We arrived in El
Carpio, Costa Rica last Monday evening. The first night in C.R. we slept at our contacts house in San Jose;
capital of C. R. Early Tuesday morning
we hitched a ride on three different buses to get us here to Carpio. When we arrived we were shocked. This place was not what we all had in
mind. We were thinking that our
destination was going to be a land field of garbage, sewage, and filth. That we were going to find a village of Costa
Rican people living on the land field. And that we were going to rough it and ‘camp-out’ on the slums for the
next month. We were all ready for
it! We were all ready to “live like
the locals do” no matter what that looked like. But expectations can be deceiving with little
information given to us before we arrived in Costa Rica. The favor of the Lord is upon us. My team and I freaked out when we got off
that last bus and walked up to the address that was written on our little
napkin. We had arrived at our
destination. For the next three weeks we
will be ministering along side an organization called New Horizons.
Carpio is a piece of
land near the capital of Costa Rica. It
has been over populated by immigrants from Nicaragua who have come here for a
better life. It has been over taken by
Nicaraguans illegally but the government of Costa Rica have allowed them to
stay. However, they have been limited to
only staying within the boundaries of Carpio and the racism outside of Carpio
is extreme. Costa Rican citizens have
strong feels against Nicaraguans and violence arises often. Carpio is like a suburb made up of homes and
family owned stores. The stores are
limited to cokes, chips, candies, and the basic hygiene products such as trial
size shampoos and laundry soaps. There
are no street markets but there are a few street venders pedaling tacos, fried
chicken, and tortillas. There are a few
corners on the street that people sell raw meats hanging on giant hooks,
veggies and exotic fruits, and brown eggs. The stores are only accessible off
the street sidewalk through a barred window. You just point and tell them what you want and they hand it to you
through the bars. And it’s usually
expired by a year or two. One time we
bought some vanilla cookies that were like Oreos. When we opened the bag, the icing of the
cookies were neon green!! Then we
checked the date on the bag and they were two years old expired!!! But, we ate them anyways; LOL. We were hungry at the time and couldn’t
stomach the idea of eating another corn tortilla. The homes range from cement blocks that
share a common wall on either side or scraps of metal and boxes. The population has become so packed that houses
have been rented out by rooms. A family
of eight will live in a room as big as a typical kitchen in the states. And in the room next to them will live
another family. The children grow up
seeing all the intimacy of there parents at night. And sexual abuse is common with the adults to
children and with children to children because of the close setting they all
live in. I met a 20yr old girl named
Marisa and her 5yr old daughter, Tonya, the other day. I visited with them briefly and then went on
my way not thinking twice about them. Later that day I learned that Marisa was not just the mother of Tonya
but also the sister of her to. The
father had did what he had always done to Marisa since she was 5yr old; until
one day she got pregnant. Marisa grew up
with extreme hatred towards her family and this baby that lived inside her and
she ran away from home. She didn’t want
Tonya to be born and started to look for ways out of her ‘problem’. But this missionary organization reached out to Marisa during her pregnancy. They counseled her, gave her grade school
education (she had never been to school), provided everything she needed for
the pregnancy and later for the baby, and ministered God’s love and disciple
her in the Word. Today, Marisa still
works for this ministry and reaches out to other girls with the same life
story. And she loves her daughter deeply
and unconditionally.
New Horizons is a
organization that is staffed and directed by Costa Rican locals and Nicaraguan
immigrants who are filled with the Spirit and have a calling and passion to
help and serve this Nicaraguan people. They offer many services for the youth of this city and they are split
up by boys and girls. They offer three
programs for the girls which include counseling and discipling, grade
schooling, and soccer teams. And the
org. mentors the boys while building lasting relationships as they grow into
adulthood.
come soon about Carpio, this ministry that we’re helping, and how my team is
doing this month in a continued blog…
