CR Day 4, March 11th

We began with group devo & Kristina shared with us out of Acts 2. Breakfast was pancakes, scrambled eggs, bread, fruit, beans & rice. We left for school after breakfast and the group I was in taught three 6th grade classes. The first class we taught was a group of kids that for one reason or another had to drop out of school and have started back. They are 15-17yo and in the 6th grade. Julia and I worked with the group of boys in the back of the classroom. In America I think boys are generally harder to work with and integrate into the group, but in Costa Rica it seemed to be the exact opposite. The girls were more skeptical of new people and new ideas. The boys were a joy to work with and much of the American culture has infiltrated Costa Rica through the media. The boy I am pictured with below calls himself "Daddy Yankee" which of course is a pop music star who sings reggaeton. It was interesting how many of these kids have given names that are definately American as you will see in some of the pictures below.

"Daddy Yankee" and I

Julia and I with our group of boys...Names to be posted later

When we went to our second class we had a much larger class and I think we all had one group to ourselves. This can be kind of intimidating since there is little verbal skill for language between us as a group. In this class the bell rung half way through and the kids got to go to snack time/recess of sorts. There was a little concession stand that sold all sorts of snacks and the kids brought them back with them and ate them in class. During this recess, the boy with the jacket on, Jeremy, talked my ear off in español. I understood very little of what he was saying, but he was such a sweet boy. He also introduced me to his brother during recess and I saw his brother later in the week. I hoped to see Jeremy again, but never did. I did understand in my conversation with him that he was really interested in learning English and hoped for a good job to have a family one day. Please help me pray for that for him.

My group in the second class. Names will be posted later...

The third class we went to Alex and I worked with this group. The girl sitting closest to me, would not participate in the group, but did not mind being in the picture. This group was exactly what I was talking about above. The girls were very hard to break.

Names later....

After we finished at the school, we went over to Mount Sanai and helped in their feeding center. Matt was a hand sanitizer for this activity and I was a socializer...imagine that! After the kids ate, the socializers and I hung out with them and ended up playing telephone with them too. We had a blast.

Our game of telephone...

Ashley and Ashley!

This is little girl's name a prime example of American culture infiltration. Spanish does not even have the 'sh' sound so they say it more like our 'ch.'

We went back to the team house, we had some more down time. Some napped, others walked and the rest of us played "what if" again. We had a great time doing that.

Afterwards we had a cooking class with Miriam. She taught us how to make empanadas- make the dough, press 'em, stuff 'em and seal 'em, and best part of all, fry 'em! We all did it and it was great!

The dough balls and Miriam in the background frying the empanadas.

Press, stuff, seal!

Press, stuff, seal!

After we made the empanadas, we did not eat them:(...but took them and gave them away to people in the park, which turned out to be an amazing ministry. After we had passed out all of them, a group of us went to pray for the crazy man who wanders the park talking to someone...Natalia asked him if we could pray for him and he said no. Then we stood there for about 15 more minutes as he told us lots of stuff none of us understood, even Natalia who speaks Spanish. Natalia asked him again and he let us, but when we started praying for him he stopped talking and got really quiet, then started laughing. While we were there with him, one of the locals came and told us that he used to be a famoso guitar player and that he broke up with his girlfriend who was a witch and she cast a spell on him and that is why he is like that today. I will have a picute to post once they make it here from Gainesville.

When we finished with that project, a few of us went over to a park bench and we singing, "Open the eyes of my heart Lord" o "Abre mis ojos o Cristo." We alternated singing in English and Spanish. A man from a family we had just given empanadas to started to weep. Jorge, the youth leader from Mount Sanai, happened to show up in the park while we were there, was able to minister to the man.

After that, we started singing and playing with the kids who were watching us. We had so much fun. We played "Gigante y Enano" and "Dice su novio" and also bullfrog which we used to play here, but they had a spanish rhyme that had a little different cadence to it than our did, and ring around the rosie.

Here is the group that was gathering...

Wendy and I...

When we were finished singing...Jorge and the family man are in the background by the tree sitting on a blanket.

The worst part of the entire trip was that Matt and I were in different groups for stuff so there are not many pictures of Matt, but hopefully when we get the pics from the g-ville crew there will be more of him in there!