June 15 - June 17

6/16/2012 at 12:15am

Okay, technically I skipped a day of journaling because it's past midnight, but I still count it as being all the same day (the 15th).  Today, I finally met with Alberto, in addition to Jenny and Justin, and was given a basic starting point for the aqueduct project.  I start Wednesday doing all the data input stuff, and hopefully Monday I will be given the actual data to start working with.  In addition, on Tuesday I will be helping do Evelyn's children's camp event thing and will be taking pictures I believe.  I am almost finally done with translating the PowerPoint for Justin; it's taking a while because translating all the graphs is time-consuming, but I don't mind.

Finally got a picture of the dog that looks like Gizmo!

I'm really tired right now.  After getting home, playing Frisbee with Luis briefly, and eating dinner, I went to Ryan's and watched some of the third Lord of the Rings with him, Steven (his host brother), and Abby.  They didn't really want to go out but came with Steven and I anyway briefly when we went to go see a free concert and dancing.  Abby and Ryan left pretty fast and Abby has my coat.  But then Steven did me a favor and got me to dance meringue with this guy Luis who was a super good dancer, and it made me happy and super glad that from being in Latinos Unidos at Lake Forest College I learned so many steps and turns.  Thanks Miriam!!!  Krysta and I sort of danced for a little while after, then Alex and I danced quite a few times, though he only recently learned the dances.  I did have a fun time tonight, am soooo tired though.

6/17/2012 at 6:36pm

I skipped yesterday's journaling again technically, ugh.  I hate when I miss a day for whatever reason, even if I'm super busy, because it's always so much harder to remember things the following day.

Me and Abby (and Ryan in the background, and María
and Coco...ish) on our way to a finca.

Abby (and Ryan in the background) refusing to let Luis out
of the car at the finca.

If I remember correctly, I had breakfast with Andrea yesterday and she expressed to me her concerns about Coco and María and how hard it is for the family with mamá always doing everything and María not working and oftentimes not helping at home, financially how much of a burden that is.  Her talking like that with me really made me feel like I myself should help out more around the house not only here but also in the United States; even though here I'm a guest of sorts, I'm also family.  I came here with a servant's mindset and I admit and confess that I think lately I had forgotten that I'm here to serve.  So yesterday morning, then, I helped clean around the house and did laundry in addition to the dishes I always do.

After lunch, I walked Luis to his soccer practice and later I also played soccer and Frisbee with Luis, Josúe, Abby, Ryan, David, and Daniel (even though he's only three).  That evening, I went to the reunión de jóvenes vigil in addition to the service beforehand and had a great time worshiping God with some familiar songs.  Gabriel, Alonso, and some other youth did a skit similar to the Lifehouse skit (see here) where they portrayed a guy torn between the things of this world and the things of Heaven.  At the vigil we worshiped again, played some super fun games (like trying to arrange ourselves in color-order with secret colors while blindfolded and trying to whistle with crackers shoved in our mouths), and had a charla about self-pride and how keeping all the glory of the world to yourself could make you explode (in a non-literal sense of course). Afterward, Gabriel and I walked to my house and sat outside for a while chatting and sharing.  It was really cool because I want to be a good friend to him and would like his friendship a lot.  Also, earlier that evening I met Hillary and I feel similar about her; she's so nice.  So yeah, I went to bed finally around 1am and that is why I didn't journal yesterday.

Abby sitting in an awesome chair at my tía's house.

My mamá, me, Abby, and Ryan at the finca.

Today, my family and Abby and Ryan went to my papí's tío's finca and hung out there for far too long because since their phone was down, we didn't know whether he would be there to lead us through the gold mine and horseback riding, so we took a gamble and he wasn't there and we sat around waiting for him for a while to show up because then my papí left with the microbus to go somewhere and didn't come back for an hour or so.  When he came back, we then stopped by one of my tía's houses because she had stomach surgery recently.  We stayed there a while and then came back home only to discover that we were locked out of the house.  Eventually we got in and a bit after I went to watch the soccer game at the cancha sintética (synthetic field, like an indoor field) that many people from the youth group were participating in.  It was really fun watching Abby and Ryan and my little hermantico Luis and his friend Josúe and Gabriel and my new friend Nimsi's brother play.

Afterward, I came back, ate, showered, and am now waiting for Gabriel to show up, which should have been an hour ago (yay tico time!).  Pura vida, haha!  We were going to walk into town but it's raining, so I don't know.

Quédate quieta, alma mía, y reconoce que el Señor es Dios.  No lo olvides, alma mía.

 6/17/2012 at 9:00?

Got stood up, oh well!  Pura vida, and something probably came up.  I just really wanted to connect again, because he seems like he'd be one of my best tico friends here.  It's all right; I'll probably see him tomorrow.