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!
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