Yes, another country another blog about the logistics of what I am doing on the World Race. I find these blogs some of the most important because they simply inform those who are following my journey of what I am doing on the field, where I am staying, and ultimately give an insight to my life on the World Race. If there is anything that you think would enhance these blogs, please let me know! This month I am in Jacó, Costa Rica. This country was one of the countries that I was the most excited about because I seem to have a personal connection to here! My sister-in-law, Diana, grew up in Costa Rica and it was the first place my brother traveled to outside of the United States. Because of this, I couldn’t wait to come and serve a country that gave me one of my biggest blessings; a happy brother and a new sister-in-law!
Country Overview:
Location – Jacó, Costa Rica
Language – Spanish
Currency – Colónes ($1 USD = around 600 Colónes)
Ministry Name – Ocean’s Edge
Team Name – All Squad Month, however, team is still Sweet ‘N Low
Our Home: I am calling Jacó, Costa Rica my home for three weeks. This beach town is one of the more touristy areas I have stayed thus far on the race. It feels great to walk down the street and see restaurants, grocery stores, and retail stores that have essentials, however, it was a little bit of a culture shock from my last two locations that were more rural and isolated from the modern amenities that I have been blessed with here (…there is also a gelato shop down the road that I think our squad is financing by itself through all the daily visits)! This is another all squad location so I am continuing to live with 24 other individuals. There are many ups and downs of this situation for sure. I am currently sleeping in a room with 7 other girls. As teams, we trade off nights where we cook supper for the squad. We are then on our own for breakfast and lunch. It is common for me to wake up around 6am to start off the day with a run to the beach and have quiet time there before breakfast. As a squad, we start off each day with a short stretch session and a devotional led by one of our ministry hosts, Stephanie at 8am. Which then leads us into the ministries we participate in for the rest of the day…
Our Mission: The Mission in Costa Rica is to partner with the local government to help come under existing community businesses and organizations to show them Jesus’s love for them. Our ministry host has been able to create an amazing relationship with the local government where they create initiatives to help change the atmosphere in Jacó from being the “Las Vegas” of Costa Rica to being a safe and inviting tourist spot for families. Through this initiative, some of the tasks that the squad has done while here has been mural painting at the Civic Center, creating a new soccer field on the beach, helping clean up one of the parks in the most impoverished neighborhood in Jacó, and many other smaller tasks. The main mission that I have helped with during my time here has been serving the ministry location and the local missionaries who are serving the community of Jacó long-term. I have spent about half of my time nannying for a couple of the missionary families and half of my time doing renovations at the property we are living at. I have loved every minute of both tasks. The kids I nanny are all under the age of three so they are such a fun age and are so cute. As for renovating, I have been able to feel like my Grandma June and Grandpa Bob. They are constantly taking on projects at their house and now I know why they love it so much. I have been able to paint parts of the property, create a retaining wall with steps built into it, and take delicate measurements for other projects. I love these projects because you are able to see the starting point and eventually the finished project, which is so rewarding!
How am I? Man, this is always a loaded question since it is so broad to cover over two weeks but here we go…Physically —I’m doing well. I have yet to get sick on the race which is ultimately a surprise to me. I thought that living with this many people would lead to sickness since many of my squad mates have experienced it… BUT it hasn’t, so Praise God! The manual labor around the property and walking the town multiple times a day has really helped me stay active and make my muscles feel good. The only thing I would change about this place is to bring down the temperature down about 10F. It is so stinking hot that sometimes it is very hard to fall asleep and stay asleep. I wake up a lot in just a puddle of sweat (yuck, I know). But other than that… I’m loving it here! Emotionally/Mentally —I think that I have had a pretty stable month emotionally/mentally. There are times where I become tired and emotionally exhausted because of living in such a close and large community, however, it has been a good learning experience about authentic and intentional community. Homesickness has gone away because of the amenities where I am able to reach out more often, as well as, the realization that by limiting my own WiFi usage allows me to become more present in my experiences here and now. I ask myself constantly if the life I am living right now is actually a reality or just a dream that is never ending and to be honest I’m not really sure! This has been something I have dreamt of for over four years and to finally be here, in Costa Rica, serving the community and growing in my faith has just been overwhelming and so amazing. Spiritually —Welp, during my time in Honduras I felt like I grew exponentially in my faith and during Nicaragua I was struggling to see where I was going after a growing period like Honduras. Here in Costa Rica I have realized that there are growing periods and then there are periods of time where you plateau. I am in a plateau where I am fighting to maintain all that I have learned up to this point. I struggled with feeling as though this time was important but I had one of the local missionaries bring light to the situation. She talked about how children hit developmental milestones – sometimes the milestones are a couple weeks apart and sometimes it can be months before they will hit the next milestone. However, that doesn’t mean that the time between milestones are not important; this time is just as important. Children are maintaining and practicing the skills that they have learned thus far to project them for their next big milestone. This analogy helped me understand that this season of life for me is still spiritually important. I am simply practicing all the skills and growths that happened in the past two months which is still amazing.
In the “when in Honduras” blog, I did the activity Rose, Bud, Thorn with you. These are activities that we do at the end of the day with our team to get a feeling of how the day went for each of us. So, this blog I wanted to introduce a new one: High, Low, Buffalo. High is the high for your day or what you enjoyed most. Low is the lowest point of the day, and Buffalo is something strange or interesting that happened during the day. I would like to also do this for you for the past two weeks in Costa Rica.
High — This city is a hot one. I’m telling you that it is one of the hottest cities I’ve ever lived in… and I don’t like sun that much. Even when the sun is setting, the temperature still is close to 90F. While this could easily be a low, it is my high of the month. It is my high because I’m living in a beach town. After working my butt off through manual labor, or playing with kids all day I get to head straight to the beach and swim while the sun sets on the horizon. The beach is has provided so much happiness to me and my squad. You can catch us spending quiet time or running there in the morning, learning to surf on our “off” days, swimming every night before dinner, a place of baptism for two of my squad mates (how cool is that?!), and the space for meaningful conversations and community. The beach has been a huge blessing and therefore is my high of Costa Rica.
Low — The past couple weeks have produced very few lows for me which is amazing. There is one experience, however, that has stood out in my mind as the low point of the trip thus far. Before coming to Jacó I was unaware that this touristy town was known for prostitution. I only saw it as a beach town that attracted surfers and those who wanted a chill and organic atmosphere. However, once we arrived we were told that we had an 8pm curfew because of the dangers at night: prostitution and a large risk of human/sex trafficking through kidnapping. This surprised me because during the day, the city seemed to be safe and tranquil. One night last week we were invited to go prayer walking through the town at night. A group of six of us ventured into a hotel/casino that was most known for the prostitution. As we approached the hotel we saw taxis upon taxis dropping off young local women. We walked into the pool and bar area and I became overwhelmed. There were close to 100 women lining the walls surrounding the pool and bar waiting to be purchased. Inside the area were probably 25-30 at most men. This immediately brought me to tears. I knew that I would witness this around the world throughout my race, however, it broke my heart hundred times worse than I expected. I saw men grabbing women and taking them to their rooms, I saw women feeling as though this is the only way they can support themselves, and I saw insecurity and injustice first-hand.
Buffalo– As many of you know, while on the World Race I am placed in a team of 5-6 people. We do this so there is a smaller community group amongst the full squad of 21. These teams usually change a couple times throughout the 11-month journey. This, however, does not usually happen until around month 4 or 5. We are currently just beginning to start month 3. A few nights ago, our leadership sat us down and said that at the end of Costa Rica we will be changing up teams. I was shocked, and still am a little bit in awe. Of course, I knew this was going to happen eventually, however, I was not expecting it to happen this soon. With this being said, this announcement has become my buffalo of the month. I am neither disappointed nor ecstatic about this change but rather content. I would love prayers for my squad about this transition though. For some this announcement has been heart breaking while for others, this has been exciting. I ask for peace for all members of the squad and for excitement as we depart again across Panama with our new teams.
I hope this helps give you an image of some of the things that my squad and I are doing here in beautiful Jacó, Costa Rica. As always, feel free to reach out to me via email ([email protected] or [email protected]) if you have any questions or just want to chat. I only have WiFi once or twice a week but I will be sure to respond as soon as possible!
– elisabeth
