Day 3 - 3/9/09

Happy 85th Birthday to Grandma! 

[SI devo: Ephesians 2 & Psalm 103]

God, bless Molly for letting me use her Bible this week (smaller than my own). I pray that Grandma feels especially loved today on her 85th birthday - only 15 from a hopeful 100. I pray for Russell, Lord, who is not feeling well. Please heal him and bring him the strength he needs to get back out there. Let us help him in any way we can, God - let us do your work for you by your guidance. 

I slept well last night. Whitney's on the bunk above me, & I have Jaime & Jenny on either side. The rain was loud but calming as it hit the tin roof. It keeps the bugs away - I don't mind. Waking up wasn't too shabby. Work pants, long socks, rubber boots, moisture-wicking shirt... I'm ready. But only because God's placed me here & made this possible.

Russell is feeling mostly better. Yay! He got something that's going around in San José, so we're not really sure how he got it as opposed to the rest of us. But he's working on eating again & regaining some energy. Today was a good day of fellowship and teamwork. After devotions, we had breakfast, which one of the leaders and one of our small groups prepared. It was composed of pancakes w/ syrup &/or strawberry jam, fruit salad with mangoes, papaya, canteloupe, and pineapple (!!), and coffee for whomever so wished. I love how much fruit they eat here - some with every meal. I wish we ate more fruit in the States, & I want to eat fruit more often now. It's so good! 

After breakfast, we were assigned our jobs. Anything from replacing a broken water pipe (that the whole town uses for hot water) to painting the dorm to staining doors to sanding & varnishing cabinets to what Matt & I did - hanging drywall in Camry's room. We measured, cut, carried (to the second floor), and screwed in drywall in front of insulation in the walls. I felt like I wasn't serving the community very much, but I was serving the missionaries who live here and live to serve this town of Shiroles. Anything I can do to help them & make it easier for them to accomplish things is still God's hand in what He wants me to be doing with my time.

Dear Lord, please let me embrace in what I am to do to serve You & help bring Your kingdom to earth. Working with Matt was great. I love getting to know everyone on this trip better. God really knows how to unite people. I pray for Curtis. He's Camry's dad and Kathy's husband, and a very busy man. He & his wife run a bible college near here, so he'll leave a month at a time (in Dec.?) to go teach. He was constantly on the go today. None of us are professionals so of course we had questions about how to do things & what, in general, to do. I pray that You invade his heart so he can always feel Your presence and keep his spirits high even when he's pulled in ten different directions. It's rained on & off today. I was inside & outside, but when I was out I was under a roof still. Those working in the rain weren't phased by it - they savored it & had joy in that they were making a difference & doing God's work. The jobs were put on pause at 3:30 when they had a snack prepared for us - bread w/ peanut butter, butter, &/or strawberry jam. I couldn't decide. Therefore - one side peanut butter, one side butter (eaten separately). Wow, I completely skipped over lunch. We had more yummy rice & beans with watermelon salad, etc. 

Matt & I were going to get back to the drywall [Jaime just heard a gecko] after the snack since neither of us like stopping something before it's really finished, but he went to play soccer w/ others from our team & the local kids. Poor Ryan had just gotten out of the shower, but he went & played in the muddy field (in sandals) anyway. I stayed and played more Pig, Guerra, & Tanto (not Tonta) with Gabriel (9) Kécha (11, I think), and a new friend who was really quiet. Becca played as well, and others came & went.

After that I hung out with Brianna as she played the guitar and others joined in & talked. We had dinner, which consisted of more of the same delicious food, but also with beef & potatoes. And a new drink! A juice from lemons, but it also contained another spice of some sort. I thought Becky was right on when she said tea & ginger. 

After dinner I had my first shower experience in the dorm. Everyone said it was cold (one knob, & that knob = cold water), and it was, but I found it legitimately refreshing I got past the temperature and enjoyed it.  Macy was really funny when she started her shower... she knew it'd be cold, but her body wasn't ready - she expressed this by quoting what her body would say, but with a British accent; so now Macy has a British body. We met back for worship & small group talks & a fun game. We sang Todopoderoso during worship - which I learned at Cov. Pres. & love, but apparently it's a really popular Latin American worship song. In small group we talked about how our days went, how our expectations differed from the actual, and what's going on with us spiritually. I'm loving growing closer with Isaac, Macy, Alyx, & Stephen... they're great. During small group time Curtis went behind us & fed the cat Frosty a stunned gecko. Intriguing & repulsive all at once. We finished the scheduled night with a game in which one person in the circle initiates & changes the motion that everyone does, & the person in the middle of the circle has to figure out who initiates the movement. Thankfully each round I just had to follow the motions. Such fun. 

Random notes - the rooster(s) always strut their stuff & crow. Whoever said that they only crow at sunrise lied. Also, I smell like Deet. & will all week. Probably until I get back to school & shower on Monday. Woo! God, thank you for placing me here this week. You've known all along that I would be here, but you've helped me take the steps to get here - from randomly going to the meeting to raising the full cost of the trip - and I love seeing Your plans for my life play out. Lord, I feel like You have grand plans for my life. I love serving You by serving others. Am I meant to be out of America when I am older? I want to devote my life to Your honor, God, and I pray that I can hear your voice as I seek that. Lord, show me what you want me to see this week.

Take my life, & form it

Take my mind, transform it

Take my will, conform it

To Yours, to Yours, oh Lod

No bug bites for me yet - I'm luckier than most, but I was also inside. Here's to a week spent wholly in the Lord. (ps- each day's entry has been consistently 12 pages. What!)

Day 2 - 03/08/09

(Morning SI Devo - Psalm 34 & Ephesians 1)

Shaky handwriting should be expected for the time being. Yay for the long bus ride! Last night we called it quits around 10. As soon as we turned off the lights, we heard techno music, perhaps from the casino next door. It kept some people up, but I fell asleep pretty quickly (go figure). My travel alarm that Katie set went off at 6:15. Kristen showered, & I did when she got out. The water pressure was miserable, and I discovered that my small conditioner bottle cracked. It has been sentenced to its own Ziploc bag. We officially began the day with devotions/quiet times. Word had it that we were supposed to read Psalm 34, but Ephesians 1 was also supposed to be read. Oh well. Notes from the quiet time & devotion can be found before this entry. Breakfast was a wonderful typical Costa Rican breakfast. Rice & beans, scrambled eggs, bread, & cantaloupe & watermelon. With this one fruit juice - mango, perhaps? We ate, finished packing, and loaded on the bus to continue our journey. 

I'm sitting next to Becca on the bus... she said that we're going to be best friends. I hope she's right. We stopped for a bathroom break after the air got thicker & we started driving through mist. It was on the side of the road - a store with pastries, ice cream, & another w/ fresh fruits. One man gave Becca & I each a free passion fruit to try. The insides look like frog eggs, but it was really good! Becca & Becky (& Stephen I think, as well) bought a couple more for the road. 

The money they use here is colones, and the exchange rate is about 550 colones = 1 US dollar. We've exchanged $20 with the SI leaders so we can buy things at the stores. Side note - Costa Ricans are costarriqueños, but they call themselves Ticos/Ticas. On the bus ride, we've seen lots of vegetation including palm trees & pineapple fields, as well as a few waterfalls coming down the mountains (by the street) & rivers. Yay for word games on bus rides... keep us entertained :)

Bienvenidos a Shiroles! We stopped for lunch on the way here at a restaurant where there were other Americans and some Ticos, as well. We had the plate of the day -casada- for lunch. Chicken/beef, rice, vegetables (potatoes?), cole slaw, fried plantains, and mashed potatoes. I had "caz" to drink, which was a juice with some kind of pulp in it. Continued the drive - (insert dinner break here) we weren't allowed to sit next to the same person, so Stephen & I sat next to each other and had a nice chat... until we both got tired haha. On the ride we passed lots of water & beaches with good waves, as well as some horses, cows, & other livestock. We also had to drive across a few rivers & lots of bumpy roads to get here. When we got into Shiroles (in Talamanca), we saw more colorful houses and people standing in/by them watching us go by. The boxy houses are houses that the government has built to help the area. We also saw the main cemetery for the area as we got here - the caskets are above ground instead of inside the ground because of how moist the soil is & pretty bad flooding. ¡Interesante! We arrived to our base & it's a lot nicer than expected. We met Curtis & Kathy (missionaries), & their daughter Camry, and some of the natives in the area. The girls' dorm is newer than the guys... ¡Qué suerte! 

We all have bunk beds with mosquito netting, & 3 toilets & 3 showers. It's raining pretty hard despite it being the dry season, but it was worse a few weeks ago. We are the second team here of the year (a correction), & the last team had 54 people on it. They got flooded out because of the intense rain all week. Hopefully it won't be that bad this week! After we set our stuff down & got a little situated, we hung out with some of the people here. [insert worship/meeting here] We met Alena (sp?) & two of her cousins (or was the boy her brother?) and played cards with them. 1st was war/guerra, which they already knew. They then taught us Tonto, which reminded me of Go Fish. We also played a version of Spoons called Pig- since we didn't have spoons to play with (this involved finger-to-nose contact). The kids are so cute! Though I may take a while with their names, I got to use a lot of Spanish & I also learned how awesome Kristen is at it. Soon enough, it was time to meet up & talk through some things about the week. We had dinner after that, & I'll be quite the happy camper if the food continues as such throughout the week. We had rice, beans, salad-ish with tomatoes & cilantro (reminded Becky of salsa), watermelon, and plantains (but the plantains were flat & dried & even better this time). Drink: kool-aid? We used the trash can & 3 different bins (rinsing water, soapy water, & water with Clorox, or something) to wash our dishes & utensils afterward. Came back here to journal until we headed back over to the main shelter for worship/meeting. We made a list with our [short break to search for a seen roach in my bed?] "skills" & previous experiences for Curtis to separate us out into different jobs for the week. There was a frog (pretty large - Jaime got a picture) & a salamander in our dorm when I came back for a restroom trip. Isaac lead some sweet worship...

Hallelujah, grace like RAIN

falls down on me...

Hallelujah, all my stains

have washed away, they're

washed away.

...and we had a great time singing to the Lord in that time. We went around the circle and said our names, why we came here, & what we expect for the week. Oh! Katie told me earlier that I look like a "Jessie," & others agreed pretty wholeheartedly. After our name circle thing, we played this crazy game with ninja sounds and ninja masters and paddlers... ask me about it & we'll play. Reminded me of the bunny game from Amy's beach house last May. I got out because I paddled on the wrong side :/. We were done after that, so I'm currently in my yellow-flowered white sheet in my fleece sleeping bag on my bed in the mosquito netting in the girl's dorm (Rosa de... something) in Shiroles in Talamanca in COSTA RICA! Woo! Exciting stuff. 

I'm loving the usage of the headlamps - they're fun. My jacket & a pair of pants are in my pillowcase - hello pillow for the week. The smell of Deet (98.11%) is quite apparent, & the sound of (lots of) rain even more apparent. I love it. Earplugs? We'll see. Amber would be running around in the rain.... probably nonstop. Lane's gotten me into the habit of having "Under the Boardwalk" in my head randomly. As much as we're/I'm praying for ourselves this week, I'm praying for other trips & people @ home too - they need our prayers just as much. Lord please invade my heart with your unfailing love. The hanging paper from my Valentine's Day card from my Mom is my bookmark for this journal, & I brought a card from my grandparents, too. I love mi familia! It's about 9:33 now, & the lights are out. Bedtime!  Up at 5:30am. I get more sleep here than at home. Strange, yes. Camera usage - still quite sparingly. Should I be taking... more pictures??

Siempre con amor---

Day 1 - 03/07/09

(Head- & flash-) LIGHTS

(Disposable) CAMERA

ACTION.

And we're off! I am currently on the airplane (TACA - airline) from Dulles to San Salvador. We're flying into the same airport I went to last summer! Ah, memories. We left JMU yesterday around 5:30 and headed t

o Stephen's house for the night. They fed us Chinese food, fruit, brownies, and ice cream. His parents and siblings are all so nice! After dinner and talking for a bit, we watched Space Jam, then went to bed around 11:30. Macy, Alyx, and I stayed in Stephen's older brother Sean's room in the basement (Sean was off @ college), and the be

d was quite comfortable. We got up at 5:15am to eat cereal, get things together, and leave around 6. So early! Stephen's parents d

rove us to Dulles, we checked bags & such, went through security, & headed to our gate. We met up with the rest of our group there- I think there are 22 of us. I'm sitting next to Jenny... she's really nice, and also writing in a journal. I definitely packed as lightly as I could, but I feel like I overpacked by looking at others' bags. Oh well, I'm prepared! The hiking backpack is packed full, as is my carry-on side bag, so it will be interesting to figure out what to do with p

urchased items. A lot of us are wearing our rubber boots on the plane... how stylish! Praying that God will allow us a healthy & safe trip! I feel a nap coming on. 

Hasta luego---

First picture of the trip = Jenny with our airplane breakfast! 

2 waffle strips with fruit jelly & peach yogurt/pudding stuff (though omelet & french toast were other options), a croissant & butter, a fruit cup (Dole!), and a fudge brownie cookie. Yum! & I'm washing it all down with ginger ale, of course. Now that I have food on my stomach, I should take my weekly malaria pill! Yum... not. They just started playing Mamma Mía, but we can't get any channels to work with the audio, unfortunately. Looks like I'll get back to that nap I was working on earlier! I gave up meat for lent again, but in CR I'll have to eat what they give me, & Mom said I'm doing God's work anyway! I actually cheated last night though with the chicken that came with the Chinese. I didn't really realize it until it was on my plate, & there was then no turning back. Oops! Oh well... it will begin again when we're back in the States. Off to write/draw with Amber's skinny Sharpie on my boots to claim them as my own! ... & para dormirme! 

(Cov. Pres. spring break devotional entry 1)

PS- The boots are swirled with Sharpie now. Woo!

We are in Costa Rica. Woo! & in a hotel... what?! We're in a hotel (Hotel Americana) for the night. The end of the first flight, the short layover, an the second flight all went well. No nausea! During the less-than-hour-layover, Alyx and I found some bandanas to buy -> now we can be cool bandana kids like Macy (& Becky & David Orr...). On the second flight I sat between Isaac & Brianna. We all listened to the best music on channel 11... it was like Costa Rican techno! We all also did the wave between the rows of all of us on the trip... the flight attendant laughed at us =) We got a small crescent roll with ham & ...mayonnaise?... inside. Not bad! Brianna also shared her food with me- fruit by the foot! Isaac also gave me some Combos. I'm glad my friends have food & like sharing! After going through customs & such again, we waited for our bus on the sidewalk & watched an American high-school-ish soccer team board a really nice bus. Isaac matched them with their red shirts & khaki pants... and he wished them good luck. When our bus got here, we boarded & met our STINT friends. 

It was a short half-hour ride to where we are for the night- Hotel Americana. On the way, we saw some of San José... I noticed that the cars here are pretty nice- most nicer than my own, haha. Each garage had a fence down & locked in front of it. The dogs so far are cuter than those in El Salvador - some of them even as pets - but we shall see how the rest of the trip goes! Out of 4 million people living in Costa Rica, a little under 3 million live in San José.... basically in this wide, busy area between mountains. The weather is so perfect right now! It's warm with a nice breeze. 

The hotel we're in is really nice, & I'm in a room with Kristen, Penny, Katie, & Jaime. We depart tomorrow morning (or wake up?) and 5:30am. Woo! We have dinner in a little while, which we're all excited about. David Orr brought a ukulele with him, & Isaac is playing the Rugrats theme song. I think I'm doing well on constricting my camera usage so far... only 5 disposable cameras, after all. (108 pictures is not enough.) A lot of people brought their digital cameras, but... oh well. I don't know how I would have kept it charged anyway.

Dinner was "seriously so good!" as my dinner table (-Isaac & +David Orr) kept saying for about ten minutes. It was a really nice set-up with great food - baked chicken, really buttery mashed potatoes, and steamed vegetables and a bread roll. A pretty standard meal at a hotel named Hotel Americana, I'd say. Kayla, Ayla, & Krista (sp? x 3) told us that the ladies in the village we're going to will be cooking our food all week, so lots of typical CR stuff like chicken, rice, & beans. This is apparently the second SI trip here for the year, and, while the jungle ministry has been set up for a while I think, the city program is still in its making. Updates from previous SI trips at the base: they have bunk-beds with mosquito netting, showers, and toilets. Basically, the Hilton of CR. I don't mind... but I'll probably just bathe in the river some days anyway. After dinner we reconvened at 7:15pm to play a name game and talk about some ins & outs of the trip. I'll write about things as they come- no need in writing what will probably happen. So far this trip has been great. I just really pray that God reaches to me through the people I interact with and the things I experience. After our meeting tonight, some people played Capitalism, but a few of us headed downstairs. Kristen & I got to talking, & I look forward to getting to know her & everyone else on the trip much better. We have a bus ride between 6 & 9 hours long tomorrow... we meet at 7 for devotional & breakfast (bags already packed). I'm sure that will serve as great time for great conversation! I pray that it is, anyway.

Buenas noches---