From Panama.
From Boston.
From Colorado.
I now have two weeks to be a bum.
My summer has really been an amazing one. I got to spend a lot of time with a wonderful group of kids in Panama. It was all worth that minor accident in the doctor's office. It rained everyday, which was just awesome. Some kids from my church even SHOWERED in the rain .. soap and all. We played a bunch of pato, pato, ganzo, also. One night, we stayed in a village, and slept in their huts. (No walls. Just a roof.) They gave us tattoos that were specific to the village.
It took 20 hours of flying to get from Panama, to Newark, to LAX, to PHX, to Boston. Don't ask why I flew that way, because it made no sense. But Boston was pretty neat. We watched some pretty lame (but brave) street performers, and ate really good food (which we had to eat standing up) Also, as is shown in our most recent Neek Talk, we went to a few colleges along the way. :)
NYC was pretty awesome. It was held at CSU, so we had to walk a billion miles every day - back and forth between our dorms and Moby. With over 3,600 youth, it was difficult to find friends among the crowds. NYC held a "Regnuh" Walk. (Turning hunger around) which was 5k. My friends and I walked it, and a lot of people ran it. After the walk was walked, and offering for The Food Crisis Fund was collected, we raised a total of over $84,000. There were also Service Projects we could participate in. The group I signed up for went to a nursing home and talked to the people there.
Every morning and evening, we had different speakers talk about different things. Also, we had Ken Medema write a song / sing for us. The comedy pair, Ted and Lee put on a performance for us, which left me laughing so hard, I cried.
I also met a ton of people at NYC .. partly because I knew NOBODY before I went. Nobody at all. Even the people I would be spending 22 hours on a bus with (there, and back). But 44 hours of a bus later, I have a lot of good friends. :)
I've also been reading a book called "The Irresistable Revolution" by Shane Claiborne. It went perfectly with NYC's theme: "Come and See."
So I went to get a tetanus shot for my Panama trip, and it was very .. "exciting".
First I went in to check in, and they sent me to Pediatrics. Wahoo. It brought back wonderful memories. Last time I was in there, they were sticking cameras down my nose to see if I had vocal nodules. (What a terrifying experience ..)
So I waited in the "B" area, and the nurse called me in there. She took my weight and all that jazz. Then she sent my dad out to get something. So it was just me and her in the room, she gave me the shot, and everything was fine.
The nurse asked what I was getting it for, and I told her it was for Panama, and then she asked whether or not I had gotten the Hepititus A shot .. and I told her I hadn't. So she went out into the main room to ask the doctor whether or not she could give me it. The doctor agreed, and the nurse got the stuff ready, came back in, and was making small talk when I started getting really, really dizzy. My head was getting fuzzy, my legs were feeling numb, and same with my arms.
The last thing I remember saying was "Whoa .. I feel really dizzy" and the next thing I knew I was lying down on the bed thing, with one shoe off (I had been wearing flip flops), five or six people surrounding me, and someone saying over the loud speaker "Would the parent of Sarah please come to pediatrics."
I have never had that reaction before. In fact, this was the first time I've ever passed out.
It was kinda cool, in a way. But really, really weird. :)
Then we went to Target to shop for bug repelant and stuff because Aunt Lora was telling me about all the bugs and stuff in Panama. Haha.