Day 10: Be Warned

I'm tired enough to talk a lot, but it's early enough that I'm not really sleepy yet. This one might be long.

Today, we woke up super early to send half our team home. Alexis, Mallory, Ben, and Evan are all back in Texas now. Getting an Uber to the airport early in the morning is always a little bit of an adventure. Airports are protected by some kind of Taxi union thing, so Uber drivers can sometimes get tickets for taking you to the airport, or at least that used to be the case. Also, the airport is actually in a different city nearby to San José (they named it SJO to get more business), so it's kinda a long drive. Also, we were hoping to get an Uber XL because we had four people (two of whom are  t a l l ) and a decent amount of luggage. It's a lot to stuff into a tiny car (which many Ubers are).

Anyway, we had a couple cancel on us and couldn't find an XL, but we finally got a confirmed Uber who came for us. And yes, it was a tiny little car. But everyone and everything fit! With some long hugs and sad eyes and sweet whispers between Alexis and I, the team loaded up and rode to the airport. 

We then were faced with a choice: wait 10 minutes and walk to our bus stop and ride to the CDI (the bus leaves on the hours and takes an hour, so we'd need to leave to walk to the bus stop around 6:40), or sleep for an hour and call an Uber (which costs $9 instead of $4, but takes less than half the time and none of the bus guess-work). 

So I slept for about 30 more minutes and then we got ready and called our Uber.

At the CDI, the last Thursday of every month is the Birthday Party, and all the birthdays of the previous month are celebrated together. This means instead of English lessons and homework and a Bible time, we play all session and eat cake. The kids are obviously into it.

Lagos y Ana Raquel brought hot dogs and gifts for the kids and a cake they had baked. It had peanut butter/cream cheese icing. It was really good. The kids were kinda chill at first, but got more into playing as the morning went by. By the time we walked them to school, they were sugared up and playful. 

On the way back from dropping Nahomy off at school, we pick up Kianny at the entrance to the Los Alamos neighborhood (where many of these kids are from). I think because she walked to the CDI with me, Kianny decided we were friends today. The second group is a bit older and was definitely a bigger group. It was high-octane playtime madness for most of the day. For the second group, a fancy coffee shop and bakery nearby, Cafe Momo, donated a (super fancy) cake for the kids. I think they do this every month, actually.

Matthew and I walked to pick up the cake from the cafe, and got rained on, which was lovely because we've been waiting for the rain for a while now. The cake stayed dry though, so all was well. 

After the kids left, we cleaned up the CDI and walked to the bus stop to head home. We waited for about 45 minutes without our bus coming by, so I made a classic Costa Rica 2023 decision: "heck this, let's call an Uber."

After some...creative relocation...we got to our Uber and headed home. The lady was really sweet and mom'd at us some. She called us muñecos, and asked all our names and said it was really nice to meet us. 

Um..... got home, got groceries, made some grilled cheese (normally I'm pretty good, but they were kinda soggy and floppy this time. Though, if I'm only inconsistently good - even if I'm inconsistently amazing - am I really good? A wise man once said, "Inconsistency is the realm of the immature.") I really like grilled cheese. It's one of the few things I feel really competent creating in a kitchen. So, I made grilled cheese. 

We cleaned up the kitchen an did some dishes and then I got to talk to Alexis on a phone with a little camera in it, so I could see her face on my phone while we talked. Crazy modern marvels. Will wonders never cease?

Ok, so less long than we feared today, that's good. 

PRAYERS PLZ

-for our 1-week team to process and debrief well from the trip

-for our 6-week team to adjust well to new dynamics and rhythms

-for the Ohio team to get home safely

-for the baptism time tomorrow to be powerful and marked by God's Spirit

-for God's hand to be on the church here and the people they serve

-for Alexis and I! Distance isn't our favorite thing

Mallory left us a picture on the fridge

We fit everyone and everything

Jeikol, Dylan, and Jeremy