Hello Texas! Costa Rica is beautiful, as you can see from the photos. I have been assigned to the
Guadalupe mission where we work with the school children and at a small village church. Today I woke up at 5:45 to get ready for our 6 AM mass celebrated by Father Philip and the Deacons. Afterwards the missionaries and chaperones had a lunch prepared by a few girls and cooks that work at our house. We have “gallo pinto” practically every meal but it is really good. Shortly after breakfast everyone headed to their respective busses to begin the work day. On the bus rides we sing and dance extremely loudly. Yesterday, a bird was caught in the back of the bus and everyone was going ballistic. Upon our arrival to the school house, we were greeted by the smiling children and their cheerful headmaster, Gustavo. Together we worked on rearranging the plaza and also played sharks and minnows. After spending time at the school everyone headed to the church of Guadalupe. They have a very humble church and have been saving money to remodel for years. After finding out that there would be missionaries coming the parish scraped together donations to provide ample supplies and food for the workers. These past few days ten missionaries (including me) have been working on the expansion of their church. I have learned how to weld rebar and lay bricks. This Friday, we moved cinder blocks and stacked them along the trenches we dug yesterday. The view from our worksite is phenomenal. Directly in front of us there is a coffee, banana, mango, and avocado farm and farther along is Costa Rica’s tallest mountain decorated with a variety of trees and small houses. Our group finally finished transferring the shipment of cinder blocks to the desired location and we started screaming our favorite song, Alabore. As a reward for all of our hard work we had gallo pinto, yucca, and fruits that were freshly picked from the huge garden behind the kitchen. Everyone was exhausted and to avoid the rain, we sat in the plaza and made friendship bracelets and told funny stories. At around 3 we had our second mass of the day with the community. They all stood up and gave testimonies and thanked us for all of our work. Ironically, I feel as if they are doing more for me than I am for them. Nevertheless, we all celebrated the days work with
another game of sharks and minnows and coffee made by one of the families. Hours later our missionary group decided to go to the grocery store and we danced to the American music that was
playing on the intercom. I love my group and I love Costa Rica! I am having an amazing experience here.
A few highlights from the trip thus far: Visiting a dairy farm, climbing up the mountain behind the school and then climbing the fruit trees to gather mangos, trying sugar cane, planting trees, and making so many new and wholesome friends.
I miss you all so much and can’t wait to tell you about my trip, I am really thankful to be here but also can’t wait to see you.
Juliana
