My muscles are growing. My stomach is full of rice (a whole lot of rice). My sweat glands are putting in extra time. My clothes smell like mildew and mud. My emergency snacks are already gone. On the other hand, my face is tired of smiling so much because I am living with 11 other incredible people and we have the opportunity to build a church in the middle of a gorgeous Costa Rican jungle! We even see monkeys on our way to work.
I never imagined that my team and I would be hauling ginormous palm tree leaves up a staircase dug into the hillside leading to the sanctuary for 7 hours a day, or that I would be maneuvering some seriously sketchy scaffolding 20 feet up in the air, pretending to be way less terrified than I actually was. I guess I didn’t really imagine that we would be going on “fruit tours”, literally just walking around with our Costa Rican friend and eating all the different kinds of fruit we found (there are these spiky, round fruits with giant grapes inside dubbed monkey balls by us all). I definitely didn’t imagine how easy it would be to overlook the annoying little things the people I am with do that bother me because when you love then so stinkin much, it’s impossible to be angry over the little stuff that doesn’t matter.
So. Hi everyone! If you are reading this just to make sure that I’m not dead and stuff, you’re all good, this is me officially telling you that I am alive and well. If that’s all you need, go ahead and sign off, but if you want to hear how Costa Rica has been treating us, keep on rolling!
Let’s get down to business. Thank you so so so much for everything you all did to help get me here! Thank you for not shutting me down right off the bat when I had this crazy idea to possibly pursue The World Race instead of heading straight to school, for buying shirts from me (shoutout to Mom for dealing with all that after I left), for ordering coffee from me and tipping me ridiculous amounts, for the graduation money and donations, for letters and notes to read along the way, for the prayers, and for sharing my excitement as I prepped for this ADVENTURE THAT INVOLVES PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I LOVE MOST IN THE WORLD. Thank you a whole stinkin lot.
Like i mentioned above, half of our week consists of building a church in the middle of a jungle farmland, sometimes with no one but us trying to figure out the best way to move scaffolding without dying is or how exactly you nail a split palm branch onto a roof in the pouring rain. It’s crazy! It’s hard and tiring and new and rewarding and exciting and I’m completely convinced sweating with people is the absolute best bonding experience. Really though. If you have an issue with someone, I would highly suggest working a day of manual labor with them until you are both too exhausted to remember what the issue even was! Two days a week, we head to a kids camp that is similar to a youth group. We teach them english songs about Jesus, eat with them, play games, struggle through the language barrier (some of us struggling more than others), and just share some of Christ’s love with them. They are so welcoming to us! They let us crazy American gringos just jump in and hangout with them. I only made two kids cry on our first day too! Not even that bad. The first was a 4 year old girl who I was trying to convince to come play games with the group. She was sticking close by her mom, so I was tickling her and chasing her around to try and unglue her from mama. We were just having fun, going back and forth around her mom, when she tripped over my foot! Naturally, I reached down to catch her before a catastrophic fall took place, but obviously I am much taller than she is, so when I reached down to catch her I may have possibly accidentally not on purpose in any way shape or form latched onto her hair as she fell… I would have cried too if I were her. And remember how we were playing right next to her mom? Yep. Of course, she saw the whole thing. Worst missionary ever. I surprised they didn’t kick me out or something! But her head was fine, her hair (thankfully) did not rip our of her scalp, he mom didn’t claw me to death, and we even set our differences aside and played together a few minutes later! 4 year olds are the best like that 🙂 I’m pretty sure for the other crying kid, I just looked at him and he started bawling. Definitely not ready to have kids yet, in case you were wondering.
We have some pretty sweet adventure days too, especially the day our Costa Rican friend took us to a natural hot springs and we got to just sit. And relax. And soak in the beautiful place we were in. We also made sure to sit upstream in case it was acceptable in Central American cultures to like pee in the hot springs water or something. You never know.
The thing with the language barrier is basically the simple fact that people speak spanish here and I don’t. I mean, you know it’s bad when you try to ask your middle aged, married Costa Rican friend if he wants you to hand him a coconut and your spanish speaking team mate informs you that you just told him you loved him. No joke. I’m completely serious when I say “No hablo espaniol”.
In case you were wondering, we have all the feelings and stuff here too. There are the days when you feel so sure of yourself and ecstatic to be here, and there are the days when you are questioning your very existence and the role God has set before us to try and figure out. One thing is for sure though, it is the most comforting feeling in the world to be surrounded by eight sisters and 3 brothers who are there for you in every way possible. They are always ready to sit down and talk about whatever is going on. They are always ready to lend a shoulder to cry on. They are always ready to give hugs and sing for two straight hours in a bumpy van ride and share their toothpaste or even offer up their clean underwear. Wait that last one was a joke! (That would be kinda gross. No sharing underwear). Community is something so lacking in America. We have our families, yes, but we don’t have community. The Lord designed us to be surrounded by other people who understand us and want us to grow to look more like Him, and there is and always will be such a gap in our lives until we find that. So seek it out! Find those people who make your heart sing and feel loved. Invest in friendships that matter and in people who want to do life with you, messiness and all. So much of life is finding the people who help us to view ourselves as Jesus views us. And guess what? You deserve that! You should have that. God wants you to stop filling up on the crap we put ourselves through and start filling up on His never ending grace and the beautiful parts He created in us. So go searching for the people who will help you up when you fall and who will walk with you through life and who will most importantly offer to share their underwear with you, even if you respond with “no, that’s gross, but thanks”.
With that, I’m going to close out this somewhat random blog. Killin here in Costa Rica for two more weeks, then headed to the beach in Nicaragua. So pumped!! Wifi is limited here, but as always, email me at [email protected] or facebook message me (phone is shut off) if you need anything. I love you all. Thanks for following up on my adventure so far!!
P.S. I almost broke my ankle, but no worries, it’s all good now
P.S.S. No, I still have not shaved my legs
