mangos the day before yesterday. My mom, youngest brother, and I went for a walk on the island where the marina is that we've been staying at for the past couple of days is. We hadn't seen it in 7 years since we were here last and wanted to see how much it had changed. Well, it's changed a lot. There seem to be lots more large houses owned by wealthy Americans on it now. One that we passed was one that had been there when we were here before. My brother, John, was friends with the, then, 11 or 12 year old boy who lived there. He doesn't live there anymore but the lady who owns it hollered to us and asked us if we wanted any mangos as we walked past it for the second time to go back to the marina. When we first past it, a bunch of parrots flew out of the mango trees in front of the house, knocking mangos to the ground. It must happen quite often because the yard was full of mangos. She said we could have as many of the ones without little bites taken out of them as we wanted. Hehe

A kinkajou some resort owners on the island had been given by some of the natives

That's pretty much all I wrote. Not a whole lot has happened since then. It's been raining like crazy pretty much since we got here and is just now starting to let up. One day, we all got drenched coming back with the dinghy to the sailboat while it was on anchor. The heavens just opened up and dumped about a million gallons of water on us. That's an exageration, of course, but it was still pretty bad. This much rain isn't typical for this time of year (the dry season) but they had a droubt during the wet season so I guess this is to make up for it. haha

Today, we set up our little Christmas tree. When I say "we" I mean "I." I'm the one who holds onto the little things like that when it comes to Christmas. There must always be a tree in the boat on Christmas. And there must always be Christmas music. It's all I ask. I try not to depend too much on tradition because it makes for disappointment when things don't happen the way I want. But I do go out of my way to make things Christmas-y around here, no matter where we are in the world. The bottom part of the tree wasn't lighting up so we found some cheap lights at one of the Chinese markets (Panama has got to be at least half Chinese in population.) in town and strung them around it. Hey, it works.

I must admit that Christmas in Panama is not my ideal Christmas but I'm the kind who can make a lot out of a little and make the most out of any situation. Christmas, after all, isn't about the decorations or the climate of the place you're in. It's about the birth of our Saviour.

I'll leave you with that and promise to be back with another post as soon as I can.

Merry Christmas!

Love,
Sarah with an "h"

Here At Last

2010-12-06T08:56:00.000-08:00

Hello again—and at last!--dear readers. After 9 days of being tossed through the waves and white caps of the Caribbean Sea we've finally reached Bocas del Toro, Panama. It's 6:30pm on December 5^th and we're sitting in the Bocas Marina anchorage as we wait for tomorrow to come when we can check into the country and roam the streets of Bocas once more.

It was a long trip but much more endurable than the Gulf of Mexico crossing. But yes, unfortunately, sea sickness crept in as it did in the previous voyage. The sea sickness, however, was nothing compared to what lunch did to me on our first day out. I feel that my journal entry for day 2, as overly dramatic as it is, describes it best so here it is:

November 28, 2010—Caribbean Sea—Day 2

Oh, the horror—the horror of yesterday after the last entry! The day was beautiful, the water, crystal clear blue, was gorgeous as gorgeous gets, and the sky was scattered with sheets of thick, streaming, pale, white clouds. If I only hadn't eaten that dreadful lunch which put me on my back and eventually in the head where I proceeded to puke my guts out.

I won't even tell you what it was. Not because it was anything unusual or particularly nasty but because my appetite for it is forever ruined and I can't bring myself to name it here. I surely can't imagine ever eating it again! The thought of it haunts me today. Dramatic? Perhaps. But you would feel the same way. I guarantee it.

And I stand by that entry. I won't mention what it was that I ate. I'm not—ready. Laugh. Laugh all you want. But I'm dead serious.

By the way, now y'all know that I talk to my journal as if it were a person. :)

I'm pretty sure that I ate something expired and then the motion of the waves got to me—even though the waves hadn't even gotten big, yet. I think I would have been fine otherwise. But for about half the trip I was on the edge of seasickness. It wasn't as terrible as it was in the Gulf but it lasted longer for some reason. I was highly irritated. If there's one thing I can't stand, it's feeling weak.

Some squall-y weather

As for the rest of the trip, it was quite a bit more “interesting” than the Gulf trip. We had a pod of dolphins come up to swim along side us one night, we had an unknown plane fly right over and very close (as in low) to us, we had awful trouble with wind direction and took forever to get around Honduras, we ran into some squalls here and there, and oh yeah, we thought we were going to have to fight a gang of pirates as we sailed off the coast of Nicaragua.

On day 6 my dad spotted a boat of some sort on the horizon. We thought nothing of it, really, until a little wooden boat with 3 or 4 people in it started for us from the direction of the boat my dad had spotted a few minutes earlier. The worst was immediately thought. Pirates. What else? Why else would they be motoring at us like that at high speed over rolling Caribbean waves? My mom freaked out, sent my brothers down below, and then told me, quite forcefully, I might add, to go down below with the 'Spot' and get ready to hit the SOS button. I asked what we had for weapons. It seemed all we had was a baseball bat! “A flare gun?” I asked. My dad looked for it but discovered—at the most inopportune time!--that it was nowhere to be found. (We left Texas in a terrible hurry while everyone was sick. As a result, we forgot some things.) So my mom, being the only one who speaks Spanish, sat in the cockpit with my dad and waited.

Finally, they were right next to us but not bearing guns and knives. Instead, they came with big toothy smiles—and lobster! Expensive lobster. They wanted $10 a lobster but, because we didn't want to elude to the fact that we had any real amount of money on board lest they come back and try to rob us and simply because we couldn't afford $10 lobster, we gave them $10 and a $35 fishing lure for 6 lobsters. They were happy with that and left us to enjoy our lobsters. Sort of.

Soon after they left, we were approached by about 3 more boats with lobster divers trying to make a sell. They were all really polite and left us once my mom told them we had already bought some. My mom thought she was going to have a heart attack with all that excitement. I was scared when I saw that boat powering toward us but all in all, I thought it was an interesting experience. I was, however, quite upset to find that all we had to defend ourselves in case of an actual pirate attack was a bat and some knives.

The lobster that night was delicious. It was a hundred times better than it would have been under normal circumstances because we'd been eating rather poorly for the past 5 days. Beans, rice, spam...I don't even remember now what all we ate. But the lobster seemed to be a turning point for us because we caught a dolphin (mahi mahi) the next day and the day after and had it for dinner 2 nights in a row.

I caught a shark but we turned him loose. They aren't that good eatin'.

As for more excitement, on the same day that we encountered the lobster divers our cockpit took the full force of a mini rogue wave. Okay, maybe it wasn't rogue. But it came out of nowhere and pounded down over the cockpit getting me and my mom a little wetter than we would have liked.

On day 7 my dad spotted a large gray animal below the water's surface. Whales! Pilot whales. A huge pod of them.

On the second to the last day out there we had a little cave swallow land on our boat. He had obviously been carried off to sea by a gust of wind and was exhausted. We tried to save him by giving him bread and water and keeping him in a little mesh basket and hanging it up so he wouldn't be moving around so much as the boat rocked from side to side. But he didn't survive the night. I hate when little birds like that land on our boat. I want to save them so badly but birds are so hard to keep alive once they're dehydrated and exhausted. They're just heart breakers. His name was Pablo. He was a good birdy.

On top of the eventfulness, it was absolutely beautiful out there. The water seemed to constantly be changing color, the sky was nearly always bright blue with big, fluffy, white clouds strewn across it, and every sunset was intense in its own unique and awe-inspiring way.

So our voyage to Panama is over. At last, we've arrived. At last, we can relax—and sleep! We're all lacking sleep—especially my poor dad who did most everything on this trip. He was Captain, cook, navigator, and pretty much everything else. He deserves full credit for getting us here.

Tonight, we intend to get sufficient sleep for the first time in 9 days. Tomorrow, we'll be checking into the country so that we can be here legally and not be thrown into the Bocas prison. Goodnight, all!

Love,

Sarah with an “h”

P.S. I wrote this blog last night. Right now, we're sitting at Marina Carinero on an island across the way waiting for the Port Captain so we can get checked into the country. He's taking FOREVER!

P.P.S. This is just for you, Restless Romantic readers. I finished the 'Emily' books! Loved them. Also, I have a post planned for this blog and will be posting it--hopefully--soon!

Guest post: Holly Knitlightly

2010-11-29T10:16:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! I'm Holly from Holly Knitlightly and I'm so happy that Sarah asked me to guest post while she's out on her AMAZING adventure! I've never been on a sailboat before, but a few years ago my boyfriend spent two weeks sailing in the Hudson Bay and he loved it. I think it would be SO much fun to just travel around on a sailboat, and visit such interesting places. Plus just being out in the open water would be so relaxing. And I just think that sailboats are so neat, I love the look of them. The tour Sarah gave us of her sailboat was so interesting. Plus how many people do you know that live on a sailboat? I can't wait to hear some of Sarah's stories of her travels. And her photos!

Have you ever gone on a long boat ride? Or have you been on a cruise? Have you ever been sailing before? Where would you want to go if you had the chance to just travel ANYWHERE on a sailboat?