Trying to make a coherent post out of my last month is something I am finding nearly impossible. With that being said, here is a stream of consciousness style recount of my Month 3 on the World Race. Enjoy!
•The best, most fresh smoothies ever
•Coffee
•Beautiful beach, chocolate colored sand and massive waves.
•Floating with Kathryn in the ocean, for what seemed like forever. All I could hear was my own breathing. All I could feel were the currents and waves… truly a God moment. I’ll never forget it. This is definitely in my top ten favorite moments.
•Sunburns. Surfboards. Boogeyboards. Jettys.
•Jafeth. He’s basically the best Costa Rican to ever walk the planet, and we had the privilege of becoming his friend. He showed us a side of Costa Rica we would’ve never seen by ourselves- and a side of God’s love unlike what we’ve ever encountered.
•Transitarte music festival…also with Jafeth. This was a fun time. I’ll never forget the live reggae music with the go pro flying in the air, the amazing dirty chai latte, walking through the market and trying to navigate around all of the vendors on the prey like sharks- throwing menus in my face and yelling about their food all the while saying “NO GRACIAS”…and laying in the grass. Such a great day in San Jose.
•Laughing til we cry
•Laughing… All the time
•When I found out I could make sweet tea and I cried.
•Sewing ministry. These women met twice a week, and they were some of the sweetest ladies. We made lizard keychains. It was a fun time.
•Praying for the women in Bajo Terraras. Whether at sewing ministry, during a one on one, or walking around the village and the town.
•When the women prayed for us. On our last day, they gathered around me and some of the other members of our team and blessed us. Even though it was in a language I could not understand, I felt like i knew exactly what they were saying, and God’s love was just exuding from them. His presence was there. This moment was incredible and brought with it so many tears.
•Volleyball with some of the most adorable girls in San Ramon. Even when I hurt my thumb. It was totally worth it. This was a jump outside of my comfort zone. I’m glad I took the leap.
•Alexa. Swingsets. Monkey bars. Taught her how to do a flip off the monkey bars. It was awesome. This kid brought me so much joy. She’s forever one of my favorites. I miss her.
•Avocado. I fell in love with avocado this month. I’ve never had it so much in my life. The taste grows on ya.
•Pega. Terrible sickness. Upset stomach. Exhaustion. Basically.
•Painting. Like every day. For 3 weeks.
•Praying with Rebecca this one particular day. Our conversations about God. She’s one of my favorite people to share things with and listen to. I love her insight. So blessed she’s on my team. She’ll always be on my team.
•Playing games with the youth group.
•Feeding the village kids after church. This was great. I loved serving like this.
•Watercolors. This was a really fun team time. I’ve missed expressing myself artistically. I went out and bought watercolors, brushes, and watercolor paper. So happy with this decision.
•Movie nights with my team. We all fell in love with About Time, THE BEST MOVIE EVER. Truly the only movie I can watch over and over again and not get tired of.
•Nights at Triskells Tattoo shop. We all got tattoos. I got my nose pierced. Jafeth’s tattoo was the best one. He even had a part of it as an ode to our team and the month we had together. This was so touching… in this moment, I think we all realized the magnitude of the impact we had all had on each other. And we knew, this goodbye was going to be one of the hardest. We were all in tears.
•Hot springs, Arenal Volcano, lost hostel reservations, Gringo Pete’s and the Chocolateria. Also, going to this random waterfall with Rebecca and Liz and having the most beautiful time and the most beautiful conversations. The river was bone chilling and magnificent.
•The ride back from La Fortuna with Taylor. Needing to pee the whole way. Insane. Hilarious. Great story. Enough said.
•Rolling hills. Steep hills. Beautiful mountains. The scenery in Costa Rica is truly some of the most breathtaking I’ve ever seen.
•Walking to the corner store with Kathryn and indulging in our mutual diet coke addiction
•Flowers. Everywhere. San Ramon, and really Costa Rica in general, is so freaking colorful.
•Maltipoos. Also everywhere. Did not expect this.
•Taco Tuesdays. From making our own dinners or going out to eat, we ate really well this month. And the Taqueria up the street from the tattoo place? Best quesadilla I’ve ever had in my life.
•Going to the mountain over looking the town of San Ramon (we simply call it, ‘Wine Mountain’), the best wine (I will be buying this when I come home), Liz sharing her story, strawberries with nutella and the sunsets with my team and Jafeth, our honorary team member 😉
•Chocolate covered frozen bananas from the store across the street.
•Aroma’s cafe. Cheesecake. Alexandra. Reciting the German alphabet. Aroma’s had great food. Alexandra was even better company. I’m so glad I met her, and now I have a friend to visit when I go to Germany!!
•A Tribe Called Red music
•Helping Jafeth with his adorable preschoolers. Finger painting.
•Meeting teammates on their mountains
•Zumba
•Running with Rebecca
•Trying to read to the preschoolers in Spanish.. much laughter ensued.
•When the men visited the women’s group on International Womens Day. Funniest. Thing. Ever. Seriously laughed so hard that I cried after the fact. It was so hard to keep it together, man. Hahaha.
•Mario (our friend who we met through the sewing ministry…he translates for the leader) and his obsession with Maka (Japanese anime…Which I knew nothing about until this month).
•Homesickness. Reality hit this month. Bittersweet.
•When the truth hurt.
•Falling in love.
•Comfort zones. Being in them. Leaving them. The time I chose to stay in it, selfishly, but my team loved me anyway. I can’t wait to have another opportunity to leave my comfort zone. This time, I will leap out of it.
•Facing fears.
•Hot showers. Glorious. Never underestimate the sheer joy a hot shower brings. When I come home, I will NEVER EVER take them for granted EVER again. End of story.
•Seeing God in the sunsets. The sunsets were breathtaking. Absolutely and completely took my breath away. I love the sunset. Especially over the mountains and ocean and of the Costa Rican variety.
•Learning new words with Rebecca during team time, and laughing so hard I couldn’t breathe/my stomach hurt/tears were streaming down my face hahaha.
•Seeing my squad at the end of the month…reuniting with some of my favorites. The moment I saw Kourtney and Tanja made the awful goodbyes earlier that day so much easier. They make me so freaking happy.
•Exploring the historic district of San Jose and stumbling upon a cute cafe where Kourtney, Tanja and I had lunch.
•The biggest Taco Bell I’ve ever seen/been in. Fun fact: Latin American Taco Bells serve french fries as sides. Who knew.
•Lunch with Savannah. And exploring. And turning around when we came upon the sketchiest street ever.
•Dinners with people at El Gaff… coolest restaurant. Kinda felt like I was back in the United States. I had wings. Great BBQ sauce… and Woodchuck. What?!
•Happy hour with Daniel. So fun.
•Worshipping with my squad in an empty bar. When all of us are together, it’s so great. There’s power in numbers.
•Sharing Jesus with this really neat British guy me and Tanja met at the hostel’s bar by the pool.
•Watercoloring by the pool with Abby and Kourtney.
•Laying on the awesome couches by the pool with Kathryn, Tanja and Kourtney.
•Staying up all night waiting for a bus that never showed. Snuggling with Kat. Also, Dramamine. Fun times.
•20 hour bus rides with over night stays in Nicaragua. Then, getting sick. But then, when God helped me so I could get through Travel Day 2.
I will be back, Costa Rica. You left your mark on me, and I certainly hope I left a mark on you. I will be back.
