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!