In the Rainforest

Day 6: Near Death Experience to Beautiful Escape

Like any other day, we awoke early and headed out for a long day of traveling to the rain forest. I truly felt like I was on the television series "Man vs. Wild" once we reached our destination after four and a half hours of traveling. We were really in the middle of a rain forest! We dropped our stuff off at the end of a man made rope bridge over a river to be carried by horses. After we started our hike it began getting more and more hard to continue. There were many hills and you can tell the air was getting thinner and it was getting more humid. After walking up hill for about an hour, I had an asthma attack which was a shocker to me since I hadn't had since I was in the third grade. Luckily with the help of Mollie, Michael, and Jozlyn, I calmed my breathing with drinking water and breathing easily, because my inhaler was in the backpack of a teacher who wasn't with us on the trail. After traveling several more unpaved hills, getting lost, and loosing my breath again, we made it to our lodgings. It is so beautiful here. Being right next to a waterfall is so soothing. Despite the wildlife, I think I'll like it here!

Day 7: Humidity and Serenity

The crew woke up early and trudged from our cabins to the outdoors cafeteria for breakfast. After our meal, we began our service work in the rain forest where we were assigned with making roads by breaking the dirt caused by mud slides and shoveling it in places on the road to make the roads leveled. After doing this for four excruciating hours in the heat we were all tired, in pain, and dirty. One student even got so hot and dehydrated he passed out and had to be carried back to the bunkers. In the end we were all glad to help despite the work load. We all took showers afterwards, and ate a lunch which consisted of beef, rice, beans, tortillas, and fruit. After this filling meal, the group needed down a path to a waterfall where I had one of the best experiences of my life. The waterfall looked so cool! The feeling of swimming in a whirlpool was amazing.We all even climbed up the "mountain" to the first waterfall and played thee. It was so serene and calming. Tomorrow brings us a day just like today, hopefully we all are able to function and no one gets as ill as they did today. 

Day 8: Medical Emergencies and Fun in the Sun

Today started like every other, early and cold. After breakfast we headed out for our first day of service work in the rain forest. The hike there was terrible! Only half way through I felt like a fish out of water. This was the scariest experience so far on the trip. After my asthma attack, I felt really light headed. After sitting for a while I felt a little better and began working with the rest of the group on building a barrier to stop the river water from coming onto the roads. After our work we returned to the cabins for lunch and a quick dip in a waterfall near our lodgings. This was a great day despite the second medical scare. Hopefully tomorrow's work will be easier and just as rewarding.