Day 8: "Day Off," Conspiracy Theories, and Rap Battles
Hello amigos,
You won’t read this tonight, since we have no internet, but
I will still write it now.
I want to start with an addendum to yesterday’s post. We met
with the church, remember? Matthew jumped in and played keyboard for their
worship team! I was chilling, worshiping, enjoying it immensely, and then I saw
something.
I looked at Matthew while he was playing, and saw that he
was watching the guitarist’s fingers while she played. I thought to myself, “There’s
no way he is looking at her fingers from his keyboard and figuring out what
chord she’s playing and then just matching that on keyboard as they go along,
is there?” So, I kept worshiping and then asked him about it later. And he said
yes. The homie was playing keys in time with the guitar while figuring out the
piano buttons to push by looking at which strings someone else was holding on a
guitar.
Anyway. So, today. sabado. I woke up and didn’t go
for a run, but instead took Cassidy and Tesla to the nearby lab to get their
COVID tests. The process was quick and easy. Tesla and Cassidy did great
navigating the forms in Spanish, and we got out of there. As we walked back,
decided to stop and look at a giant banyan tree in the park next to the lab.
Then, as we walked back, we detoured to look at the abandoned buildings behind
the supermercado. There was a guard protecting the creepy, dilapidated
buildings. We asked the guy guarding the abandoned buildings what they were,
and he said they were an old food processing plant that had gotten repossessed and
now belonged to the bank. Obviously, a government cover-up.
Back to the apartment, Uber to the mercado arteseño
that Lagos and Ana Raquel said was cool. They were there and it was, in fact,
very cool. Muy hipster era el mercado. I felt a bit out of place, but I
really liked it. We ate hipster grilled cheese and drank hipster smoothies and
generally chilled. Lagos has a plan to hopefully sell cold brew at this market (side
hustle, ftw), and he could legit pull it off. I don’t really like coffee, but
Lagos knows what he’s doing. Best coffee I’ve had has been his. We hung out a bit
more, then walked over towards a museo that Reychel wanted to
meet us at. She was having some navigational difficulties, so our plan was to
wait for her and Tanya to join us.
We found the perfect place to wait. Apparently, there is a
group or club that organizes official rap battle competitions in a plaza
downtown. And we stumbled upon this group. There were about 70 people (mostly
between the ages of 14 and 25, I’d guess) sitting in an outdoor amphitheater/plaza
and about 20 of them took turns rap battling each other while a large speaker
played different background beats. We later learned that some of the people there
went to and won national competitions for rap battles. We learned this from Tanya,
who apparently is something of a rapper herself (this information definitely
increased my already-high respect for the futbolista).
While we listened (without much understanding), Izzy and I
got to have a phenomenal conversation about how we feel about days off and how
off-putting touristy things feel. I don’t like being still. I believe I inherited
that from my mom. Sometimes, I think I might be part shark, and if I stop
moving, I’ll die (is that actual animal facts or just made up? @Ethan? @Somebody?).
Part of my Story: I am consumed by the idea of Purpose. If something doesn’t
have a purpose, it’s hard for me to get behind doing it. That is difficult when
you live your life without knowing your purpose. A Theory (we’re still in Story
here as a subset of conversation with Izzy): I think Identity + Purpose = Joy.
When you know Who You Are (and are allowed to be that person) & Why You Are
(and are allowed to do that thing), you live in Joy. As believers, no one can
take that from us, so we have the opportunity for some deep joy. Anyway, once I
found Purpose in Christ, it was almost intoxicating (strong word?). I did
have a reason for existence! And I try to live very purposefully. The danger
for me is getting Purpose and Identity confused, or letting Purpose matter
more.
Anyway, Izzy and I talked about how Days Off feel rough and leave
us wanting to DO MORE. I can’t quite figure out on my own if that’s healthy or
not, so I didn’t want to portray that instinct as good or bad, so I challenged
her to pray about it and then follow God’s leading on how off our Off
Days should be. We’ll see what comes.
We went to the museum cuando llegaba
Reychel.
It was fascinating. There was a giant entrance room filled with plants and a
ton of butterflies, just living their best lives with tons of food and no
predators. They landed on some of us. There were rooms filled with pre-Columbian
sculptures of decapitations and naked people. The rooms flowed with a
progression of the development or Costa Rica: through conquistadores and
the reign of the church, through wars and developing the coffee industry,
through the dissolution of the Costa Rican army* and the modern era. Fantastic
museum. Our team broke down into little grupitos, which was ideal
because it let some better connections and conversations happen con Reychel and
Tanya. I kinda drifted between groups, because I was in a
thinking-more-than-talking mood.
*The army was dissolved because the government wanted Costa Rica
to be a peace-filled nation that didn’t get involved in wars…also because the reigning
government leaders noticed that military leaders in nearby countries kept
overthrowing their governments. Outstanding move.
In and around the museum, there are several large stone spheres.
No one knows their origin. They were always just….around. It’s likely the work
(though how is unknown) of the indigenous people, but we also posited
many other theories. Aliens. Dragon eggs. You, know, the usual.
Lagos and Ana Raquel had recommended a Chinese food restaurant to
us, so we ate there (pretty solid) and walked home as it started to get dark.
It was a long walk. We did a lot of walking today, but it was a lot of fun and
provided space for great conversation. Somewhere on the walk, I did the
touristy thing and we took a team photo in front of some touristy thing. Then
some guys across the street started fighting, so we kept going.
Once we arrived home, Tanya asked Mathew and I to walk her
to her bus stop, which was a fair ways away. On the walk, I trailed behind a
bit to craft a WhatsApp message to Alexis, which ended up being pretty long.
Maybe some day I’ll get on your level @Doug, but I’m not there yet. Tanya’s
bus stop was right across from THE HOTEL - the one with the weird,
architecturally incongruent structure on top that vexed us all of last year.
What was it? Why did it look so weird? Why didn’t it show up in photos online? So,
after Tanya’s bus came, Mateo y yo finalmente hicimos lo que nunca
tuvimos the confidence to do last year: we crossed the street, went into
the hotel, and asked them what it was (whoa, mad lads). They told us, but their
answer was lame, so I’m not going to tell you. I still think it’s the secret lair
of a supervillain.
On the walk back, Matthew and I got to have a magnificent
conversation about healthy relationships, emotional and spiritual boundaries,
our team dynamic and his role, leadership, ministry…stuff like that. I like Matthew.
We’re very different. His perspectives on things are good for me and mine are
helpful to him.
Got home, still no wifi. We messages our dueña, and she
said there was an outage in the city (which explains (hopefully) that work
trucks we saw on our walk home). Hopefully we’ll have internet tomorrow so I
can post this. If not, it may be good for us to be forced to be offline for a
minute, especially to have a day off where we primarily engage with God.
PRAYER
For us to walk in the Spirit in how we rest and move
For Tesla and Cassidy to get home safely
For our new team’s rhythms and dynamics
For Reychel, Tanya, Anthony, Jose Carlos to all be pulled closer to God
by our interactions
For powerful ministry opportunities in Week 2
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