A week down, 2 days to go!

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So we've good down here in Costa Rica. The last couple days have been stressful but productive. Wednesday we met up with the youth group from the Calvary Chapel Costa Rica and we hung out at the beach. You could spot hermit crabs and we had snacks with them, and even if we didn't know their language we still found ways to communicate. Since they challenged us to a bit of soccer, we taught them a few American sports. We played some volleyball and American Football. Most of the kids had never seen a football and we taught them how to throw one. We also tried their version of s'mores, which was marshmallows and chocolate in a tortilla. Interesting it was, young padawan, haha

For dinner, we went to a really nice beach side restaurant, where we enjoyed some great fish tacos, nachos, steak with jalepenos, and fish. But the best part was dessert! We had THE BEST coconut cream, and banana cream pie in the world! It was so amazing! That night, the girls had a "pow-wow" fun night in one of the rooms, and we enjoyed eating snacks and staying up late.

Thursday was the start of VBS. The people at the hotel had a small menu for breakfast so they offered to make us pancakes for the rest of the trip which was very thoughtful of them. =) We met up with the church we're with and started setting up. Thurday's theme was pigs, and the prodigal son. Many of us put on a skit for them, telling the story of the prodigal son. Overall we had 80 kids come, and it was very successful for the first day. After VBS we had pizza for lunch! It was a really tasty italian/tropical walk in restaurant and we had fun tasting their kind of pizza. After having a study from Stan in Judges, we headed off to walk the streets of Tamarindo to evangelize. Unfortunately I had a hard time walking that whole way, because of my knee injury...but we had handed out all of our tracts to people there. The people were very accepting and didn't shoo us away. For dinner we went to another beachside restaurant that looked a lot like Joe's Crab Shack. A lot of people tried new things, like Lucy and I, who had never had sushi before. She ordered an Alaskan Roll which is salmon, avocado and cream cheese. All raw. We didn't think we'd like it but after we tried it, it became our new comfort food. Claire and Britni also got sushi. Other eventful things like many people dancing to the live music, and Aaron downing wasabi then throwing it up later made the night lively.

Friday is today! We had another successful VBS day, and the theme was the lost sheep. I'm not sure how many kids we had, but it was packed. The heat really pounded down but we pressed through and had a great time! We also played a ridiculous group game, I'm not sure what it was, but it involved dancing, and even the guys got in on it! It was an american game apparently Katie taught it to everyone. Its one of those games that keeps going and going like Energizer. Haha. A video of it will be hopefully on the slideshow of the trip. We went to the hotel afterward, and we had sandwiches for lunch with a twist! The guys had to serve the girls! We all sat while they brought us our food how we liked it, and gave us drinks and refills whenever we needed. They were very polite and did it all without complaining. Ever since we have had free time so here we are updating! We'll keep you posted! From us to you, Serene and Steph, signing off!

So Far, So Good

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Sorry for the lack of updates, but that's only because we've been hard at work! The past two days have been scheduled down to the nose, and we've been doing multiple things to prepare for VBS and to save some souls!
Monday was considered a free day, and so we went to the beach again, and some people got some serious waves, and taking a dip in the pool at the hotel really washed off the sand and dirt. We went to a restaurant called the Cococabana, I think, for lunch, and we ally walked 2 miles farther than we had to! But God provided and we found beach access to some really cool tidepools with crabs and fish, and we got to cool down while Cappy and John jogged back to get the cars. After we got to the restaurant, we each had something different, and I had THE BEST Mahi Mahi ever, and I do believe Claire enjoyed it as well. Another popular dish was the fishburger, and apparantly it was delicious. After lunch we headed back to the hotel to cool down until we loaded up to go to the field to play some "football" as they call it but its clearly soccer to us.
We planned a soccer tournament against the locals, and about twenty minutes in, it started raining, and when it rains, it POURS. They all got muddy but kept playing, and throughout the weather, we managed to win! I do think they let us win though, haha. We all went home to the hotel muddy and dirty, so we took a quick pit stop at the ocean to wash off. Everyone jumped in, clothes and all and rinsed off.
After we got back to the hotel, we hung out for a little bit, and then headed off to dinner. This was a different restaurant, but the food was just as good. We tried Costa Rican porkchops, steak, chicken, and surprisingly, carmelized bananas! They happened to be Kory's favorite by the end of the dinner. Lately we've been having some amazing Costa Rican coke. In the bottles! Kory is saving bottles for his collection, and we've been helping.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel and Cappy gave us the message in Judges, chapter 4. We had a little downtime, and then went to bed.

Today, some of the group got up at 5 in the morning to surf! They left while it was still dark and did it so early because we had a lot to do. After they came back, we ate breakfast, and then left for Pedro and Athena (Phil's assistant's) house, to prepare for VBS. We made 90 of everything. Bracelet kits, name tags, crafts, and despite the frustration with the bracelet clasps, we managed to finish with time to spare. Then we headed off for lunch, where we ate different varieties of food. There were some shockers though. Kory, Claire, and Shaya all ordered a whole fish, and they ate it! Aaron ordered pig's feet. Apparantly he said they don't have much meat...
Returning, Jimmi gave the message in Judges, chapter 6 and then we had some free time, so people went shopping, and swam. We are obsessed with our pool, because it is like, the savior of sunburns haha.
Currently, we are at Pedro's house at Kid's Club, which is like the AWANA that we do. They have been putting on a puppet show, and playing games with the kids. Later we'll go back and eat dinner, and tomorrow will be a preparation/free day since we finished everything so early.

There are so many new pictures to look at, and some are from Claire so they include some from the first day, but overall there are more than 400 pictures, so enjoy! We have so many, that they have to upload at different rates, so if you don't see them all, they'll just keep getting up.

First Day!

So its the first day! Hooray! Despite the fact that its super humid here, we're having a great time! At first we got on our first flight and it seemed really short but once we boarded for Costa Rica for real, it took a long time. About four hours. We had some interesting times and comments from the captain as Kory stood up and smacked his head on the overhead bins then the pilot said "Watch your head" haha. He's fine. Everyone applauded when we landed like we landed on water or an aircraft carrier or something. We actually had stairs drive up to the plane door so it could unload us, and customs and baggage claim was kind of crowded and a litte hectic but we got through okay. When you got outside a lot of natives had taxi signs and were almost barracading the door. Haha XD We got shuttled to the rental car place and then waited two hours on hammocks to find our cars came in the next day, but the shuttle people took us to our hotel. The Hotel Tropicana is really cool; it has a pool and the stairs wind up to each floor and everything is plaster white. There are coconut trees and the guys cut down coconuts and tried to eat them. They weren't ripe though...but they were just a little bitter. Once we all got settled, we came down and swam in the pool at night, and ate dinner, which was like, foreign hamburgers haha and then we met Phil McKay, the missionary who will be working with us and then we had a bible study with him in Judges. We'll be going through the whole book at night while we're here. Then off to bed-while watching for bed bugs...literally-and we named animals...Coconut the Bat, Rodriguez the Lizard, Tim the Cockroach, and Highmore the Gnat haha

(By the way, click on the picture to get to all the pictures for the trip. Once you get there, click next on the right to sort through)