Searching for the Fountain of Youth

Before coming to Puerto Rico I worked at Rosewood Assisted Living Community as the Life Enrichment Coordinator. I did my best for a year and a half to enrich the lives of 50 seniors who called Rosewood home by doing, exercise classes, reading to them, playing games with them, taking them on outings, doing crafts, studying geography and science, and just building relationships. In return my life was daily enriched by learning about their unique life stories. One of my dear friends from Rosewood is Mr. Bruce Nance. 

 

After telling him that I was going to be moving to Puerto Rico he promptly pulled out a photo of himself from during WWII when he came through PR with the Navy. In the photo he is sitting on a beautiful Spanish fountain in Old San Juan. 

Travis and I decided that we should go in search of this mysterious fountain of youth from so man years ago. Here is the photo journal of our attempt to find it. We wove our way through cobblestone roads

 We made our way down to the Old San Juan wall.
  
 This is the gate through which all the dignitaries used to enter 
San Juan during the Spanish rule.


The sun was setting and we knew dusk was not far from us but we had to stop for a few quick pictures of the mouth of the San Juan Bay.

While walking along the wall we sighted our first fountain and it was gorgeous. 

 

 But it was much too big to be Mr. Nance's fountain. 
On the way back to the car we found a sweet little fountain, but it was much too small. 

We then proceeded to the harbor where we thought we might find it. There we did find a fountain and a huge ship which reminded me of how Mr. Nance had come to Puerto Rico when he was here. 
 

  
With the sun down and darkness falling we made our last efforts to find the special fountain of youth. We turned the corner a few blocks up and entered pigeon park and there we found yet another beautiful fountain. 

 The fountain wasn't on at the moment but of all the fountains it reminded me the most of Mr. Nances. Besides the statues, this fountain looked very much like the one my dear friend sat upon for a photo over 50 years ago. When he sat on the fountain he was young and eager to defend the future of his Nation, to provide for future generations a land of peace and freedom. 

My Grandpa Sharp, like Mr. Nance, also joined the armed forces during WWII and during his time in Europe met a young Belgian man. When my Grandpa came back to the states he encountered His creator and began a relationship with Jesus Christ. He yearned to go back to Europe and share his new found faith and freedom with his Belgian friend. Some time later the Lord provided a way for him to go back to Europe. While there he was able to share the peace of Christ with his friend who joyfully embraced Christ and my grandpa baptized him in a local fountain. 

    Today I sit on a fountain in Puerto Rico, eager and hopeful that Travis and I can also be a part of something great. I hope we too can be a link in pointing people to an eternal land of peace in Heaven.

 John :13-14

¹³ Jesus answered and said to her, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Revelation 21:6

New King James Version

⁶ And He said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give of the fountain of the water of life freely to him who thirsts.
 
I might not have found Mr. Nance's fountain in Puerto Rico but I know that through Christ I have access to the only water that truly quenches thirst and eternal life. 

 

Bata Blanka Ceremony

 San Juan Bautista School of Medicine.

 Class of 2016

Friday was the Bata Blanca (White Coat) Ceremony at San Juan Bautista School of Medicine. Travis now has his very own white coat with his name embroidered on it and a long journey ahead of him of hours and hours of studying to be able to fill that coat. It was exciting to see him standing with his class all clad in white. The reasons the students have chosen to study medicine are varied but I hope that four years down the road when graduation day is here that they will go out with as much joy and zeal to serve as they had on Friday.

Puerto Rico: Living out of bags

Here I am sitting Indian style on a double bed in a great little guest house in an area of San Juan known as Ocean Park. I'm feeling overwhelmed by the thought of trying to put into words even some of the expereince of the last month. Travis and I have been in PR for a little over a week now and are currently staying at our fourth hotel/hostel/guest house. We went from a dump to a five star hotel (thanks to price line), then a wonderful guest house with a full kitchen, which provided a much needed break from cheap fast food, to now staying at a sweet little guesthouse which is small but boast a great hot tub in the courtyard. We are really hoping to be able to move our four humungous bags, two rolling bags, and two backpacks, which we have lugged around to way too many places, to a quaint little one bedroom apartment in the next day or two. I wasn't sure what it would feel like to be here and hadn't really had much time to imagine what life in PR would be like. Thankfully so far it seems natural to be here. I am so excited because I plan to hang out on the beach today which will be a first since we have been here. We have been supper busy buying a car, getting T set up at school, and looking for a place to stay that we haven't had the time to just sit back and enjoy the surroundings. Although Travis is now able to walk after being on crutches for six weeks, he can't trek around like normal just yet so we have had to be content to see the pretty beach from the window as we drive by looking for "Se Alquila" (for rent) signs as we go : ) Overall I can say that I feel blessed and excited to see what God had in store for us here in PR. I will be happy when I can unpack and organize our stuff so finding a clean pair of socks and our shampoo wont be as big a challenge, but the last two weeks have also been a great reminder to me that life itself is a journey as well. We are here kinda living out of bags. While here God has supplied us with all the resources we need, His Word, fellowship with Him through Christ, being able enjoying the beauty of His creation through friendships, nature, and creativity, but I know that accessing all these great things sure will be a lot easier when we are fully settle at home in His presence. For now though I think there is still much to learn, friendships to be made, creation and creativity to enjoy and I look forward to learning how to bring Him glory here in a new place enjoying this journey of medical school and life in Puerto Rico.

Me by an adorable little creek

Wow! This picture really captured how pretty the leaves and water were in real life

Another pretty river shot. It was so Georgia. Just beautiful!!!!!!!

We drove up Johns Mountain and the view was great from the top (picture dosen't do it justice). VERY windy roads though be careful if you go up that way.

Travis and I in the nice cool weather which we are especially escited about since we missed out on fall and winter last year

New friends from Expedition Church. Sarah, Hannah, and I. Thank you Lord for fellowship!!!!!

Travis braving the rapids as he crosses a narrow tree bridge. Oh, so brave !!!! He really is my hero :)

As we hiked down to the river we thought we had totally found a dead person still wrapped up in his sleeping bag, frozen from the cool weather. He was just a little too far from the warmth of the fire. It really did scare us, but turns out it was just an old blanket and egg shell cushion.

Fall!!!!!!!

Birthday cake for Travis made by our dear friend Abby Alter (which encouraged me to blog again, so this is for you Abby even though I don't have pictures of the apartment yet :)

Emily, Abby, and I

Gorgeous fall leaves, bark, pine cones, berries and flowers I gathered on an amazing walk in the Berry Wildlife refuge

Another picture from the wildlife refuge. It was so peaceful and quite.

Celebrate good times

Here are a few pictures from the weekend in Indy. Travis and Kevin playing some pool, all the cousins from the Binkley side (all girls) lined up, singing for grandma, Canaan Zion and Kelsey playing outside, hanging out with Sharp cousins, couddly Zion, Em and Kevin, Travis and Kelsey and Grandmas birthday cake.
Happy birthday Grandma!!!!!

Corvette Museum

On the Way up to Indianapolis to celebrate my Grandma's 80th birthday last weekend Kevin, Emilee, Travis and I decided to stop at the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green Kentucky. As we looked around we had a blast checking out the Corvettes from throughout the years.

Em and Kevin with a 50's model

Kevin, Kelsey and Travis with a crazy modern experimental one

MEANWHILE...

Our vehicle was experiencing some excitement of its own. We were called out of the museum to find that the trucks window had been busted and EM's purse was gone. The next two hours consisted of waiting for police, checking security videos, and canceling credit cards. It felt so strange that here we were back in the US, where we feel so secure, in the middle of the Corvette museum parking lot during broad daylight and our car gets broken into. We were however very grateful because there were several other things in the truck that would have been terrible to lose.

The best part was driving the next four hours to Indianapolis with the wind in our faces trying to outrun the major thunderstorm.

Answers

Carrie Thompson wrote this on a comment and I thought I would give a shot to answering it : )

So, tell us about your biggest surprises since you have been home. Things you forgot were different or what you enjoyed being "back" for the most, or what you miss the most about Uganda!

Clean water: In Uganda we would clean our dishes with the water, but then they would have to be completely dry before we could use them again because the water had strange bacteria and such in it. We would also do the same with veggies and fruits and would count anything that had touched the water to be contaminated until dry. Brushing teeth involved a bottle of clean water for rinsing of the mouth. When we first got home I simply applied the same rules to the water in the sink and would think that whatever I had rinsed was no longer usable. Since then I have moved into a phase where I know that it is OK to rinse my knife off in the water and then reuse it. However, each time I do that I think, "now why did you just rinse that it is contaminated now." Hence I am still in a slight state of confusion in the area of clean or contaminated water at this point but I feel like I am moving forward. The brushing of teeth has moved light years ahead of the dish rinsing, and I think it is because I couldn't wait to simply use the faucet water rather than having a water bottle.

Right side: It would seem that after a month one would adjust to the road rules here but every once in a while I have to remind Travis that we drive on the right side here, and he has to remind me that actually people turn off their bright lights here as a courtesy to the oncoming traffic.

FOOD: Wow! Surprisingly as a whole I have found that I had actually built up a belief that food is a lot yummier than it really is. After dreaming about Special K cereal, Eddy's cookie dough ice cream, and Chick-fil-a I have to say that sadly I dreamed them a little over the top. Yes, I am actually saying this. Ok, I must admit that I didn't over dream Chick-fil-a. I was trying to use that as an awe factor but it really is as good as I remembered and dreamed that it would be in my mouth. However, as a whole food is food and it is to keep you alive.

THE WHAT: I miss THE WHAT!!!! This might seem a little weird to some and that is because it is weird, but none the less it is what I miss. I guess I should explain a little. Travis and I were first introduced to this phrase through a book called "What is the What" which if you read it does nothing to explain to you what THE WHAT actually is so moving on. To explain THE WHAT in writing I think i will have to tell a story or maybe just a few examples. It can go like this, I ask a Ugandan , "excuse me Sebo(Sir) do you know where the Pearl grocery store is" he replies, "uh (bewildered look on his face), you go up to THE WHAT(also pronounced THE WHAT WHAT at times) and take a left then when you see THE WHATEVER you go that way (signalling with a waving hand), it is in those ends". Or one of my favorite examples from my friends Stacie and Rosie. The pastor of the church/school/orphanage the girls work with telling a story involving THE WHAT. Here it is... "The dump truck could not get up THE WHAT, the hill because of THE WHAT, the mud which was there because of THE WHAT, the rain." Now with those examples maybe I can take a shot at explaining THE WHAT. It seems to be a phrase that can be used in case the word you want to say or maybe you should say leaves you brain, or as a filler word like a um, or like, and in some cases it is for the speaker to display his knowledge as he answers multiple questions that he himself asked. Anyway this silly example of THE WHAT is just to say that I miss the craziness of Uganda, the boda's loaded with 50 live chickens, the trucks balancing 40 mattresses, the fish tied to the grill of the car or the millions of other CRAZY and BAZAAR things that you see in Uganda. Ugandans are really fun loving and friendly people who make me laugh and bring me joy as they enjoy life in all its craziness.

Time to take off

It was time to take off the training wheels today. Uncle Travis took Canaan out with his cool low riding bike for a few spins around the neighborhood. The main lessons today were the essentials like steering, pedaling, breaking and best of all how to fall ( of course that was Canaan's favorite). Thanks Uncle Travis!!!!!