July 21

Hello, this is Abigail, writing today's post. Today was an awesome day! We got to sleep in an entire hour later (8:30 whoop whoop!) and then we prepared to go to the beach. The beach is about a 10 minute walk from the base where we are staying. It was beautiful! Light colored sand and blue, clear, warm water (Total opposite to the beach in California). We all had a great time playing in the water and splashing around. John, our YWAM leader, warned us about swimming to the areas where the bottom was covered in seaweed in case there were sea urchins (Because they would sting). All was going fairly well, we had a chance to buy some souvenirs and then it was back in the water. I was with Josh and Matt in the water when I sorta tripped onto the seaweed. Oh my goodness! Instant pain shooting up my leg, and first with the shock of the hurting I wasn't sure what happened. I stood up out of the water and yelled out, "Is this what it feels like to be stung by a sea urchin?!" No one was quite sure. Within minutes it seemed to be inflamed or something because it was bright red and clearly, very swollen. After a painful walk up out of the water and onto the beach, I was able to lay down. I took some benyadryl and advil (Don't worry mom, I'm fine.) and slept for a bit while my Clairene rubbed my back and took good care of me (What else are bestfriends for?). John later said that he could tell I was a shopper because everytime a vendor walked by I would sit up and say, "What are they selling? Is it a good deal?". After resting a bit I felt much better and there was no more swelling and we all managed to walk to a restaurant for lunch where we got some AMAZING pizza and pasta. After another 10 minute walk back to the base we all got to rest for a while before eating super good tacos. We started a great game of Silent Football (Whaddup, Mark?) before a crazy/freaky/awesome/exciting discovery was made. A HUGE TARANTULA!! The YWAMers who were near by were shocked at its ginormous size! So, after taking what seemed like a million pictures it was time to "take care of it". Rod found a large board and killed it so that it wouldn't poison anyone/thing and, as one of the Spanish speaking girls living on base, described to her brother "He went KABOOM KABOOM on the tarantula". So, it's been an eventful day and I hope everything at home is going well. Te amo mas, Abigail.