Swimming like a fish

A lot has happened since I last blogged, so I'm sorry for the delay, but I plan to write a lot more and post more pictures. Wohoo for the plan! So as I explained in my last blog, Ali and I get to teach swim lessons to the kids at the local orphanage every Thrusday. At this orphanage there are about a total of 40 kids, 25 of which are old enough to play in the pool. There are two groups: the “grandes” and the “mas grandes”, which means “big kids” and the “bigger kids”.

The first week, we were able to take the grandes to the pool. There were a total of 10 kids in the pool, ranging from 2 to 5. All of the kids are required to first start out wearing life jackets in the pool until they can swim on their own proficiently. It was amazing to see their enthusiasm to get in the water. Especially after I heard that a few of the kids were completely terrified of even getting into a bathtub when they first arrived at the orphanage. One boy in peculiar, named Joseph, wouldn’t even get near a bathtub a couple years ago and now he is jumping into the pool like it was his home. So incredible.

A 2-year girl named, Pricilla, was pretty scared of the water. When the water even got remotely close to her face she would start to whine. So I started with letting her hold onto me and slowly she became willing to put her face in the water for a couple of seconds to try to blow bubbles. It was so precious to see her slowly embrace her fears and overcome them. Costa Ricans seem to have a lot of fears about things in life, fears that hold no truth. That is why many Costa Rican’s don’t know how to swim. In fact, all of the Costa Rican caretakers at the orphanage don’t know how to swim, and were asking us if we would be willing to teach them also! Oh how awesome that would be, I would love to do that, we just need to figure out time in our work schedules. But anyways, it’s sad to see the fears that the parents hold in their lives get passed onto their children. So I pray that the children can be freed from these empty fears, if anything from their fear of the water. Not to mention the incredibly beautiful beaches that surrounds Costa Rica, that I hope they can one day enjoy.

The following week, we went back to the orphanage for another week of swim time with the “mas grandes”, but then we turned out to have both the groups of kids for a total of 15 kids in the pool at once! I know it sounds like chaos, and believe me it was at the brink of chaos at times, but great fun nonetheless. During our little session, we were able to show the kids how to blow bubbles, and how to kick while holding onto the wall. It was awesome to see some of the naturals swim so well on their own, something so fun to be apart of. The time that I get to spend with the kids is definitely expanding my love for them and my love for kids in general. I pray to develop the kind of love that the Lord calls me to have for these kids.

These are two lovely girls from the orphanage that I get to teach swimmming to :)

WoHoo! I get to teach swim lessons!

Ever since I can remember, I've always loved the water and especially swimming around in it. So it naturally amazed me that a lot people in Costa Rica don't learn to swim! Which is an oxymoron in itself, since Costa Rica has some of the most prettiest and best beaches in the world and yet the Costa Ricans who live here don't get in and play in the water!

So in a small attempt to fix this oxymoron, Ali and I will be able to teach swim lessons to some kids at a local orphanage here in Atenas. I am so excited for this opportunity to share my passion of swimming with the kids here! I will be sure to take cute pictures of some of these lessons to post here later. :)

Faithfulness beyond this world

Wow, so I would like to apologize for being such a bad blog writer. Well I hope my writing isn’t too bad or boring, but I definitely need to work on writing more frequently…

There are so many things that have been learning in the past couple of months. Its amazing how once you step out of what is familiar into a situation that is new and different, you become like a sponge soaking up new revelations that seem so clear now, but weren’t always that way…

To start out with- I’ve been learning more about the faithfulness of the Lord. He knows all of our needs even before we ask, as it says in the Bible we just need to look at how the Lord provides for the birds of the air and how He clothes the flowers of the earth so beautifully, and how the Lord cares so much more for us, His children, so we don’t need to worry. Yes, the Lord’s timing is very different from our timing, but thank goodness we have this hope in trusting that the Lord will provide!! So, a very recent example of this in my life is that I am very excited to say that I have received 97% of my total financial support in order to volunteer with eMi!! How awesome is that?! I praise the Lord for all you who have supported me both financially and prayerfully. Thank you so much!! I could not be here without your support.

Another aspect of life that the Lord has been changing in my heart about is what to do after this internship, and in turn what I truly desire to live for. Lets just say that the plans I had in my head have changed pretty drastically. When I first came down here, I was thinking that after this internship with eMi, Ali and I would try to go travel South America for while after and then return to Colorado and look for a job in Structural Engineering. I also was doubtful about what the Lord was calling me to do, I was worried that Engineering is not for me. But I’ve realized that it is so necessary to take life step by step, and to not pressure yourself to decide what you should do for the REST of your life, which it is easy to fall into that kind of thinking right after you graduate.

I've come to ask myself what do I live for? And what I desire for my answer to be is: to come to know and love the Lord and serve Him by serving others in love. So from this life objective, I've learned that all other things in this world seem so insignificant. I will not get my self worth from a grand job that I might someday have, so the pressure of figuring out what my profession will be for the REST of my life has thankfully become defused. "If I gain the whole world, but not have love, than I gain nothing." 1 Cor. 13

So since then I have felt that the Lord is calling me back to Colorado right after the internship and to see where He leads next. However, as always the Lord can continue to change whatever I think might be next…. so I’m not worried just wanna be ready for the ride. ☺

A few prayer requests...

I have a few prayer requests if you would like to send up some prayers for my team and I. I greatly appreciate it!!

Prayer requests, please pray for:

• Debbie, who is the wife of our eMi leader, Tom, here in Costa Rica. Debbie recently had surgery to remove a tumor found in her urinary tract. Please pray for strength, a full recovery, and that the tumor will be completely benign. Debbie has also struggled with internal balance issues with experiencing vertigo and intense ringing in her ears.
• An eMi intern, Sam, who is serving as a volunteer on a building project in the Congo. On the project trip, Sam got malaria. Please pray for strength and that the malaria would leave him.
• John, who is the other leader here in our Costa Rica office. He has prostate cancer, but has it under control as of right now. Please pray for John to find the right treatment. John is such an inspiration to us interns here.
• Open doors for opportunities and new ways to serve the community here in Atenas. I am thinking about helping a local orphanage by teaching the kids how to swim. Josh has started to play in the worship band at the local church. Please pray for these things to work out.
• Wisdom to know how to be culturally sensitive and be an effective witness of being a servant for Christ.
• Josh and my financial support to be here volunteering with eMi. We both still lack complete support.
• The completion of the two design projects we are working on for two ministries in Guatemala. Our goal is to finish these projects by mid-May. There is still a lot of work to be done.
• The computer design software, AutoCAD, is the program we use to do all the drawings for our projects. All the eMi offices are in need of new subscriptions. The prices for the new subscriptions are very high and we are praying for some kind of discounted rate so that eMi can afford it. Please pray for favor with the AutoCAD vendors, so we can get this valuable program.
• Please pray for my team and I to be continually learning from the Lord- to be open to any of His leadings and teachings, in order for us to be changed to be more like Jesus.

Thank you so much for all your prayers!!! Dios le bendiga!!

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.