My normal day during the week starts with me waking up to the sun beaming in through our window onto my bunk. I push pause on my day by hitting the theoretical snooze button until it comes time for me to hit my non theoretical snooze button at 6:30. Somedays when 6:45 rolls around I will get up when my second alarm goes off but most days I don’t start making my way out of my bottom bunk until 7 due to my appreciation for the amazingly comfy bed I love so much. With blurry eyes that the sleep hasn’t quite left yet I emerge from our room and am blinded by the morning sun that was my enthusiastic first alarm that morning and make my way up to breakfast. Since being in Costa Rica my body has decided to reject gluten again so most mornings I get to avoid the line to get the pre made breakfast to make my bowl of oatmeal, cinnamon and enough brown sugar to make my mom cringe. A cup of coffee and my breakfast is complete, the chatter of my 30 something roommates is my favorite sound in the morning. Then time to get ready.
What shirt out my excessive 12 shirts should I wear today? Shorts? Jeans? Jeans, usually the pair of jeans my team and I share that they insist I wear too much. Then to the mirror to marvel at how long my hair has gotten over the past 6 months, mascara on, eyebrows done, teeth brushed and I’m ready to go. Between 9 and 10 or whenever our bus shows up, we are off on our whiplash filled bus ride to ministry. Riding in any kind of car in Costa Rica is crazy, everyone drives like they are late but don’t actually care about being on time.
We roll up to the daycare and the chanting of the kids is our greeting every morning, which in my opinion is a pretty good start to our day. Off the bus we go to drop off our stuff in our little room under the teachers’ lounge then to the principles office, but don’t worry we aren’t in trouble we are just signing in and saying good morning to the ladies in the front office. In our broken Spanish and their broken English we manage to say good morning and have a little conversation about how our day was the day before or about how our weekend was then it is off to our rooms. Abbie and I work in the kitchen so obviously we head to the bathroom first, why you may ask? Well, Abbie always takes what feels like seven years to put on her hairnet so I stand in the mirror impatiently waiting and making fun of her for the excessive amount of times she redoes her hair. When we finally make it to the kitchen we say good morning to our two favorite people at the daycare, Don luis and Karen. They are the chefs and the masterminds behind all the amazing food the kids (and us) eat. Wash a couple dishes, dry a couple dishes, and then clean the dining room as fast as we can before the kids come for lunch. Twice a day we wipe off the tables, chairs and sweep the floors (Kids are messy). Back to the kitchen it is for us when we see the babies coming for lunch, lunch for the babies then over the next hour all four groups of kids come in. We help make the bowls of food give them one refill and then wash all the dishes they just used to do that all over again. Then its lunch for us!
We eat the same food the kids eat which is usually rice, beans, some kind of salad and some kind of meat. Our team somedays can be pickier then the kids are which means more for me, can’t say I am mad about that. Laughter and smiles fill our little room most days when we aren’t too tired to converse. Then it’s back to our kitchen for Abbie and I and the other girls back to their kids to finish out our day.
The dining room is where you can always find Abbie and I in the afternoons because after we go back to the kitchen to finish the dishes we have another round around the dining room. Along with doing the stuff we do in the dining room in the mornings again we also take down the tables and stack the chairs so we can mop the whole room. Let me just tell you mops in Costa Rica work, they aren’t normal mops no, they are pretty mop handles with rags on the end. Spray a couple tiles, mop a couple tiles, spray, mop, spray, mop, repeat until the one mopping gets hot so have to switch off. Then back up the tables goes and the chairs come back out, TADA! Somedays we have more dishes to wash but somedays we get to go hang out in the babies room and get some good baby snuggles. Day = made.
Back on the bus but now we have friends! With two more teams joining us on our ride home our whiplash filled ride is now not only filled with whiplash but with friends and happiness. Then before we know it we are back at the base where my team this week has the assigned chore of dinner prep. Dinner prep consists of setting out plates for all our squad, setting out cups, helping our amazing cook with whatever she needs and serving the line of hungry squadmates that overtakes the kitchen when we yell DINNERS READY. Dinner, fellowship and then team time with my favorite teammates.
Then it is time for me to edit, edit and edit some more. Most nights I end up in the living room editing, sometimes I get a curious Lilly watching me over my shoulder with one of my earbuds in listening. She says it is fascinating to watch. After a couple of hours of editing my brain turns to mush and I have to put my computer away and eat some ice cream to reward myself for my hard work. The rest of my time before I make myself go to bed is spent hanging out in the living room with the people who are night owls like me. Eventually sometime before midnight I make myself go to bed because I know I will regret it in the morning. I crawl into my bottom bunk and am usually out before my head even hits the pillow.
For a more visual look at my day check out my YouTube video below!
Thank you so much for all the support that I have received over the last six months.
Also side note 27 days till I see my parents in Ecuador!
