Day 43: Starting Week 7, Now a 7-Person Team

I'm in a room with 4 other guys right now. It feels strange and really cool. Our women are at a retreat this weekend, so today was just me hanging out with myself, but now we've picked up our 3-man team and they're here with me! We will now be a 7-person team, though I realized yesterday that we only have 6 chairs at our kitchen table, since two of them were at risk of breaking and Doña Helen took them away to fix them.

I woke up today and walked into the living room to see if anything was needed of me before the girls left. It wasn't, so I went back to bed. I woke up 5 minutes after my 9:36 alarm, which was a real blessing, since I needed to be at the CDI at 10:00! I would have felt terrible if I slept through my alarm and they couldn't get it. Thanks, Jesus. 

I dreamed last night about a Fellowship-Church-wide game of capture the flag, where I kept trying to chase people down and tag them. Some people managed to dodge me last-minute (way to go, Garret), but I caught a lot of them.

So, I woke up and walked to the CDI. Some of the Karate kids were there early, so I let them in and they found the light-weight plastic balls and started throwing them at each other, yelling "¡KAMEHAMEHA!" Obviously, I got in on the action, but without the DragonBall Z energy. Then, their sensei showed up. As soon as they saw her, they immediately changed demeanor. "¡La maestra llego!" and they frantically began cleaning up the balls. The fear. This sensei has her class trained.

She said she didn't need anything else and would lock up, gracias, so I headed home. I napped for about 30 minutes (remember my deal with my body) and then went for a run at around 11:30. Today was a 5-mile day, but I thought to myself, "If I do an extra lap, that would be 7! If you can run 5 miles, you can run 7." I do believe this is true, by the way. However, running 5 miles at night in the cool is different than trying to run 7 in the heat. So, I ran 5 miles today. And that is good (even though I walked like a half-mile mixed in there). 

When I got home, I spent some time cooling down and drying off, then took a shower. When I got out of the shower and walked into our living room, I had to do a double-take. There were two extra chairs in our house, just sitting by the door. They looked very reinforced. So, Doña Helen had sent back the chairs, probably with Tony. Talk about good timing. Literally the same day that our team gets in, we get enough chairs for the whole team. Thank you Jesus. 

Some time got wasted this afternoon, but that can be relaxing. Then, I decided I should go look for beads. We need beads. Diego is almost out of beads! I don't know the Spanish word for beads. So, I decided to walk to El Rey. About halfway there, the drizzle turns into a light rain. I reach for my rainjacket in my trusty backpack...and it's not there! I had taken it out and laid it on my bed so I would remember to wear it! What a fool. The rain is only going to get harder, so I turn back. About halfway back from halfway to El Rey, the drizzle-turned-light-rain turns into a heavy rain. So I start running. 

I get home, get my rainjacket, and head back towards El Rey. About halfway there, the drizzle-turned-light-rain-turned-heavy-rain turns into a torrential rain. It was so much rain. When I got to El Rey, I stood outside for a while, shaking off my rainjacket so I wouldn't drip too much in their store. I walked to the craft section and found some tiny beads, but they won't work for Diego's proyecto, so I walk around the store for 15 minutes, in circles that always come back to the un-wanted beads (chaquiras). Finally, I give up and start heading home, soggy and beadless. It was still raining, but it was back to just heavy rain.

I hadn't eaten, so I stopped by MiTako, a little taco place beside the store. It was pretty good, their spicy juice was spicy, so that was nice. 

Returned home, left my shoes out front to dry out a little, chilled and waited to hear from Lagos. He texted me, and when I responded, "Gracias," my predictive text automatically suggested that gracias  be followed with Lagos, which shows I say that a lot. With good reason. We'd probably fail pretty hard without their support here. 

Oh! I don't feel sickish anymore. My conversation with my body paid off, I said, "Hey! This is not the time to get sick! Tell you what, don't get sick and I will sleep better tonight." I slept better and BOOM, not sick. Good truce. Let's see how long it lasts.

So, Lagos y yo went to the airport, collected our men, dropped off their luggage at the Airbnb, and he dropped us off at one of the only open restaurants at 10 PM, McDonalds. We ate some borgors and walked home. 

Now full circle to the sitting in the Airbnb with the homies. It's a really good crew. 

I look up to James Lund so much. He was on my first Mexico trip. He came to Costa Rica way before we had partnership here. It's so fun to get to just hang out and relax with him. 

I've missed Evan a lot. We're roommates and he was my HG leader last year and he's one of my closer friends (him and his brother, actually). Him being here makes it feel more like home.

I just really enjoy Andrew. He's got good vibes energy and a really cool heart. I enjoy his passion for things and it'll be so fun being on a team with him.

Mateo is back! This week felt weird without him and I am so glad he's back. He's a pretty central piece of my Costa Rica experiences after the....12 total weeks we've spent in-country together in the last 3 years.

This week looks like it may be much more hectic and intense than our other weeks. We've got the team-power for it, so we're going to go hard, I think. I really enjoy that kind of pacing, and it will make the week go faster. One thing I'm concerned about is that it may not allow as much time for me to connect with Alexis. I hope it won't affect it, but it feels like it could. I don't think that's bad, per se, but this week I've been missing her even more keenly. We'll see how it goes.

PRAYERS!

-for our new team to walk in step with the Spirit!

-for our new team dynamic

-for wise use of the time and skills we have

-for good connection opportunities

-for gospel opportunities

-for our other team in the Balkans!

-for no one to get or be sick

So, my phone knows I thank Lagos a lot

Tacos suaves