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