I wake up around 5:30-6 Am every morning. I take down my towel hanging on my bottom bunk I put up for privacy. I go down stairs to our outdoor bathroom. On the way there I pass fellow squad mates scattered around the house doing jesus time with bed head and sleepy eyes. When I brush my teeth I alway look out at the awesome view we have as a backyard one reason because it really is beautiful to see the sun come up over the green mountains. The second reason I don’t really want to make conversation with the other 5-6 people also doing there morning routine ha.
6:30 Am We have breakfast as a squad. Everyone funnels into the line that goes through the kitchen. We exchange smiles and drowsy “how are you this morning” “good” conversations. We get our cereal or eggs depending on the day and all sit down together on the tables scatter in the living room. P.s cereal tastes different in different countries even if they look the same. I am talking about you fruit loops ha.
6:45 Am People’s coffee and food starts to hit their stomachs and conversations slowly start to fill the room.
7 Am. We have squad Devo time. Everyone, unless it is their off day, gathers in the living room to have jesus time. We pray, read, and journal individually. This is the one time the house is quiet and I enjoy these moments so much.
7:25 Am. Some one shares what they got out of Devo time.
7:30 Am Most teams at this time leaves for their ministry. However we (team testify) don’t leave till later. I usually stay in my spot from Devo time for another 30 minutes or so finishing up jesus time. Then depending on the morning I do yoga in my room, or talk to some squad mates, or wash my laundry if I need to.
9:15-10 Am. The bus for our ministry comes anywhere at this time. Some days it is at 9:15 some days it is at 10 and once or twice it didn’t show up.
Bus ride #1. We have a 15 minute drive to our first ministry. We always start off praying for our day as a team. Then we sometimes talk about the lesson plan we have for the ministry or we listen to some music.
10:15 Am The bus drops us off and we go meet the kids at the playground. We are met with a lot of hugs, laughs, and stories we don’t understand. I usually play dinosaur with the boys (which is me just chasing them around every where).
10:30 Am. We follow the teachers as we lead the kids back into their classroom. We then teach the kids something ( like English or music), we play games, and then usually color something about our lesson. The teachers giggle at our attempts to Spanish and the kids try real hard to speak the words in English…this is always such a fun time.
11 Am. Lunch time. We sing a quick prayer in Spanish with the kiddos. Hand out the food to them. Help them brush their teeth after they are done eating (yes they brush their teeth after every meal…pretty neat). Also we clean the dishes.
11:45-12 pm. We lead the kids upstairs for a nap and finish up everything for the day at this ministry. We spend a few minutes talking to some of the awesome teachers there and exchanging stories. Then we head to our bus again.
Bus trip #2. LUNCH TIME!!! We hop back into our bus and grab our red bag full of food. We pass out our sandwiches (Pb&J or ham and cheese), bananas, and chips for our 20 minutes drive of bumps, fast driving, and unexpected stops.
12:30 Pm. We arrive at our second ministry which is a school ranging from ages 1-13. The kids are in lunch when we arrive but we still get out hugs, hellos, and laughs from them when we walk up. I usually go into the kitchen and help them wash the dishes as the kids finish up their meals. (The kitchen staff here is so incredible. The two of them love and serve so well. I learned a lot from them.)
1:15 Pm. I go into the 5-7 year old class room and help put all the kids to sleep. I scratch their little heads for two hours trying to get them all to sleep. This is one of my favorite times! …Or if the principal gave us some other thing to help out with we spend our time getting those done. (We have painted hop scotch, paper macheing boxes, painting boxes, cleaning up, make invitations, ect.)
3:00 Pm. SNACK TIME. We help pass out the kids snacks out. They are really good snacks! Then we help the kitchen clean those dishes also.
3:30 Pm. Remember when I said the kitchen staff is awesome?! Well here is another reason why. THEY MAKE US SNACKS TOO! We have had coffee cake, horchata, cookies, crackers, and much more delicious Costa Rica snacks. They also found out that we like coffee so they started brewing us a pot to have with our snack. They are the sweetest. During this time my team shares the funny moments we had, the serious conversations, or just exchange stories about each other. It’s a great break.
4:00 Pm. We clean up what ever project we had going on. Mop the dining room and then play with the kiddos outside!
5:00 Pm. We say “ciao”, we give hugs, and we load up in our taxi. Over the 3 weeks we have built a relationship with our bus driver through google translate! Thank you for google translator! It can be scary at times because the driver is focusing on his phone more then the road but it is so fun getting to know him. At the end of our 3 weeks we stopped and got ice cream with him. It was so fun. We got to know his family, his friends, and challenge him to pursue Jesus more! Also during our 35 minute bus ride we share testimonies!
5:45 Pm. We get home and pay the taxi driver. We go inside to the delicious smells of our cook making dinner for us all. We always have beans and rice.
6:30 Pm. Dinner time and exchange stories with the fellow squad mates about our day!
Rest of the night consist of team time. Monday worship. Tuesday journey markers (where we read scriptures and answer questions about it). Wednesday blogging. Thursday feedback. Friday free for all or fun Friday. Saturday debrief.
9-10 Pm. I head to bed read some of my bible, journal, and read my book. Put my towel up again and sleep hard to wake up the next day!
Some random things that happen. Our squad had a rap battle. We had a trivia night. My team set the living room up like a restaurant and served the entire squad. In the we also got to thank our cook which was just a great time!
That is what my day looked like Monday-Friday of my first month. There were hard days and there were easy days but I am so happy I get to be on the Worldrace!
