We're at a spot on the river called Upper Falls where you can sit down and let the river take you for about 200 yards. Bodysurfing is to Surfing what this was to Kayaking. It's probably a fun and peaceful ride when there aren't rainstorms earlier in the day. I decide to go for it anyway so I sit down, put my feet in front of me and go. It's slow for a while and then picks up some speed through white water. It's my first try so before it gets to the big-time rapids and 5 foot waterfall I bail out to the river bank (barely).
Emily wasn't so lucky! A few minutes after I give it a try, I convinced Caroline's 16 year old sister to do it. Her cousin Tom and I were going to wait for her before the waterfall and catch her. BAD IDEA. She starts off fine but then hits a rough patch and gets disoriented. She flies by Tom and I, and in order to catch her I let go of Tom and dive after her. Together we're streamlining right towards this waterfall. I manage to latch onto a rock about 3 feet before the edge and hold Emily with the other hand. She pulls herself onto this rock (that still has some water rushing over it) to collect herself.
At this point she apparently doesn't realize the immense danger we're in and she takes a few moments to look around at all the commotion we've caused. Meanwhile gallons of water are rushing into my face as I cling to this rock with one hand and maintain a vice grip on Emily's arm with the other. Eventually I say to her "Emily you have got to get over this rock before I lose my grip and we both fall to our death."
She finally manages to climb over the rock and jumps upstream to the outstretched arm of her cousin, who pulls her to safety. The water was going too hard for me to stand up without falling over so I just push off the rock with my feet and that gets me close enough to the side that I can grab another rock and pull myself out.
I would feel pretty heroic about the whole ordeal except that I was the reason she was in the predicament in the first place. I attached a few pictures that Caroline took as the event unfolded. Unfortunately once the situation got dangerous she stopped to help.
Our first day of Spanish training is Monday July 7th in Antigua, Guatemala. We're excited, but also scared, as we go into a new place, learn a new language...It's finally here.
Prayer Requests:
- Traveling
- Homestay accommodations: we'll be staying with a Guatemalan family and it will probably be a big adjustment and we'll really need to be flexible
- Language-No hablamos mucho espanol.
- Peace-saying goodbye is never easy
| Total Need | Total Raised | % | Remaining Need | |
| Pre-Field Budget | $25,000 | $21,000 | 84% | $4,000 |
| Monthly Budget | $2,500 | $2292 | 92% | $208 |
The drop wasn't as bad as the fact that we would land on that huge boulder
Emily Starts out happy
The white water throws her off her game
The water fall is about 8 feet behind us. What were we thinking?
1 comment:
Hey,
Your pics are great. We especially enjoyed Ryan's narrative about the Swift River incident!
Love,Mom
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