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!