temperature of students

The director at one of our schools approached us about the “temperature of the student body.”  He wanted to know how receptive we (Young Life) thought the students were to the Gospel and how interested they were in Christianity.  How cool that he thought we’d be the best people to ask as a gage for his students!

So today Jessie (Area Director), Rachel (intern), and I met with him to discuss where we felt like kids were at.  In our meeting, the director shared his desire to team and dream with us.  He understood that we have the same goal, to introduce adolescents to Jesus and help them grow in their faith (it’s a Christian International School).  It was an encouraging conversation and I’m excited about the future of ministry at this school!  We have such open doors there and it’s small enough that we can really know every kid in the school!  It’s such a unique opportunity.  Hopefully there will be more updates to come on how we’re working together to reach kids.  Chapel services, after school activities, and even a new sports league were all dreams and ideas on the table!

it’s tea time!

Yesterday we hosted our in-country fundraiser a Ladies Tea.  Sixty women showed up for the event to hear about Young Life in the community and how they can be a part of what God is doing here!  Overall, it was a great even!  Middle school and high school students helped us serve and provide entertainment.  They did an awesome job!  It wouldn’t have been possible without them!

The group of leaders and servers at the Ladies Tea!

just a run in the park

We had another super fun cross country practice today!  There’s small, local park in Escazu near the school that just got some new exercise equipment.  We often run past it, but today, we decided to stop and try it out!  It was hilarious!!  There was a local who had a boom-box (yes, like 80s style) strapped to the back of his moto providing us with a nice workout mix, haha.  I’m not sure he loved a bunch of high schoolers crashing his workout, but he was nice and understanding.  It was a beautiful day and we loved being able to run outside and enjoy the park!  We’re all trying to enjoy these sunny days while they last because rainy season starts back up the end of March/early April.

¡día de las culturas!

It was cultural day at language school today and it was so much fun!  Instead of having regular class, the teachers held workshops for us regarding various aspects of culture.  There were classes on cooking, dancing, children’s games, home remedies, and tropical fruits just to name a few!  I am so grateful for the teachers’ willingness to share their culture with us!  They were visibly excited for this day (and had been talking it up for awhile!)!

I attended a workshop on tropical fruits and another on cooking.  In the fruits class, we learned about and tried several local fruits like cas, guanaba, guanabana, maracuya.  They are grow really well here and are all super sour.  Usually, they’re made into refrescos here to cut the super sour/acidic flavor.

The teachers also led us through making a traditional Tico fruit salad.  It had pineapple, papaya, banana, strawberries, and cantaloupe in it.  they chop the fruit really small for their fruit salad, and add sirope (syrup; usually combined with water/milk to drink) and some orange juice.  They serve the fruit salad with a scoop of jello and ICE CREAM!!!  Yes, ice cream!  That made my day at 8:30am!  It was delicious!

Then I went to the workshop on cooking.  We made chorreadas, which are kind of like corn pancakes.  They’re really good.  My Tica mom makes them occasionally and it’s always a treat.  We also got a recipe for gallo pinto, the traditional Costa Rican breakfast dish of rice and beans, that I can’t wait to try!

“we should just run suicides!"

“We should just run suicides!”

Wait, what?!  Did I hear that right?  

YES.  Yes, I did.  That’s what one of our runners told Alex and I at practice today, and the rest of the team quickly agreed.  I was, and still am, in a state of disbelief.  They started practice begging us to play games and take it easy, and they ended begging us to run suicides!  Haha.  These kids are the best!  They really love working hard and having fun, and we’ve established a great sense of “team” which makes practice super fun!

So yes, Alex and I happily let them run suicides!  It was a coaches dream!

And some of them ended practice playing some cards,
so I guess they felt like they got their game-playing in after all!

paseo

I went on a paseo (day trip) with some students from my language school this weekend!  We traveled to  Haciendo Pozo Azul for some zip-lining and white water rafting!  I loved having a day of adventure!  I have done a canopy tour (zip-line) before in Costa Rica, but it was fun to go white water rafting here.  It was dry season so the river was a littler lower, but still Class II-IV rapids.  We had a great guide that made it super fun!  The rafting trip took about an hour and half and traveled about 9 miles!  We were able to get out and swim/float down the Sarapiquí River.  We even got to cliff jump at one point!!  So much fun!

At the start of one of the zip lines!

Navigating some smaller rapids with some of my classmates.
Having TONS of fun!

check out that view!

I spent the evening with one of my Young Life girls.  We worked on writing a fundraising letter for Service Project and talked through her Work Crew application!  She’s trying to do Work Crew at Saranac this summer, which I am more than stoked about!!  LOVE that place!  (It would be sweet if you’d pray for that...our region currently does not have a guaranteed spot there, so it’s a little complicated.)

Anyways, we had tons of fun and her apartment building has a sweet view of the city.  You can clearly see the National Stadium (back left) lit up for a game!

friends are fun!!

This weekend my sweet friend Anne Taylor came to visit!!  It was THE BEST!!!  It was fun to be able to introduce her to my life here.  She was able to spend a couple nights with my host family and we headed to the beach for the weekend!

There are so many beautiful places to see and fun things to do in this country!  We decided to explore the Nicoya Peninsula on this trip (southwest part of the country).  It was a long trek on the public bus, 7 hours, but it was totally worth it!  And, the bus ride was split up with a 70 minute ferry ride across the Nicoya Gulf...absolutely stunning!

She got in Thursday afternoon and we went exploring downtown.  My host-brother, Brandon and his cousin Emma, were being great tour guides!  We took a picture with John Lennon (without glasses), in China-town!  (Yes, San José has a China-town.)

Friday morning we left at 5AM to catch the bus to Playa Santa Teresa!  Hop on a bus, a ferry, and another bus in Costa Rica, and it will take you here...Santa Teresa!

Saturday we opted for some adventure and rented an ATV and took it all over the peninsula!

Meet Peli.  Short for Peligroso (“dangerous” in Spanish).

Montezuma Falls is one of the most popular waterfalls in the country, and after visiting it’s obvious why...it’s stunning!!  It’s a sizable waterfall, and you can swim at its base.  Locals boulder up the side and cliff jump from 8-40+ feet, which is crazy to watch!  We also stopped at Cemetery Island (you could walk out to it at low tide), and a secret beach in Mal País!

Montezuma Falls

Montezuma Beach 

Cemetery Island

Thanks for visiting, Anne Taylor!  Such a blast to have you here!  Glad you got to taste a bit of what life is like here and how beautiful this country is!

Top:  Santa Teresa
Bottom:  Nicoya Gulf from ferry