Week two in Costa Rica has looked a bit different than week one.
In the earlier part of this week, we painted the walls of a low-income school. There was definitely a language barrier between us and the women working in the school, but somehow the message always got across, even if we had to act some things out. (:
One of my favorite memories of the school was when a lady came up to us and asked if we spoke Spanish. I still don’t know exactly what she said, but the Holy Spirit gave us some kind of understanding that allowed us to feel exactly how thankful she was for what we were doing. She told us that they would present it to the kids when they come back to school next month, and that it will make the whole school a happier place (we painted the walls a robin-egg-blue on top of the old, worn out yellow). These wonderful ladies fed us amazing meals each day, and we were even able to play with some kids who were around.
The later part of the week consisted of property cleanup and landscaping. We won’t necessarily see the end result of the physical labor we’re putting into this land, but Hannah (our host) has told us how she plans to use this property one day (in addition to hosting World Race teams). It only makes us more excited to revisit Costa Rica in the future!
This weekend we met an awesome family at Kid’s Club who is visiting Costa Rica and praying about moving here. We plan to catch up with them again next week to get to know them better. We also went on a prayer walk to pray for things going on in Jaco.
I wanted to share some cultural things we’ve experienced in Costa Rica.
Pura Vida. A term that is popular here (and on a lot of the souvenirs) is “Pura Vida”. Directly translated, it means “pure life”, but it’s often used to mean “life is good” or “don’t stress”.
The handshake. Around here, the popular “handshake” is kind of like a side high-five followed by a fist bump. Super simple. No practice needed.
Tico-Time. Cost Rica is run on what is called “Tico-Time”, meaning if something starts at, say, 10:30am, people aren’t necessarily going to show up until around 11-11:30am or whenever. If the plumber says he’ll be by around 7:30am, it might be 8 or 9am, or it might be the next day’s 7:30am. You never really know. They might never show up. Just gotta go with the flow.
Beans and rice. Lots of beans and rice.
There are a lot of surfers in Jaco, but, interestingly, most of the people who live here have a fear of the water.
People get defensive when we say we say we are “Americans” or “from America”, because technically we are still in (Central) America. Interestingly, we don’t call ourselves “United State-ians”, but they have a specific (non-condescending) word that specifically means “a resident of the United States” to describe where we are from.
Now, World Race Culture.
This month we’ve been living outdoors in tents and/or hammocks. Life goes on without A/C, hot water, a washing machine, and even Wifi. It’s amazing how great life can still be without those “necessities”. We sometimes get a breeze, we have laundry soap for hand-washing clothes, and cold shower aren’t so bad when it’s ridiculously hot outside, so we can’t complain.
We’re meeting all kinds of people who live in Jaco, have moved from the States, or are visiting from the States (and possibly thinking about moving to Jaco). Jaco is the place for tourists, so you never know who you’ll come across.
Ways to Pray
- Please continue to pray for unity among our team. I can sense that God is about to amazing things, so building a strong team is where we need to start!
- Pray for us in the unexpected, that we would be open and ready for anything we face (especially when things change on Tico Time).
- Please pray for our health. One of our teammates has already felt slightly ill one day, and we’re in the sun a lot. Pray that we would remember to reapply sunscreen throughout the day (as silly as that sounds, I’m totally serious).
- Pray for us as we’re still learning to live in a community setting 24/7. Pray that we will learn to balance our time together with our personal time with Jesus. Traveling opens opportunities for adventures and attractions, but taking time to reflect, process, and absorb by ourselves is also very important.
- Pray that we will be in the now. It’s easy to start making plans to come back to a country (even in the first month) or what we’ll do after the Race, but being present in the moment is something we need to learn to do.
Thank you for continuing to follow, support, and pray for this mission trip. It wouldn’t be possible without you. Thanks for listening to God’s call to give and pray for this life-altering, world-changing mission.
