Christmas Trip...

So...time is flying and it's been 2 months since I've written anything. A lot has happened since then and I thought I would just load some pics to share some of our trip over Christmas!

Below are  a few pics from the Festival of Lights in San Jose with our friends Eddie, Deanna and Jaden (their little boy) before we visited them in Tuis. They are our friends from church in NC and decided to go to the Christian Spanish Immersion Academy for 6 months. We were able to attend church with them and go to a smaller festival in Turrialba the next night before we headed south.

We spent 2 days in Puerto Viejo (south caribbean side).  Here is another pic of me with a baby monkey and 3 friendly sloths at the Jaguar Animal Rescue Center.

Our pad in Puerto Viejo. John was super happy because he's always trying to get me to sleep with our doors open at night. And finally...his dream came true at this little family run hotel. We had our trusty mosquito net but sad to say that hasn't been an on-going tradition.

A Caribbean sunrise...We live on the pacific for all the nice sunsets...so this was a nice change. Even though for those that know me...I wasn't thrilled to wake up, but my honey was pretty happy with his early morning coffee on the beach.

Learning how to make real chocolate in a local cocoa demonstration. Close to Puerto Viejo lives a group of indigenous people called Bri Bri. Our tour guide was telling us how by their rituals, if a woman was having a baby then she would have to go out into the wilderness by herself, build her a little casita that she would later have her baby in. When she was having the baby nobody was allowed to touch her (so she is delivering the baby on her own) but somebody is able to hold up a long stick to her mouth to give her water to drink. This was all a part of the cleansing process. She then informed us that her grandmother had 6-7 kids like this. But then for the good news...missionaries came to their village and told them that Christ cleanses all sins, and so for those who have believed...they do not go through this purification process (this girl was a believer). What a story and thank you to all those sharing the Good News.

On to Panama we go. This bridge was pretty scary. I ended up getting dizzy while we were walking over trying to avoid all the holes/cracks. John had to carry my stuff the rest of the way...ok so I may be somewhat of a wimp...but I was thinking of all the families with kids that cross it every day. Once we crossed we stood in line for about 1.5 hours in addition to the 1 hour we stood in line before we crossed.

Bocos del Torro was our first destination in Panama. It is literally hundreds of little islands where you can only get there by taxi boats. We stayed on the main Bocas island and visited Red Frog Beach (softest sand I've ever touched).  I  also went on a tour of a beautiful deserted island, snorkeled on a reef, and saw dolphins playing in Dolphin Bay. Overall a great trip...however it did rain quite a bit (see the pic below of me going off to the tour solo with my rain coat on - because pobrecito John had to work!). It's crazy how the Pacific coast was in Dry Season and you drive a few hours east and you are back in the rainy season!

After leaving Bocas, we took a shuttle over to Boquete, Panama. Here is a pic while we were crossing the continental divide. We visited an organic coffee plantation, Dos Fincas, where the owner gave us a tour of his farm and talked to us for hours about the coffee business in Panama and across the world. I even got to roast our very own batch...very technical stuff I tell you...

Not sure why I added this unflattering pic, but I wanted you to see how excited I was to roast  my own coffee :)

We were able to go to a candle light church service in english/spanish. A family even invited us over the Christmas dinner with their family the next day. We had already made detailed plans with taxi drivers and a restaurant for brunch (since pretty much everything was going to be closed on Christmas...which should be normal except when you are a tourist) ...so we weren't able to go, but they were such a kind and welcoming group.

Christmas Dinner...Yum!

Lastly, we head back home. This is John's most dreaded moment of the whole trip. Sad to say but the next flight was much much smaller...only a 12 passenger plane. But he's a trooper!  While we were on our connection at San Jose I got to see where I did my internship with Amerijet working at Coopesa.

Flying over the beaches close to our home...que bonita!

More to come....

Celebrations :)

It's now Jan. 15...it is so crazy how time flies!! John and I have had a very Merry Christmas and New Year's and I hope the same for all of my friends and family. We stayed in Costa Rica over the holidays and traveled to Southern Costa Rica and Panama before we had some very special visitors come see us in early January.  In future posts, I hope to share more about those experiences...for now here is one of my highlights...yes that is a baby monkey :)

Rewinding back to December, I wanted to write a blog on the End of Year / Christmas party that was held on Wednesday, December 12 at the school of El Llanito and the very special kinder/sixth grade graduation ceremony held that night.  All together this was such a special day of love and appreciation and I didn't want to forget it...so I'm now sharing.

Serve One ministries has adopted the town of El Llanito to help with a myriad of things such as the construction of their salon/school building, supplying student uniforms/supplies, teaching english, hosting vacation bible schools and other mission groups and for the past few years has supported their end of year Christmas party celebration.  Serve One is funded through personal donations and of course through fundraising efforts that Scott and Staci put on back in the States.

This year I got to help participate, plan and recruit church members to make this day a success and boy did it!

We started at 8am and we had stations set up for the kids to rotate through. There was instant icecream making, more face painting, Bible verse crafts, a blow up jump-around, sack races, soccer, etc. The kids were definitely busy running from station to station. My hands were about frozen trying to help all the kids shake their icecream for forever it seemed.

We were able to sing some Christmas songs in spanish (luckily the songs were printed out) that went along with the Christmas story.  The kids were all dressed up as characters...it was a bit unrehearsed but it was fun! Afterwards, the preacher from the spanish speaking church shared the gospel message with the kids to explain why the life and death of Jesus is so very important to know and remember.

Afterwards Scott and Staci were able to bring one gift for each child and then they had their last meal for the school year. Isa and Maria cooked up a wonderful seafood and rice dish.

One of the best parts for me, was to share this experience with my dear friends Sherrell, Jesse and their little girl Shalom. Thank you again for all your help and for all the goodies you brought for the kids!!

Later that night, El Llanito (along with all other schools in Guanacaste) held their graduation ceremony where they honor 6th graders going onto Colegio (high school) and the kindergartners entering 1st grade.

The school children always pick one person to dedicate their ceremony to and this year they picked Staci, one of the founders of Serve One. Here she is glowing along with her little dog (which you can't see, but he's a cute little yorky).

They asked the four of us to be in the procession, they gave us a very beautiful plant bouquet and then asked us to help give out graduation certificates...which involves getting a kiss on the cheek from each student. I was so honored to be a part of that night and it was wonderful seeing the kids I've been teaching graduate.  The teachers really made us feel special and I'm so thankful I have been given the chance to help out the village of El Llanito.

The school provided a wonderful meal to all the proud family members and the night ended with some great spanish music. It was interesting in the beginning of the night before the ceremony started... they were playing easy listening English music (Delilah style)...which if you know me I love that kind of music. We were wondering why they were playing english music vs. spanish. We were told it was in honor of who the graduation was dedicated to...which was Staci.  So very thoughtful!

Que Dios te acompañe!

Catching Up...

Where to begin...it's been a while since I actually wrote a post for my own blog.  There has been so much going on over the past month...that I'll try to summarize...

A good place to begin...This is a pic of John's side of the bed getting pooped on by a friendly gecko...good times...ok jk on to the real stuff.

We've been making monkeys, potato turkeys, rainbows and celebrating birthdays and last days in Brasilito with Abriendo Mentes.

My mom came to visit over Thanksgiving. She got to volunteer with me, meet my adult english class student's chancho(pig) for Navidad, visit the beautiful Monteverde cloud forest, go ziplining, and of course we had lots of beach time.  In one of the pics we are even dressed as twins from the hat (thanks to Hanya's gift to me) to our beach cover-ups.

Celebrating our last days with the kids in El Llanito by watching movies and celebrating birthdays.

Helping with sex trafficking fairs for the past week and ending by helping to raise money at the Gala on Saturday night.  Lots of organization's partnered to make the week possible: Light Force Int'l, CEPIA, Global Connections; The Human Traffic Initiative, Serve One, AM, etc.  Costa Rica is actually a hub for sex trafficking and after the first safety fair a few girls were rescued from a nearby club.  During the safety fairs, the kids learn about protecting their bodies along with having a little fun at different stations that reiterate all the main points.

The teachers of El Llanito invited me to their end of year retreat on the beach. They grilled out tons of meat (sausage, chicken, beef, etc), molido/chips, and even had a birthday cake for Stephanie.  They had all drawn names for presents and each said something very special about the person they bought for (a very formal production).  Yentry presented me with 2 Costa Rican displays which were really precious!  A very relaxing afternoon before I headed to Brasilito to play a round of bingo for our last Thrilling Thursday of the year.

We attended the CEPIA end of year party where there were more games for the kids and they were all recognized for the extra curricular activities they had participated in. John's group of soccer guys and our english class kids from Brasilito were all invited and recognized. I am now happy to say that I am a pro at facepainting. I was put on the FP team for the safety fairs and I got to do it again at the CEPIA end of year party. Maybe that's a skill I'll be able to put on my resume one day :)  I loved the ladies and gents that showed us a Typical Costa Rican dance too!

Lastly for this blog...we also attended the Brasilito kinder class end of year party. We made a chocolate cake for the event that was split into 30 tiny slices. They hired a clown and more facepainting (these kids love FP), and we ate pizza, fresco, and icecream. The clown was an absolute hit with the kiddos!

Busy times in Costa Rica....and there is more to come! We had an amazing day with Serve One Ministries in El Llanito and I'll try to write more about that in my next blog. Adios amigos!