We're Home!

Greetings from Minnesota!  I'm not quite at 100%, but I am able to sit up in a chair and fill you in on the last few days.  Read on:

Friday, June 29

We took off in the land rovers for Las Teresita's Beach on our final day of summer program.  A locked gate allowed us extra time in the land rovers and an unexpected scenic drive through the ports!

It was a lovely beach . . .

Definitely warmer out of the water!

So we played in the sand!

Back to port!

We would have posted this sooner, but the ship was without internet access on Friday and Saturday!

 

Saturday, June 30  

Matt and I signed off the ship at 7:00 a.m. along with a group of nine singles.  Destination:  the highest point in Spain, the volcanic Mt. Tiede.  We needed to grab a bus to Puerta de la Cruz and from there take a bus up the mountain.  Unfortunately, none of us knew where the Santa Cruz bus station was.  With a combination of broken Spanish and helpful taxi drivers, we arrived at the bus station only to discover we had to run through the station and up two flights of stairs in order to catch our bus.  We arrived just as it shut it's doors and was preparing to pull out.  Fortunately, the driver let us on and we were off!  

We arrived in Puerta de la Cruz with forty-five minutes to spare only to find a long line of people waiting ALREADY for the bus up the mountain!  There's only one bus a day that goes to the volcano and obviously, no one wanted to miss it!  Somewhere, on the way up, I began to feel nauseous.  The closer we got to Mt. Tiede, let's just say, the less there was in my stomach!  Matt, my hero, sat with me for two hours at the top while I waited to see if what I had was motion sickness or something more.  After more "spewing", I knew I couldn't go up, so I bought Matt a ticket to go up the cable car with a group of English-speaking Dutch students.  They promised to take good care of him and he promised to find our group and stay with them.  

Mt. Tiede

My brain is still a bit fuzzy with what happened next, but from what I pieced together is as Matt was getting on to the cable car to go up, a portion of our group came off, so he stayed with them.  I found them and Estheia, a mid-wife student from Wales, took one look at me and called the Park Ambulance Service.  Based on her report, they were prepared to transport me to the nearest hospital based on the fact that I had thrown up so many times and the other end was in action, too.  Estheia contacted the ship, got my medical information ready to fax to the hospital, and sat with me.  Once the ambulance arrived, Callie, a business major from Texas, took over with her limited Spanish.  Because my vitals were good (pulse, blood pressure and oxygen content), it was decided not to send me to the hospital, but to have the ambulance crew stay with me until I was able to get off the mountain.  In the meantime, another member of our group, Melody from New Zealand collapsed.  She had a combination of altitude sickness and low blood sugar.  The ambulance crew began to work on her, too.  The park service put us in a private sick room.  Check it out.

 

Estheia, Callie, Diego, me and Carlos

We became best buds - as the ambulance crew's normal clientele were usually coated in blood and missing limbs, we were a welcome reprieve!  I have to believe that Jesus allowed this all to happen to give Carlos and Diego a glimpse of Him here on earth.  They saw our love and concern for one another, they watched us interact, and they heard our stories - all in Callie's limited Spanish!  Eventually, our chief receptionist, Jay Swanson from Washington State, arrived in a land rover to bring us off the mountain.  It was a precarious journey down, although Jay said I did a nice job of "tossing the cookies" as no one else in the land rover heard me - and he didn't have to deal with residual tossing!  

Once on board the ship, I spoke with the captain who wanted to make sure I was all right, had a good friend from the Netherlands, Lia, come down and take care of me and find Matt supper, and I went to bed after sending out a prayer request that we would be able to leave as scheduled on Sunday.

Sunday, July 1  

As I hadn't thrown up for 15 hours, the nurse on call (a friend from Minnesota!) gave me anti-nausea pills for the trip home.  The ship doctor allowed me to travel - even though he was sure I had the bug that has been pursuing the ship for the past few weeks.  By 11:15 a.m., our cabin was mostly clean, our bags were packed, our papers were back together, and we were ready to roll, only to discover there had been a miscommunication between the head of transportation and the purser.  We didn't have a ride to the airport!  It eventually all got worked out, but we left 45 minutes later than what we had planned.  

We made our flight and as we were somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean on our way to Madrid, I turned to Matt and said, "I don't feel sick anymore."  Glory to God!

We were in Madrid as the UEAFA soccer tournament was played.  Spain won - Spain partied through the night - we tried to sleep.

Monday, July 2  

We survived long lines in the Madrid airport, a long layover in London, longer lines in the Chicago airport, and finally arrived home around 11:30 p.m. on Monday. 

Tuesday, July 3

The m/v Africa Mercy was put in to dry dock today in Gran Caneria.  Pray for the crew on board as they are currently living with out any air conditioning in a Canary Island heat wave.

W

  

Wednesday, July 4  

Like I stated earlier, we're home!  I'm not quite up to par - just feeling dizzy and tired, but not throwing up.  For that I'm grateful.  If I do have the ship virus, it will have to run it's course, but how pleasant it is to let it run from here!  Thanks for your part in our journey!