So travel days worry me. When there are 7/8 other people’s lives in my hands and we are going to a new country, I tend to get a little stressed out. As much as I try not to worry, it still happens.
Travel day from San Jose, Costa Rica to Panama City, Panama began as any other. Up early to pack and be out the door by 9am. Here we are 9 gringos with all the stuff we own for four months on our backs. As we are walking to the bus stop, I can’t seem to remember which block. ‘Maybe this one? I don’t know, let’s walk one more.’ Yep there it is.
A bus pulls up and tells me we can’t get on with all our stuff. And then another bus rejects us. When I am ready to lose hope, a bus pulls up and allows 4 of us to get on. Myself and three others say adios to the rest of our team and get on a public bus to San Jose.
30 minutes later the bus is stopping and everyone is getting off. I ask the bus driver if this is the final stop. And he tells me yes. That means we have to get off, but this is not the same place as we usually get dropped off. Where are we?
I try to call Alaina. It doesn’t work. We make a friend with a phone. We try to call again. It doesn’t work. I look for a place to buy minutes. I need to talk to Alaina and tell her we don’t know where we are, but will see her at the bus station, but nothing is working!
As I am in a store, buying minutes, here comes Alaina. How is she here? Well, it turns out that both groups got on the same wrong bus to San Jose. As my group was waiting in a bakery, the other group passed by and saw our group and we were reunited once again.
We get taxis to the bus station. Check our bags in and it’s time to relax. The hard part is over.
Our bags are loaded and then we load ourselves onto the bus ready for 16 hours of travel.
Crossing into Panama was an adventure in itself. It took 2.5 hours. They questioned a lot. Gave some members a more difficult time than others. Searched our bags. But before we knew it we were legally across the border and safely back onto the bus.
And now we are safely at the YWAM Base in Panama City ready for the last leg of our trip. We are not quite sure what the time here will look like, but we are all excited to be pushed and challenged. We are ready to serve and glorify God. We are ready to give our all to the people of Panama and our team. There’s no turning back now!
