  So as anyone who knows me at all knows, I am a procrastinator. I do nothing to hide this fact. This is the explanation of why it has taken me this long to put anything up on this blog about what actually happened on&nbsp;the missions&nbsp;trip I went on to Costa Rica. So, here we go. &nbsp; We were down there actually doing productive things for 9 days (I’m not counting the two days that consisted of us traveling because it just isn't interesting). The first day was spent getting to know our way around Belen, which is the town the church we were visiting is in. We prayer walked to the schools we would be visiting (we only ended up going to one)&nbsp;and that evening, we went to the church and met and then went home with the Tico familes we would be staying with. My family was of course incredibly nice and friendly, just like practically&nbsp;everyone else in Costa Rica, and we got along just fine, even though they spoke almost no English and I speak almost no Spanish. They had a Spanish-English dictionary and they would point at the words. The next day was a free day to spend with our Tico families, where we were basically at their mercy.
My family tried to ask me if I wanted to go to San Jose, Alajuela, or Heredia, and I had no idea because obviously I had never been to any of those places, and so they ended up deciding to take me to the mall in Belen and then to these craft places that my Tica mom (her name is Rosie) went to town in. But by that point&nbsp;I was so dehydrated that I felt like passing out and I barely remember anything that happened. That was not the best day of the trip. I was very happy when we went to the church that night and I could finally talk to people who spoke English again.
The first thing I learned in Costa Rica is that a day is a really long time to be away from people you know when you're in a foreign country. That was Saturday. And after Saturday comes Sunday! (Welcome to Kindergarten! ) We went to the church in the morning. Well, because, that's what we do on Sundays. Just a heads up in case you ever go to Costa Rica, everyone is late. Everyone. It's just the way it is there. There are two rules in Costa Rica: everyone is late, and everyone drives like&nbsp;it's NASCAR. Anyway, Mabel and I (Mabel is my Tica sister) would leave for the church at 9:30 for the service, which started at 9:30.
It wasn't too far, but every walk in Costa Rica is long for people who are used to walking on smooth sidewalks and not used to people staring at them because they are American and have blonde hair. In the church, we did the Desicion Time mime, and it actually came together despite all my misgivings (there were about a million). At the end of the mime, the power went out in the church, so the last few seconds were completely silent without music, but it was all okay because it's just a mime and you don't need to hear the music to get the point.
That afternoon we went to Andrea and Arnulfo's house (they work with the youth group at the church) to do the first planning session with the Ticos for the retreat they were taking an unsaved friend on with them at the end of our trip. There were three groups - games, schedule, and the Decision Time mime. I got to help teach the Ticos the mime!&nbsp;WOOHOO! ...Okay, so it wasn't as hard as it sounds, a lot of people spoke English and were able to translate, and they learned it really really quickly. They learned it in four days. We taught them in the evenings of the days we were in the schools. When we were learning it, we had about five months and when we performed it the first time I was still worried about how it was going to turn out.
In the school on the first day (or was this the second day? I can't remember, it's all a blur), they had set up an assembly for us to star in, which was incredibly frightening, because we had to do a swing dance to show them "American culture. " However, it went perfectly, and&nbsp;Austin and I didn't forget the steps for once and for some reason everyone thought it was really cool. After that, the other mime (King of Hearts) was performed by all the other people who weren't on the Decision Time mime, and that went really well. Everyone liked it. Over the next two days, we basically just hung out with them the whole time.
We talked with them in the cafeteria, played basketball and soccer with them (okay that was the guys, not me) and just made friends. We were sort of surprised at how many kids were always around, considering they were supposed to be in school. We would ask them if they were supposed to be in class, and they said things like "yes, but the teacher is out here watching the soccer game" and "yes, but we're practicing our English talking to you so the teacher doesn't care. " Which sort of surprised us, but everyone in Costa Rica is really laid back and the schedule isn't as big of a deal as it is in the States.
The best part about it, though, is that we handed out a lot of little Knowing God Personally tracts in English and Spanish and the Gospel was shared with a ton of kids and at least two accepted Christ. It was the most amazing thing. On the third day, we got to do the Decision Time mime for them.
I'm not sure they liked that one as much as the King of Hearts mime, but it was good that we got to do it again, because going to Costa Rica, we weren't sure we were going to get to do it at all, in case the Ticos didn't like it enough to want to learn it to show to their friends at the retreat. (Random Costa Rican school trivia: it's their "winter" down there right now, so the break that they just went on is like the&nbsp;equivalent of&nbsp;our Christmas break. Their summer break is from December to February. All I have to say is, if it's that hot during their winter, I never want to go there during their summer. ) The last day we were in the school was Wednesday, June 30th. On Thursday, we took off for Punta Leona, which is a beach resort that is somewhere in Costa Rica. (I never really got my bearings when we were there, I never had any idea which direction we were going.
) All I know is, Punta Leona is about 2 hours away from Belen, and there are iguanas and raccoons running around there, and, according to my friend who went to Grecia (the team that went down a week after we did), toucans. And also, huge spiders. Wait, I thought I was going someplace I could RELAX. Well, it really was beautiful there. Too bad I have no pictures because I dropped my camera in the ocean.You'll just have to take my word for it. The retreat was the best part of the entire trip. It was what we had been working up to and praying about ever since we started getting ready to go on this trip back in January. And the best part about the retreat is, we weren't in charge for once. We were doing what the Ticos wanted to do, instead of the other way around.
It was really nice. The camp we went to was in the mountains. It was pretty cold up there. Nothing like Colorado Rockies cold obviously, because these mountains are only about half as high elevation-wise as the Rockies. But it was still cold, and it was a weird humid cold, which is something I'm not used to, living in Colorado and everything, where "humid" is an alien concept. I'm not going to say the camp was "nice. " For it to be "nice" it would have to not have enormous spiders in the bathroom stalls and hot water. So I'm going to say it was "decent" and "better than I was expecting. " Of course the whole weekend went pretty much exactly the same way a youth group retreat at Grace Chapel goes, with water fights and competitive games that the girls usually try to avoid getting caught up in and just messing around the whole time.
When the Ticos did the mime for their unsaved friends, they did it perfectly, and I was so happy that they pulled it off after only the few days they had to learn it. I'm not sure how many people became Christians, but I know there were some, and I know there were some seeds planted in people's hearts.
God was working through the Ticos at that camp, and it was awesome. I would just like to say that I really admire the Ticos in their ability to eat portions of rice and beans in one sitting that would feed my entire family in Colorado for the day. And that’s exaggerated only slightly. They really love their rice and beans. The first breakfast I had in my Tico home was… rice and beans. When we got to the private school we went to on the first Monday we were down&nbsp;there, they had prepared a presentation about Costa Rica (their history, government, culture, etc) that included serving us typical Costa Rican food, a.k.a., rice and beans. When we were on the retreat, guess what we had for breakfast? Rice and beans. Then we'd go and play some games and come back for lunch which was, rice and beans, but with soup this time instead of bread, which goes with breakfast. Time for dinner: more rice and beans, with a&nbsp;salad. The next day, breakfast is rice and beans. Lunch..... oh for lunch today we get an imitation sub sandwich. Well, who cares, it isn't rice and beans.
I will never eat rice and beans again in my life. And, the Pizza Hut pizza in Costa Rica OWNS American Pizza Hut. I don't know how, it's just better. &nbsp; In conclusion, this trip was absolutely fantastic. Everyone learned so much - we all got to be so close and such good friendships were made. We learned from the Ticos and the Ticos learned from us, and we just had an amazing time letting God work through us to reach out to the Ticos' friends. I would do it over again in a second. 
