I'm so behind as always, so I decided to do a quick post summarizing two weeks ago so that I'll be caught up soon! Planning on making myself write another post this week about the last week to be completely caught up! Y'all hold me to that please...
Weekend of July 1-3:
Spent the weekend in Heredia (no traveling) and had a wonderful time! On Saturday I went to the feria (local street fair) with Lisa and her host mom! I've never seen so many fresh fruits and vegetables in my life! It was amazing! We walked among the vendors, I bought some fruit for my madre, and we had a wonderful time seeing all of the fascinating people and foods! Absolutely loved it! After the feria, Lisa, her mom, and I went to an aerobics workout class at her mom's gym. It was hilarious. Following orders in Spanish while listening to English workout music. Very fun experience! We relaxed there a while, had lunch, and then I came back home for a bit. That night some of my friends and I went out for some delicious pizza (Italian food is huge here) and Pops (super good ice cream)! It was such a fun and relaxing Saturday! I loved it!
On Sunday I traveled to Alajuela by myself and was honestly feeling a little sad and missing friends and family (plus it's not very much fun to make the hour long bus ride by yourself). Sundays are the days when I tend to miss everyone the most. Once I got to the building though, the brethren were so incredibly nice and sweet. They kept asking me if I was missing Beth and Reagan and I kept saying, SI SI SI!!! :) It was so interesting sitting in their class. They were discussing appointing elders and the brethren here had exactly the same questions that people always have when the subject is brought up. People are the same everywhere. Also, I got to hold sweet little baby Favian which was a huge blessing! He liked my necklace :). After services, the preacher's parents-in-law had myself and the preacher's family over for lunch! It was so much fun and I can't get over how SWEET and KIND and HOSPITABLE they all are! They have taught me so much about hospitality in my short time here. The preacher, Santiago, reminds me so much of my own dad. He's so sweet and gentle and sincere and has a delightful sense of humor that comes out at the most random times. Brotherly love is so strong here. I can't get over the care and love and empathy that they constantly demonstrate towards myself and each other. It's a wonderful place to be!
Weekend = relaxing, wonderful, and fun! So blessed to be where I am!
Week of July 4-7:
This week was kind of a blur and I really don't remember a whole lot of it (kicking myself for not writing down what I did each day). I remember that the week was very busy, that the fourth of July was VERY memorable, and that I went on a tour of San Jose because I was sick the first time that the tour was offered by my school! The tour was very neat and San Jose was fun to see! However, I like Heredia MUCH better! San Jose is a big city. It's huge and kind of a little more scary compared to sweet little Heredia with a downtown that I know my way around! So thankful to have chosen Heredia to study in!
The cathedral in San Jose
The national theater
The Grand Hotel
Fourth of July story time:
On the fourth of July, I was planning on going over to the house of some of my friends after school to make lesson plans for the coming week (will get to that later). My neighbor Jaquanna and I were planning on taking a taxi to their house since they live outside of walking distance from us. However, at the time when we were wanting to leave, it started POURING! Un "aguacero"! We hopped into the taxi, relieved to be out of the rain, gave the address to the driver, and were off! He drove and drove but when he stopped it wasn't at the house of our friends...we had no clue where we were. He said, "this is the address" (in Spanish of course). But we knew that it wasn't. At that point in time I didn't have a phone and therefore didn't have any way of contacting them. So I asked him if he could call their number and ask for better directions or if he could drive us somewhere that had a public phone. Nope. He had other people that were waiting for him to pick them up. He told us that this was the address, and that we had to get out. So we got out of the car, in the pouring rain, on the side of the road, without a clue where we were. We walked a little way (with water rising over our feet) down the road but still couldn't find the house. Giving up, we walked towards what we hoped was downtown Heredia, and finally found buildings that looked familiar! And then, we found the bus that takes us home! So exciting! However, the bus wasn't going to leave for about forty five more minutes. We were both soaked so we decided to wait for the bus in a nearby coffee shop and buy something to warm us up....so off we started walking again. By this point we're soaked. And cold. And tired/frustrated. As we're walking along the crowded sidewalks of downtown Heredia, we're passing tons of people in doorways who are waiting out the rain (who are of course staring at us because we're gringas). I didn't think anything of it, since people stare at me ALL THE TIME here. I don't blend in at all. One guy however, apparently trying to be funny, let out a scream the likes of which I had never heard in my life as we were walking by a store. His friends started laughing immediately afterwards. I was mad. I personally don't find the "scare the gringos" game very funny. Part of me wanted to turn around and give him a piece of my mind, and the other part of me was actually pretty terrified (his game worked). Jaquanna and I just ignored him though, kept walking, and made it to the coffee shop. Of course though, customer service is very slow in Costa Rica, and it took forever to get our coffee. By the time we finally finished at the coffee shop, it was ten minutes till the bus left. So we pretty much sprinted to the bus stop in the still pouring rain (sticking out even more in the crowded Tico filled streets), and got there right when the bus was pulling away from the curb. So sad. So we walked a little ways to the taxi stop, waited a while in line, and caught a taxi home...paying about 1,000 colones ($2) instead of the 150 colones that the bus would have been. Finally, we got home soaked, tired, and not having made any lesson plans...and it was still raining.
After drying off a bit, I hung out at the house, had supper, and then watched "Facing the Giants" in Spanish with my madre. The only patriotic activity of the day was that the movie was about American football. A very memorable fourth and not one that I really want to repeat. But hey, it makes a good story right?
Planting trees:
Another fun activity that week was planting trees with the children that we teach english to on Thursdays! I had so much fun planting trees with the kids, they're precious!
Weekend of 7/8-7/10
Immediately after classes on Friday, we set off for TAMARINDO!!! It was BEAUTIFUL! Tamarindo is a beach on the pacific side! I call it the gringo beach because it's very tourist-y (the most touristy place I've been since coming here). But I'm getting ahead of myself. First order of business was getting there. Normally, the bus ride to Tamarindo is about 5 hours...our bus ride was 9. There was construction on a bridge and so we pretty much sat on the side of the road for most of the time waiting for our turn to cross a bridge that was letting one car through at a time. It wasn't very fun. We ended up getting into town at about 11 at night but everything was well lit and didn't feel scary at all. The town is very small and we quickly found the hostel where we were staying, La Oveja Negra. It. was. awesome. We had an entire room to ourselves, and bunk-beds. It felt like camp! The mattresses on the beds were INCREDIBLE! It was SO comfortable! After finding a restaurant selling sandwiches for a midnight snack, we fell asleep quickly on the amazing beds and slept so soundly all night long. It was wonderful!
On Saturday we walked to a nearby restaurant to eat breakfast and I had french toast. It was amazing. My breakfasts here are weird and random (rice, squeaky cheese, tortillas, etc.) and this was the first north-american type meal that I had had in five weeks. So good. I ate it all.
Consumed.
Before going to the beach, we were going to stop by the bus-stop to buy tickets for the trip home. My friend Katie had agreed to leave later that day with me so that I could worship in Alajuela on Sunday. However, when we got to the ticket stand, we learned that there were no buses on Saturday leaving Tamarindo for San Jose. Uh-oh. The ticket-guy told us that we could take a bus that left at one-thirty to Liberia (a town, not the african country) and from there grab one to San Jose. We were kinda bummed that we had to take such an early bus (by this time it's 10:30) but decided to go for it.
The next couple of hours were spent on the beach enjoying the beauty that surrounded us! I loved it like everything else here!
Time on the beach was limited since Katie and I had a bus to catch, but we enjoyed it a lot! After hanging at the beach, we grabbed our stuff, consumed another delicious sandwich, said adios to our other friends, and caught the bus to Liberia! The bus ride was awesome. It took us through a lot of the Guanacaste (region of Costa Rica) countryside and with the windows open and the breeze blowing it was incredibly enjoyable! Such a beautiful region of the country! The bus ride was pretty long but soon we were in Liberia! We asked a couple of people where the bus stop for San Jose was, found it pretty quickly, bought tickets for the six o' clock bus, and had a quick meal in the thirty minutes before the bus left! Got on the bus without any problems, rode for about four hours to the airport, caught a taxi from the airport to Heredia, and were finally home (and smelling pretty great, let me tell you)! Overall a fun trip even though most of the weekend was spent on a bus!
Sunday Katie and I went to worship with the church in Alajuela, and had a wonderful time as always. I'm so in love with those dear dear people. Katie loved it too! Santiago (the preacher) was so sweet that afternoon. He took me aside, said that he was so sorry but his family couldn't take me to lunch that day because they had plans. He was truly upset and worried about it especially since I had Katie with me. I reassured him about fifty times that it was COMPLETELY fine! They don't have to feed me every week! Etc. etc. I still think he was a little worried about it though. Like I said, learning so much about hospitality from them. Am I as willing to take in strangers and foreigners and care for them week after week, then worry about it if I miss a week, as they do for me? Lots of lessons to be learned from my brothers and sisters here. Katie and I ate lunch together and then relaxed for the rest of Sunday! Sundays are by far my favorite days here.
Speaking of hospitality, here are some verses on hospitality for your Tuesday night reading. Let's think more on ways we can love and serve our brethren, giving ourselves fully to them! We are blessed with SO MUCH, and with so many blessings we have no choice but to share them with others. Even more than our physical blessings, we're blessed with the blessing of salvation, of having a precious Savior with a love great enough to die for us. Have you shared news of that blessing with others lately? Have I? May we be more like the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4) who was thoughtful and caring towards Elisha and more like Phoebe, a "servant of the church", a "helper of many". Two thoughtful women. Two hospitable helpers.
I commend to you our sister Phoebe, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea; that you receive her in the Lord in a manner worthy of the saints, and that you help her in whatever matter she may have need of you; for she herself has also been a helper of many, and of myself as well.
Above all, keep fervent in your love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins. Be hospitable to one another without complaint. As each one has received a special gift, employ it in serving one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Let love of the brethren continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by this some have entertained angels without knowing it.
Thoughts or verses on hospitality that y'all have? Feel free to share them! Would love to learn from you!
That's all for tonight! Coming up: the most exhausting, blessed, and life-changing week of my time in Costa Rica! Stay tuned for more :). And pura vida!
¡Ay! ¡Que aventuras! :) Hospitality has been difficult, since I have scarcely had a place to call my own in my life up to this point (or at least a place I felt like I had to offer to others). The closest thing was the TPA APT (Tampa Apartment... it's a chiasm!), and we had people over fairly frequently for Bible studies, prayer sessions, and church get-togethers. I miss having a place like that. Though experiencing the hospitality of others is a necessary part of the process--just like all giving, somebody has to be willing to be a gracious recipient in order for the hospitality to work. ;) I'm learning much here as well, since I'm dependent on the families here in Centreville to provide housing (the cost of living is CRAZY up here). It's such a blessing to learn from those who have generous hearts. :) James 1:17!
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