"When it rains, it pours!" While that is certainly true of Panama's rainy season, it's also true of our last few days. That's why these posts are late, and that's also why we can say God is in control, because he's seen us through lots of challenges in the past few days!
This morning started with a couple of surprises as we prepared to spend the day up a river at an Embara village. First, 5 members of the team were having significant gastrointestinal issues and ended up needing to stay back for a day. Second, we went to get in the van and discovered someone had broke in and stole our radio. Waiting for the Panamanian police took over an hour, (and was the first of 3 visits with the police plus a trip in the middle of the night downtown to file some paperwork) and we we got a late start with a much smaller team. The good news was that our guide, the children's pastor at Crossroads brought extra translators with so we still had plenty of help. After a long and interesting drive into the rain forest, a 15 minute dugout canoe ride (with a caiman on the bank), we finally arrived at a refreshing waterfall and water hole to go swimming in. After a little rock jumping, we headed back to the canoes and to the Embara village where we met the villagers, ate lunch, then put on another clinic. For a basket we took a rim they had (from an old basket we left there a few years ago and tied it to the top of a soccer goal! Players took turns being backboards, and even the men of the village took turns shooting! Grant shared his testimony and although we got a little sunburned it turned out to be one of our most memorable clinics of the trip.
As we returned we found out our evening game was moved, then cancelled. While it was disappointing to not play, it did give us a little more time to enjoy the Miraflores Locks where we went for dinner, sitting outside and watching the ships come through the locks.
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