The dealio.
What is it, anyway?
I want to write you all something eloquent and well thought out; however, all I've got are these scrambled thoughts of a lone World Racer:
Well, I suppose a good place to start is the answer to the question, “What the heck are you doing over there? Where is 'over there' anyway?” Spice of Life and I were shuffled off our international flight into the heart of San José at the beginning of January. From there we resided somewhere between the little town of San Homberto and Los Chiles, Costa Rica. We stayed with our wonderful hosts, Tony and Rosa, for the whole month. We stayed in their pavilion style abode, sleeping in bunk beds, helping out in the open air kitchen and washing in the unheated showers- which actually was far more refreshing than we initially thought possible. So Fundación Resplandecer is an organization which takes in troubled youth, giving these young men the space and capability to grow in a safe environment; however, when we arrived these boys were on their school vacation. We were then able to help with a great vision that was held by Tony and Rosa to construct a sanctuary atop a mountain just down the road instead. The Lord had given them this dream eight years ago and were finally in a place financially, manpower-wise and spatially to achieve this project. So we worked with our hands to clear the pathway up the mountain with machetes and hoes and rakes. We then carved out the clay earth (well, a small part of it( small part being multiple metric tons (literally))), to start the foundation where the steps were to be laid. We also made the steps. We became tenacious with a hand saw while constructing their wooden frames and achieved pro-status as far as mixing concrete goes. Oh, and I found some new muscle- that was exciting, heh. 😀
Let's see, closing thoughts.. Well, Spice of Life is pretty much the best thing since sliced bread. I am so blessed to have them as my comrades for this year! Manual labor has a peculiar way in providing for story telling to pass the hours on despite our bodies being so busy. Card games have never been so popular in my life and it's all because of these folks. Teeth brushing parties are real and legitimate, especially in the times that we look like we've been stricken with rabies because we're laughing too much in the midst of it. Oh, yes, and without fail my team collectively turned into pumpkins beyond eight o'clock pm. I've never had the joy of experiencing such regimented slaphappyness, haha.
Also, the wildlife is astounding on this side of reality. We've seen monkeys and all types of birds, toads the size of Texas and moths to match them. A venomous snake slithered near our kitchen one morning (chopped in half by Tony with one of his twenty handy machetes, huzzah) and we discovered some poisonous tree frogs while on the mountain trail. The greenery is straight out of Jurassic Park in some places and the living example of rolling hills in others. The variety of life is enormous here! Oh yeah, and there are spiders the size of pancakes here, seriously.
Stay tuned for more of what the heck is going on! I'll be blogging far more often, I promise. <3
And don't forget to pray for us, please!!
Agape!
