Dearest Khumyri aka teacher of unexplainable joy...for agua

Dearest Khumyri,

E em hetep, lovely lady! How are you?

As promised, I’ve taken lots of photos! LOL (see below) Have you been observing the journey? Hopefully so, as there are many people in which I’ve come across that remind me of you, love dove. I think the connection is the immeasurable joy, which exudes from you all despite any unfavorable circumstance that may curve ball about. This is indeed, my fondest characteristic I hold when you cross my mind. Oh! Speaking of unfavorable circumstances, I’m not sure if you’ve been keeping up, but I’ve had a few water issues. LOL I’ll elaborate.

I went to visit Punta Uva, near Limone (the Caribbean coastal part of CR near Panama). The experience was ridiculously amazing [in the beginning]! I stayed in a hostel with several friends from Universidad para la paz. Every morning around 5 am, the howler monkeys would begin conversations with a vocal vibration that bore similarities of human and wolf-like patterns. The beaches held patches of jet-black sand over white sand and crystal clear blue water that seemed surreal. The scent of the rain forest was quite exquisite after the rain, which would downpour on the tin roof of our hostel making melodic tones like steal pan drums. And then, we feasted! We all cooked. Our feast was so great and combined so many different dishes from our various backgrounds. It ranged from 87 - 90 degrees and basically, we were international beach bums with bicycles straight out of a 1980’s chick-flick and loving it...

Any who, three days later, six out of eight of my friends and I were severely sick from drinking the local water. Now, I know I can tell you the next part without you flinching because you are pretty much a medical assistant in profession and have tolerated many of (clears throat) tugboat experiences. ;-) The next few days were awful! We were all sick to our stomachs. And when I say sick, I’m not just talking your average, bad run with the local McDonald’s kind of sick—I’m talking an-up all night with a bucket for one end and the commode for the other end-kind of sick. We went from ‘Oh joy, this is paradise’ to ‘Dear God! Get me home now!’ –All from water.

Even in my recovery, to get back to my home here, I had to take a four hour bus ride, another 40 minute bus ride [and not a single bus had a bathroom], and then a 20 minute walk to my house (BTW, I opted out of the last stretch of the walk on my way back and caught a cab—just couldn’t do it in 90 degree weather feeling that nauseated). I was miserable that day, but ecstatic to get to my house.

As I approached the gate to my house, I toyed with the joy of drinking the water in Ciudad Colon where to which my tummy had grown accustomed.

I walked in my bathroom, turned the faucet on to wash my hands, and guess what? There was no water! Apparently, a pipe had broken and the small communities like the one where I stay had no water. In fact, we are still without water.

Nevertheless, right now, I can count it all as joy. It may sound odd, but I am grateful for the mishap—all from water. This has been one extremely valuable lesson to me on how very precious is the earth’s water and our conservation of it. It is truly something we don’t have to think about in the US.

Today, I had my first bucket shower, which I managed to get clean with ½ of a gallon. I still had my approximate 8 glasses of water to drink, being mindful not to waste a drop. I think the most water usage came from flushing the toilet. It takes several gallons to fill a toilet tank! We don’t think about the simple flush until we have to fill up the tank manually. LOL

Afterwhich, my host family sat outside and watched the sunset together. We are hoping and praying that the issue gets resolved as quickly as possible, but your number one jewel from what you wrote in my journal has stuck with me, “Everything happens for a reason no matter how painful or unfair it may appear…just get the lesson”

Any who, I think of you often and am extremely grateful for all that you do. May you continue to rise, dear sister-mentor-friend!

Shem e em hetep,

Nar-shay-shay ;-)