(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---
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