COSTA RICA LEARNING TO HELP OTHERS

Before the trip to Costa Rica, I didn’t really want to go. We were going to help put an edition on to this family's house. I was worried I would miss my kitty, which I did, I was worried about the temperature, I was only worried about me. Here is my diary of what my trip to Costa Rica was really like.

JAN 31 We left snowy Spokane fairly early. Had Sprite, orange juice, and goodies on the plane. I also had a window seat for part of the flight, but then I asked to switch seats with my Mom so I could play Chess with my Dad. Because the flight got transferred to another terminal we had to rush across the Phoenix airport and got to ride the people mover. The people mover is like an escalator but flat.

I also got an interesting water bottle. Had a good visit with the Tams, friends from church, on the plane and at the long wait at the airport in San Jose. My Dad had to go get a rental van, along with the Pastor, but they took a long time because the Pastor forgot some things. We went to an Adventist campground, had some supper, and then went to bed around 11pm CT.

FEB 1 For breakfast I had some hot chocolate, which was a surprise being in a hot area. On a walk with my parents we saw four long tailed brown squirrels playing and bounding in the trees. The game they were playing was monkey squirrel and that brightened my day. After that I went exploring with Caleb and Mariah Tam and we found a HUGE grasshopper and several lizards.

Caleb and I met a local boy who only spoke Spanish but we were able to communicate with him. He told us about a black Jaguar in the mountains. It was a neat challenge to communicate with someone who didn’t speak English.

FEB 2 & 3 We left the camp to head to the work site 1.5 hours from San Jose, near Jaco. We crawled out of the vans and got separated into our teams. I got moved from the sidewalk team to the roof team which was the team I really wanted to be on. Crawling around in the rafters, I discovered I’d rather be on the roofing team so I was grateful for the change.

FEB 4, 5 The house we were working on is small, 2 bedroom, concrete house in terrible condition. They needed a room extension for their two handicap daughters. The father’s name is Guillermo and he worked with us every day along with a local contractor, Hernan. Hernan had a really good sense of humor. He would grab Caleb and make cat and dog fighting sounds. The group of us laughed and laughed.

FEB 6 We worked on the house in the morning and in the afternoon some of the group went on an ATV tour. It was so much fun. Mom booked two ATV’s but Nono didn’t want to drive. We prayed and prayed that we could get a side by side. Answered prayer! We got a Rhino, the only one they had, so my family could ride together. On the way back one of the ATV’s lost it’s brakes! The guide in the rear, Allan, drove his bike in front of it and stopped both vehicles. Did I mention that one of the bikes wouldn't start halfway through our tour? Even with all of this going on I had an exuberant ride.

FEB 7 Today, we finished the project. We didn’t get the entire house finished, but most of what we planned to do was done and a bit more. The house will be finished by the Seventh-Day Adventist Conference in Costa Rica and Guillarmo, the father of the family. A local news crew came and did a story on what we had done. In the afternoon we went to Manual Antonio National Park where I went swimming and saw some monkeys.

FEB 8 On Sabbath we did some programs for the community Jaco. I helped out with the kids meetings. Three of the kids actually knew quite a bit of English and helped out with some of the translating. Guillermo and his family came to the meetings. In the afternoon the Tam’s and my family went to the beach. We went swimming and played in the big waves that crashed and tumbled over and into us.

Now, I am glad I went. When I was sitting around moping I was not as happy as when I was helping out. I learnt not to be so selfish because it makes you more happy when you aren’t. Plus we missed the cold snap that got down to -30.

THE END ANY QUESTIONS OR COMMENTS?