2nd plane home was delayed :( by like 2 hours so we just chilled in the airport, watching A and T try and play hacky sack while completely strung out on cold medicine.
I am so glad I went, it was such an amazing trip and I would go again without any hesitation. I learned so much and got to meet so many new people and saw so many awesome new things.
I got to know everyone on my team so much better, figured out how to make the tour bus comfy lol, and ate lots of gallo pinto (rice and beans).
So first day there we were all kinda out of it because we landed at 8 or 9 and then took an hour long bus from San Jose to Sarchi which is where we stayed in this camp called Campamento Jennie Sue (it was named after a nice old lady who founded it). We all promptly passed out on the bunks because we were really tired from the day of flying and spending a 6 hour layover in Dallas lol.
The next morning we had breakfast and met our cooks; Rosita, Guillermo and Claudia, our bus driver Diego, our translators Bernardo, Pablo, Daniella and Salomon and our team leader John. We went to Naranjo which is where our host church is and 8 of us worked on started construction on expanding the church building while the rest of the team did children's ministry inside. Lol my gloves got so soaked with gasoline from cleaning the steel beams that i got a chemical burn on my hands, it was awesome.
So for the first two days we did construction and children's ministry in Naranjo which was pretty awesome cuz the kids were great and we were learning the names of different animals in spanish so we could make them balloon animals lol.
The times and days get kind of fuzzy after this because we went to so many different places and there was not a set-in-stone schedule because our itinerary changed constantly. We went to quite a few different churches and did children's ministry which for me meant doing kid's worship (lots of actions and repitition lol) with Alfe to start off and then alternating between balloon tying and bracelet making. I met so many amazing children down there, they are just so happy and full of life despite their unimaginably poor circumstances. You can't possibly understand how these people live until you've seen it. We were mostly in fairly poor areas and all the homes/businesses are built with the cheapest, thinnest materials and look so fragile. Costa Rica isn't subject to very hostile weather though so its not as bad but everything is just so temporary.
The perspective of these people is so amazing, we gave them soccer balls and bracelets and simple toys and balloon animals but they were so grateful and they loved them. We were actually making a big difference in their lives and giving them hope even though it seemed so simple to us.
We worked with another church youth group in Naranjo to restore a park so we cleaned up all the garbage and glass and repainted the fence and whatnot then in the afternoon we invited some neighbourhood kids to come play at the park with us so we sang songs and played games and I played catch with this guy names Marco for about an hour :p it was a lot of fun.
On our day off we also went to the Cataratas and Volcano Irazu (or so I believe, I can't remember the name) and the Cataratas or waterfalls, are also a nature preserve. I got to hold butterflies and A nearly got his ear bit off by a toucan and Diego's son, Diego jr lol got to see the monkeys and poisonous snakes and frogs. It was really amazing.
As a present to us, the translators bought fireworks that we set off on New Years in the field by the camp after we went to the New Year's party at the church in Naranjo. That was SO much fun! We got there at 7:30 and the celebration went til after midnight. Alfe and Jony and Bernardo and Adam and Pablo and I all did worship for what seemed like hours lol and we did our skit that closely resembles this one. And Marco and Antony saw it and afterwards we saw a ton of fireworks in the town square! It was so cool.
HOLY CRAP ITS COLD HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I wanna go back as soon as I can :(
So Antony gave me a mix tape and I love it! Its got these 3 spanish songs on it and they're so pretty to listen to... I miss him lol.
One of the nights (I can't remember which) Ray and I stayed up until about 3:15 just talking about stuff. It was really cool though because it was stuff that we had wanted to talk about for a long time but had kind of just ignored. It was a cool kind of "bonding" thing lol.
I got to spend more time with a friend of mine which was fun lol, we figured out how to make the bus comfy. But he's got other stuff going on, things will go back to normal.
I hope things don't go back to normal for me though, I really want to stay this close to God. I want to pray like I did on this trip, I want to sow the seeds of God and do great things for His kingdom.
I'm thinking of going back there for my gap year if possible... not sure yet tho. I'll figure it out...
Anywho, I'm home now, its friggin cold in Canada, and I have a TAN!!!! WOOO HOOO!!!
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