Among the mango trees and little fighter dogs- Back to Atenas

After leaving Tuis (where the language school was at), which is on the east side of Costa Rica, we headed back to the west side to the town called Atenas. Atenas is where the eMi office is located, it is a rather small town with only one traffic light, but doesn’t quite have the farm town type of feel, it feels more like a bustling city. The town has a few really nice parks, a central area for many restaurants, and has a major road that goes to the coast running through the town.

Sidenote: We had a pretty adventurous travel time back to Atenas. On our third bus of the day, heading back into Atenas, we were on a bus that only had around 10 people on it, so we didn’t think there was much to worry about. Josh had put his backpack, which had his laptop in it, in the overhead shelf thinking it would be fine there. To our horrible surprise as we were trying to get off the bus, Josh’s backpack was gone! Someone must have grabbed the bag when he wasn’t looking and went out the back door of the bus. Wow now that was not a happy moment. But the Lord is so mighty and good. Since Josh needed that computer to do his work with eMi, it seemed even more tragic, but that next day Josh had talked to the pastor of his church back home. His pastor said that he would let the church know, and they would all pray for Josh’s situation. A few days later, the pastor reported back to Josh that the church had decided to buy Josh a new computer! So now Josh has a computer to do his work with eMi on! Praise the Lord!

Since returning back to Atenas, I have moved in with my new Costa Rican host family here in Atenas. The family consists of Oldemar and Maresa, and their two young adult children: Jazmine (18 yrs) and Brandon (15 yrs). Oldemar is the pastor of the local Bible church in Atenas that all of us interns attend. Jazmine just finished 10 months of English study, and is now attending the National University in Heredia, which is north of San Jose, so she travels back and forth to school. Brandon is still in high school. The family also has a little black dog named Nina. Now when first meeting Nina, she comes off as a very mean, barking dog that wears a doggie shirt. Cute on the outside but vicious on the inside. At first, every time I would even look at her, she would growl and act like she was about to launch at me. But sure enough, time has healed our broken friendship, and now Nina usually doesn’t bark at me and will sometimes even let me touch her. Talk about a strange dog! She is the first dog I’ve met that doesn’t like to be pet.

The family is very nice and welcoming. It has been really good practice for me to live with a Spanish speaking family. I have been learning A LOT of Spanish, when looking back to when I first arrived in Costa Rica barely knowing any words- to now being about to build friendships with Spanish speaking people is so incredible.

So life here in Costa Rica has been slowing down a lot these past few weeks. Us interns have been working in the office everyday 8hrs/day like a normal office job. We have been working on the various aspects of the projects in Guatemala. I have been working a great deal on the Agros project- developing computer-generated drawings on a program called AutoCAD. The structural engineering volunteer for the project sent me over 25 structural drawings to be drafted in AutoCAD, including learning how to design a roof truss. It has been a lot of work so far, but I have been learning a lot! I know that I have so much to learn, and that school has only set the foundation of me becoming an engineer. It has also been hard for me to adjust to life in an office. Since I am a very active, love to be around people person, being in an office not exactly what I’m used to, but I am learning to adjust. Being able to work on projects that are for ministries helping the poor, gives me great motivation to do the best work I can on these projects.

Also during the week, us interns, our two eMi leaders, and one Costa Rican friend are getting together once a week to learn what it means to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ. We are learning what disciples back in the days of the bible were required to do and how being a true disciple requires commitment and desire to lay down everything for the sake of becoming like Jesus.

I am so thankful for having this opportunity to work with eMi, and to be able to serve using some skills that I have learned. Yes it has been a CRAZY couple of months, but I have definitely learned a lot through my experiences here so far. I want to be stretched for the sake of becoming a better person and learning how to love God and people better.

(Pictures: 1. a spontaneous symmetrical picture 2. area around Atenas 3. a view from our office 5. during a morning worship time)

Great times with new friends

During my time at language school, I was able to stay with a Costa Rican family- Freddy and Samia, and their two kids Jamina (9yrs) and Pablo (7yrs). I instantly felt like I was apart of their family. Communicating was a little difficult at first, but then as I started going to the language school and we were able to really develop a friendship. The night before we left, Samia made some amazing pizzas from scratch for all of us interns. It was a great time of fellowship and many intense games of Uno. Needless to say it was hard to say goodbye.
(The top picture is of Jamina and Pablo, the second is of Samia and I making some pizzas :)

Before leaving Tuis, us interns snuck in a few fun excursions. We hiked up one of the rivers flowing through Tuis, climbing/jumping from rock to rock. The river was surrounded by beautiful lush trees, many huge vines hanging down (yeah kind of like Tarzan), and there were three waterfalls flowing into the river (waterfall translates to “catarata” in Spanish, it’s a really fun word to say really fast). At the last waterfall, the pool of water beneath it looked rather deep, so Ali and I (thinking that its overrated to stay dry in this situation) decided to jump in fully clothed. Sidenote: which out did the three men we were with because they were too pansy to jump in. Great times!

The day before we left, we got to go on a white water rafting tour in the huge Pachuare river. This was practically my first experience rafting, and I loved every minute of it! Our guide pretty much got us all in the raft and gave a few quick instructions, then we were off in a rapid. So lets just say some think practice is overrated. The river was so beautiful, surrounded by many trees and huge hills. There were some pretty exotic birds, some of the people saw toucans on a tree, but with my bad eye sight I definitely missed them. Ha!

Anyhow its been a fun adventure so far!

(Incredible) adventure to Chirripo

Sorry for the delay in blog entries!! I am in the process of writing about everything thus far, so the blog will be caught up soon!! This entry is about our awesome adventure to Chirripo.

Starting at 6am in the morning, 24 people from the community of Tuis and us interns pack into the bed of a big truck ready for an adventure to the mountains of Chirripo. The ride took us through beautiful green mountains where we were able to see the smoke spewing out of a volcano in the distance. I was standing up for most of the ride, holding on as we drive on very bumpy dirt roads. On the way we stop by the last town before the mountains, this town has a clinic where a lot of the people from the indigenous villages walk many hours for help. From there we pick up a woman and her 3 children who are from the village we were headed to.

Shortly after, the road ends and we hop out with all our backpacks and 15 ft. planks of wood. The wood was brought for the construction of a house in the village. Each man was responsible for one plank and every two women were responsible for one. So Ali and I start carrying two planks between us (lets just say this definitely adds to the level of difficulty for this trek.) Each plank weighed about 10 lbs each. The hike was very strenuous, from the very beginning we inclined down 3,000 ft in less than two hours. The landscape is incredible- it looked like the Lord of the Rings movie meets the rainforest. I absolutely couldn’t believe my eyes.
After inclining down two mountains, we reach the valley where the path runs near a river. The path crosses the river over 15 times, and when rock jumping became to difficult I would just step right through the river. Dry feet are so overrated! Towards the end of the hike the river became very wide with some strong rapids. So, conveniently the locals constructed a zip line made of tree trunks and branches to cross the river. It was so interesting to see everyone zip across the line sitting on little woven bands. Incredible! So with us on the hike, there are a handful of indigenous people carrying things into the village with us. When we got to the river, they just crossed it like it was nothing, helping to carry all the boards across. Another incredible sight! Shortly after the zip line we arrive to the village. Wohoo! We all were very excited to have endured 6 hours of hiking, to release the boards, and that we made it to our destination!

The village was very small with a few wooden/bamboo houses, many chickens, stray dogs, and pigs running around. The majority of the people in the area speak a language called cacvec, but some also speak Spanish. The language is very interesting and not similar to Spanish at all! After we ate some food and got our things organized, we walked 15 minutes to the other part of the village. Upon arriving, we saw 3 structures- 2 houses and a gathering place- and another one being built by a handful of people from California! The people were building a church for this area, and would hold evening times of worship and show parts of the Jesus film. Every night from all over the region, people come to this event. It was incredible to see these people come and sing under the candlelight.
The next day we all were pretty sore and tired, but ready to serve in some way- most of the guys started building a house with the wood we had brought to the village, and most of us girls played with the kids. We brought some crayons with us and colored on the wooden benches. Then two girls started washing the hair of the women and girls, while Ali and I french-braided the girls’ hair. They all were very excited for something new; it was great to see their smiling faces!

After lunch, we gathered our backpacks and headed back the way we came. The hike back seemed easier for the first couple of hours until we hit the upward climb of the hike at which we hiked up the steep hills (some at over 45 degree inclines) for over 2 hours. This part of the hike was definitely challenging, but great when we finished and were back on top of the mountain.
It is very difficult to sum up this experience into writing, but I hope I explained it well. What an incredible experience! And for this I feel so blessed.

Learning me a lot of Spanish

This past week and week to come, all the interns and I are in Tuis, Costa Rica for language school. Tuis is a very small town on the east side of Costa Rica, with only one store and two resturants. Its definitely been an adventure thus far!

Two saturdays ago, Tom (our leader with eMi) dropped us all off in Tuis. Then we were each taken to our new host families homes. I was dropped off first, to find out that my family knew pretty much no english and that I am definitely in need of learning TONS of Spanish! So I tried my best and exhausted all that I knew pretty quickly, but the family is so nice and tries to talk slowly to me in Spanish. ha!

Its been so great to get know all the people here in Tuis. Everyone seems to be connected to one another somehow- either by family or friends. I have never experienced such a rich community as the one here in Tuis. To make things even better, a lot of people here believe in the Lord and strive to be so welcoming!

So the language school we are at is called CISA and is run by two guys named Hector and Daniel. They both are only 31 years old and started the school including working with the indigious in the remote villages located in the mountains. In fact, they started a home located right next to the school that houses about 7 people from the indigious village that are handicapped in some way. The ministry here is so incredible. There is also a church here that Hector and Daniel started and lead every sunday. Both Hector and Daniel are examples of what having much faith can produce. Since they started the church, mission, and school only 5 years ago!

Anyhow, every month Hector and Daniel take people with them to go visit the indigious villages in the mountains. To bring supplies, medical supplies, teach the people the importance of brushing teeth, help build things, and much more. So not knowing prior to coming to language school, all of us interns decided to go on this trip with everyone. So, at 6am this past friday we were off with the group. The trek to the village included a 2 hour drive on a bed of a truck on very bumpy dirt roads with incredible scenery surrounding. Then a 6 hour hike down a 3,000 ft mountain and across many valleys, including riding a zip line across a huge river. It was unbelievable!! There were many pictures taken during the trip so I will post them soon! Also I have many more details and stories to tell about this trip to the indigenous!
So thanks for reading!
Photos: 1. Us interns 2. CISA 3. Us interns hanging out with the indigenous.

Defend the cause of orphans...

"Learn to do good. Seek justice. Help the oppressed. Defend the cause of orphans. Fight for the rights of widows.” Isaiah 1:17

My second week in Guatemala was spent at an orphanage called Casa Bernabe. It is located on the hillside just outside busy Guatemala City. We arrived on Sunday, just in time for their church service to begin. Ali and I rushed to put our bags down, to join in the church service starting on the second floor of their main building. There were kids everywhere, boys and girls ranging from a few months old to 18 years old. As the worship music began (in Spanish :), I started thinking about the situations each child at the orphanage had to face in their lives thus far. How each child somehow became motherless and fatherless, by nothing of the child’s doing most likely, but of choices made around them that affect them so deeply. Thank goodness orphanages exist and that they provide hope, shelter, and food for these kids!

Casa Bernabé provides a home for orphaned, abandoned, and handicapped children. There are over 150 children at the orphanage; they are divided up by age and gender into several houses, under the care of missionary house parents. It was so amazing to see the love and commitment of the house parents. Each set of house parents were taking care of over 10 kids each, talk about a demanding job! One of the nights, all of us were assigned to a house to watch over the kids to relieve the house parents for a few hours. I got assigned to the baby house, which housed about 15 babies ranging from 2 months to about 1 year. I could not believe the work that goes into taking care of that many babies! I am ashamed to say, but it was the first time for me to change a baby’s diaper, and I can’t imagine doing that all day!

A big issue that the orphanages in Guatemala are struggling with is that due to corruption within the system, the Guatemalan government has currently restricted adoption. Therefore, stopping the flow of orphans coming into orphanages and then getting adopted into a family. So, orphanages are being forced to turn away many orphans due to the lack of resources. This very sadly leaves many children with little hope. Prayer is definitely needed for this situation. Please also pray for more resources and volunteers for this orphanage.

So, the eMi team and I met up with several design volunteer professionals from the States to work on helping the orphanage. The orphanage requested a school expansion in order to house the large number of students on campus. Our team was able to begin the architectural and structural design for the school, as well as complete a precision survey of the site. I was able to help out with the structural and architectural designs and drawings for the school. It was so exciting to see how the things I have learned in school can be used directly to bless people. I was also motivated to learn much more so that I could be a lot more helpful.

Throughout the week, we all worked on the project and got to spend time with the kids at the orphanage. On the last day we were there, two unfortunate things happened. Three boys ran away from the orphanage, it was very sad to hear, but we pray that the boys returned safely. The other sad thing was that my camera disappeared and we all are about 99% sure it got stolen. But thankfully, there are 3 other interns with me that all have cameras and are letting me take pictures. So I’ll still be able to have pictures to share.:)

Anyways, also on the last night, all of us got to share pizza and sodas with the older teenage boys house. It was great to eat with them and hang out afterwards. There was a boy that Ali and I got to hang out who really stood out, named Raphel. He was a good basketball player, knew really good english and kept singing “I want it that way” by the Backstreet Boys. It was awesome!

I feel so incredibly blessed by this experience so far. I have been learning a lot from just seeing how people live and am very encouraged by the faithfulness of the Lord. Its funny how when you leave the environment that you are most comfortable in to an environment completely foreign, is the time when you can step back and reexamine the important things in life. It’s also a time to question what you believe and challenge your thoughts against your actions. So to say the least, life is interesting and I’m holding on for the ride.

Much to write about, where to start...

Where do I start...there is just so many thoughts that have been going through my head. The past two weeks in Guatemala have caused me to question much of how I live and how the Lord calls each one of us to live. When confronted directly with poverty, many questions arise to why have I been extremely blessed with much when there are so many barely surviving each day? Why is there such a huge gap in living conditions between all peoples in this world? How can people who have been so greatly blessed turn their backs on ones who were born into horrible conditions? Oh how easy it is to stay ignorant and complacent, thinking everyone in the world is doing okay. And to think that if people aren't doing so well that you won't be able to help. This is so not true. It is going to take ALL of us to join in our own way to fight for the end of poverty.


For more reason than true reverence and respect for human life, each one of us is called to "freely give, just as you have freely received." (Matthew 10:8)

"And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love." (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Anyways, these are some things that I have been pondering and wrestling with. Our team has safely made it back to Costa Rica. We are back working in the office in Atenas. I will write really soon about how the rest of my time in Guatemala was and post pictures. Thanks for reading!

Wow I'm so far from home!- Project Trip to Nebaj, Guatemala

Last friday, January 25th, my team and I flew out of San Jose, Costa Rica to Guatemala City. As soon as we landed, there was a definite temperature change, since Guatemala City is at about 6,000 ft. After we had gotten all of our luggage, I was in charge of carrying the 4ft plane surveying tripod through customs. It was pretty comical to explain (in Spanish) what was in this big cardboard box, and that it wasn't a weapon. But luckily it all went good.

We then pile into 2 taxis for 9 people, with 4 of us in the back and 3 in front of a 5 seater car! We get into Guatemala City, which is a large city with big buildings. There are hints of the western world, with some mcdonalds and pizza huts. But not for long...

The next day we all pile into two vans headed for very steep roads with hair pin curves all over. The mountains here are very steep, green and lush. In Guatemala, there are renovated school buses with crazy paints jobs that become their public transportation, everyone calls these chicken buses. These chicken buses are packed full with people and are driven by crazy madmen who pass at all costs barely miss oncoming traffic and think 2 lanes means more room for them! ha!

As we drive, we pass many people walking up these roads, some carrying very heavy loads of wood tied to their backs. Cows, sheep, horses, and goats grazed about and often pulled along. We pass many small villages spread all over these hills. Most people live in houses more like metal panel boxes. This is definitely a third world area.

So, it took us a little over 8 hours to get to Nebaj which is located on the Northwestern part of Guatemala. The village is rather small with very unstable roads and people walking everywhere. Most of the women dress very traditional with colorful textiles. Us gringos definitely stood out a ton, we were all way taller and lighter skinned that everyone! I almost got used to people just staring at us! It was very cold there at night since there was no heating and the wall were very thin with no insulation. I definitely slept with 5 blankets and wore the same sweatshirt everyday! Yeah I didn't expect it to be so cold!


Within my team, there are 4 of us interns with eMi, 2 eMi leaders, and 6 other volunteering design professionals. During our time in Nebaj, we worked with a non profit called the Agros Foundation. Agros is based in Central America and works to train and educate the indiginous people in carpentry, textiles, coffee production, agricultural practices and tons more! Agros helps and stays with a village for over 10 years, building strong relationships.


So, Agros has a vision for a large site with training centers, a school, and greenhouses for a piece of land they recently purchased. eMi's job was to do the land development, water engineering, electrical, planning, and design of one shop building. I was able to work along side a very experienced structural engineer and help in the design of the shop building. The week was filled with design work. On the last day, we presented our ideas and the work we have done so far to the Agros team. It was so satisfying to see their excitement for the work we have done for the center and seeing their vision come to fruition.

The Lord is teaching me a lot about what it means to serve and His love for ALL people in ALL countries.
"This is how we know what love is- Jesus Chris laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers." 1 John 3:16 and also
"Each should use whatever gift he has recieved to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in various forms." 1 Peter 4:10

Well thank you so much for reading and please keep my team and I in your prayers. A few of us have been feeling sick so healing and energy would be a blessing!

We are currently starting another project for an orphanage wanting to build a school in Guatemala City today. So here we go into another week! (By the way, I took tons of pictures that I will try to upload to a website :)

The pictures I have posted are: 1. Aerial view of Nebaj 2. Ali and I with Nebaj 5. View from my hotel room in Nebaj

Headed to Guatemala for two weeks!

My team and I are headed for Guatemala in like 5 minutes. Please pray for safe travels and that we will be able to discern the Lord's will wherever we go. More information to come as I find some more internet! :)

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!