My family came to visit for Easter! It had been three months since I had seen them, the longest I have ever gone. They arrived on Thursday of Holy Week. All stores were closed and public buses weren't running normal schedule. The day started off with me rushing around, cleaning my room, cleaning my desk at the office, making a welcome sign, and preparing gallo pinto (rice and beans) with my host mom as a surprise for my family. My host father graciously drove me to the San Jose airport that is 35 minutes away. We were all excited for their arrival in Costa Rica. When he dropped me off, I was officially on my own for an hour or more. Amazingly, by looking a little lost and speaking the best Spanish I could, I got past security, past the glass wall where everyone waits for their visitors, and stood right outside of customs to surprise my family with a sign saying "BIENVENIDOS a Costa Rica!"
The sign I made to welcome my family to Costa Rica!
Dad, Mom, Erin and Granddaddy standing with me outside of the EMI office.
Dad, Mom, Erin and Granddaddy were pretty tired but I wanted to show them so much! We picked up our rental car, drove to Atenas, visited the EMI office, and bought some groceries before heading to our vacation villa. The villa we rented week was about 10 minutes from downtown Atenas in Picaflora, a short drive up the mountain, inside a gated community with a 180 degree breathtaking view.
My family was very excited to meet my friends I have made since I have been here. On Friday, Kevin, Esther, Brad and some of our Tico friends came over to the villa. We had a cookout with American hotdogs and hamburgers, played Marco Polo in the pool, and sang while Juank played his acoustic guitar. Later that night, all 11 of us sat around playing games and eating grilled cheese sandwiches. Great game for everyone of different languages- Basta! I couldn't have been happier having my family and friends all together sharing time and getting to know each other. God has blessed me tremendously with close friends who care about me.
Friends and family enjoying time together in Atenas.
One act of worship: music and singing. God's beauty was prevelent.
One of our days was spent at Volcano Poas. Having no GPS and being a girl who has never driven in Costa Rica, I was a little nervous about getting us to the volcano. Someone had said if you just follow the signs, you'll eventually get there. That's slightly true. We got all the way to downtown Alajuela and got turned around on the one way roads. Following a paper map that had no road names wasn't much help. My family had the great idea for me to ask for directions to some policemen directing traffic. After not understanding any of their Spanish (they spoke so fast!) they eventually gave up and gave us a police escort through the city to get us back on the right road. Just another way how Ticos showed me grace.
A Gringa girl + a map with no road names + two Tico policeman = still lost.
Finally... they gave up and gave us a police escort through the city.
Me, Erin, and Dad enjoying being together, the cool weather and the walk towards the Volcano.
Mom and Granddaddy heading to the Volcano.
Casi twins :)
Volcano Poas, Costa Rica
My biggest excitement that weekend was for my family to meet my host family. We went over to my host family's house for breakfast and dinner. A lot of time was spent around the dinner table talking, laughing, and me trying to translate as fast as I could. It was very important to let my host family know how much we appreciate them. We had gifts for each of my host family members to say thank you. My family was able to bring with them the things I requested from the States. After many chats, I knew that my host father loves to play the drums and his dream was to own an African djembe so my family brought down a djembe for my host father. He got tears in his eyes. My host mom cooks a lot for others so we brought her a collapsable hot/cold carrying case perfect for transporting food. My younger sister, Antonella, loves to straighten her hair with my straightener, so now she has her very own. My host sister, Wendol works every day in Alajuela, so I wanted to get her a nice thirty-one brand lunch bag for her to carry her lunch. My host brother, Augusto, is learning to play guitar and plays music in the house almost every night. He was excited to receive a quepo for this guitar.
Augusto and his new guitar quepo.
One morning we went outside to find our rental car dead in the driveway. Dad was prepared for anything dressed in his emergency equipment.
Safety first!
Safety vest and emergency signals... in the driveway.
Granddaddy got in touch with our friend, Brendan, who used to work with him years ago. Brendan has been living in Costa Rica for 8 years now building houses and selling real estate. He drove from Parrita to Atenas to meet us for dinner. I recommended Antaños, one of my favorite places here in town. We had a great time catching up with him and listening to Brendan's stories of Costa Rica and his great Spanish (that I'm only a little jealous of).
Our last full day together I took my family on a Canopy tour (zip lining), a popular excursion and one that the interns and I did when we were in language school our second week here. We drove an hour to the Pacific coast near Jacó Beach to Los Sueños for our zip lining excursion. This was the first time for Dad, Mom and Erin. Mom was a little nervous but I was so proud of her. Los Sueños is a place of dry forest and rain forest with views of the Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Nicoya. They offer one of the longest and fastest cables of 2,400 ft. Our bilingual tour guides were personable and made our trip memorable. We left that day with smiles on our faces.
Tuesday, the day of their departure, was a sad day. I asked Kevin to go with us to the airport, where we made a side trip to downtown San Jose for some souvenir shopping at the Artisan Market. We soon found out that even McDonalds in Costa Rica serves gallo pinto, who would have known!
First, I want to apologize for putting my blog on the back burner these this last two months. I have had to cope with my Mac laptop recently being put to rest. The last few months I have been so overwhelmed with having new experiences every day that I sometimes forget to set aside time to share these experiences with everyone back home.
I want to be honest with you. I have found that many people back home hear "six months in Costa Rica" and automatically think that everything is fun, wonderful, a nice vacation, and that I'm having a blast... but I'd like to share with you that my life here about a month ago wasn't that easy. I know I have been called here for one specific purpose and that is to serve God by serving the poor in these areas in Latin America. I want to share my love for Jesus with those who don't know Him. But its not that easy. Being on the mission field, Satan will try his hardest to attack in many ways. But during this morning's devotional, I was reminded with Nehemiah 6:3: And I sent messengers to them, saying, "I am doing a great work and I cannot come down". Even when I didn't understand, I know that God certainly wanted me to trust him through those difficult times. Today, I am refreshed in Jesus, reminded of my salvation and His promises. Please continue to pray for all of us here.
Sunday afternoon after church with my Tica family
My Papá, Mamá, my two sisters and I pack in my family's tiny car and head to our church, Iglesia Biblica, at about 8:30am every Sunday. Sometimes when we feel energetic, we may walk the few blocks to the church. Completely opposite of a calm Baptist church that I was raised in, I now attend a pretty lively evangelistic church with loud, hand-clapping music with lots of jumping and dancing in the aisles.
Iglesia Biblica
There are many gringos that go to this church so the first Sunday of the month, the message is usually translated to English. EMI is known throughout the church. Each staff member and their family attends a different church in Atenas. Tim (my project leader in the office) sings at Iglesia Biblica while his wife Cindy (my spiritual mentor) helps with the children.
Surprisingly enough, word got around the church quite quickly that I know how to play clarinet. My Tico friend, Alvaro, also plays saxophone. Just a few Sundays ago, Alvaro and I were asked to play a clarinet and soprano saxophone duet to Sublime Gracia (Amazing Grace). Because I hadn't played clarinet since my sophomore year in college (4 years ago, wow), my band "nerdiness" quickly came back and soon enough I found myself walking down the streets of Atenas proud to be holding a clarinet case.
I loved being able to use my talents in my church to serve God and feel the Holy Spirit move in the congregation. "...for the Lord God is my strength is my song..." Isaiah 12:2
My Pastor, Oldemar, and his wife Tita wanted to thank me for some design work I did for their newly built house. They came to the EMI office and presented me with a Bible in Spanish and English.
Praises:
-Amos came to visit in March and we had a wonderful weekend vacation to Manuel Antonio with the other interns.
-My family came to visit in April and it felt incredible to spend a weekend together as a family. This was a much needed weekend for me.
-Projects in the office are progressing as we are rapidly approaching deadlines from our volunteers.
My family came to visit for Easter! It had been three months since I had seen them, the longest I have ever gone. They arrived on Thursday of Holy Week. All stores were closed and public buses weren't running normal schedule. The day started off with me rushing around, cleaning my room, cleaning my desk at the office, making a welcome sign, and preparing gallo pinto (rice and beans) with my host mom as a surprise for my family. My host father graciously drove me to the San Jose airport that is 35 minutes away. We were all excited for their arrival in Costa Rica. When he dropped me off, I was officially on my own for an hour or more. Amazingly, by looking a little lost and speaking the best Spanish I could, I got past security, past the glass wall where everyone waits for their visitors, and stood right outside of customs to surprise my family with a sign saying "BIENVENIDOS a Costa Rica!" 
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