WALK THE EARTH WELL

So the moral of the story???
-Don't trust people???
-Don’t get into cars with strangers? (My parents probably should have pushed this one a little more when I was a kid)
-Don’t take any valuables with you when traveling?
-Don’t travel at all?

Nope, none of those.

HERE IS THE MORAL OF THE STORY: No matter who you are, no matter what kind of a person you are, something bad will happen to you. You can’t avoid it. You will get gypped. You will suffer. Life will not be fair. Some people decide to stop doing things in hopes that they will get luckily and not have to go through any miserable experiences. That doesn’t really work. You still suffer and life still isn’t fair.

So what do we do?

I guess everyone has to find their own answer but I’ve decided that while I’m here, I have to enjoy everything that comes my way. Fear is a silly reason not to do things. There are too many wonderful things to experience in this world! So do good things, eat good things, feel good and be good to people. Enjoy the good moments because that’s the only real way to live

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway. For you see, in the end, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.

~~~ Mother Teresa

Now that's the rest of the story

So there we were…two travelers with almost no money, no place to stay, no idea where we were going, and heading into a big, dangerous city at dusk. I don’t recommend it.

Once on the bus, Nickele and I began discussing how we were going to find the embassy. Luckily we drove past a shopping center and caught sight of someone in a blue police uniform. Talking to the police seemed like a good place to start. The first officer we spoke to was the opposite of helpful but the second was a blessing. This officer was very sympathetic and helped us get a taxi to the embassy. She even paid for our fare! We rode around in the taxi for about 20 minutes and then turned a corner and there it was: a giant white building with a very large American flag flying out front. It definitely made it into the top 10 happiest things I’ve ever seen.

Nickele and I headed for the front gate and checked in with the guard. He called the duty officer and told us to wait until she came down. While we were waiting, an embassy employee came out of the building and asked us how we were doing. We responded honestly, “Not that good. We were just robbed.” In response, he kindly offered to let us stay at his home. Nickele and I automatically said yes. Now I know what you’re thinking. How could Nickele and I get in a car with a stranger after what we’d just been through? Let’s face it, when you’ve already had most of your stuff taken there’s not that much more that can happen to you. And sometimes you just gotta trust a person. As it turns out, Bert & Kelly Kraaimoore are pretty much the nicest people on the planet. They fed us, let us stay at their beautiful home, and drove us around the following day. Nickele and I couldn’t have found nicer people to stay with.

The following day Nickele and I went to work with Bert around 7:30 and walked out of the Embassy with a new passport in hand by 10:00. We then took a taxi over to the Nicaraguan Immigration Office to get a stamp in the passport. That took a bit more time but by 2:00 we had the stamp. I told Nickele that this was the most valuable stamp she’s ever had in her passport. By 4:00 we were pretty much back to normal and the Kraaimoore’s were kind enough to let us stay at their house one more night since traveling around by bus after 4:00 didn’t sound all that fun.

The next morning we got a ride to the bus station where we caught a bus to Ometepe Island. We had decided that a couple days on the beach sounded like a much needed break. Not going to lie, riding a public bus after being robbed wasn’t the funniest thing I’ve ever done but Nickele and I made it through. After enjoying our time in Ometepe (very relaxing except for the 6 hour hike up the volcano but you know…) we boarded our bus for Costa Rica. As we crossed the border and got on our bus for Liberia, I breathed a sigh of relief. So nice to be home!

The Robbery

Every day is full of moments that cause us to adjust or change. We are constantly tweaking our personalities and our viewpoints. But every once in a while, a moment comes that TRANSFORMS us. These moments ALTER who we are and how we view the world. Here is one of mine…

Recently, Nickele and I had to head to Nicaragua for our visas. As she and I were traveling by bus to our destination, we started talking to a friendly guy on our bus. When we got off at our stop, he offered us a ride with his family since they we were going to the same place we were. In light of the fact that his entire family was going, Nickele and I thought it would be a great alternative to another 2-3 hours of bus riding. Nickele and I spent the first hour getting to know the other three people in the car when all of a sudden I looked over at Nickele and saw that one of the other passengers had her arm around her neck with a knife. In my mind I thought to myself, “That doesn’t look good.”

And so began the process of being robbed. The two women in the car restrained Nickele and I while the two men in the car opened our backpacks and began to riffle through our stuff. Throughout this whole process Nickele and I were told to keep our eyes shut and encouraged to not talk. For those of you who know me, you can already guess that I wasn’t very quiet during the whole thing. I wasn’t concerned about my stuff or my money but I did REALLY want them to give me my passport back.

After using our debit cards to withdraw money, they drove us to a dirt road just outside the Nicaraguan capital of Managua and dumped us (They were fairly considerate criminals since they gave us about $10 so we could catch a bus and specific instructions on how to do it). Nickele and I quickly looked over our stuff and were fairly upset when we discovered Nickele didn’t have her passport anymore (I guess my begging worked because I still had all of my ID). My only thought at this point was, “GET TO THE EMBASSY.” So Nickele and I walked to the highway and hopped on a public bus heading for Managua without a clue of where we were going.