the border crossing from hell....

our lovely accommodations for the 24 hour border crossing... this is the "secure" vehicle yard. 1 guard pig (who LOVED our banana peel offerings), 2 junk yard dogs straining at their leashes to get at us, a wall of sorts but which was only 2 feet tall at the neighbors' house. all of this security back behind the buildings where you could conveniently NOT see your vehicles from your rooms...
milling around, thanking God that we were all there together in a large group...
we scrounged enough chairs to sit in a circle to have church together.
then the sky opened up in a downpour of rain and we all ran for the Vanderzons' room with our chairs and sat crowded in there and had a wonderful time of worship and fellowship... this above pic is of their room: 1 double bed and a bathroom (for the 4 of them)...
the hotel had a restaurant in front...chinese food! go figure...
it was actually very tasty!
but this plate of fried rice was supposedly for 2 people! we ate all we could and the vanderzon's 2 dogs enjoyed the feast also...
this room was for katie and i, and jerry and carol: 2 double beds and no bathroom. our bathroom was outside the room, shared with all the other rooms and all the truckers who came in the morning to shower in it. the shower was a pipe sticking out of the wall...hot water? not likely. we had a man just poke his head into our room right before jerry came in and we locked the door for the night...hmmm. dale, clint, and nick slept in the van. the vanderzons put one dog in their room with the and kept one in their vehicle. it was an uneasy night but God took care of us.
this is the front of the restaurant...the rooms are behind this.
our new friends, the vanderzons, as we all pull gratefully away from the night's accommodations and head back to the border crossing for another half day of waiting...
i'm feasting every day on the colors and pattern of latin america...
and my favorite tree, seen in haiti, south africa, costa rica, and all along the way through latin america....here it is, in full bloom. other trees i saw were covered in the long seed pods that look like giant green beans. another adventure added to the experience. praise God for His protection and provision.

border crossing

the longest border crossing of the trip...we heard a thousand times: we're almost there (meaning the endless paperwork was near completion)...
the computers had been down the day before (so we were told) and it was sunday so there was no one to call to fix things. this morning, while waiting outside this office, a transformer blew with a loud pop, right here where this pile of wires came together, throwing sparks everywhere. there was this sinking feeling...Oh God, let that not be the computers going down again!
a young man was selling these limes outside the concrete porch where we were sitting and waiting.... boy, did they smell heavenly!!!
katie bought a soccer ball so she would be able to play with any kids just hanging around.
we saw beast of many kinds just browsing the edges of the highway...burros, cows, horses, goats. the grass was lush and green. our highway maintenance crews back home could learn a few things about cost effective grass control along the roadways!
there were a lot of pyramid shaped mountains, only a few of which were actually volcanoes.
we were amazed at the lush greenness... we were expecting dryness and desert...
this truck in front of us was carrying bananas...reminded dale of harry chapin's song about the how-many-ever thousand pounds of bananas...

the sky remained a continual feast for the eyes...deep blue with puffy white clouds creating all kinds of formations pleasing to the eye. we would know the rain was coming when the clouds would begin to dull and turn gray... and then the downpour would come. i never felt like complaining of this turn of events (although i was not the one having to drive through it) because it cooled the air quite a bit. i am soaking up all this lovely green lushness. like a sponge it seeps into my spirit with refreshment... God has blessed us so richly during this trip! and the trying parts just make that so much more evident. thank you for all your prayers. we were able to more than survive the trials... we flourished!