Hello from Costa Rica! We arrived here last Sunday from Haiti and the DR. The flight here was smooth and travel to the finca (literally “the farm”, it’s what locals call the compound) went well. I had a questionable chicken wrap in the Santo Domingo airport and, seeing as how it was 4 in the morning, I probably should have made a better judgment call considering the freshness of said wrap. Even as I ate it I thought it tasted really funny….but…I was hungry. I paid for it once we got to the finca. Since the flight from the DR to Costa Rica, I felt really queasy. I got a mild fever in the airport and I couldn’t stand the smell of any food. Once Meg (one of our ministry hosts) picked us up, I felt a little better, but once we got to the finca the nausea set in again. Where we are staying is a giant gym that they use as a feeding center. I ended up having to go have a vomit session (real life on the race you guys) and from what I hear from my teammates, the echo was gnarly. They are still picking on me about it a week later.
But after that, I was fine! We got to hop right into ministry. Here at the Christian Light Foundation, headed up by Mark and Meg, we participate in just a couple of types of ministry here in the slum, Los Guidos: feeding center ministry and teaching English. From 7-10 AM during the week we go to the local Christian school and help the English teacher there teach classes ranging from 8-12 year olds (3rd, 4th, and 6th grade). Then we head back to the finca at 10 and prepare for the kids heading down to the feeding center at 11. These kids may be heading to the feeding center for the only meal they get all day. No adults are allowed in the feeding center from 11-1, so we stay outside in the compound and play with and love the kids that show up for their meals. It is a really awesome ministry because family is not something held as very valuable here in Los Guidos. Domestic abuse towards wives and children is very common among the men here and there are broken families all around. Showing love towards the children is not very common either, so the hug that we give one kid on that day may be the only type of physical affection that child receives all day. Children aren’t really valued as people here by the local community and so the hope is that parents will see us loving their kids and playing with them and taking interest in them and they will realize their children do have value and worth and need to be shown love. Mark even told us that us asking to hold and play with someone’s baby means a LOT to that parent.
The family situation is, as you would guess it, tragic. Just in our first week of being here we got to witness something that apparently is fairly common here in Los Guidos. A woman, P, brought her daughters G and J, to Mark and they stood together having a discussion. When she and her daughters left and Mark came back, he explained that P was asking Mark if he would take her youngest daughter J. In confusion I asked, “What do you mean?” His response, “She wants me to take her.” I said, “I don’t understand. Take? Like for the day?” And he said, “No, take permanently.” My heart broke in that instant as I realized P had asked Mark, right in from of J, if he would take her. My heart broke even more to see that there was absolutely no confusion, fear, or sadness in J’s face. She simply smiled, even when Mark said No. This is the reality of families here. “But she was only asking that because she wants a better life for her, right?” I asked, hopeful that there were good intentions involved, but unfortunately Mark’s answer was that parents often ask them to take their children for selfish reasons, mostly so that they can spend more money on clothes, alcohol, and partying. Later that week P asked my teammate Jessica if she would take J back to America. Obviously the answer was No.
My heart breaks for this community. I hate that I have to leave in three short weeks. I’ve fallen in love with this foundation and these kids and Los Guidos. I’ve fallen in love with teaching the kids in the school. Their situation is tragic as well. The kids are already underprivileged, but on top of that they have teachers that don’t believe they can learn. The Christian school is located in the middle of the slum, which makes it an undesirable job option. Most of the teachers there who are not from Los Guidos are working there because there are absolutely no other options. Unfortunately these teachers will work there just until a job outside of the slum pops up and then they are gone, so there is a REALLY high turnover rate at the school. The kids do want to learn though! And that is frustrating to me. The teacher we work with, S, has given up on the kids. She comes from teaching at a nice public high school near the Panama border. So being here in Los Guidos is definitely a change of pace for her. You can tell she doesn’t want to be there and she holds a prejudiced view that people commonly hold about the slums.
I really have fallen in love with the people here and this place. I am sure I’ll be back here eventually. I always thought I was called elsewhere, but I am sure I’m going to be leaving a pretty big piece of my heart here. But I don’t want to think about that right now. Pictures will come in the next blog sometime this week! Please be praying for P, J, G, S, and Mark and Meg, as well as our team as we continue ministry here in Los Guidos. Love you all!
