Missing Persons Report

Some of you may know that over the last year or two I’ve discovered that I really enjoy kayaking. I’d thought that the summer of 2007 was going to be full of kayak trips with some local friends in Richmond. Little did I know that I would not even be in Virginia during the 2007 Kayak season. But sometimes I’m convinced that God goes out of His way to put a smile on our face. Last week I experienced one of those special “smile” days.

It was my day off….we have one day off each week, usually Wednesday. We all work on Saturdays and have various responsibilities on Sunday. And NEVER is our work finished at 5pm, especially since we live where we work. Typically on a day off we (missionaries- Bobby, Britney, Wendy and I) try to get away from campus for at least part of the day and find something to do that won’t cost us much money. Sometimes we wander around the city or go to a movie (only $3.50 I’m told); sometimes we go to the beach (about an hour away). Early in the summer Bobby and Britney found a beach resort/hotel that didn’t cost too much. The resorts rule was that you had to spend $15 in some way while you were there. It was at the end of a dirt road near a pig farm. The options at the resort seemed endless: enjoying the beach or their 2 large pools, going 4-wheeling or horse back riding on the beach, kayaking, using their game room, etc. We started at the beach…but found that on this particular day the waves were not only huge but very strong. Not even Bobby could go in farther than his knees, and he still got knocked over once by the strength of the water at knee level. We resorted to throwing Frisbee and football on the beach. On one particularly bad throw, the Frisbee went into the ocean. We all went running after it….well kind of. I managed to trip and have a less than graceful fall/slide across the shells and sand. And to make it worse, the Frisbee was gone. When I got up, I found that the outside of my left leg, ankle to hip, was scraped and bleeding. At first I figured the salt water would help clean it, but then I remember that there’s an estuary that joins the ocean very nearby. Bobby had earlier told us about how this estuary zigzags through the community, becoming a convenient place for sewage and whatever else. So, I opted for the shower and Neosporin (I rarely leave home without it). We ate lunch on a balcony that overlooked the ocean. While the others opted for naps, Bobby and I decided to go kayaking….in the estuary of course. Bobby said last time the estuary water looked thick and black…but only yucky brown today. Not the best way to keep my new wounds clean…but I figured I’d survive. The kayaks were sea kayaks…a new experience for me and a bit more challenging than the kind of kayak where you sit in a hole (the kind I’m accustomed to). This kind of kayak is kind of flat and you sit on top of it, not in it. How I got on that kayak from that dock without flipping I’ll never know. Within minutes, everything changed. It was so quiet. I honestly felt like I was paddling thru the Amazon just like in a National Geographic. I yearned for my camera. We went past numerous tiny thatched hut homes, occasionally seeing a child peek at us. I could only imagine how many times these homes were easily washed away by storms. But I’m sure their meager earnings didn’t allow for anything else. The estuary at times was narrow and challenging to navigate through due to the heavy growth from jungle-like trees and vines. I thought to myself…ignorance is bliss. For all I know, the spider webs we forged thru were the homes of deadly spiders, and who knows what sort of slithery creature could be in the thick mucky water surrounding us. Then we saw him. A man was in the yucky water up to his neck. We stopped paddling and watched from a respectable distance for awhile. His partner, standing nearby, would throw a home made looking circular shaped net into the water, and then this guy would go completely under water. Doing I don’t know what…something to do with the net I reckon. Then shortly afterwards one of them would pull up the net, never letting it stay under water for more than a minute or two. And we never saw them pull anything out of their net. We encountered this same sort of activity over and over, sometimes by the young, sometimes the very old as we continued on our journey. Eventually we reached our goal…the place where the estuary meets the ocean. The estuary running one direction, the waves of the ocean the opposite direction. We pulled onto a sandy spot to get out and look around a bit, and then we started to paddle back towards the resort. About ½ ways there, we saw Wendy and her friend in a kayak approaching us. That’s when we found out that we were considered, “missing persons” by the staff of the resort and they’d sent out a search party. They said that we’d been gone over 2 hr and the estuary had many side routes, making it easy to get lost. Oh, that explains why the very out of the ordinary small boat with a motor on it went by a little earlier, then turned around and went back. Guess that boat belonged the resort and once they saw that we were fine and headed back to the resort, then they headed back too. We had no idea we’d been gone that long; neither of us was wearing a watch. With a little help I was able to get off the kayak and onto the dock without getting too wet. We then retreated to the pool to join Britney have a coke and some ice-cream. At the end of the day, the manager of the resort (a kind lady who speaks English well) told us that because we are volunteers trying to help her country, then the kayaking was free. I didn’t quite spend $15, but she said that was fine and she encouraged us to come back anytime, and the kayaking would always be free for us she said. I doubt we’ll come back often, but it’s nice to know it’s there. And who in the world would’ve ever thought that I’d find a place to kayak in El Salvador? Not me! At the end of the day I thanked God for the gift and the smile on my face. (And by the way, my leg is fine and Bobby found the Frisbee washed onto the shore about a mile from where we were playing.) Aint God good?