July 13 - July 15

7/13/2012 at 10:50pm

So after I sat down with Justin today to look at data again and get direction for my final presentation (Alberto was sick so he and Sonia weren't present), I basically was left with a ton of work to do.  I plowed through a great deal of it today though, which is fantastic.  I came to realize that (though the numbers are iffy) Monteverde demands a lot more water than it can readily supply from the top of the mountain.  I also got June 2012's consumption data and some rainfall data from around 2001 to today, which will be neat to look at.  At a glance, it has been pretty evident that there's less rain this year than in past years.  All around, it's just a tough situation, and Monteverde is so fragile in general (not only environmentally, but also socially).

The beautiful view of San Luis from a trail we were on
(see 7/14/2012 post...we rode horses!).

Most of the day I spent doing work like what I mentioned, number crunching and such, but I also sent out my blog update for the week and worked on Gaby's birthday gift (it's a scrapbook, but it only has like one picture, haha).  Abby, Ryan, and I at the end of the day had a crazy moment with Jenny, then we went shopping for cheesecake ingredients, and then I came home, ate, hung out with family and family-of-family (during at which point I found myself more or less like, "So many people...don't know what to do with myself!"), and worked more on the scrapbook.  I discovered every time he came in to pester me that Luis can't read cursive, and most of what I write now is in cursive, so it was an epic win because he couldn't read anything no matter how hard he tried.  He then asked me to help him write a love letter to Monica, which was adorable, and he wrote Romans 8:28 into it too, which was really cool.  He's definitely my brother: annoying at times, but I love him.

7/14/2012 at 11:10pm

Abby, the happiest girl ever because she got to finally ride.

Okay, this is going to be short because I'm exhausted.  So I went with Abby and Ryan to the Institute, made cheesecake for Gaby's birthday and Justin's early birthday, ate pizza while simultaneously working on that same scrapbook, and then went horseback riding for the first time ever in my life!  At first I was basically terrified, but then even though my butt kills now I grew to absolutely love it.  My horse took very good care of me.  We went all the way to San Luis for the fundraising fiesta and competition that Justin wanted to do, where you ride on horses and try to get rings off a clothespin on a clothesline.  Abby did it, too.  It was cool to watch.  We finally came back at 6pm, had some cheesecake with Justin, and got a taxi back to the church where I had an enjoyable time worshiping and enjoying fellowship and such.  Then since my family was asleep I put the cheesecake in the fridge and went to Abby's for a small dinner.  Then Jeffrey was kind and gave me a ride back even though I wanted to walk a bit.  It was cool.

7/15/2012 at 9:10pm

Gabriel cutting into his birthday cake from Ivannia et. al.

After an awesome service this morning at church with Abby and Luis (he went to the Escuela Dominicana this morning too, which I'm so happy about!), I spoke with Gaby briefly and he invited me to his birthday fiesta.  So I went home, ate lunch, and watched a bit of "Just My Luck" on the television before heading up to his house and enjoying a three-hour fiesta with him and other people from church (including a frosting fight with Yeiler, whose name I have an awful time pronouncing).  We had cake and ice cream and marshmallows and popcorn and played Uno like the whole time.

At the fiesta also I talked with Saray about Abby, about my family, and about what possible plans God has for my future.  I psyched myself out a little in church this morning and started second-guessing my choice of major, but God touched my heart basically and said, "I'll take care of you."  I fully believe He knows what he's doing and so I just pray that I would remain steadfast on His path and that He would bless me with the courage and strength to keep persevering and pressing forward.  I pray that I would not give in to distractions and that I would be open to whatever He has in store for me.

I got into a cake fight with this guy.  He is a worthy adversary.

Afterward, Gaby came over for dinner and it was awesome being able to sit and listen to him converse with my family and it was great laughing with all of them about Luis and his love interest.  I served the cheesecake for dessert to all of them and it turned out delicious, which I was happy about.  Then Luis was trying to get Gaby to play with him on the computer and I could kind of tell he didn't want to, so I told Luis we were going for a walk and we left and walked about halfway to the cemetery before deciding it was freezing and sitting down.  I gave him the scrapbook, which he said he enjoyed, and we just talked and enjoyed each other's company the rest of our time out.

Yeah, this is from Saturday, but I thought I'd insert it here,
because it fits with the theme that I am so grateful to the
Grace Groner Foundation and to God for this opportunity!

When I came inside tonight, I had the second highlight of my day: Luis came to me and said that for the Escuela Dominicana he has to read 15 psalms by the next Sunday and he asked me to read with him.  It was so wonderful!  I found myself smiling while reading and just thinking how I want to bring this home.  I am filled with joy at his wanting to know God more and I just pray for his growth spiritually and that I would not be a poor example of what a life in Christ looks like.  My God is a God of processes, not of instantaneous results, and so I know that He will do great things in Luis's life.

July 9 - July 12

7/9/2012 at 10:30pm

Today was more or less a relaxing day since I didn't go in to work.  I woke up a bit later, ate breakfast, then walked into town to use the wifi and also to buy toiletries.  I came back around lunchtime to eat, and then after picking up my room I stole Abby's wifi at her house on the front porch and on my way back went to the pulpería to get horchata and cas drink mixes for my family, along with vanilla maiz candies and caramel ones and a tub of passion fruit jam.  I still need to locate coffee, but will do it last thing probably.  Then i took Luis to the plaza to play Frisbee/soccer for a bit, then we came home and had dinner (including chicharrones!).  Somewhere in between lunch and dinner I decided I wanted fried plantains so my papí helped me get the wood stove going and I quickly learned how to do it.  Finally, I made my way over to the church for youth group, where we had a bonfire and marshmallows an Jeffrey convinced me to make a fool of myself singing.  All in all a good night.

7/10/2012 at 8:35pm

Today was a pretty cool day.  I made my way to MVI by myself unsure of how my day would look, and I came to discover that I had Spanish class in the morning, prep with Jenny for her community health initiative, and then I had lunch with a bunch of new Canadians.  After hearing that they were going on a night walk, I furtively asked Alan if there was any way I could tag along.  He said sure and that he'd try to get me a discounted price.  I then went with Jenny to her charla, set up the room (and ran into Nacho, which was cool), and then babysat a two- and a five-year-old the rest of the time.  For me, the older kid was no problem, but the two-year-old cousin was a bit of a handful.  He wanted to just eat all the crayons and play in the water spigot outside and hit things and people with a stick and get into everything and wouldn't listen to me and kept shouting "nooo!" when I'd try to get him to not do something (like smash a keyboard).  But at the end there was this delicious bread someone made and coffee and I met Danny's mom, which was a pretty cool turn of events.

It's a monocot! Inside of a banana plant stem/trunk.

At the night hike at Finca Santamaría, Alan managed to get me in for free by passing me off as a program coordinator.  What a cool guy!  The Canadians were pretty squeamish the whole time except for a couple of girls (especially Annabelle), but all in all it was neat and I got to see a porcupine from far away (it was high up in a tree) and a tarantula and a little scorpion that glows under UV light, as well as a variety of stick insects and grasshoppers and things of that nature.  It was cool because the whole time Alan and I just chatted about biology and mist-netting.  It was pretty cool.  I unfortunately couldn't get any photos but nevertheless it was a satisfying night hike.

My favorite part of today was probably having the opportunity over lunch to chat with Canadians about Costa Rica and their experiences and share some things with them like what I know about the culture and society and also that the toilet paper plant that grows outside the Institute has fuzzy leaves and edible flowers.  I loved seeing their reactions.  If I finish work early tomorrow, I may get to go with them all to the coffee fincas (though I've already been a few times now to fincas).

7/11/2012 at 10:10pm

Check out the camouflage on this cool moth I found!

So after waking up, eating a delicious breakfast of gallo pinto and plantains, I began walking to MVI when my friend Josúe's dad Oliviar (also my papí's friend and coworker) gave me a ride all the way up that huge, long, annoying hill to Los Pinos!  It was a pleasurable walk to the Institute after that, and I even arrived early and so got to chill with Matt and Alan and Grevin the driver for the Canadians and some of the other MVI staff.  I was even offered breakfast, which I just took some coffee and bread but was still pretty cool.  It's like I'm part staff or something, haha!  I love it.  Later I talked with Justin about my data and received some direction, and I need a rough report ready by Friday to present to Sonia and Alberto (who showed up today with water production data for 2012 until now, so I just need 2010 and 2011).  I otherwise began formatting a template in Excel and hung out with John and Alan and thereby received invitations to go to Alajuela and to mist-net for Long-Tail Manakins (a really cool bird).

Canadians being tourists in San Luis from the mirador.

Later at lunch, I nearly threw a small fit I'm ashamed to admit.  Here's what happened: I hear a random Canadian laugh about someone's food on the ground and the dog eating it.  I look over, horrified, to see the dog scarfing down a plate of spaghetti and a Canadian sitting there nonchalantly like it was funny.  I politely yet firmly ask him to not let the dog eat his food because the dog will throw up all over the Institute.  He looks at me and says, "Do I care?"  I reply, annoyed, "People who work here will have to clean it up."  He responds, "I don't care."  I seriously nearly verbally chewed him apart in that moment.  Instead though I quietly took a breath and calmed myself down and attributed it to a miscommunication (he could have mistaken me for a peer instead of an intern slash someone who deems respect here at MVI since I am working here, or maybe he didn't understand my English even though we're both fluent).  He eventually picked it up and was nicer to me the rest of the day, probably after he realized I'm not Canadian and I am an intern three years older than him here at the Institute and had the power to get him in trouble with his professors if he decided to be rude/disrespectful again.

I also got ice cream and a brownie with Alex and Alec today from the cheese factory.  Good times!

A short while later I had the opportunity (thanks again to Alan) to go to Finca la Bella and the Vargas Finca in San Luis.  Alan convinced me to translate Oldimar's tour, saying he'd do the second one, but both Eugenio and his son Marco are bilingual and so didn't need translation, which I didn't know and I know that Alan already knew this since he also lives in San Luis, so he basically tricked me into practicing my translation.  But I loved it and had a blast and it was so cool; it helped that I myself went through the tour once before with Abby and Ryan.  During the second tour I enjoyed chatting with Marco, who has very good English and, oddly, no Tico accent in his Spanish.  Then Grevin gave us a ride back to MVI and another driver (Ronald) who is the receptionist at Don Taco gave me a ride all the way back to Santa Elena.  So cool.

Canadians running around with the trapiche at the Vargas
Finca.  The one on the left is the one I had the problem with.

Later on, I had the opportunity to Skype my family for the first time, which was neat.  I was sitting on Abby's porch stealing her wifi when she and her family finally came home from vacation, which was pretty funny.  So much to do, so little time.

7/12/2012 at 9:40pm

This morning, after thankfully getting a ride to MVI from papí, Abby, Ryan, and I went with Jenny for a tour of the cheese factory and then to Granja Porcina after (a pig farm where the pigs receive the excess whey and cows feed on treated pig manure and all the water gets treated through a lagoon system, so it's all sustainable).  It smelled so bad over there though.  But the piglets were cute!  I forgot my camera at the time so no pictures, but take my word for it that it was pretty cool.  Later after lunch we went back to the cheese factory with Jenny and she bought us all milkshakes, which was cool, and since we were in the fábrica so much I got to see Alonso all morning.  While we had milkshakes, Jenny chatted with me about cultural differences here when it comes to weddings.  Usually there's no engagement like we know it in the U.S., with a ring and the guy going down on one knee and everything; people generally just decide and talk marriage and make plans.  Honeymoons are also a little unusual as are fancy weddings, unless you're upper or upper-middle class.  And there's a tradition here in Monteverde where people give the bride money as she dances!

Being goofy at the cheese factory while waiting for batidos.

In the afternoon, Jenny and I planned for her leadership workshop next week and came up with several dinámicas to help with team-building.  After that I chatted with Gaby and Abina on Facebook and discovered that I had received my housing assignment for Spain.  I sent the family an email.  I'm now excited and nervous for September and I just hope my visa goes through...haha!

Jenny was kind enough to give us a ride back into Santa Elena, then I went home, had dinner, showered (in an attempt mostly to get chancho smell off of me), and dashed over to church even though I was late (the Devil didn't want me going tonight for whatever reason but I stick it to him.  Point for Jesus!).  Pastor Josúe talked about baptism tonight and it brought back such awesome memories of when I was baptized back in January 2009.  That was one of the best moments of my life.

July 7 - July 9

7/7/2012 at 7am?

I finally got home last night at like 11pm-ish.  I was way too tired to journal.  But right now I'm sitting on the back porch of the Calandria main house looking out over mountains and the Nicoya Gulf.  It is so beautiful.  Danny, Erick, Nacho, Chris, Jerson, and Eduardo are currently finishing up their set-up and Josette went with Evelyn to get Alissa and Lukas I think.  I'm waiting for the kids to come.

My view from my rocking chair on the back porch.

Yesterday we (my small group café con leche) did a bunch of artistic workshops including learning the basics about photo composition, painting, and writing poetry.  We had pizza and ice cream for lunch and of course played a few dinámicas throughout the day.  Then Alissa and I helped our small-small group of now 10 girls think about what they might want to do in the future.  I got to talk with Gabriela and Kimberly and Jessica and especially Valeri, and it was a very neat blessing and privilege to be able to hear these girls' dreams.

After the day ended the leaders and I all went to La Calandria to scope the place out and brainstorm activities.  I then came back to the Institute for some time, did some blog work, and walked home with Ryan, which was a pleasure because we usually never get to hold one-on-one conversation.  I got home, ate dinner, hung out with Luis, and then went to Abby's with Ryan and Jon to make horchata and eat delicious red sugary bread-cookie things and watch How to Train Your Dragon.  I stepped in their cockroach trap in the process.  It got stuck to my shoe.  We all laughed hysterically because of the immense effort it took to get the trap unstuck, plus then my shoe stuck and squeaked for a while afterward with each step I took.  We also watched the vision-impaired audio version of the first scene of the movie.  It was so super funny.  We all had a late, but good, night.

10:30pm

Sunset while throwing together the slide show.

I am way tired.  Today I got into a minor mud war and we also did several dinámicas involving human knots, including one that the guy Oscar who gave the sexuality talk did.  He was very good and addressed the topic as a whole in a great and godly manner, but we had no small group time programmed in to discuss it afterward, which was a real shame.  We also had a talk on orchids from Gabriel from the Art House, and then I had the opportunity to go with Evelyn and John and test the rope bridge course we'll be doing tomorrow, which was super cool.  Then I spent two frantic hours throwing together a slide show in a video program I have had no experience with (not to mention all the commands were in Spanish), but all in all we were able to show it after the talent show and it turned out great, at least for a quick two-hour job.  Then the kids all had a dance party and unfortunately there wasn't enough bachata/meringue and I only got to dance for like a minute with one of the other leaders Eduardo, which we were both openly frustrated about.  All the reggaton-y and pop music sucks.  And I just felt in my heart that it wasn't right for me to be there even though I had to supervise.

7/9/2012 at 8:10am

A beautiful, albeit early, morning.

I skipped yesterday journaling again due to time constraints, oh well.  Pura vida.  In any case, the boys (for sure Jerson and Danny, probably Eduardo and Erick and Lukas and Nacho as well) woke us all up around 1am by banging on the floor from underneath the room (since it was raised off the ground) with brooms and then throwing pebbles at the window and from on the roof and other sorts of crazy things in an attempt to scare me and my girls.  But I knew it was coming, and more than anything, since I was sleeping on the floor and not in a bed I was just annoyed and also worried how my girls would react.  They reacted fine, just being really annoyed and crabby and they knew it was the boys.  Bad words were being thrown around.  Eventually, though I was freezing, I found my way back to sleep and dreamt of catching butterflies and birds (no joke).

The following day I barely escaped being forced to go through a muddy obstacle course and get wet in a swimming pool as I helped run both the activities and also serve food.  It was nice because I got to chat with the young adult women Kim, Nicolette, and Shannon for breakfast (who all used to live in the United States at one point).  Eventually we all closed the camp with a photo and cheer and sent the kids home and the leaders all finished picking stuff up, then Evelyn went and dropped it all off alone before she came back and picked us all up and dropped us off.  I showered and ate dinner and then dashed over to the church for the reception of the people who went to Peniel, and it was so super cool seeing and hearing how God touched the lives of different people in different ways.  After that, I out of curiosity stopped by Gabriel's house to see if he had come back for the weekend, and he had, so he invited me in and we talked a lot and played a super-competitive game of Uno.  We ended up tying after two games so apparently next weekend we're going to try to break the tie. He walked me back home and I passed out and when I woke up this morning I basically decided that I need to take today off and rest and get done other stuff that I need to get done.

July 2 - July 5

7/2/2012 at 7:50pm

I am sooo tired.  Today was the first day of the camp over at MVI that I'm helping lead.  I was outside practically the whole day, playing games and sprinting around as if my life were at stake.  I was even too tired to want to go to la reunión de jóvenes tonight, and I really wanted to go, too.  Everything just hurts, haha: my neck, my legs, my feet, my shoulders, my face (sunburn!).  But actually, my heart for sure doesn't hurt.  It's full to bursting with love for the other leaders and care for all those kids.  Today was mostly just a day to have fun with them, but I hope tomorrow that we get to really know them and connect with them more.  After today's events with the camp, I just sat for like an hour doing my blog and trying to rest before the walk home.  But I had the best food for dinner, haha!  It was a piece of buffalo chicken with rice, plantains, cauliflower, beans, and a squash-cheese mixture, and mango juice to drink.  Most of all, right now I'm just so thankful to God for all that I have been blessed with here in Monteverde.  And I am also so grateful to the Grace Groner Foundation and everyone involved in the process for this program for allowing me to come here to not only serve but also to enjoy myself and have an amazing time.

7/3/2012 at 8:40pm

Aylin acting like a pollo for a game of charades.

Aylin and Kimberly washing the clinic walls.

Day two of the campamento is done!  I now know at least 17 of the 32 kids' names, which is good...I hope.  Today we (at least my small group of 17) went to the clínica in Santa Elena to wash the outer walls since they were all covered in dirt (as tends to happen around Costa Rica, and probably elsewhere), and then we went over to Guillermo Vargas's finca to help him with various things, and my small-small group of eight plus three


Canadian girls who were present for community service hours all dug holes for fence posts and also planted some trees to act as a windbreak.  In between, we played various dinámicas, like rabbit-in-a-cage, jugamos en el bosque, and ninja.  Tomorrow we go to Los Llanos for the charlas on drugs/tobacco/alcohol and sexuality I think, so hopefuly it's a little more of a down day.  Abby, Ryan, and Jon also want to get pizza that evening because of the Fourth of July.  We'll see what happens.  I hung out with Abby a bit this evening, which was a good way to end a crazy day.  But boy am I sunburnt from being outside all day yesterday and today...

Oh, on an off-note, while playing jugamos en el bosque we lost a Canadian names Chris and like five of us leaders had to go look for him.  Completely normal, right?  Turns out he was hiding in a cafetal, which I explained in the beginning in English were off-limits.  Go figure.  Silly boy.  But definitely something to laugh about!

7/4/2012 at 8:45pm

Standing on top of a mountain brought some great
photo opportunities.

I am so exhausted.  We took the kids to La Calandria today and did a 2-3 hour hike up to a hill/mountain/thing.  It was so beautiful though once we did get up there.  I only wish we could have spent all day there, because the kids were totally spent when we finally piled into the microbuses to go back and none of them wanted to sit through a lecture on drugs/alcohol/tobacco at the Institute.  We all thought and had been informed that it would be mostly dinámicas and would be engaging, but it wasn't, so the kids were super restless the whole time.  Thank goodness, though, we had some amazing small-small group time and I actually felt like it was really good for my 8 or 9 girls to have that time to chat and express themselves even if it was kind of hard with mixed ages and to also have them trust our confidentiality.  I pray that next time when we discuss sexuality they will be more willing to trust.  Besides this, I went out for pizza and ice cream with Abby, Ryan, Jon, and Matthew as a Fourth of July celebration.

7/5/2012 at 9:30pm

I cried out to God tonight, "Lord, why have You sent me here again, besides the fact that I enjoy it here?  What do You want me to do here specifically?  Why, where, what, how?"  And He answered me in prayer, "Serve.  Receive all I have to give, and then pour yourself out."  Oh, Lord, that I would proclaim Your name from the highest mountains because of all You've blessed me with!  I am far beyond blessed in so many ways that I ask myself how there could be room for more, and You have shown me that only by giving will there be room to receive healthily.  May all I have be Yours forever.

Pati with a really cool butterfly.

This morning I went with my small mixed group café con pan to Curi Cancha with Pati (this amazing woman who did that documentary on water a couple of weeks back who is an entomologist and who I had been wanting to learn from for the longest time here) and I had a blast, as did the kids actually, being entomologists with her.  Maybe I need to switch professions.  Haha!  Not seriously, because I know I couldn't bring myself to do all she does (I'll touch only the bugs I like, thank you), but I love it as a hobby.  She taught us how to properly handle butterflies, too, in a manner that prevents them from damaging their wings and knocking too much dust off.  It was so super cool!

A male bee!  It's metallic!  They don't sting.

Later, Alisa, Josette, Danny, Jerson, and I sat with Seidy while Kim talked us through the activity we're going to do with our small groups tomorrow, about goals and setting goals.  I'm hoping and praying that the girls find the space safe and that they open up to sharing their dreams, and that they come to know through this activity how precious their dreams are and how sacred even.  Dreams are priceless.  There's some quote somewhere that says something like don't ever rob anyone of his/her dream, because a person without a dream is poor indeed, and also sometimes a dream is all someone has.

Eventually through a random series of events that involved a flag-burning of the other team, a water fight ensued and I was soaked by Felipe and Genesis.  However, thankfully my papí drove up and we (Abby, Ryan, and I) got a ride home, yay!  And I also got to talk to the people from Denmark who were on their way to Bajo del Tigre for my papí in a sort of tour guide manner.  It was fun!  So when I got home, I showered and ate and then went to church to worship and learn and experience fellowship.  Grevin (not Greg; I think this is his real name now) had some great wisdom for me, too.  I am so thankful.

June 29 - July 1

6/29/2012 at 8:25pm

This is going to be a short update, sorry.  I'm just too tired.  Basically, all of the data, even that which probably won't be analyzed, is now digitized.  I finished it all around 3pm today.  I wanted to leave right away but everyone was chilling, so I bid my time and walked home with Matthew, parting ways because I wanted to stop in at some stores.  When I came home, basically I just ate dinner (including some agua dulce with lemon for a drink and cajeta for dessert), showered, watched a show called Tome Chichi with Andrea and mamá, and now am sitting on my bed writing this.  I'm really boring and don't have much else to say.  Court nearly gave me a heart attack on Facebook today because for a split second I thought she was going to tell me she was engaged.  And my high school buddies from Arizona left today, which was kind of sad.  Other than that, I argued with Gabriel over what movie(s) we may or may not watch on Sunday if we end up hanging out.  Just a normal day.

6/30/2012 at 5:30pm

Male quetzal through a scope!

Hummingbirds in Galeria Colibrí.

I haven't even gone to the church yet and already it's been such a full day!  Abby came over for breakfast at around 6:15am and then we left with Ryan to walk to Curi Cancha.  We met up with Jon along the way as well.  Maurecio took the four of us all over Curi Cancha and up to the hummingbird garden Galeria Colibrí and back through Curi Cancha.  We walked a looot but all in all it was so worth it, because we were able to see quetzals!


We saw both the male and the female, and wow are they pretty, and wow were we ever so lucky to see them!   We also saw a couple of bellbirds, some cool bugs, claw marks on a tree from a puma, and tons of hummingbirds.  It was really cool because at the hummingbird garden they've grown super accustomed to having tourists around so you can get really close to them.  On our way back through we had the opportunity to climb a strangler fig tree.  I didn't, but Abby and Ryan did and it was super entertaining to watch.  It was really cool being able to see so much in Curi Cancha today.

Strangler fig tree!

After eating a bit of food leftover from yesterday at MVI, Abby, Ryan, and I left and walked to the Supercompro to get ice cream, and we got some delicious pineapple-vanilla swirled ice cream that was fantastic.  After, we went home and I had some maduros, bread, and coffee with my parents and a tía, and papí began telling me about a coffee sheller/roaster/grinder he wants to buy for his finca to be able to show on tours as well as sell good coffee for cheap to the community.  He also told me how political it can be when it comes to getting things like permits and passports and licenses here, and how if someone simply pays a lot of money they can procure something a lot more quickly and without any questions asked.  It's a problem for people who don't have money, and it's also a safety issue for driving because sometimes the kids' parents simply pay for the license and the kids don't know how to really drive.  After chatting, I showered and now am looking forward to what the rest of tonight will bring.

7/1/2012 at 9:50pm

Today was amazing.  Not only did I receive so many blessings last night and not only was my heart filled last night with love and enchantment for the kids and God and everyone, not only so much last night in church and afterward hanging out and walking around with Gabriel, but also this morning.  It was the same message as last night but I actually took good notes this time thankfully.  But best of all I got to pray for and with Abby as a sister while everyone else prayed with their own families and it was so amazing.  I just felt the Spirit so clearly and we both began getting overwhelmed and crying but in all of it there was so much beauty, and every word I prayed I truly meant.  I love Abby dearly and I couldn't imagine myself with anyone else here in Costa Rica replacing her.  I am way blessed to know her and have her and call her my friend and I pray the best things for her.

It's so cute!!! I love you, little sloth!

After, Gabriel came over for an awesome lunch and then we left tot walk to the Institute to explore, and I SAW A SLOTH!!!  Well, we saw a sloth.  I could have died of happiness.  It was way cute.  I don't even know what else to say.  Anyway...

I'm pretty sure Gaby could be considered my best Tico friend.

Gaby and I walked a lot, then back to his and my house, then to Cañitas for an errand, then to downtown Santa Elena, then back to my house.  We just talked a lot and enjoyed each others' company on this cold, windy day.  It was great though because we got to listen to music together like Skillet and Jesús Adrián Romero, and we talked sports a little (he's a ligista, not saprista, so we're all good...bahahaha!) and talked about God and discussed impactful things in our lives and our favorite things.  Basically, I have an awesome friendship in this guy and and he's always going to be special to me, and I'll definitely miss him when I have to leave. I'm going to miss my family here too; even though I totally relished the silence when they all left this morning for la misa, I love them all dearly and will sorely miss them when July 24 rolls around.