I wrote this once I got back from Costa rica in July.
Its taken me a while to get my thoughts together for this blog about my trip so here goes:
We flew out of Raleigh on Friday, June 30th with about a hour and a half delay. We got to Atlanta and literally had to run to get our next plane. We barely made it but we did, praise God. The trip from Atlanta to San Jose was a long one but the supper on the plane was better than I expected :) (pasta). We got to San Jose about 10:45 local time (12:45 here) and we had to go through customs and immigration which was a pain. We finally got to the hotel and I went straight to sleep.
We had a good breakfast in the hotel on saturday morning and then we hit the road. The first part of the trip was good, the roads were halfway decent. But the second half was a different story. We went from side to side to dodge potholes, and the folks down there drive a whole lot different than the folks up here haha, but the drivers we had were good. It took us about 5 hours to get to Bribri and it is only about a 110mile trip, and no AC. Once we got there we unloaded and found our rooms (in the church) and then we just kinda hung out for the rest of saturday.
On Sunday they don't have church service until the afternoon so we got up and went to a waterfall; that was real fun. We got back to the church at about 12 or 1 or something then we got dressed for church. Doby, our youth leader, said it best; "Somewhere North of Burlington there is a youth room that is freezing cold with nobody in it :)" we sang a couple of songs for the congregation there and introduced ourselves and then we went into the back and did our own devotion in english.
On Monday was our first day of Bible School and basketball camp. It went better than I expected. We had 2 translators at the Bible School which helped alot, but what little spanish i knew i used it. (donde esta el bano ha inside joke;]) We had the infamous rice and beans for lunch and supper so that was interesting. Little did we know that it was the main dish down there and we would be eating alot more of it.
Tuesday we got up to pancakes which was a nice break from the rice and beans lol. I stayed at bible school again today which was a good thing cause we probably had about 40 kids there. Tom, another of our leaders, and myself are both big Third Day fans and I left my cd in the truck here so I didnt have any Third Day to listen to. He let me borrow one of his, so I used up 12 batteries listening to that cd lol. The pews down there in the church are made from wood and metal with no cushions so that was fun ha just kidding, but they did sleep real well using my Bible for a pillow. The joke was that I could sleep anywhere. :)
Wednesday, pancakes again for breakfast which was good. It was our last day of our ministry there with Bible School and Basketball, so I went to basketball which was alot more fun than I thought it would be. We have been helping John (the missionary and Doby's brother) in the afternoons with the new construction to expand the church. which makes you real thankful for the amenities we have here (backhoe's and concrete trucks) :).
On Thursday we took about an hour ride to the river, about a 45 minute ride up the river and about a 1:30 minute walk in the jungle to Bajo Coen. This remote place is home to Native indigenious people that go without many amenities we enjoyed at the church. (running water, indoor plumbing, electricity). We left them some flashlights that don't need batteries and I took them some clothes (Mom packed me way too much).
Friday was real fun we went to the beach and for the first part of the day we just relaxed and had fun in the water :) Then we ate some lunch, and took some bibles, tracks, and water; and gave it to people on the beach. after that I stayed with our things on the beach while most everybody else went up into a cave close to the beach. which I did get a good nap in so its all good. (Again I can sleep anywhere :))
Saturday we said our last good byes and headed again for San Jose. I rode in the truck which had AC that work real well (too well in some cases) we got there about lunch time and we became tourists for about a half a day which was new experience for me in a big tourist town such as San Jose.
We had a 8am flight from San Jose on sunday morning so that means we had to be at the airport at 6 which means we had to be up about 4 and leave the hotel by 5 which was realll fun. lol we got back to Atlanta about 1est (11 Costa Rica time) and we had to go through immigration and customs which was even more of a pain than in San Jose. but we made it to our flight to Raleigh which was a real blessing. We got to Raleigh got off of the plane grabbed our stuff and moma and pops was waiting at the airport for me :) :) we left Raleigh and headed for Prospect Hill NC on some real nice roads :) We stopped at Wendy's in Hillsborough for the best hamburger I think I have ever had lol :)
This was a great trip and im glad to be able to be on it. It really opened my eyes to how rich we are here and the Lord is still teaching me patience on some things that I want to happen but they havent happened yet. but like I said in my devotion; we as humans only see our little piece of the puzzle but God sees the whole picture.:)
