We had a later morning today, although the theology students woke everyone up around 6:30 singing and playing guitar. Of course, there are certainly worse ways to wake up. Around 8:15 we had empañadas for breakfast. There was a gap time of about and hour and a half between breakfast and our departure time, so we pittled around the diocesan house until then. Our missionary, Eduardo Monzon met us here to spend the day with us.
At ten, the bishop took us (Jeff, Eduardo, Ryan and me) to one final site on the southside of San Jose, which is known as the low-income, high-crime area. The church was called All Saints Church. We were introduced to the rector and his wife who showed us around the property and told us a bit about its history. St. John's in Charlotte, NC has a long history with the church. They helped to build the whole thing- sanctuary, parish hall and rectory. Now they come back each year to host VBS for the children in the neighborhood. The bishop made the point that companion relationship does not have to be only construction work. Sharing in Christian Education and fellowship is just as important in expanding and living in Christain community.
They also showed us some things the parish is doing to help support the low-income members, especially the women. A group of women purify water, bake bread and make facial moisturizer to sell in the city. The money helps them to give back to the church as well as support themselves. It was a lot of fun seeing all the things they make.
After we took a few pictures, we headed to downtown San Jose to visit the National Museum. We got to see some beautiful butterflies as well as some of the history of Costa Rica. Eduardo explained some of the things in the museum that we couldn't read in Spanish. There was also a great exhibit on Haiti with some emotional pieces of photography.
Directly in front of the museum is a small marketplace with Central American goods. I bought a couple things, but was too hungry to spend much time there. It was around 2 when we finally caught a cab to get lunch. Bishop Monterroso recommended a Peruvian restaurant called Manchu Picchu, so we decided to give it a try. He specifically recommended an appetizer called ceviche which is raw seafood- shrimp, fish, octopus and squid- soaked in a lemon juice for a long time. Apparently the acid from the lemon juice partially cooks the seafood. I'm not too adventurous with food but I did try the shrimp which just tasted like boiled shrimp. I was more into the hot sauce that you dip it in than the food itself. The rest of the meal was pretty normal.
From there, Eduardo left us to go home and we headed back to the diocesan house for some rest. However, before we completely settled in we made a quick walk over to a small store for Jeff to get a banana. He has been talking about bananas the whole time we've been here, haha. I think he was mildly disappointed to find that the bananas taste the same as they do back home. I took the opportunity to grab a tea and twix. Since we've gotten back, Jeff has begun to work on a presentation to share with the outreach committee. If I'm not mistaken he is doing it all on his cell phone, which seems time consuming and impressive to me.
Something is smelling really good downstairs and it sounds like a party is about to begin, so don't mind me as I wander down to join in. We have a very early morning, heading out at 5:30 to catch our 8am flight back to the states. I can't wait to show everyone the pictures and share all that we have learned.
See ya tomorrow!
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Exploration Day Two: Puerto Limon
Today was even longer than I expected, yet an incredible day, still. We got up and had breakfast before getting in the van to make the trek out to Puerto Limon. On the way out of San Jose we picked up Padre Arturo, a priest in the diocese. The bishop could not come with us today so he sent Padre Arturo in is place. Padre Arturo was born in Limon, so he is well versed in the area which came in handy. The trip took around three hours, part of which took us through a rainforest. The weather today was kind of overcast, grey and raining on and off, but that was fine since we spent the majority of the day in the car. Also with the rainfall came visible waterfalls throughout the rainforest.
About an hour outside of Puerto Limon there is a college called Earth University. They offer programs in ecotourism, sustainable farming and other cool Eco-focused programs. It is an internationally known school and on occasion the diocese uses their dormitory facilities to house groups that do mission work in the area. Just past the university are some of their agricultural fields of pineapples and bananas and other typical Costa Rican agriculture.
When we arrived in Puerto Limon we stopped at St. Mark's Episcopal School. This is not the same model as the Escuelas in San Jose and Heredia. It is a low-income private school for both primary and high school aged children. We met with two women who told us about their various needs around the property. First, they are currently renting computers from a third party source at a huge expense of $3,000 per month to offer computer classes to their students. Their hope is to have someone help supply 30 computers that will be owned by the school so that the expense they are currently paying to rent computers can be used for other things. The computers would also be used to bring community members in for computer and English classes, allowing them to become more marketable in the career arena. The second project they would like for a group to take on is resurfacing the outdoor play space to make it safer and more condusive for the kids to play sports during PE without risk of injury. Beyond that it was mentioned that two classrooms on the second floor of the building have been condemned due to unsafe structural elements which has caused them to close down the preschool and daycare aged program they once offered. A future goal would be to make the space more structurally sound in order to reopen those programs. The school is located in the city center which makes it very convenient for working families to drop their children off and pick them up again without a huge expense in travel back and forth from work and school.
After we checked out the spaces they talked to us about, we made a quick trip over to a small church just down the street. Padre Arturo was the rector at this church for a short while in the past. They serve around 50 members. In the back of the church is the parish hall where they offer English classes to children in the area. They have several projects they need completed. The first and most important is updating the children's bathrooms and bringing them indoors. Currently they are accessible only by walking outside under a tin roof overhang. The idea would be to knock down a wall in the parish hall and build out to make space for updated bathrooms accessible through the parish hall. The other project that was mentioned was fixing the outdoor drainage problem in the back and side yards in order to create a play space for children of the parish. Currently both yards are at a backwards tilt bringing all the rainwater into the yards. We would need to build up the earth in the back to re-adjust the water flow.
For lunch and our final visit in Puerto Limon, we went back to St. Mark's, but this time to visit the church. The church was built by funds donated through the United Thank Offering. It is the largest church in the diocese. Padre Floyd Gibson is the rector there and a good friend of Padre Arturo. We sat down for a typical Costa Rican meal prepared by a few of the vestry members and women of the church. During lunch, Padre Floyd talked to us a bit about their needs. They are currently in the process of building their safety fence up about a meter higher, as well as reworking the entry of the space to have a farther reaching rain cover. They are also making a handicap accessible entry for the elderly members of their congregation. Their members have already begun to donate to the cause and they will wait to ask for more donation until the project is underway.
When we had completed our meal and said our goodbyes we took a short drive past the beach and new dock where cargo boats can come in. On the way back into San Jose we stopped at one last church called San Pedro. Padre Arturo explained that the railway used to be the main mode of transportation and when it was being built workers were brought in from the Caribbean. With them came multiple different churches, including the Episcopal Church. Along the railway they built several Episcopal Churches. San Pedro is one of them. However, one of the previous presidents of Costa Rica decided that cargo should be moved by truck rather than train and a highway was established. Now that freight was being moved by truck, there was no need for the railway and the president shut it down. With this new way, the towns began to move closer to the highway and farther away from the railways. Some of the churches did not survive this move away from the railway, but it seems San Pedro is doing well under the guidance of their rector Madre Mavis.
The building is made of concrete blocks with open air windows, currently covered by pieces of tin roofing. They recently took it upon themselves to cut down a tree and frame out a roof which they covered with tin. Now they can meet even when it rains. Madre Mavis told us about her two priority needs. The first is to use decorative concrete blocks to fill in the windows. This would still allow light and air to enter the space but it would keep the vandilization to a minimum. Additionally, she would like to add an iron gate door to the back entry for the same reason. She has other big plans for the space, but those are the top two right now.
While we were there a church member gathered a few nutmegs to show us what they look like. Jeff and I were both surprised as we had only ever seen it in powdered form. Hopefully we can get them through customs to show everyone. They look like fruits to begin with then when they are almost ripe they burst open and a nut falls out covered in this red stuff that looks like plastic brains. Once it dries out you can grind it all up and make what we know as nutmeg powder. Rather interesting if you ask me. They warned us not to open nutmeg fruits before they burst open themselves as they are toxic. Who knew!? I do now.
From San Pedro we all got back in the car to make the remainder of the trip back to San Jose. We passed an active volcano on the way back that we had not noticed before. It was off in the distance but still cool. The trip got a little scary as we passed back through the rainforest, though. It was pitch black outside with no street lamps. The fog was really heavy and there weren't any reflectors on the street for a little while. There were a few moments that Jeff and I let out simultaneous breathes we didn't even know we were holding. Luckily, we made it down through the rainforest and back just in time for some dinner.
We are all completely wiped so we are turning in early again. We get a little later morning tomorrow beginning the day around nine. There is one final site to see before we spend the afternoon at the market in downtown San Jose. I am pretty excited to get a little Christmas shopping out of the way. Overall I think this trip has been very successful in acquiring all the information we need to make an educated and spiritually inspired mission experience for our parish.
Goodnight.
About an hour outside of Puerto Limon there is a college called Earth University. They offer programs in ecotourism, sustainable farming and other cool Eco-focused programs. It is an internationally known school and on occasion the diocese uses their dormitory facilities to house groups that do mission work in the area. Just past the university are some of their agricultural fields of pineapples and bananas and other typical Costa Rican agriculture.
When we arrived in Puerto Limon we stopped at St. Mark's Episcopal School. This is not the same model as the Escuelas in San Jose and Heredia. It is a low-income private school for both primary and high school aged children. We met with two women who told us about their various needs around the property. First, they are currently renting computers from a third party source at a huge expense of $3,000 per month to offer computer classes to their students. Their hope is to have someone help supply 30 computers that will be owned by the school so that the expense they are currently paying to rent computers can be used for other things. The computers would also be used to bring community members in for computer and English classes, allowing them to become more marketable in the career arena. The second project they would like for a group to take on is resurfacing the outdoor play space to make it safer and more condusive for the kids to play sports during PE without risk of injury. Beyond that it was mentioned that two classrooms on the second floor of the building have been condemned due to unsafe structural elements which has caused them to close down the preschool and daycare aged program they once offered. A future goal would be to make the space more structurally sound in order to reopen those programs. The school is located in the city center which makes it very convenient for working families to drop their children off and pick them up again without a huge expense in travel back and forth from work and school.
After we checked out the spaces they talked to us about, we made a quick trip over to a small church just down the street. Padre Arturo was the rector at this church for a short while in the past. They serve around 50 members. In the back of the church is the parish hall where they offer English classes to children in the area. They have several projects they need completed. The first and most important is updating the children's bathrooms and bringing them indoors. Currently they are accessible only by walking outside under a tin roof overhang. The idea would be to knock down a wall in the parish hall and build out to make space for updated bathrooms accessible through the parish hall. The other project that was mentioned was fixing the outdoor drainage problem in the back and side yards in order to create a play space for children of the parish. Currently both yards are at a backwards tilt bringing all the rainwater into the yards. We would need to build up the earth in the back to re-adjust the water flow.
For lunch and our final visit in Puerto Limon, we went back to St. Mark's, but this time to visit the church. The church was built by funds donated through the United Thank Offering. It is the largest church in the diocese. Padre Floyd Gibson is the rector there and a good friend of Padre Arturo. We sat down for a typical Costa Rican meal prepared by a few of the vestry members and women of the church. During lunch, Padre Floyd talked to us a bit about their needs. They are currently in the process of building their safety fence up about a meter higher, as well as reworking the entry of the space to have a farther reaching rain cover. They are also making a handicap accessible entry for the elderly members of their congregation. Their members have already begun to donate to the cause and they will wait to ask for more donation until the project is underway.
When we had completed our meal and said our goodbyes we took a short drive past the beach and new dock where cargo boats can come in. On the way back into San Jose we stopped at one last church called San Pedro. Padre Arturo explained that the railway used to be the main mode of transportation and when it was being built workers were brought in from the Caribbean. With them came multiple different churches, including the Episcopal Church. Along the railway they built several Episcopal Churches. San Pedro is one of them. However, one of the previous presidents of Costa Rica decided that cargo should be moved by truck rather than train and a highway was established. Now that freight was being moved by truck, there was no need for the railway and the president shut it down. With this new way, the towns began to move closer to the highway and farther away from the railways. Some of the churches did not survive this move away from the railway, but it seems San Pedro is doing well under the guidance of their rector Madre Mavis.
The building is made of concrete blocks with open air windows, currently covered by pieces of tin roofing. They recently took it upon themselves to cut down a tree and frame out a roof which they covered with tin. Now they can meet even when it rains. Madre Mavis told us about her two priority needs. The first is to use decorative concrete blocks to fill in the windows. This would still allow light and air to enter the space but it would keep the vandilization to a minimum. Additionally, she would like to add an iron gate door to the back entry for the same reason. She has other big plans for the space, but those are the top two right now.
While we were there a church member gathered a few nutmegs to show us what they look like. Jeff and I were both surprised as we had only ever seen it in powdered form. Hopefully we can get them through customs to show everyone. They look like fruits to begin with then when they are almost ripe they burst open and a nut falls out covered in this red stuff that looks like plastic brains. Once it dries out you can grind it all up and make what we know as nutmeg powder. Rather interesting if you ask me. They warned us not to open nutmeg fruits before they burst open themselves as they are toxic. Who knew!? I do now.
From San Pedro we all got back in the car to make the remainder of the trip back to San Jose. We passed an active volcano on the way back that we had not noticed before. It was off in the distance but still cool. The trip got a little scary as we passed back through the rainforest, though. It was pitch black outside with no street lamps. The fog was really heavy and there weren't any reflectors on the street for a little while. There were a few moments that Jeff and I let out simultaneous breathes we didn't even know we were holding. Luckily, we made it down through the rainforest and back just in time for some dinner.
We are all completely wiped so we are turning in early again. We get a little later morning tomorrow beginning the day around nine. There is one final site to see before we spend the afternoon at the market in downtown San Jose. I am pretty excited to get a little Christmas shopping out of the way. Overall I think this trip has been very successful in acquiring all the information we need to make an educated and spiritually inspired mission experience for our parish.
Goodnight.
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Exploration Day One: San Jose & Heredia
Today was a long and very educational day! Jeff and I got up early enough to join the theological group for morning prayer at 7:30 in the Diocesan House chapel. While we may not have totally understood the service that was done completely in Spanish, besides the instructions the leader so kindly offered in English, it was a fun opportunity to join together with our brothers and sisters here. I was also reminded of how our liturgy helps us to see the united body of Christ regardless of geographical location. Had I been in Montgomery this morning, I would have been doing this same service in English. Plus there is something about Central and Latin American singing that really fills my heart. They have no regard for the quality of your voice or the rhythm of the background music. They just sing as loud as they can so that God and their neighbors might hear. And who can blame anyone for making a joyful noise to the Lord!? I adored the time with them in prayer.
Following the service we sat together for a hearty breakfast of pico gallo. Pico gallo is the most traditional dish in Costa Rica. It is a mixture of rice and beans and maybe some peas or something like that. This dish is accompanied by a kind of sour cream, cream cheese, mayo type substance of which I can not remember the name. You then eat the pico gallo and cheesy stuff with a warm tortilla. And maybe you are thinking what I was thinking... Is this breakfast? The answer is yes. We also had some fresh fruit that is even tastier than the fruit at home- pineapple, kiwi and watermelon. Overall it was a fantastic meal to begin the very full day.
Around 9:15am we headed over to Hugor Escuela in Barrio Cuba, a poor neighborhood in San Jose. The bishop drove us with his wife, who is the principal of the school. Hugor Escuela is not a typical school as it is more of a home base for low-income children primarily from single-working mother homes. Children are dropped off as early as 6:30am and not picked up until as late as 6pm. This school serves children ages 6 months to 12 years old. Children old enough to go to school are bussed from Hugor Escuela to the public school down the street during school hours and returned to Hugor Escuela when the school day is over until their parent can come retreive them. it is a really well oiled machine that also helps to support working mothers. There is a higher level of prostitution and drug addiction in the area, so the school provides a safe haven for the children and mothers. Occasionally the school will offer computer and English courses for the mothers to acquire the skills needed for higher paying jobs. While we were visiting the school, we stopped in a few different classrooms where the children are divided by age. I believe it was the three year old classroom where all the little children came running up to give me a hug. This obviously made my day! Such adorable children.
After touring the facility and learning as much as we could about the program, we hopped back in the car to make the drive to Heredia. Heredia is a province or state just north west (I believe) of San Jose. In Heredia there is a large shopping center that sits in front of a very impoverished neighborhood. The homes are made of tin and tarp on all sides just like the slums at SIFAT. We passed by the neighborhood to see why this area was chosen as the location for another Escuela with the same model as the one in Barrio Cuba. When we arrived at the Escuela en Heredia, I was certainly impressed. Both this facility and the one in Barrio Cuba were built by mission groups alongside professional contractors.
The Escuela in Heredia is a modern building with a common space and several classrooms. The building itself is complete, it only needs furniture and kitchen equipment to open, which they will receive in the next few weeks. They already have teachers and fifty students lined up to attend hopefully in the Spring.
By the time we left the school it was lunch time. Bishop Monterroso took us to a national chain restaurant called Spoon in the shopping center. It was absolutely delicious! I had a typical Costa Rican meal of rice, beans, plantains, salad and instead of a meat, I had fried shrimp. Jeff had a tamale, Ryan had lasagna and Bishop Monterroso had some sort of Mexican soup. For dessert I had something I can't remember the name of but it was basically two cookies with a caramel/nutella type spread in the middle. It was also covered in powdered sugar. Obviously, no complaints from me. Jeff was adventurous and tried some sort of fig cake. It was all amazing.
When we finished our meal, Bishop Monterroso bought a few extra cookies for his wife and others that were working at the Escuela in Heredia. We dropped those off with them and headed off to La Ascencion in San Jose.
I think I am most excited about the potential I saw at La Ascencion for our summer mission team. It is hard to explain in writing so I'll have to use pictures we took when I get back. But I'll try to explain as much as I can here. Basically there is a two story building that sits almost directly on the street. This was originally an older home that the parish bought as a meeting space for worship services. When the congregation outgrew the space another two-story building was constructed by Ascension, Montgomery, to serve as the new worship space temporarily. The vision is that in January they will construct a kitchen that will attach to the current worship space, in the back of the property. Once that is complete they will begin demolition of the front two-story space as well as the current kitchen space. Then in June they are hoping to begin construction on a new Sanctuary that will be much larger and structurally sound. It will be farther from the street to cut down on unnecessarily street noise. Once the new Sanctuary is complete the current worship space will become a multi purpose space or parish hall.
The other part of this that I found compelling is the group of HIV positive women that the congregation serves through several ministries, including a sewing ministry. We mentioned that our parish has a quilting ministry and that sparked some interest from Bishop Monterroso. He thought it would be a neat companion opportunity to share that skill with the women in the group down here. I could see some really great relationships coming out of a companion ministry like that.
After spending almost an hour looking at the facility, taking pictures and discussing all that we could, we drove back to the Diocesan House for a short rest before communion. Unfortunately they started before we were told to go down so we missed most of the service but we caught it just in time to break bread together. Again, they sang so loud it almost rattled the glass and I was powerless against my ear to ear grin. Directly from there, we had a filling and delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and for the meat-eaters, fried chicken.
We are turning in early tonight since we had a long day and another tomorrow. We will leave here around 8/8:15 in the morning to visit Limon, a province on the Caribbean about three hours from San Jose. There we will visit several churches and another Escuela. Look for more updates tomorrow evening!
Following the service we sat together for a hearty breakfast of pico gallo. Pico gallo is the most traditional dish in Costa Rica. It is a mixture of rice and beans and maybe some peas or something like that. This dish is accompanied by a kind of sour cream, cream cheese, mayo type substance of which I can not remember the name. You then eat the pico gallo and cheesy stuff with a warm tortilla. And maybe you are thinking what I was thinking... Is this breakfast? The answer is yes. We also had some fresh fruit that is even tastier than the fruit at home- pineapple, kiwi and watermelon. Overall it was a fantastic meal to begin the very full day.
Around 9:15am we headed over to Hugor Escuela in Barrio Cuba, a poor neighborhood in San Jose. The bishop drove us with his wife, who is the principal of the school. Hugor Escuela is not a typical school as it is more of a home base for low-income children primarily from single-working mother homes. Children are dropped off as early as 6:30am and not picked up until as late as 6pm. This school serves children ages 6 months to 12 years old. Children old enough to go to school are bussed from Hugor Escuela to the public school down the street during school hours and returned to Hugor Escuela when the school day is over until their parent can come retreive them. it is a really well oiled machine that also helps to support working mothers. There is a higher level of prostitution and drug addiction in the area, so the school provides a safe haven for the children and mothers. Occasionally the school will offer computer and English courses for the mothers to acquire the skills needed for higher paying jobs. While we were visiting the school, we stopped in a few different classrooms where the children are divided by age. I believe it was the three year old classroom where all the little children came running up to give me a hug. This obviously made my day! Such adorable children.
After touring the facility and learning as much as we could about the program, we hopped back in the car to make the drive to Heredia. Heredia is a province or state just north west (I believe) of San Jose. In Heredia there is a large shopping center that sits in front of a very impoverished neighborhood. The homes are made of tin and tarp on all sides just like the slums at SIFAT. We passed by the neighborhood to see why this area was chosen as the location for another Escuela with the same model as the one in Barrio Cuba. When we arrived at the Escuela en Heredia, I was certainly impressed. Both this facility and the one in Barrio Cuba were built by mission groups alongside professional contractors.
The Escuela in Heredia is a modern building with a common space and several classrooms. The building itself is complete, it only needs furniture and kitchen equipment to open, which they will receive in the next few weeks. They already have teachers and fifty students lined up to attend hopefully in the Spring.
By the time we left the school it was lunch time. Bishop Monterroso took us to a national chain restaurant called Spoon in the shopping center. It was absolutely delicious! I had a typical Costa Rican meal of rice, beans, plantains, salad and instead of a meat, I had fried shrimp. Jeff had a tamale, Ryan had lasagna and Bishop Monterroso had some sort of Mexican soup. For dessert I had something I can't remember the name of but it was basically two cookies with a caramel/nutella type spread in the middle. It was also covered in powdered sugar. Obviously, no complaints from me. Jeff was adventurous and tried some sort of fig cake. It was all amazing.
When we finished our meal, Bishop Monterroso bought a few extra cookies for his wife and others that were working at the Escuela in Heredia. We dropped those off with them and headed off to La Ascencion in San Jose.
I think I am most excited about the potential I saw at La Ascencion for our summer mission team. It is hard to explain in writing so I'll have to use pictures we took when I get back. But I'll try to explain as much as I can here. Basically there is a two story building that sits almost directly on the street. This was originally an older home that the parish bought as a meeting space for worship services. When the congregation outgrew the space another two-story building was constructed by Ascension, Montgomery, to serve as the new worship space temporarily. The vision is that in January they will construct a kitchen that will attach to the current worship space, in the back of the property. Once that is complete they will begin demolition of the front two-story space as well as the current kitchen space. Then in June they are hoping to begin construction on a new Sanctuary that will be much larger and structurally sound. It will be farther from the street to cut down on unnecessarily street noise. Once the new Sanctuary is complete the current worship space will become a multi purpose space or parish hall.
The other part of this that I found compelling is the group of HIV positive women that the congregation serves through several ministries, including a sewing ministry. We mentioned that our parish has a quilting ministry and that sparked some interest from Bishop Monterroso. He thought it would be a neat companion opportunity to share that skill with the women in the group down here. I could see some really great relationships coming out of a companion ministry like that.
After spending almost an hour looking at the facility, taking pictures and discussing all that we could, we drove back to the Diocesan House for a short rest before communion. Unfortunately they started before we were told to go down so we missed most of the service but we caught it just in time to break bread together. Again, they sang so loud it almost rattled the glass and I was powerless against my ear to ear grin. Directly from there, we had a filling and delicious dinner of mashed potatoes, vegetables, salad and for the meat-eaters, fried chicken.
We are turning in early tonight since we had a long day and another tomorrow. We will leave here around 8/8:15 in the morning to visit Limon, a province on the Caribbean about three hours from San Jose. There we will visit several churches and another Escuela. Look for more updates tomorrow evening!
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Touchdown!
This morning, at three am, my alarm so sweetly woke me to begin my trip down to Costa Rica. By 4am, Jeff had arrived at my apartment to take us both to the Montgomery airport where we hopped on a short flight to Atlanta. In Atlanta we boarded the four hour flight to San Jose. Luckily, traveling was fairly easy with no delays.
When we touched down in San Jose, we were greeted by beautiful mountains and brightly colored buildings. Upon our first step out of the airport the muffled yells of taxi drivers overwhelmed us. The drivers were all gathered together making only a small path for recently landed visitors to walk through. At the end of the line we caught sight of Ryan holding the diocesan shield. Ryan is a young American serving in Costa Rica through Young Adult Service Corps, a mission-based group hosted by the National Episcopal Church in the US. Alongside Ryan was our driver who took us on an adventurous ride, as most central American car rides are, to the Diocesan House.
The Diocesan House is located on the exact opposite side of San Jose from the airport. We were shown our rooms which are located upstairs in the Diocesan House. This is where we will stay in the summer if we choose a mission project in San Jose. It is beautiful! There are several rooms down a long hallway, each with bunkbeds in them. At the end of the hallway are the men's and women's restrooms with two toilet stalls and two shower stalls each. They say there is hot water, though I haven't taken a shower yet to confirm. I'll keep you posted on that in the morning.
After getting settled Ryan took us downstairs where our lunch was being prepared. While we were waiting, Bishop Monterroso sat with us and we enjoyed conversation together. He told us a lot about the education system here in Costa Rica as well has how he came to be the bishop. He is a VERY friendly man and allowed us to eat while we finished up chatting. Lunch was delicious! My vegetarian option was beans, salad, and a cold veggie dish with a sauce on them. Jeff had a huge plate with some sort of meat, he thinks it was chicken, rice, coleslaw type food, and plantains which were his favorite. I pulled a fat girl move and helped him finish his rice after I completely cleared my own plate. Bishop Monterroso will be meeting again with us later to fill us in on the vision and mission of Costa Rica.
We had to walk off our lunch a little, so Jeff and I wandered around the Diocesan House taking pictures to show everyone when we return. Jeff asked Ryan to show us to a grocery store where he could get his caffeine fix of Diet Coke. On the walk to the little store we passed a protest of motorcyclists. The Costa Rican President's office is just around the corner from the Diocesan House so motorcyclists were parked near there protesting the motorcycle tax raise the government just implemented. Don't worry I snapped a few pics!
When we got back from the store my three am wake up call finally hit me full force, so Jeff and I retreated to our rooms for an afternoon siesta. When we woke up we went downstairs for dinner. It was also delicious. I had a bean and cheese burrito with salad and the same veggie dish as earlier and everyone else had grilled chicken, rice and beans. For dessert we had vanilla icecream with chocolate and fruit. There is another group of people here sharing the space with us so we got to have dinner with them. The other group is from all over central America- Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.
We are getting up in the morning to explore several potential mission sites around San Jose. It is sure to be a full day and I will keep everyone posted. In the meantime I am going to enjoy the sound of singing from downstairs.
Peace.
When we touched down in San Jose, we were greeted by beautiful mountains and brightly colored buildings. Upon our first step out of the airport the muffled yells of taxi drivers overwhelmed us. The drivers were all gathered together making only a small path for recently landed visitors to walk through. At the end of the line we caught sight of Ryan holding the diocesan shield. Ryan is a young American serving in Costa Rica through Young Adult Service Corps, a mission-based group hosted by the National Episcopal Church in the US. Alongside Ryan was our driver who took us on an adventurous ride, as most central American car rides are, to the Diocesan House.
The Diocesan House is located on the exact opposite side of San Jose from the airport. We were shown our rooms which are located upstairs in the Diocesan House. This is where we will stay in the summer if we choose a mission project in San Jose. It is beautiful! There are several rooms down a long hallway, each with bunkbeds in them. At the end of the hallway are the men's and women's restrooms with two toilet stalls and two shower stalls each. They say there is hot water, though I haven't taken a shower yet to confirm. I'll keep you posted on that in the morning.
After getting settled Ryan took us downstairs where our lunch was being prepared. While we were waiting, Bishop Monterroso sat with us and we enjoyed conversation together. He told us a lot about the education system here in Costa Rica as well has how he came to be the bishop. He is a VERY friendly man and allowed us to eat while we finished up chatting. Lunch was delicious! My vegetarian option was beans, salad, and a cold veggie dish with a sauce on them. Jeff had a huge plate with some sort of meat, he thinks it was chicken, rice, coleslaw type food, and plantains which were his favorite. I pulled a fat girl move and helped him finish his rice after I completely cleared my own plate. Bishop Monterroso will be meeting again with us later to fill us in on the vision and mission of Costa Rica.
We had to walk off our lunch a little, so Jeff and I wandered around the Diocesan House taking pictures to show everyone when we return. Jeff asked Ryan to show us to a grocery store where he could get his caffeine fix of Diet Coke. On the walk to the little store we passed a protest of motorcyclists. The Costa Rican President's office is just around the corner from the Diocesan House so motorcyclists were parked near there protesting the motorcycle tax raise the government just implemented. Don't worry I snapped a few pics!
When we got back from the store my three am wake up call finally hit me full force, so Jeff and I retreated to our rooms for an afternoon siesta. When we woke up we went downstairs for dinner. It was also delicious. I had a bean and cheese burrito with salad and the same veggie dish as earlier and everyone else had grilled chicken, rice and beans. For dessert we had vanilla icecream with chocolate and fruit. There is another group of people here sharing the space with us so we got to have dinner with them. The other group is from all over central America- Panama, Costa Rica, El Salvador and Guatemala.
We are getting up in the morning to explore several potential mission sites around San Jose. It is sure to be a full day and I will keep everyone posted. In the meantime I am going to enjoy the sound of singing from downstairs.
Peace.
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