Dios le Bendiga!!

Arriving

Ali, Brad, Josh and I arrived in Costa Rica on Saturday January 19th! After two plane rides and 6 hours we are in San Jose, Costa Rica. As we step out of the airport, we are looking for any sign of our two leaders, Tom or John, we aren't totally sure what they look like and there are a ton of people waiting outside. Tom and John both arrive and we are off headed to Atenas, Costa Rica, about 30 minutes away. The driving here is really fast and people are very aggressive.

I can see through the darkness that the scenery is beautiful!! The terrain is very extreme- many ups and downs, mountains and valleys. The vegetation is very lush and gorgeous! There are many palm trees and a lot of greenery. The roads here are very curvy and steep, its truly amazing how skinny a road can be and yet still fit two cars!

Sunday

On Sunday we head to the Iglesia Biblica de Atenas (church) located in Atenas. The first thing I hear is "Dios le Bendiga!" (but really fast, so it sounds like one word :), which means "God Bless!" I pick this up quickly and begin meeting everyone with hugs and kisses. People are very friendly and welcoming! The entire church service was in Spanish, which I tried really hard to understand but only picked up a few words. The worship was lively and great for praticing my Spanish :) The sermon was filled with many verses from the Bible. There were about 30 people there and I can't wait to get better at Spanish so I can get to know them better!

Host Families

Ali, Brad, Josh, and I are going to be staying with host families. This is such a blessing as the eMi team here just moved to Costa Rica from Guatemala a few months ago. So, all the connections with people here are new and we are all learning together how things go here. We are all also learning a ton of Spanish so far, as all of the families speak only a little English. So we are trying our best.

My family is currently moving to a different house, so I will be staying with a couple of eMi leaders, John and Sharon, until we leave for Guatemala on Friday. John, Sharon, Tom, and Debbie are the eMi leaders of Costa Rica. They are all amazing people and I look forward to working and learning from all of them. Hector, a 22 year old from Guatemala is staying with John and Sharon also. He used to be an eMi volunteer and is attending university in Guatemala for Architecture, and John and Sharon are helping sponser Hector for school. Its been great getting to know him and practicing my spanish and his english too.

eMi Latina America Office

Since the eMi team has recently moved from Guatemala, the new office in Atenas is not set up. So starting Monday we opened all the boxes, step up desks, and painted the office to make it look more like a place we can work. The office is located above a bank and has three rooms and a big main room for all of us interns. There is a lot of natural light and is very homey. We are starting to become more and more like a family
everyday. Its great!

So, I've been trying to load up some pictures onto this blog, but the network here is so slow that I need to keep trying. So stay posted for pictures and more stories to come!!

Hasta Luego!