It’s been a little over a week since my last update, and it’s been a bit of a wild ride for me emotionally. A lot has happened and I have less than a week left here. I miss home and I’m going to be glad to see
my family again, but I am so very much not ready to have to say goodbye to all the people I’ve met and friends I’ve made here in La Vigía. I think my last update was on Tuesday last week, so I will continue with a roughly day-by-day account of what we’ve done
since then.
Wednesday and Thursday were both ministry days for us. In account of the blister I was still recovering from because of shoveling ditches on Monday, I opted out of manual labor and
did trash pickup both days. Wednesday was a really cool day because we were taken on a bit of a field trip before we started working. We went inside this really green, overgrown-looking patch of land and inside were walked through one of the most amazing gardens
I’ve ever seen. The owner was in his 70s and was able to tell us the names of all these leaves and fruits and roots and explain how each one could be used to help with this ailment or that pain. We got to take stevia right off the plant and try some kind of
dried potato that’s supposed to soothe your stomach. The entire time we were there I would see a new plant and with my younger sister could be there. I know she would have loved it. Just the coolest thing ever. Thursday was a real scorcher for trash pickup.
We could be standing still and still be dripping sweat from the sunshine. We even ended up taking two house-visit breaks to get some hydration and hide from the sun. It was a fun day, too. We walked through a small playground picking up trash and got to take
a fun break with the jungle gym and the swings and even a teety-totter. I think because it was so hot, our kind pastor Basilio gave us the afternoon off, and we all took the bus to Nicoya to visit some stores and connect to wifi for a bit and just chill with
each other. It was a much-needed break from the week of manual labor with its ditch-digging and walking under a toasty sun.
Friday was our adventure day. Most of our squad decided to take a bus to Monteverde to go ziplining, and wowee was that amazing! Monteverde is up in the mountains, and when I say
that we had a view.. we had a view.
We were driving along the top of a mountain and we could look out and see the peninsula and the water we had driven across almost an hour ago. And then the ziplining had its share of awe-inspiring sights too as we spared from one side of the valley to the
other and finished the trip with a massive drop over the forest from a swing that was attached onto our harnesses. It was a great time. After the zip line was done, we went into the town of Monteverde to get a late lunch at a restaurant called the Tree House
Cafe which has a tree literally growing up in the middle of the restaurant that you could sit under to eat.
Friday night and Saturday morning were tough for me. That when Dad called to tell me that Grandma has passed away. Fortunately, God is good and he placed me in the most supportive
squad who made sure I knew I wasn’t alone and that I was so loved and cared for. I cried a lot, but I always had a shoulder beside me to cry onto. Saturday morning, I was able to call Mom and Dad and talk to them on one of my squad leader’s phones, and I took
some alone time to just chill and recuperate. By Saturday afternoon I actually felt mostly ok again and was able to laugh and play games with my squad mates.
Sunday morning church was fun because my friend Morgan got to preach. She has been one of our biggest spiritual leaders and helps lead our study of Ephesians with Luke. It was so
nice to be able to understand what the sermon was about, and Morgan did amazing as she spoke about the armor of God and why we need it. After lunch, several of us went to an ice cream shop down the road to celebrate Deglyss’ birthday a day late. This was a
genuine Costa Rican style of ice cream (or so I was told). It’s basically a snow cone topped with a scoop of ice cream, condensed milk powder, and a marshmallow. Costa Rica may have discovered a little bit of heaven with that concoction.
Monday was a different day for us. The church was being used for a funeral, so instead of going out for ministry, we helped clean and set up the sanctuary and then sat in on the service
to support the family. It was hard for a lot of my squad, and we took some time after that to talk in our small teams and take some time to process. We also had one-on-ones in the afternoon and I got to talk to our leader Victoria for a while and we had such
a nice conversation about thoughts I have about myself and concerning God and I honestly don’t think I have ever had that type of conversation so intentionally before. I enjoyed it a lot.
Yesterday and today were full ministry days. The whole squad went to Juanita’s house to work. We did a bunch of different projects there, like picking up trash and cleaning up the
yard, digging holes for posts to build a fence (and cutting posts from trees in the forest beyond the house as some of us dug), and building a new kitchen area for the family. Even though the work has been a bit tough, it was also a really good time of fellowship
for our squad and for Juanita’s family as they helped alongside us. By the end of today’s work, all the fence posts were planted (somewhere around 20 of them), the yard had basically been combed through, and the kitchen had been roofed and was ready to go.
We got to sit through about half an hour of torrential rain before we left, which definitely made walking back out on the dirt path interesting. We all made it though.
I don’t know for sure what the rest of my stay here will hold. I am flying home on Sunday so that I can be with my family for Grandma’s funeral on Monday. I plan to drive down to
Gainesville, GA, on Wednesday so that I can go through debrief with my squad once they arrive late that evening. Prayers for safe and simple travels for everyone will be much appreciated. I’m not posting any pictures with this update because I want to do a
lot and the webpage just won’t let me do that from my phone. Hopefully by next Tuesday I’ll have another update and so many pictures.
That’s all I’ve got for now. I can’t believe how quickly time has flown by with this trip!
