Day 5: Anyway (a.k.a. this is a good post and you should read it) - March 11

Well my loves, we’re back on MS Word while my computer tries to work through its conflict with the wifi here.

Anyway, today was really good. If you want to know why it was good for the campus, you’ve come to the wrong place. 404 error. Information not found. But, you can find that information over there.

Anyway, we slept all the way in today. Had breakfast at 7 and didn’t have to leave until 8:30. Bless. Being more rested made a world of difference for me today. We walked with Jovany to the city bus stop and rode the bus into San José. If you’ve never used public transportation in another country; I strongly recommend it (as long as its safe like in Costa Rica). It really lets us see into the real, mundane life of the culture. Because if you don’t see something or know someone in their average, day-to-day life, you kinda don’t really know them. We live in the mundane, but the mundane can be beautiful if we invite God into it and see it with fresh eyes. Next time you’re in the uneventful, take a second to appreciate it; it’s a really cool gratitude and joy exercise.

Anyway, we rode the bus into the city and walked to the slum we were going to be working at. After we got there, our guide realized he was actually supposed to take us to a grocery store nearby so we could help Marta¹ carry all of the supplies we were bringing. So, half of us walked back up the hill and out of the slum to go get the supplies. The other half stayed and chilled at Abel y Eli²'s home. We walked back and found Marta and got all the stuff and walked back back with no problem. We laughed when we walked by a seafood place that had a picture of a shrimp on the side of it. There has been a running joke (currently all running feels like a joke to me) that we are Team Camaron (shrimp), because we’ve all turned pink. Yesterday, Alex said, “Bueno mis camaroncitos, get off the grill and come stand in the shade with me.” Alex says the funniest things, it’s muy fun to get to work beside him.

Anyway (I've said that a lot, dang. Let's roll with it), we got back to the slum with all the stuff. I don’t really like the word slum, but it’s honestly the best one to describe where we were. It’s a patch of unowned land that people have set up houses on. The crazy thing is that they have running water and electricity there, because (even though they legally have no right to the land) the government can’t deny them water and electricity. So that’s another of the weird Costa Rican progressive-not-progressive things. “We’ll look the other way as you use this land and let you set up water and electricity, but we still won’t give you jobs, even if you’re in our country legally.”

Anyway, we spent the next several hours cleaning up trash in the slums. The kids wanted to be with the visitors to their barrio, so they all came and helped. We each used one glove so that everyone could have one. It was interesting to see that some houses and areas were well-kept and others were not. One thing I love about the church here is that they are into long-term change and sustainable whole-life transformation. They aren’t just occasionally coming in as the savior Christians and doing some work; they are building relationships (that’s part of why we went to the futbol game on Saturday), they are working towards setting up a resource center in the slum for the kids (they already have the building (it’s not like they had to buy it…)). The resource center will be a place where kids can work on homework safely and with lights and get tutoring and hear about the love Jesus has for them. Y’all, that’s the sort of thing that can break cycles of poverty and prevent gang involvement and change family trees forever. And it’s being done by this little 3-staffer church in Costa Rica. They pray like nobody’s business and they seek creative solutions and they love everyone they come into contact with, which opens crazy doors of opportunity for them. Lord, help us all to live that way.

Anyway, we finished cleaning and ate lunch in the house. The mom's of the kids made the food for us with the  groceries we brought. It was bien dificil for me to eat while these ladies sat and watched us, but that's part of hospitality culture, my friends, sometimes, if you don't let people serve you, you come across as aloof and rejecting of their love. Sometimes you have to let love be a two-way street. Is that as convicting to you as it is to me? Sheesh. Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only one who's messed up in the ways that I am, but it usually turns out other people feel the same tensions I do.

Bien, after eating we played with the kids for a few hours. It was a lot of fun for us, and made their parents feel very loved. Every now and then, I would look and see the ticos bonding with the parents while we played with the kids. That's strategic right there. Like I said, relationship building for the sake of the gospel and long-term change. I loved playing with the kids. Kids just love and they let you love them back, usually without walls. And, by this point in time, we had enough relational trust built with the parents (and since they were already doing this), we felt comfortable taking lots of pictures. I've been told that my blog isn't at its full potential because I don't include a lot of pictures, though part of that is because we don't take a lot of pictures on the city side of this ministry, becasue of the nature of the work we're doing. I've been on too many mission trips in high school that (while they had great things about them (and even are part of the reason I'm in full-time ministry)) were just spiritualized tourism. That was my biggest fear for this trip last year and still this year: that it would become another self-gratifying, savior-complex-driven, destructive trip where we go and have fun and take pictures of all the poor people and spend some money and then leave them to their lives and go home and pat ourselves on the back. That's so destructive and actually keeps people in cycles of poverty. It gives Short-Term Trips a bad name. It makes me mad. Maybe you noticed that. But, I was sold when I was emailing Pastor Gomez (who you haven't met yet in this year's blog) and he described that type of trip as "poverty porn." I knew then that he understood it and wouldn't let our partnership become that. 

Anywayyyyy, there's another tangent for you friends. After playing we left and bussed back to the hotel and chilled and showered and had pizza for dinner and then had a surprise (? idk if they successfully kept it a secret or not) birthday party for two of our campus-side girls. It turned into a dance party, which was fun. It's been a while since I've gotten to dance bachata o merengue. After that we all went to bed (or at least got quiet) since the hotel has imposed a 10 PM quiet hour on us. It feels early for me, but we definitely want to respect it since the hotel management felt the need to ask us to be quiet after 10 because guests were complaining about our church group :/ But we've been doing great since then. We gave pizza to the hotel staff when we were having our dinner tonight, so I think they still like us.

I think that's all I have for you for tonight friends. Oh wait, let me add a picture, hang on. There, I put them after the poverty tourism rant. I guess you already knew that since you're reading this after that. Actually, here's all my pictures currently³. Hopefully they'll be finished loading by the time you read this.

1. Marta - Marta is one of the church-planters from Honduras, she came here to work with the kids. She goes hard and fights for big dreams to become realities. Some of the things she's accomplished with the kids she works with are unbelievable. God's moving a lot through her here.

2. Abel y Eli - These are the parents of the kid who played in the futbol game. They live in the slum and are religious, but may or may not know Jesus. They've come to church a few times and seem like they're on the verge of a major breakthrough. At any rate, they're definitely people of peace in the slum community.

3. I may or may not update the pictures again before the end of the trip, but I definitely will Sunday night. You might look and think, "Wow, Sam, that's a lot of pictures of Héctor..." But please note, Kendall had my camera for a while, so...that explains the ones in the slum at least.