Finding Joy in the Rain.

Journal Entries from a weekend in the province of Limón, Costa Rica. 9/21/12 Friday. Homeless. Hungry. Violent. Dangerous. The words that come to mind as I walk the streets at night in Limón. By "night" I mean 8:45. People close up shop by 5:30 or 6 and head home to escape nightfall. By 9pm on Friday night the streets are empty. Only a few stragglers and those that have nowhere to go remain in the streets. People approach  me asking for food. I want to buy food for everyone. I hate saying no. I hate looking at the tiny, small frame of a man or woman asking-betting for food and not doing something. I buy some of them food and I take others to the grocery store, but I don't have enough money to help as much as I want to. I never will. Buying them food brings me such bittersweet feelings. I start to wonder who is helped more by such food donations-the giver or the receiver. The giver feels good about themselves for a week. The receiver is hungry again the next day. W

Every day deceive myself into thinking, "tomorrow things are going to start calming down". BIGGEST LIE EVER. Things are crazy here. I can honestly say I don't think I've ever been this busy in my life. I arrived in Costa Rica 3 weeks ago today. In those three weeks, I've taken 2 weekend trips to the beach, hit up a national park, attended a national soccer game, made national television, spent 42 hours in spanish tutoring, challenged my beliefs on the gender of God, the causes of poverty, the legalization of drugs, ect..., gotten lost multiple times, walked 5 miles a day to and from class, made some new best friends, gone salsa dancing, and experienced a 7.6 earthquake-all while trying to communicate with people in a new language. This weekend we are taking a weekend trip to Limón where we will be visiting a coffee, banana, and pineapple plantation, hanging out at the beach, visiting an indigenous reservation, ect.. ect... I'm not quite sure where I got the

Today was the first day I forgot to take my umbrella to class. It was also the first time it poured  during every step of our hour long walk to class. While it was cold and I was obviously soaked from head to toe, I actually enjoyed walking in the rain. There's something about the rain that brings me peace.--reminds me that God is good and showers us with his love. But seriously. I love it. While most of the time I prefer to sit on a porch or in a room with big windows and watch the rain, it was refreshing to feel God's creation literally falling down on me. That is, until I got to class. At that moment, my love for the rainstorm disintegrated as I realized I had to sit in my soaking wet clothes for the next three hours--simultaneously trying to express myself in a language I don't understand. (Side note: There are two things in life I very very much dislike. Being cold, and being wet.) I had a really hard time sitting in class. Besides the fact that I can't sit still

Our group! Costa Rica vs. Mexico Soccer Game 9/7/12 We made national TV on a commercial for a preview of the next game! Eliminatoria Mundialista Brasil 2014: Costa Rica vs México **en vivo** GO CRU!!  Collin!  Blake!  Erin!

It's only been a week and a half, but I feel like i've been here for months. I'm not sure how i'm supposed to be feeling, what I'm supposed to be thinking about the next few months, or what I'm supposed to be doing with my free time. From reading some of my friends' blogs, I can tell that people are all over the place. They say there are multiple stages one goes through in adapting to a culture: honeymoon faze, denial, anger, acceptance... and maybe a few more. From what I can tell, people are either feeling lonely, or currently loving every moment of it. I guess for me, I'm in the honeymoon stage. To be honest, I feel like this faze will last for a while. I love  it. The people, the place, the walking everywhere, the language, the daily flooding of rain, most of the food, and the ability to learn something completely different from my culture every day. Other than the constant whistling from guys that thing gringos are easy and the very massive spiders

I never really thought i'd experience an earthquake.. Especially one that was 7.9... I was actually running this morning with my sister Valeria when it hit. Because we were moving, we didn't even notice it until we heard a lady screaming at us. When we stopped running we definitely felt it. The earthquake lasted for about a minute and was very strong. We were blessed to be outside in a safe place and we do not live in the province that was hit the hardest. Thank you to those who have been praying and checking up on me. While we experienced minimal damage, (mirrors breaking, ect...), it hit pretty hard in Guanacaste. Please continue to pray that the trembling with not lead to a Tsunami. I am alive, well, and blessed. To God be the glory. OH, and one day when I have time-if ever-I'll fix my blog layout. (: Thanks for reading!

Before I get to my crazy adventure on the way home, check out these sweet pictures from the last few days. I tried coconut juice, as well as fresh coconut. I am not a fan of coconut in the states, but the juice wasn’t half bad. The fresh coconut on the other hand… not my thing. Slimy=disgusting. Always. I’m not sure quite how they turn that stuff into shreds of coconut Starbucks puts on their coca-mocha frappuccinos… lots and lots of sugar.    I haven’t been to many beaches, but this one was stunning. The rocks were absolutely beautiful and when you turned away from the shoreline you could see the rainforest. Seriously, how can people look at this and NOT believe in God? It astonishes me. (Me, Valería, and Santiago) So anyways, we took two cars to the beach. Valer ía had to be at work, so her, her boyfriend, and my brother Fernando (23) left at about 1. We peaced out at about 4ish… We hit traffic. Bad traffic. So Papa Otto decided to take the other route.