Children and Joy

Saturday, January 25th, 2014

A wonderful, crazy, intense, exhausting, exhilerating, and blessed day full of laughing children, singing songs, dancing like crazy, playing wayy too many intense games of hide and seek and "let's see how fast we can make Jenna run up the hill while she is carrying all of us," and once again falling in love way too fast and  way too hard with some beautiful children of God. It was one of those days that absolutely broke my heart and made it overflow with joy at the same time...

At 8:30 in the morning I met up with Nimsi, the woman I had met on the bus back from Panama. She and her beautiful  10 year old daughter Milenna took me to San Rafael, a town just outside of San Jose at the base of Montaña De La Cruz, a beautiful mountain range with visible crosses on the top. I hadn't realized it at first, but it was the same mountains I had climbed up with some friends on my last trip to Costa Rica. (If you look really hard you may be able to see the cross on the bump under the clouds to the left...)

After driving through the crazy traffic and going through a maze of countless turns, we arrived at Nimsi's house and church.

She immediately told me to make myself at home. We relaxed for a little bit in her tiny, comfortable house and talked about her ministry and the kids that would be coming at 10:00 for "Sunday school" on Saturday. Most of their church services are on Saturday as the "seventh day God rested" and Sunday is a day for family. We also discussed what acticities we could do with the kids to teach about temptation. We decided to use the anology of mice going for cheese in a mousetrap. (It was pretty fun getting to watch the kiddos comprehend how things that look good aren't always good for us.)

The first neightborhood kids arrived 9:15, and we headed out to walk around town and invite any kids we could find to come to our fun event. It was so cool to see kids so excited and willing to talk to other kids and invite them to hang out. :)

I can't get over how sweet all of the kids are. Even though they are so young themselves, they will do anything to take responsibility and help make sure their younger siblings are safe. 

At 10:00 we were back at the church for stories, short movies, crazy, joyful daning and singing, coloring, and lots and lots of games. They were so excited that I was there to help and they all wanted me to lead their games. I didn't know any of them, so they taught me. They taught me their games and words in Spanish and then I would teach them the words in English. So fun and soo much energy! 

Even so, I couldn't believe how respectful they all were, from the youngest four year old to the older 13 year olds, they all sat quietly and respectfully and listened when someone was talking.

(Nimsi teaching and asking questions.)

(Coloring time!!)

Every time we played a game I would hand out stickers to the winners, and after their games, I taught them the camp song "baby shark." Soo much fun!! We did it in English while teaching them the words and the meanings in Spanish. After that, the kids literally were singing "baby shark do do, dodododooo" alll day and would randomly stop whatever we were doing and ask me to sing it again. :)

After the main games, songs, and coloring, most of the kids left or went home for lunch. Nimsi served a delicious meal (then again, every meal down here is to dye for,) of tuna rice, creamed black beans, and fried plantains. The fried plantains are nasty and it definitely gets old having them at ever meal, but I dont think I will ever get tired of their countless ways to eat beans and rice.

After lunch several kids returned, begging me to play with them.

We played for hours, playing hide and seek, racing, climbing up walls trying to get on roofs, and my favorite (haha,) was when all off the kids simultaneously wares a piggy back ride, and if the back was full, they'd want on the front, or me to carry them, or to cling onto my leg...and then, they'd make me run. Ahh yes. I probably gained ten pounds of muscle and lost ten pounds of fat just from carrying them and running so much. :)

Finally, I led the kids to the nearby "pulperia" (store) and bought them all 20 cent popcicles. Buying kids treats is good for two things: 

1) Calming them down for two minutes and

2) Making them love you more. 

Ahhh they are all so precious!!! <3

And to prolong the inevitable of running around the town again, I convinced them all to take selfies with me, and let a few take some photos with my nice camera, but that just started a huge child war. Definitely not recommended. ;)

Moises. He made it his personal goal to teach me Spanish and especially for me to pronounce the rolling r correctly...great effort, but I think my "perrrrrro" will just be "Pero" for a little time yet... :(

Valia

Darion (with a shark sticker on his forehead)

This was Istrali's photo, but everyone else wanted to be in it, too...

Vanity was wonderful at helping me understand what all the othe kids were saying. While the others didn't understand why I couldn't talk to them, she always made sure to repeat what they said slowly and clearly for me to understand. Such a patient sweetheart. :)

Moises again, showing off the weird crab-like snail the kids found.

And Darion again, just because he was probably one of the most adorable children in the world. :}

The selfies didn't last and before I knew it, I was again racing all over town and giving piggyback rides and hiding and...dying. The kids have soo much energy!! At one point Nimsi shoed them all away and told me I needed to rest, so I did..for about three minutes. I figured I can sleep when I'm dead. Those kiddos needed me!

One of the hardest parts of the day though, was seeing just how poor some people live. Some of the kids were so tiny an skinny, and Nimsi told me one of the families lived in incredible poverty and in a really dangerous place, where people were constantly killed. 

San Rafael was "totally" safe as far as places go, but it was still simple and definitely didn't have any of the comforts that we have as Americans. While the kid's parents were at work, they were playing in the street. I don't think they are exactly the definition of "street kids," since most had families and homes, but all day there were countless kids, mostly boys, sitting along the road, drinking soda with friends, wearing their cool gangsta clothes and trying to do cool tricks with their (mostly old looking) bikes or skateboards. I'm not sure why, but it broke my heart and I just wanted to adopt them all and give them everything I have...but you know, I think they are happier there. 

Anyway, after playing for hours more (like, from noon to five,) Milenna and Sergio took me around town to show me a little farm! Always love seeing critters when I've been in the city awhile!

Then, Sergio raced me home... He's only ten, but he's soo fast. He beat me. Ha. He is in yellow, another precious boy came later. He was a sweetie, but I never got his name...

We got back in time for church, and wowweee, I have never seen a church with people so welcoming and full of joy! I'm not kidding when I say the churches and Christians down here are different. They sang like they were happy to be there, and I am pretty sure that nearly everyone in that tiny church came up to me, gave me a big hug, welcomed me, told me they loved me and how happy they were that I was there. During the service, they even specifically read slower so I could understand the Spanish. Who does that!?!? I felt so incredibly loved and important and welcomed into their little family. 

At the end of the day, after church, the children asked me to sing baby shark with them one more time, and then took turns hugging me tightly and begging me to stay or at least come back. One little girl even said I could live with her. My heart melted into a little pool of wax.

Then, as he said goodbye, my dear little Darion gave me a little plaque as a gift. So little, but so incredibly meaningful. 

I can't wait to go back. I don't know if it will be next week or next month or in two years, but Nimsi and her family welcomed me back at any time, and I know I'll be back to play with those precious souls again. :)

Return to the familiar...

It's funny how places can become familiar just by spending a few short weeks there. Coming back to San Pedro, Costa Rica is almost like coming back to a second home after spending so much time in unknown lands in Guatemala. Even though it's not particularly a beautiful place (...too many people, too many buses, too many cars, too much noise, too much pollution...) I find myself absolutely in love with everything that I had gotten to know so well last year.

For example, the bus system. In Costa Rica, you can get pretty much anywhere from anywhere by jumping on a bus that costs anywhere from .50 cents to $20. Almost everyone takes the bus to and from work (It would seem like almost everyone. There is still pleeenntttyyy of cars on the road though.) You walk to a bus stop at any of the billion locations located about every quarter mile, and wait for one or two out of a billion different buses to get where you want to go. Each bus has the price posted on the window, along with it's name and route or destination city. The bus stops and lets the masses of people off, and waits as the masses of new people climb on and pay their colones. Sometimes you are lucky enough to get a seat, but at other times the buses are so crowded that there is hardly room to stand in the aisle. To people who live here and ride the buses twice a day, every day, I'm sure that it is a pain and an annoyance, but simply the norm. To me, though....ha, well, I probably enjoy the squished bus rides a little too much. If you've read my posts in the past you know how I love the people, listening to them talk and laugh, and trying to understand more of their culture. 

Okay, so that was a long example. Due to time/lack thereof/lazy blogger, I'm pretty much writing what comes and leaving it unedited. My apologizes for extremely long and boring posts as I try to process everything in my brain. :)

So, back to life...

Saturday, Kayla and I pretty much just took the day to relax and unwind after our crazy travels back from Panama. We walked around Alejuela enjoying the live music and talking to random people in the park and at shops, practicing Spanish as well as randomly going up and talking to strangers! It is really a great way to make friends...

Sunday, I couldn't believe that we'd already been in Costa Rica for two weeks! We caught a bus to the airport where I said goodbye to Kayla, praying that she'd survive the airport despite knowing any Spanish. (I worry about these things.) Thankfully, she got back to the states with no problems, and I continued on to my beloved San Pedro. (This consisted of continuing on the bus from the airport to downtown San Jose, walking about a mile with my enormous life-for-two-months backpack, and catching another bus to San Pedro.) Once in San Pedro, I checked into the wonderful Hostel Urbana. Definitely one of my favorite hostels that I have ever stayed in. It is extremely clean, cozy, comfortable, has amazing and helpful staff, warm showers, a sitting room, breakfast, and its a perfect place to meet fellow backpackers! Love it. :)

I had originally been planning to stay there for this whole week, but on Monday morning I was walking to Maximo Nivel (Best volunteer organization ever...but thanks to amazing experiences last year, I am now biased) to sign up for Spanish classes (And see my wonderful friends who work there!) when I ran into my host mom!! It's always amazing to see people that you know and love out of the blue. She was showing a new volunteer how to get from her house to Maximo without getting lost and dying (Yes, exaggeration.) So, she welcomed me into her home for the week and we made a deal for bed and all meals covered. Wooo! God is good! 

At Maximo, I signed up for Spanish classes and started right away Monday afternoon. It is so incredible to be back at Maximo. It is such a great place to meet other like-minded people who love to travel and experience and meet people. I had signed up for a group Spanish class, but my "group" consists of me and one other girl. Perfect way to get a lot of one-on-one attention and learn from a teacher who was born and raised a Spanish speaker. So far, I absolutely love it (and him as a teacher and my classmate!) and wish that I had more time (and money...) to just stay in Costa Rica and learn Spanish.

Hmmmm, so long boring details cut short, I have been staying at my host mom's house, walking from there to Maximo instead of taking the super packed buses, (its about a two mile hike, but thanks to the amazing food my mom cooks, I need the excersize! Besides, who doesn't love saving 50 cents??) taking Spanish classes, and meeting wonderful volunteers. 

My classes go until Friday, and then I will meet up with my Guatemala travel buddy Bethany (SO EXCITED!!) and we will head north for awhile, where we will eventually split and I will head to Nicaragua (pray that I meet travel buddies...I love traveling alone, but border crossings can be such a pain if you're by yourself) and she'll head south. I am really excited to move on, do some more traveling, meet more people, and learn more about this crazy culture, but I am definitely enjoying being in my comfort zone for a few days. Of course, those are only the current plans, and we all know how well I stick to the plan... 

Much love from polluted-yet-wonderful San Pedro. :)

The Typical (not so typical) Day Of Travel

Early Friday morning we packed up and left Panama. Our dear friends took us to the bus station where we got on the big coach bus and headed back towards Costa Rica.

The border crossing started out being a nightmare, but we prayed ourselves through it and by some miracle we survived and only waited around there for two or three hours.

That might sound bad, but I was pretty happy considering how it started out. Basically, when we reached the border we were told to turn around...and pretty much drove to the end of a mile long line of semis. After sitting there for maybe 10 minutes (give or take a few) and not moving, the driver got a call and we made our way to the front. We were directed off the bus, grabbed our luggage and crammed into a small room. Our bags were lined up in the center, and we were lined up along the wall behind tall tables. They did roll call, and then let a drug dog in. We were silent as the dog did his job, and of course the dog stopped and super-sniffed our bags. Darn hostel cats! But the process went smoothly, and besides being intimidated by being lined up along the wall, no problems.

From there we were sent to the end of a mile long line of people waiting to get their passports stamped to exit the country. 

We stood in that line for awhile...before we were told that there was a special line for us. A few minutes later, we were stamped and ready to walk the no-mans-land to Costa Rica entrance stamps.

That was simple, (the Costa Rican border control officers are much more friendly and understanding than the Panamanians for some reason) and after standing and then sitting and waiting for awhile we were told we would be waiting for another hour before we could get our bags checked and head out. 

Great. For those of you who travel, you probably know that sometimes sitting and waiting can be the most tiring part of traveling. Probably because you actually let yourself breathe in between crazy border crossing stress. It's rediculous...and exciting. As long as you keep in mind that you ARE okay and the world doesn't revolve around you, everything is fine. :)

While we were waiting a man came around asking for money for a school or some other kids activity. He said in exchange for a donation he would give us a sucker. I gave him some, and he was so greatful that he gave me two suckers! Ha. I'm not sure if I gave him money to help to kids or to get the yummy mango sucker.... Hahaa. Okay, that was a little bit off topic...

So, after waiting around for a while longer, we were finally herded into a big cage like animals. Okay, not really. But we were in a huge cage like box. We stood in line with our migration papers and bags waiting to have our bag checked. For some reason, I am always intimidated by bag checks. I don't think I have ever had anything remotely questionable in my bags, but somehow the possibility of a big scary Costa Rican border control officer going through my bag and potentially throwing everything out on the table and forcing me to repack (or explain why I have some random travel item in my bag) freaks me out a little. And for the record, they are usually pretty good with me. (The blonde woman tourist look must not be very suspicious for drug trafficking.) So I got to the table and started to open my bag and the guy just shook his head and waved me through. Ha! Never have had it quite that good. I don't think anyone else got that lucky either...especially the guys who came through with baggy black clothes, long hair, and countless tattoos and piercings. Word of advice: if you are one of the baggy clothes/long hair/tattoos/piercing guys, then unless you want to repack everything you own, you might want to cut your hair and wear your best dress and look like a rich business guy. Err maybe don't look rich. Just don't pack much and you'll be fine. ;)

Just a side note, we had the greatest bus driver ever. Because we had bought our tickets so early we were sitting near the front. The bus driver was so sweet, helpful, and hilarious. I sincerely hope that every poor pathetic soul (like me) that ever has to cross a border without having the slightest clue what they're doing gets a bus driver like him. I'm not sure if we would have made it without him. :)

After getting successfully back into Costa Rica, we enjoyed our six hour bus ride (Kayla next to an ornery fat guy and me next to a beautiful, sweet young lady who knew a decent amount of English and had started a church with her husband! Sorry, Kayla...) back to San Jose...And then for some reason we made this stupid decision to catch a taxi to Alejuela instead of staying in San Jose...

Another word of advice: watch out for the taxi drivers! Seriously, more often than mot, they are rediculosuly dishonest people that will do anything they can to get as much money as possible from you. Almost every hostel has a huge notice saying: WATCH OUT FOR TAXI DRIVERS!!! They will lie and tell you we are full or take you to another hostel that will pay them commission to bring new guests or pretend to be lost to rack up your miles.

That's exactly what happened, so I am really glad we had that warning from the hostel. We told him where we wanted to go and he said that hostel was bad and would cheat you. Instantly both Kayla and I argued and said we wanted to go there. Then, he started saying he didn't know where that hostel was but he knew a better one (huh...I thought he knew it because he knew it was bad. That's funny...) and then, as he was saying he didn't know where the hostel was, he made a call to "get directions." Then we were told that the girl from the hostel couldn't help because she was in San Jose. (Ahaha. Big joke.) Annywayy, we finally got him to let us out to walk and find it ourselves (he happened to let us out right outside of it) and luckily we had gotten him to agree on a set price before we started, or I am sure we would have had a rediculous milage fee...

So this is the part where I say we found the hostel, got a room and lived happily ever after... I wish.

We went inside to find that it was pretty expensive (really nice, but $17 a night is way out of my price range) so we got directions to another hostel, walked a mile to get there (literally. Maybe two.) and found out they were full...at that point the girl who had been helping us left, so Kayla and I got the name of another hostel, walked everywhere to find it, didn't find it, asked for directions about 10 times, almost got robbed by a crazy gangster (thank you Jesus for angels who intervened, that was seriously the most scared I've been on my travels. He kept after us asking for money, then we went in a store to get away from him and thought he was gone, but he stepped out of the shadows as we exited. Eeeehhh.) 

After that we were soo sick of walking around with our huge bags, we were tired (it was close to 9 at night) soo, we hopped into a taxi, he took us to the hostel, dropped us off, charged us $20 for the mile drive, and left... wait, what? Yeah. Aparently after traveling all day in different countries and time zones and currencies we were done using our brains. We were pretty frustrated, but thannnkk God the hostel had rooms AND they were really great!! ...even though they laughed a little too much at our stupidity for falling for the taxi driver cheating us. 

Ahh well. Here we are, safe and alive. :)

Panama Part 2 - Adventures and animals and a little bit of coffee...

After a long night of loud music and waking up a few times to people coming in from partying and never ending loud music (to the point of when I woke up Sunday morning and there was no music or loud bass I was honestly surprised,)

We got up and ate some fruit and yogurt before heading out to a coffee tour. I've had several opportunities to go on a coffee tour but never took one, but Kayla was really excited about the agricultural experience so I agreed. 

It was really interesting learning about famous panama coffee that is all pre-purchased by the queen of England and sold for $350 a pound. Giesa coffee. Aparently it tastes just like all the other coffee, though. 

We learned about different types of coffee plants (sea level, high altitude, and instant coffee) as well as different brews and that there actually isn't more caffeine in darker brews, there is actually less, the bean is just more burnt.

We also learned about the mist that acts like a magnifying glass to the sun and actually burns the leaves. 

Super interesting and fun to see a crop farm in another country. This particular place only had about 40 coffee trees. Did you know coffee grows as a red or yellow berry? We decided that coffee tastes better that way, straight off the plant.

The farm doesn't have big machines like we do in America. Everything is done by hand and all of the machines were made by the owner out of old car engines and random parts. He was kind of a genius. 

Besides that, all of the ripe berries are picked by hand, and during harvest season tons of laborers are hired for 2$ or 3$ a bucket that they fill. They pick every berry by hand and manually carry them from the fields back to the shop. 

(Our tour guide, Felix, demonstrating how bags are filled.)

After the tour we checked out of our hostel and said goodbye to the sweet owner and little devil kitten Tarzan.

From there we headed to church. I'm not sure how many people read this blog, or how many people really know me, but if you know anything about me, you probably know that I love Jesus, but I pretty much hate American churches (American Christianity in general. That's a whole different story.) but! I would probably live in a church in Panama. They are so different! (Not just the language.)

The people are so welcoming, despite me not really speaking their language. The first time I went into a church down there, people kept coming up and with incredible joy asking me if I knew Jesus. That's all that mattered to them. They teach straight from the Bible, and the worship is so real. The thing down in Panama is that they aren't into faking. If they don't want to be in church, they aren't. If they aren't committed to living a holy life set apart for God, they don't pretend to be. They don't go to church and play the part of good Christian and then go get drunk and sleep around. They aren't hypocrites, and it is beautiful.

Church was fantastic, if anything negative, just a little intimidating because they are at a pretty deep level spiritually with God, and the fact that God heals and does miracles just by his people asking - even today, it just blows my mind. We're kind of taught in America that that doesn't happen anymore.

After church we were invited to dinner at our friends house, and what started as an invitation to dinner became five days of being welcomed into this family's home for eating, sleeping, and their daily activities.

(My Panama siblings!! Love them all!)

I won't make everyone jealous/bore you with long details, but I'll give you a few pictures with simple explanations. I know that's all you want anyway :)

On Monday we headed to the canyons were we jump down into the crystal clear water below, then climb up the steep rock cliffs. This is one of my favorite activities in Panama, especially when I made it up the difficult spot that I had tried to climb for two days last year but couldn't make it! The best part is that when I made it to the top all the panama guys couldn't believe that an American girl was capable of it and they were clapping and in awe, aha. Farm girl muscles. Yeyeah. (I have never seen a girl make it up there, only Panamanians who climb like monkeys and one or two strong travelers. Needless to say, I was pretty proud.:)

And just so you don't start thinking I'm too awesome, this is what Panamanians do on a regular basis:

It might be a little hard to tell, but he is using all arm strength to pull himself up over basically nothing after climbing up by gripping slippery nothingness on the rocks. Yeah. No. I didn't even try.

Tuesday was a relaxing day hanging out at the house and then heading into town. We visited a gringo market but I was annoyed at all the English speakers (try to learn the language, don't be a tourist!) and we headed up the mountain overlooking the town. 

Wednesday, we had planned to move on and say goodbye, but God kept planning things in His way...our plans haven't meant much so far on this trip. Then again, I guess they usually don't. :}

So instead, we stayed with our beautiful friends and went to their church youth group.

The day was spent playing tennis and soccer, practicing Spanish, and watching the Panama teen boys be crazy typical show offs by being stupid and doing stunts as they jumped in the pool. 

Seriously, I'm not really sure how no one ended up at the hospital. (Jumping into the baby pool is not a good idea, just for the record.)

And there isn't a specific day of awesomeness, but a huge highlight of the week was the farm critters. Ahh yes, those farm animals...

We ran into the baby moos (calves) on a walk one day, and the neighbors of our family just let their horses run around, so, when one of the horses ran to attack one of the small children, I got permission to "do whatever I wanted" to train her not to attack. Day made. 

For quite awhile I got to work with one of the most disrespectful horses I've ever met. 

"Nievia" was really smart though, and even though she definitely wasn't enjoying working with me, after awhile she got the idea that I was the boss, not her, and we may have even ended on somewhat of "we're friend" terms.

Another highlight: fresh fruit! Never ending berries and oranges! :D

Oh yeah, and we found a scorpion. That was pretty awesome, too!

Thursday we said goodbye to our wonderful family and met up with some missionary's from Wisconsin! They work with a YWAM (youth with a mission) base and were so welcoming to us and more than happy to show us around! And, there were more horses! :D

This is Balboa, one of the smartest and most beautiful horses I've ever worked with...besides my horse anyway. :)

He is a Peruvian Paso and 100% different from Nievia. So well trained and respectful, and his owner even taught me a thing or two about round pen training! Such a cool experience to see the horse responding so well just to my body language. 

So that has been my week in a very small nutshell! Today, back to Costa Rica to search for unimaginable adventures. :) 

Much love to all!