Day 40-41: Crazy Weekend, Crazy Week
The past two days feel like they've been three or four. I see two factors in this: 1. Here at the end of the trip, as I get closer to being home, time has slowed down. 2. Here at the end of the trip, as we get closer to leaving Costa Rica, we're trying to pack in as much activity as possible.
I learned a new tico expression: huesear. It's a verb. Hueso is bone. It means "window shopping," and comes from the image of a dog gnawing on a bone. The idea is you chew on something, but don't eat it.
Ok, so two days in one post.
SATURDAY
Izzy went to stay with Esther on Friday night, so Matthew and I partied together. And when I say "party," I mean, "wake up at 6 AM." You see, Matthew is a long-distance longboarder. And I think that's really neato. So, as part of a training build towards something epic, Matthew did his first 10k race this Saturday. We got up early so we could get done early and to use the skate track at Parque La Sabana when there were less people. Matthew's goal was to get done in under 30 minutes, which would be a 10k PR for him. Don Rodrigo and I were his support team, which meant we chatted the whole time and yelled and took pictures when he passed by on the track.
Matthew logró his goal, which was very exciting. For me, I enjoyed being a part of what he was doing, and I enjoyed seeing Don Rodrigo take such an actively supportive role in the life and niche interests of the man dating his daughter. He's an interesting fellow; obviously very smart and deeply opinionated, seemingly honest to a fault and a good conversationalist. He doesn't seem like the soft and squishy type, but he's incredibly kind and generous.
He drove us back home after some stretching and breakfast, we had a quick turnaround, then left for Saturday Part 2.
The gringo team from Wright State has teamed up with Livie and they're doing good work on campus. Saturday, they invited the students to come play at the pool at their hotel. So, Matthew and I got there around 11 and jumped in with what they were doing. Isaac and Josue came, which was very exciting to me. Both of these young men, imo, are being pulled and called by God, so I love when they come to things. We ate pizza, we threw a football, we talked about Jesus and spirituality, I got sunburned... everything I'd hoped it would be.
The plan after this (Saturday Part 3) was to all go to a movie together (maybe you remember my purchasing problems earlier). We decided on The Flash, though everyone (myself included) was very skeptical about the movie. My plan for Saturday was to get as much social connection between WS and the H@ngout students as possible, so this week as they do outreach and as we dig into the gospel, and hopefully have a baptism time, there will be awareness and trust.
WS felt like The Flash was too intense for the kiddos on their team, so they went to an earlier movie. We all got to Oxigeno after brief stops at our various casas and, with little incident, watched the movie. I ended up sitting by Josue y Karen, the cute couple. Seeing them be a couple and do couply things (her asking him to take pictures of her, them having side-bar conversations via text in social circumstances, etc.) just made me miss Alexis. The movie was really good. Like, I was low-key shocked how much I enjoyed it. I also learned that, statistically speaking, if you're in Hawaii, you're more likely to get attacked by Ezra Miller (The Flash) than by a shark, so there's a fun statistic for you.
Afterwards, we hung out with the H@ngout students for a good while and got to chat and have fun together. I'm rather excited to see H@ngout becoming a legit Community. They're looking out for each other and seeking out time together, and talking about real stuff.
SUNDAY
As I was wrapping up, I thought, "ok, cool, almost done....WAIT THERE'S MORE."
This morning, we also got up at 6AM to go spend time with the familia Diaz-Alvarez. That's Tannia's family (Don Rodrigo & co). They wanted to hang out with Matthew us before we leave, so I told them that they could have us on Sunday, assuming that meant we'd grab lunch or something. So, I was a little bit dismayed at the idea of another 6AM day, but excited to hang out with the D-A family.
I'm running out of steam here, folks, yikes. I'm so tired of the sound of my voice as I imagine it while I'm typing. Not that I have like a Batman/film-noir style voiceover in my head while I write, though that would be kinda fun.
We got up early, they brought us breakfast. The crew was: Don Rodrigo, Doña Francina, Rodrigo, Carlitos, Primo (that's not his real name, I think he's their cousin and they just call him that, which is so funny to me), y.... Oh no. I am a jerk. I think it starts with S. Booooo....y la novia de Rodrigo.
We loaded into cars and drove to Cartago to check out a nature park area up on a mountain near a volcano. We looked at some trees and caught some lizards (Matthew) and had some funs together. I felt very...crunchy today. You see, when I decided it was ok to get sunburned, I forgot that I am always wearing a backpack and your shoulders get the worst of it.
Despues de eso, we went to visit an abandoned hospital. It's a giant compound of buildings with tons of empty rooms and people say it's haunted. There's lots of picnic tables and green spaces and people come and basically have a lot of fun walking around. I thought that it was called San Antonio, but people were just saying sanatorio. To be fair, that's only a 2-letter difference, and they're the same letter.
The weird thing about it all, is that this hospital was built in 1915 by a doctor who wanted to save his daughter from Tuberculosis. She died. They chose the spot they chose for the hospital because it was near, but far away from the city of Cartago, and it's a beautiful location with good weather. Essentially, it's a lovely place to come and die. It also served as a mental health facility, an orphanage, and a prison. Eventually, it was damaged by a volcano eruption or something and closed down. So, it's a really sad place. And that gets commemorated by ghost jokes and picnics. It's a weird juxtaposition.
We got some ice cream and came back home, then I passed out for an hour and we had a team planning session, which was really helpful. I got to talk to Alexis for a bit, which was rather lovely.
Now I'm tired again, but tomorrow we start at 10, so that's wonderful.
PRAYER PLEASE
-for God to move powerfully here
-for the H@ngout students to respond to his call
-for the church to be blessed and walk closely with God
-for our team to end and transition well
Post-10k Matthew
Post-climbing Sam's foot
Post-capture Lizard
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