catching up (part 1)

March 14

Today we (the Plain City group and I) continued to work at La Tabla. I spent the morning shoveling dirt from one side of the wall into buckets so it could be hauled to the other side. I they are trying to fill in the space between the wall and the bank of the creek. After lunch we continued with our work but it began to rain (and it Costa Rica it doesn't sprinkle or drizzle, it pours). We all were forced to come inside (which was a bummer because we couldn't work) but then we got to spend the rest of the afternoon playing with kids (which was really really fun). We played lots of different games and it was so fun just hanging out. After it was raining for a while I looked outside and the river was huge. All the water was rushing down and it looked really dangerous. It was shocking to see it transform like that. It really made me think about what they have to deal with. It has to be so scary to think that not only could you home be flooded, but if you home isn't sturdy enough it could get washed away. I can't even imagine that but is a reality for some of the people here.

March 15

It is crazy to think that I have been in Costa Rica for over a month and I have only 2 weeks left. Time has flown by! And while I am looking forward to Granada and seeing another part of Central America, I have realized that I am really going to miss everyone here in Costa Rica. The people have been so amazing to me and giving, especially Bella Flor and her whole family. I feel like I have families in three countries now- US, the Netherlands, and Costa Rica. Not only that but I have another church community that I care about. Before this trip I would have never thought that I would like going to a pentecostal-y church but not only do I not mind, I actually like it. It's not really my first choice and I have attended churches here that I like the worship style better but the people here are so amazing and so strong it totally makes the church.

March 16

Today I went to church with a different group that is at PVM from the Mennonite Educational Institute (MEI) in Canada. The church is really close to the area they are going to be working in, a neighborhood called La Quinca (I don't really know how it's spelled, I am guess guessing). After church, all the students went to their homestays and I went with Delynn and the leaders of the MEI group (Rick and Nancy) to La Quinca to look at where we (I will be joining them) will be working. When I went there, I was actually quite overwhelmed. It is a lot bigger than La Tabla. La Quinca has about 800 families and from where we were, we just kept seeing more and more little shacks that were peoples homes. The size is just staggering. La Tabla is much smaller and the houses (for the most part) are actual houses. In La Quinka, all of the houses are made out of sheet metal that is kind of patch worked together to make walls ceilings, etc. However, in La Tabla, I am much more aware of the presence of drugs. Maybe in La Quinca, there is more space for drug dealers to live out of the main pathways, I don't know. It will be interesting to compare and contrast the two areas and to observe the differences and to try to figure out why they occur.

March 17

Well guess what I am doing in La Quinca? Yep, shoveling dirt and gravel to make cement. I seriously can't get away from this! It turns out, one of the jobs that we are doing here is moving a bridge that PVM build over the summer. the sides of the creek are eroding away so they are making a concrete base a few feet from where it is now and moving it there. So , because of this, I spent the majority of my day up at the top of this hill watching the dirt to make sure no one took it (it would all be gone if no one kept an eye on it) and then shoveling the dirt for the people who were wheelbarowing. It was kind of a dull job and it was really hot when the van wasn't there for me to sit in while I was waiting but I think that one day of boring work wouldn't ruin my trip but if someone from the MEI had to do it, it could put a damper on the three days they would be at La Quinca- especially when they could be making a irrigation ditch for sewage water!

March 18

Well today was pretty sweet. I went with the Plain City group for their last day in Costa Rica and we went to see a volcano! It was so cool! We were up so high and we looked down but instead of lava in a little hole in the bottom of the crater there was a pond of green (acid?) water. It was totally not what I was expecting but it was really awesome. One kind of freaky thing is that in the parking lot everyone has to park with the front of their car facing out so that was if something happens everyone can scatter quicker! That information freaked me out a little (volcano kind of scare me since a saw this movie about a volcano erupting and people melting in acid water and dying in boiling hot springs and dying in lava) but nothing really exciting happened so it was all good.

After we were at the volcano we went into San Jose and went to this souvenir market. It was pretty nifty. . . but we had to barter. Uh oh. I haven't covered bartering in my spanish class or in the spanish I was speaking here and I have suffered humiliations from when my dad made comments to people about thins being to expensive and now I was supposed to do the same thing! Yikes! A couple times I got the leaders from the Plain City group to help me because the were both fluent but I did use my skills once to get a three dollar magnet down to 2 dollars! I was a really touristy day but I got to see some sweet things (like a hat for sale that had dreadlocks attached to it) and I had a lot of fun hanging out with the PC group.

March 19

I was back in La Quinca today.and I can just say, If there is any project involving cement when I am on SWAP (a mission trip I am taking with my youth group in Kentucky), It is totally going to be no big deal. All morning I mixed cement. We didn't wimp out and use a mashing either, we did it Costa Rican style and mixed it on the ground. It was really hard work but, it made me fell really hard core, so it was all good.

We packed our lunches but when lunch time came, the homestay family of three of the boys brought up lunch! It was so nice of them! Apparently, they were the poorest homestay family but they wanted to house three boys and they bought lunch for us! I can't believe how giving they were. It makes you think of things you think about doing but you find an excuse not to, These people just gave so much to people that they hardly know. I know we didn't do that with when we had a study abroad student in our home.