It’s been a week since my last update, and it’s been quite a week! We made it safely to Costa Rica, first for a night in San Jose and then to La Vigía, a small community about 30
minutes outside Nicoya where we’ve been doing ministry. I’ll post some pictures in a second post that hopefully will go through, but I’ll leave it to the reader to figure out which picture there goes with which description in this post.
Our first few days here were pretty light. We arrived early afternoon on Wednesday and were shown around and introduced to people and given lunch. We settled in and walked around
La Vigía, just figuring out where we were and enjoying the views. Everything is super green here right now since it’s the rainy season.
On Thursday, we took a very full bus into Nicoya and we got a tour from Pastor Vasilio. I got to pet a wild iguana and drink some coconut milk while we were there, which was really
cool.
Friday was our adventure day (we get that once a week) and our squad decided to go to Playa Tamerindo on the Pacific Ocean for the day. Victoria, one of our squad leaders, taught
me and the pastor’s son, Axel, how to surf. I was not great at it, but I had a lot of fun!
On Saturday, the church hosted children’s ministry in the afternoon, and quite a few of us helped with that or served in some other capacity. One of the trees on the church property
had a bunch of mamones that were ripe, so I got to try those, and they were pretty good! Mamones are a fruit with a big pit in a green shell that you have to split open to eat. There isn’t much that can actually be eaten, but it’s sweet and tart and yummy. In
the evening, our squad was invited to a local cultural event, which turned out to be a concert hosted by a group called Unez from San Jose. They played marimbas (I think that’s the right word; tired brain is kicking in at the moment), and I don’t think I stopped
smiling the entire time they were playing! It was so much fun to listen to, and I’m so glad we got to be a part of that.
On Sunday we had church. Because our beds are on the floor of the sanctuary, we had to move all our belongings into a side building before church, which was interesting. I enjoyed
the church service, but it was also difficult because it was entirely in Spanish and I could only pick out a word here and there that the pastor said. In the afternoon, most of the squad went in to Nicoya to get stuff at the store or get a bit of wifi since
a lot of us don’t have service (or at least good service) at the church. I stayed back with some people and played Go Fish and watched a soccer game and taught some Costa Rican friends how to play Dutch blitz. It was a wonderful afternoon, for sure.
Monday is when the rubber really hit the road for our squad. Pastor Vasilio had three options for us to do. We could choose to pick up trash along roads, visit church members/locals
and talk with and pray for them, or do a manual labor project. I decided to go for the third option for the day, and my group walked down the road a ways with a shovel and a pickaxe and helped to clear out several ditches so that the yards nearby wouldn’t
flood like they do every time it rains (and it being rainy season, it rains a lot). We only worked about four and a half hours total, but by the end we all were worn out and soaked from some combination of rain, sweat, and muddy ditch water. The community
was great, and it was a wonderful bonding experience. I now have a lovely ampoya (blister) on my hand and am noticing my back a bit more when I’m trying to sleep on my mat on the floor.
Today, as a result of that, I opted for a moderately lighter version of service by picking up trash. My group was dropped offs ways down the road toward Nicoya and we walked up several
roads and picked up what we could. We stopped once at a family’s house where they graciously gave us cheese crackers and Coca Cola, which really hit the spot. We were able to pray with the
lady of the house before we left too, and that was a cool experience. In the afternoon, I went with 6 others from my squad and Pastor Vasilio to Juanita’s house for a weekly Bible study. Juanita is a sassy 89-year-old lady who showered us in hugs and kisses
and cried when it was time for us to leave and really just made us feel like we belonged. We had a great time getting rained in on her porch with her family, and I thoroughly enjoyed the bowl of soup I received back at the church afterwards.
I have really loved being here in La Vigía so far. There is so much more emphasis on relationships here than in the U.S. I don’t know how many times I’ve looked out into the porch
outside the kitchen and seen 3 or 4 people just sitting in chairs enjoying each other’s company for an hour or two, be that in the middle of the day during coffee time or later in the evening when it’s cooling off and kids are running around in chaotic playtime.
I’ve already tried more fruits than I can keep track of (I do try to get pictures of them though!) and although I am not very good at understanding Spanish, the people here are so generous and gracious and patient that I genuinely feel that they are giving
me more than I could ever repay in the few short weeks my squad is here for. I’m excited to see what the rest of this month holds. Challenges, for sure, but also growing in relationships, both with the people around me in my squad and the community and also
with God, who is going to have to fuel me with His strength because I already know I’m not gonna make it through this by myself.
