Well, we are finally settled in to our second month of our journey. The plans were to go somewhere in Nicaragua … instead we’ve been called to Costa Rica. I’m sure you can imagine how insanely excited we were when we found out that we were coming here, let alone the ONLY team coming here. We are working and living outside the city of San Jose in the slum city Carpio – a complete 180 from where we were in Guatemala last month. We are working with the youth through an organization called New Horizons, and we basically play sports and games with them, do Bible studies, and help out with the girls that come there for math and English classes. New Horizons is pretty much a safe haven for the youth to come and get away from their everyday life.
The city is built right outside of the landfill for San Jose, and there is only one way in and one way out. It’s a very poor community, therefore it’s common to have 6-8 people living in a room the size of a horse stall… usually dirt floors and no windows, so the only natural light source they have comes from the front door. A lot of the families are so poor that they only can afford to eat one meal a day – so when the kids come here to play it almost feels like a sin to make ourselves lunch. Drugs and alcohol are a huge problem, and the amount of crime related to theft is ridiculous. Since we’ve been here there has been a stabbing on the main road outside of our campus, and a shooting at one of the bus stops – all presumably having to do with drugs or robbery for money for drugs, or food, or anything else they may need.
She is just one story out of many… the children’s views of relationships and family life are so distorted and twisted that they found it surprising that the women on my team had never had any kids. They have no positive role models in their lives except for the people at New Horizons, and groups like us that come in to show them hope and love.
