"Hey everyone!! This week has been another crazy one. We have had like 3 hurricanes in a row. I had to wake up at like 3 in the morning the other day to go get my clothes that I had hung up to dry. Luckily I didn't loose any. Something pretty sad happened this week. A baby in the village was really sick and passed away. The parents invited us to the funeral and though it was sad we got to see more of the culture. It was really different. The people were wailing but in a song like form. As though it were some kind of prayer. They lay the individual in a hammock then put them down in a hole where they have caused the hole to become really smoky using incense. They then put sticks over the top of the hole and cover the sticks with all the clothes of the individual keeping the smoke in.They then cover all in dirt and pack it down. On the grave they leave food, and herbal plants. I think one of the most interesting parts is that they brought all of the individuals personal items including chairs or buckets then purposely broke them. They then hung the broken parts on the plant woven canopy above the grave. I'm not sure exactly why they did that. I later asked someone why they buried so many of the personal items. They told me that after this life there is a spiritual world and he may need some of those personal belongings. Anyways...I thought that was interesting. Getting to the grave site wasn't easy. We traveled about 15 min down a part of the river supposedly full of crocodiles. Making it even more crazy is that we were in just one of those skinny wooden boats with a motor attached to it. We nearly fell in a few times. This week we went into the jungle again to help a member with his farm in the jungle. There we helped him plant coconuts, pineapples, gather mangoes, in addition to taking coconuts and plantains back to his house. He asked me to take the two bunches of plantains to his house."
"The picture is from when we went and did service in the jungle. His name is Fran and we are currently teaching his wife. If you look at my neck you can kind of see my neck straining from the weight."
"I kid you not..that was the hardest physical task I have done so far in the mission. I don't know how many miles away from his house we were but those bunches were EXTREMELY heavy. I used weight before the mission and this is no exaggeration. Each bunch felt about as heavy as a 45 pound plate. There was 2 and I had to carry it from the jungle to the guys house through mud puddles and sand. The sand was the worse. All that weight on my neck and shoulders. Good thing my body has healed from the 2 surgeries I got before coming out. That was cool though. People saw us carrying all the weight and a ton of other people started asking us for help other days. Haha! On Saturday night I got to go do something pretty cool. At about 7 when the sun went down we went out to go search for crabs. These crabs live in holes deep in the jungle and come out to the beach certain days of the month. Within an hour we caught 12. These are pretty big crabs too. You just grab them with your hand but have to be careful. They have extremely strong claws. We cooked them last night. We found out this week that we have bats living in our roof. Also, we have a baptism this Saturday. I feel strongly that all will go as planned. His name is Javier and hes about 20. Hes pretty cool. He also has the support of his family so that is awesome. I don't remember if I mentioned my companion in the last post. His name is Elder Cordoba and is actually also serving as the branch president in our ward. We are also trying to help this branch start to become more self-dependent. A crazy cultural thing we experienced. Here, when a girl becomes a woman..you can all probably imply what that means...they shave off all her hair and paint her black. The people then all get together to eat together. We got invited to go eat with the people and that was cool."
"The picture is of me sitting at the lunch celebration we got invited to. Notice the women. They are wearing the traditional outfit of the Kuna people."
"We then had to leave though because they began drinking chicha fuerte. Its fermented sugarcane juice for all of them to get drunk. That was really sad. We had to go back to the house to stay away from problems. Well..that for the most part are the biggest things. The people were so excited this week. A large shipment of cokes came in. I was too because now I can celebrate the 4th of july with a cold coke. There are a few fridges here. I almost forgot, I tried meat from a new animal this week. This awesome recent convert called Yuca caught this massive rabbit hunting in the forest. He gave us a leg to try. My comp put me in charge of cooking it. I boiled it, then cooked in pan with soy sauce, Cajun seasoning, salt, and pepper, It was actually really good. I tasted the meat after boiling and it was kind of similar to a pork chop. I liked it. Well.. got to go.Hope all you guys have a good week! Happy 4th of July!! Love you guys!"
- Elder Jaden Hawes
"Also, here is a picture from last Monday when the 2 elders from the other village about 40 min walking came out hang out with us. We all went to the river in my area to bath and enjoy the water."
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