La Fortuna mission trip and other things

Where has the time gone? It feels like just last week I was thinking how much stuff we had going on in April and now April is over. Today was a relaxing Sunday of churching, baking banana bread with good friends, playing a girls soccer game (I scored a goal!!) and just hanging out. Three weeks today until almost everyone will have left Port and started the long journey back to their home countries.

Yesterday we got back from our mission trip in La Fortuna de Bagaces (building the church in San Bernardo). It was a great trip and the end result was a nice little blue church that still needs windows, a door, and electricity but that will get finished over the next few weeks by people we will hire with the money left over from the trip fund raising. Though we only needed $8,000 we raised over $10,000.

All the extra activities we planned went really well too. There was a talent show in the church one night, in which Alyssa, Sarah and I were going to sing Lord of the Dance. Well we tried to sing and it was going well until Alyssa started laughing and then we all couldn’t help but join in so it turned into a rather embarrassing episode of trying to finish singing while stifling laughter in front of over a hundred people. But the audience got a good laugh if nothing else good came of it. We also had a couple of events planned in the town of San Bernardo, which is a ten-minute drive from La Fortuna. We invited all the people in the town to come to the main field to play games and sing some songs. Well a few people showed up and we had a really good time with them playing Ninja. Erin and I went up to a crowd of local people and talked with them for ten minutes in only Spanish! We were scared to go but once we got there it went well and we found things to say. One of the things I have been learning lately is that when there is a need that needs to be filled, I can’t wait around for other people to fill it because otherwise it won’t get done. I need to be the one to fill it. I need to bold in my faith and constantly be doing things that take me out of my comfort zone (like talking to people in Spanish). I can’t use things like my lack of Spanish or physical weakness or sickness as an excuse to not do things that need to be done. We had similar activities planned for the high school and those went really well too.

The church building was pretty straightforward- just a bunch of premade walls that we had to slide down in between some cement posts that we dug holes for at the beginning. The most dangerous part was climbing up onto the scaffolding with the cement blocks and sliding them down without crushing anyone underneath. We had to mix our own cement by combining rocks and sand and cement and then just adding water and shoveling it all together. It was hard work but so much fun to work together and see things get done. It’s definitely true that many hands make light work. Then we also had to level the ground and lay cement on the floor. Finally we painted. After 5 days of working the church was done (apart from the other things that I mentioned earlier). Luckily the property where we were working was right in front of a papaya farm so every day we could take as many yellow papayas off the trees as we wanted and eat them during our break or take them back to the main church to eat later. I didn’t like papayas when I came to Costa Rica but I have definitely changed my mind about them now.

I stayed with a host family with another girl from our group while we were there and that was a really fun time too. We just slept there and ate our dinners there, the rest of that time we were out and about doing community things. The family was wonderful- they were a really generous family and gave us lots of food and love.

A scary thing happened on Thursday night. We went to some hot springs to hang out for the night and I was taking a break from being in the water when all of a sudden a beetle flew into my ear. It started burrowing down my ear canal and when it got to the end and couldn’t go any further it started using its pincers to get further down into my eardrum. When it realised that it wasn’t going anywhere, after about a minute, it came out again. By that time, I had been screaming at the top of my lungs, flailing around wildly and the whole rest of the group had gathered around me trying to find out what they could do to help. On the way home I recovered and we all laughed about it later J Anyway now it’s getting late and I am going to finish reading the Hunger Games (because it is amazing). Goodnight!

Easter week (a bit late)

Happy Easter! This weekend a few of us went to La Fortuna, a beautiful touristy town next to Volcano Arenal, for Semana Santa (Holy Week). It was such an amazing trip. It was Erin, Evans, Dani, Christoph, Alyssa, Jayda and I. We woke up early Wednesday morning and set off at 7 walking to the bus stop to take us to San Jose. When we arrived at the terminal there were so many people already lined up for the bus even though we were 45 minutes early. We ended up getting seats for us girls but the boys had to sit on the ground in the aisle for the four hour trip. No matter though because we got to La Fortuna safely. We found our way to Sleepers Sleep Cheaper Hostel and put our stuff away. The owner of the hostel told us about a place 15 minutes walk away where we could go swimming and swing off a rope swing so we decided that since we only had half the day left to spare we would just go there right away and see what else we felt like later. The river was amazing and there weren’t many people there so we swung off lots of times and went rock hopping down the river afterwards. The rest of the day we spent making dinner together in the kitchen (it only cost us $1 each, eating at home is definitely the way to go). We finished the night off with Evans teaching us how to play the card game Up and Down the River.

On Thursday we woke up early and had breakfast (which the hostel provided), then we set off walking to the Arenal National Park, a bit over an hour’s walk from La Fortuna. It was a hard walk to even get there but we made it eventually. We payed the entrance fee and went down a bunch of steps to get to a beautiful waterfall where there were lots of tourists. It was really cold water and we could get right up close to the fall when we swam in the pool. We walked back and expected to be able to walk up Volcano Cerro Chato which is right next to Arenal but found that it is actually in a different park which is another $8 to get into. But we really wanted to do it so we payed the money and set off hiking. It was a very hard hike. Three kilometers to the top but it was all uphill and we took lots of rest breaks to make sure everyone stayed together. But arriving at the top made it so worth the walk. The clouds opened up for about ten minutes and we had a spectacular view of the top of Arenal. When we got to the top of Cerro Chato we ate our packed lunch and decided to go down and explore a path that leads to the inside of the crater of the volcano. We got down to the bottom and found a huge lake in the middle so we all went for a swim and Christoph and Evans caught a couple of fish and ate them. There were frogs everywhere that we could catch and look at. We ended up getting home at about six, so we went out and got things for dinner and made another delicious meal even though we ate it a bit late. More cards to follow and Evans read some of The Horse and His Boy before we all fell asleep.

Friday we decided to get bikes for the day and ride out to some free hot springs. Half way there, after climbing some huge hills and becoming dripping wet with sweat we decided that it was really too hot for hot springs so we turned around and came back home. The boys rode for a bit longer and us girls went to the rope swing again for a swim to cool off. We came home for lunch and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing with our bibles and cards and beds. We decied that Friday night would be our splurge night so we made an amazing vegetable soup and ate it with half an avocado each and (stale) corn chips. For dessert we needed to use up the left over rice that we had so Evans made rice pudding with cinnamon and raisins. There were three other girls staying in the hostel and they are living in San Jose studying at the moment too. We invited them to eat pudding with us and it was nice to be able to chat with them for a while. For second dessert we had Tim Tam slams because I had saved seven of the Tim Tams I got from mum and dad earlier. They were so good. 

Saturday morning we got up really early and a few of us went on a walk to the rope swing again (we didn’t swim because it was cold and we didn’t want to be wet for he bus ride home). So we just went and jumped on the rocks down there for a while then walked back and got our stuff packed up ready to go. We went on one last walk around the town then got on the bus to come home. Although not all of us made it on to one bus at first because there were so many people trying to get back to San Jose all at once for the end of Semana Santa. Anyway we persuaded the guy to let us o and there weren’t enough seats so we all had to sit on the floor in the handicapped spot. It was tight but we managed to play a game of Up and Down the River while we were moving so the time went by real quick. We got back to San Jose and Evans, Erin, Cristof and I walked the hour and a half walk back to Port from San Jose and the others caught the bus. This trip was definitely the highlight of my whole time so far in Costa Rica.

happenings

My last couple weeks have been really good, there is just so much stuff that has happened I don’t even know where to start writing. I guess I will start by talking about a normal day now that my Spanish classes have finished and things are finally getting into how they will be for the rest of the semester.

6:00- wake up, get ready, check my emails, maybe go for a walk if I’m feeling

            energetic

7:45- breakfast. The best breakfast is definitely Wednesday- we get gallo pinto, fresh

bread and fried plantains. They are amazing. Every breakfast is good though they really spoil us

8:05- duties. These change every 2 weeks. Yesterday was my first day of lunch

dishes, which means I get the mornings free. There are usually two people on duties; the past two weeks I was cleaning the classroom every morning with another girl. On Mondays we have worship in the mornings so duties start an hour later.

10:00(ish)- classes. Right now we are going through the book of Genesis. It’s really

cool but it’s also challenging because 90% of the class is taught in Spanish and I’m struggling to keep up with a lot of what’s being said. But it’s all good, I feel like I’m learning a lot.

12:30- lunch.
12:50- free time! Good time to catch up on bible reading (we are following a year

plan so everyone is in the same place) and any essays that we need to write. Wednesdays are different. We have workday in the morning for a few hours where everyone is assigned a job around campus like mowing the lawns or cleaning the toilets. After work morning, each person goes for a walk with another person and just gets to know them a bit better for half an hour.

6:00- dinner.

7:15- classes until 9ish. Then bed time (or blog writing time tonight).

And of course weekends are free. It’s pretty great. Last weekend was different though because a few of us were selected to go to a town called La Fortuna for a mission inspection trip. We are returning to La Fortuna in April for ten days and the purpose of this trip was to look around and decide what we want to spend our time doing while we are there. The mission trip happens every semester and each time the students are in charge of what is done while we are there including fundraising and other community projects while we are there. It’s about a four hour drive away from school so eleven of us piled into the mini bus on Friday and set off to have a look around for three days. When we got there we discovered a mango tree right next to the church so a couple of the boys went crazy getting as many mangoes as they could out of the tree. People eat unripe mangoes here, which is weird but they are still so good if not a bit crunchy. We were paired off and each pair of two students stayed with a Tico host family. I was with another girl Jayda. Our family was three people- the mum Maria Antonia, the dad Fsomething and the daughter Josbeth who is 17. It was a bit awkward because neither of us two girls know very much Spanish so once we got past the initial “what’s your name, where are you from” there was really nothing to say. I needed to ask them to repeat most things and my responses were very minimal, but they were really generous and gave us lots of great food. It made me realise how little Spanish I know and I just found myself getting really frustrated because I knew exactly what I wanted to say but I just didn’t know how to say it. Their house was also really humbling. The people here in Costa Rica just have so little compared to what I have at home. The floor was cement and the rooms were tiny and the shower was just a single stream of cold water. But they are really happy and willing to share so generously with everyone.

            The night of the day we arrived, the dad took me and Jayda and Josbeth on an adventure. First we went over to some relative’s house where there was a lot of standing around pretending to understand Spanish and I actually had an intelligent conversation with someone about the weather in Australia. After a while a man came out with some raw coffee beans in his hand that they had growing in the back yard. I thought he was telling us to try one so I started eating one when everyone started laughing and the guy said “no comiendo, no comiendo!” which means not for eating! How embarrassing. Anyway I spat it out and we moved on. We hopped in the back of his cow truck and he drove us to a big field with lots of rocks from the volcano which is right above the town. The rocks were decorated with carvings done by Indians in the area many years ago. It was really interesting to see some Costa Rican history plus it was right at sunset so everything just looked ten times prettier. After that we went to a forresty area on a quest to find monkeys. Well we found some howler monkeys yelling up a storm and right as we were leaving one of them relieved himself on my head. Lucky for me it was only number one.

            Anyway our time there was good and we managed to make a decision about our trip. We decided that we are going to build a church for thirty or so people in one of the little outlying communities of the town. I’m really excited because I think it will be a huge blessing to this community that has so few resources. While we were there we visited a man whose house was built by the students here two years ago. He was so grateful for what they had done that he had a picture of them framed on his wall. After showing us around his property he climbed up a tree and picked a coconut for all of us. Being away from Port for that weekend also made me realise how at home I already feel here. It’s funny how quickly these people have become like my brothers and sisters and how because we share a common desire to learn more about Jesus we have an automatic connection. I was so excited to get back and see my friends and eat with them and talk with them (in English) again.

            Wow this is turning into a really long blog but I’m not done yet. Today was my first day at my ministry which I will be doing every Monday for the rest of my time here at Port. I went to a kid’s soup kitchen with two others, Dani and Cody. The kids are dropped off there in the morning and spend the day there just playing and eating. They are all from a really poor area of town. Being with them there for a couple of hours was really great. It’s eye opening to see how something so simple as giving them a piggyback ride can just make their day that much better. They were all super cute and forgiving of my limited Spanish skills. Part of the reason I chose the soup kitchen for my ministry is because I feel like with kids there isn’t really a need for talking-they are really happy to just play games and be loved on. We played duck, duck, goose (or pato, pato, ganzo) and skipping rope games and the time flew by.

Anyway I think that’s enough for now. I was going to write about all the cool stuff I’ve been learning about in my classes but maybe I’ll save that for next time J love to everyone xoxo

life at port

Hi friends! So begins my third week here at Portantorchas. I’m getting into the swing of life here and learning more Spanish every day. We got placed into our Spanish classes and not surprisingly I’m in the lowest one but it’s still good and I am learning a lot. If we speak English in class we get sprayed with water so everyone is getting better at speaking. I have Spanish classes in the morning from 9 or 10 till 1 then we have classes after lunch or at night depending on the day. Wednesday is workday so yesterday I spent the afternoon waxing and buffering floors and rearranging furniture. Other than that all our time is pretty much free to read or pray or just hang out which is really cool. I feel like I’m getting to know the people here a lot better. There are so many interesting stories and lives and since it’s such a small group I feel like I will get to know all of them really well.

Bible classes are going well too. We’ve been learning about biblical prayer by looking at a few prayers from the bible. Reading David’s prayer after he committed adultery with Bathsheba in Psalm 51 was great because it reminded me that even though all of us have sin in our lives and we have to face the consequences of that sin, God never leaves us. He walks with us through the consequences and develops our character through trials and sorrows.
There is another class called The Doctrine of Christ that is taught by the owner of the school, Marco, who has over the years brought a mass murderer to Christ, predicted his best friend's death, and done so many other amazing things. He is a really great speaker and he has so many interesting stories to tell of his walk with God. I’m excited to see what else I’m meant to be learning while I’m here. I’m even learning through my daily interactions with people. Living so close to other Christians all the time is awesome, it’s like I’ve just come to stay with a huge family where everyone gets along and conflict is deliberately avoided.

Last weekend was super fun. On Saturday morning a few others and I got up at 6 to catch a bus to go white water rafting in the Pacuare River. We shared the bus with a group of Ticos and since it was such a long trip by the end I had taught them the Australian national anthem and we had all tried to learn the Costa Rican one (which is much cooler than ours might I add). It was so much fun and though we didn’t see any sloths there was a wild cow and her calf standing next to the river when we arrived. The river was beautiful. We were surrounded by tropical rainforest on either side and only a couple of people fell out going over the class 4 rapids. At one part we came to a giant gorge with rocks on either side where we were allowed to get out and swim. The water was warm and clear and just plain beautiful. We finished off the day with some gallo pinto (rice and beans, costa Ricans eat it pretty much all the time) and a nap on the bus.
The next day we had a massive mud fight because they are building a baptismal pool thing out next to the soccer field and there was a big pile of dirt that just needed to be played in! I have never felt so clean after having a shower, but it was totally worth the dirtiness. That night we had a movie night and one girl made brownies for everyone. I’m super excited about this semester. Anyway it’s breakfast time so I should go again. Buenas Dias!

the arrival

Hi all! I arrived in Costa Rica last night after a few long plane rides and a rude US customs official who told me he didn’t care that my plane was boarding in 10 minutes and that I would just have to wait while he went back to three other workers standing around chatting about the football game last night. Anyway I got through with seconds to spare and managed to get on my flight to CR. I thought the plane would be mainly costa rican people returning home but it was filled with elderly couples going on tours.

After getting through customs and grabbing my bag I went outside. I was a bit worried the man who was going to pick me up would’ve forgotten or something but straight away I saw a little crowd of people holding up a torchbearers sign and waving around a welcome genevieve banner. I was so happy to see them.

Ticos (what costa Ricans call themselves) are wild drivers. Wow we came close to dying on more than one occasion on the way home. Luckily I was sitting in the back so I couldn’t really see what was happening. It was about a 30 minute drive to get back Portantorchas and along the way the roads were scattered with little auto repair shops and American fast food restaurants. It’s a lot colder here than I expected because we are up on a hill. I’m wearing jeans and a jumper and am still a bit chilly. It’s a nice change from the hot perth weather though. It rained yesterday. I’m in a room with another girl called Adri and there is one more room next to us. We are in the top floor of 3 story house and we have such a beautiful green view over the campus to one side and San Jose on the other. There are ducks and rabbits hopping around all over the place. There are 15 other people here already, returning from last semester, and there will be 15 more new people coming over the next few days. Classes start on Monday. We do everything together during the semester. The days are really structured and meals are always at the same time. After breakfast today we had a devotion and worship time. I didn’t recognise any of the songs from looking at them because they are written in Spanish but when we started singing I realised they are all Hillsong songs! Most people know more Spanish than me and I’m getting lost a lot but I hope over time I will pick it up a bit more.

I went for a walk to the local shops this morning with a few other girls. I had my wallet in my hand ready to go but right away they told me to hide it. One of the girls got mugged last semester. The best place for money is in your bra and you should try to split it up so if someone asks you for all your money you can just take half of it out and they will never know. Walking out there was…interesting… I’ve never heard so many wolf whistles or “ay, gringitas.” We walked past a construction site and all the men stopped working for a minute just to watch us walk past! Wouldn’t want to be here on your own.

I already feel at home here, everyone is so generous and there is just so much love! (from the people in the school not the creepy men on the street) Gosh there’s so much new stuff to write about but that will have to be all for now because dinner is ready. Buenas noches J