Good thing we stayed the night in a hotel last night, we saw all sorts of cars in the ditches/smashed from accidents on the way home that must of been caught in the weather change last night.
We sailed through the border no problem, roads were good until Grand Bend, but we slowly made our way through the slop and we are Home Sweet Home!
Never been so glad to see snow before in my life....!
Congratulations to all the kids for all their awesome work and their stellar attitudes, thanks to Tony, Donny and Colin for all their help with the group, and thanks again to Father Gary and the parish for all their support.
That's it, i'm off to enjoy a lovely relaxing cup of Costa Rican coffee!
Wednesday 23 March 2011
travel plans
Planning to leave hotel shortly after 11a.m.
Freezing rain forecast for Michigan, so are expecting slow drive home
once we clear customs, prob will stop at Tims and Grand Bend for beverages, will call Ben once we have idea of road conditions and eta in goderich
Ben can pass on to others eta if anyone wants to know
Detroit family... no time for a stop, weather forecast too bad, will see you in April, Mom the kids say thanks for all the gum, it sure came in handy on planes and in the mountains!
Don't put away your rosaries yet, but we'll be home soon!
Freezing rain forecast for Michigan, so are expecting slow drive home
once we clear customs, prob will stop at Tims and Grand Bend for beverages, will call Ben once we have idea of road conditions and eta in goderich
Ben can pass on to others eta if anyone wants to know
Detroit family... no time for a stop, weather forecast too bad, will see you in April, Mom the kids say thanks for all the gum, it sure came in handy on planes and in the mountains!
Don't put away your rosaries yet, but we'll be home soon!
Tuesday 22 March 2011
in Detroit
Arrived safely at 1135 pm, no problems anywhere, everyone got to stick a toe in pacific ocean on way to airport
eating pizza.
expected arrival in Goderich mid afternoon, will update blog in morn for travel plans, might need someone to meet us at st peters with vehicle if weather on 21 is bad
Thankful to be on solid ground
ZZZZZZZZZZ
eating pizza.
expected arrival in Goderich mid afternoon, will update blog in morn for travel plans, might need someone to meet us at st peters with vehicle if weather on 21 is bad
Thankful to be on solid ground
ZZZZZZZZZZ
Monday 21 March 2011
The final day
Hello from Monteverde!
Hopefully this work, the wireless internet is very sketchy, email is working apparantly, but we can´t connect to any websites. Curently I am in some ïnternet cafe which is really like somebodry´s bsement surrounded by locals with no english- I needed a pen and paper - fortunately I remebered the the word escriber for to write, as no one was understanding my hand motions! I needed a pen and paer so I could write down the @ symbol, as I am using a spanish keyboard and I couldn´t find the symbol which I need to log into this blog... if you are cutious, you push Cntrl and Alt and 2 and @ appears. This is slightly intimidating as I can´t find some of the punctuation, but there are ssome cool ones ...ñ ¿ € Ç and I´m afraid to push some of the others.
But I digress.
Everybody is doing very well. The ride to monteverde is a tortuous twisting narrow gravel road, the spped limit is 25km an hour, and the bus never hit that once I think. It took over an hour to go the last 20 km. There are sheer drop offs with no guard rails or anything, washouts, potholes... we had 2 suffering from car sickness by the time was reached the top of the dirty dusty drive.
Most of us went on the coffe-banana plantation tour, and also saw pinapples growing, sugar cane processed, made our own toffee from the sugar and drank some terrific coffee. Oh yeah, BTW... most of the kids are hard core coffee drinkers now, though most of them atre double double which is not really enjoyiing the flavor in my opinion!
Today we all went up to the Cloud Forest reserve, and enjoyed zip lines and the Tarzan swing. Liz was the most shrill screamer, but Emilie gets marks for laughing the most after the initial shreik. Paige needed to put on her "rugby face" for courage on the ziplines, and Lisa wanted to kiss solid ground by the time we were done.
We toured the reptile house and saw all the snakes and gheckos etc (although the crate full of rats to feed the snakes seemed tro really fascinate a lot of them,) and some of us went in the butterfly preserve, and got great pic of the butteerflies landing on the kids and watching them hatch from cocoons.
After lunch we split into two groups fro a guided 2 hr walk through the forest on all the hanging bridges. It not unexpectedly had a light mist or rain through most of the day, as 1or 2 hrs of sun is all they average in a day. i think they will all slepp well tonnight!
Anway, my time is running out. The kids are getting some souvenirs right now, then we are leaving at 530 am for our 4 hr bus ride to the airport, so I expect next time you hear from me we will be in US territory somewhere! I´ll try to let you know as we land and we will see you soon!
Hopefully this work, the wireless internet is very sketchy, email is working apparantly, but we can´t connect to any websites. Curently I am in some ïnternet cafe which is really like somebodry´s bsement surrounded by locals with no english- I needed a pen and paper - fortunately I remebered the the word escriber for to write, as no one was understanding my hand motions! I needed a pen and paer so I could write down the @ symbol, as I am using a spanish keyboard and I couldn´t find the symbol which I need to log into this blog... if you are cutious, you push Cntrl and Alt and 2 and @ appears. This is slightly intimidating as I can´t find some of the punctuation, but there are ssome cool ones ...ñ ¿ € Ç and I´m afraid to push some of the others.
But I digress.
Everybody is doing very well. The ride to monteverde is a tortuous twisting narrow gravel road, the spped limit is 25km an hour, and the bus never hit that once I think. It took over an hour to go the last 20 km. There are sheer drop offs with no guard rails or anything, washouts, potholes... we had 2 suffering from car sickness by the time was reached the top of the dirty dusty drive.
Most of us went on the coffe-banana plantation tour, and also saw pinapples growing, sugar cane processed, made our own toffee from the sugar and drank some terrific coffee. Oh yeah, BTW... most of the kids are hard core coffee drinkers now, though most of them atre double double which is not really enjoyiing the flavor in my opinion!
Today we all went up to the Cloud Forest reserve, and enjoyed zip lines and the Tarzan swing. Liz was the most shrill screamer, but Emilie gets marks for laughing the most after the initial shreik. Paige needed to put on her "rugby face" for courage on the ziplines, and Lisa wanted to kiss solid ground by the time we were done.
We toured the reptile house and saw all the snakes and gheckos etc (although the crate full of rats to feed the snakes seemed tro really fascinate a lot of them,) and some of us went in the butterfly preserve, and got great pic of the butteerflies landing on the kids and watching them hatch from cocoons.
After lunch we split into two groups fro a guided 2 hr walk through the forest on all the hanging bridges. It not unexpectedly had a light mist or rain through most of the day, as 1or 2 hrs of sun is all they average in a day. i think they will all slepp well tonnight!
Anway, my time is running out. The kids are getting some souvenirs right now, then we are leaving at 530 am for our 4 hr bus ride to the airport, so I expect next time you hear from me we will be in US territory somewhere! I´ll try to let you know as we land and we will see you soon!
Saturday 19 March 2011
Really? Meh meh meh!
Well, it 1030 and the final work day is ending.
4 of us went running at 615, we could go 15 minutes later because it's saturday, and we didn't have to battle the school traffic. the hills get bigger every day I think... isn't it supposed to get easier at some point?
We celebrated March 19 the feast of St Joseph the worker in an appropriate fashion... we worked!
{cool fact> St Joseph is the patron saint of Canada AND Costa Rica}
The morning was a bit differenjt, as Ashley, Christine, Anna and I were dismantling bunkbeds for a move to a different mission house, some were painting steel at the new mission houses, Tony was finishing up the welding, and a bunch were cementing in the playground / although they ran out of water for an hour and ended up hauling water by bucket fuls for a while.
After lunch we hauled beds from site to site, and then finally for the first time we all worked together on the the smae job site for the last 2 hrs of our mission work. Everyone was inspired, trying to finish cementing the walkway . Shovels were flying, the assembly line of wheelbarrows, trowelers, bucket brigades ... the pace was amazing. But with everyone there, and everyone experienced and knowing which part of the assembly line they were, they had the energy of 10x the people. They were all working up a good sweat, but having a marvelous time, and oh so proud they got it done, lots of pictures and posing with their projects, and high fives all around.
The before and after pictures are pretty impressive actually, and it is easy to why the kids are so impressed with their own work. It has been a long week of incredibly physical work, and some of them are pretty worn out, but you'd never know by the mood they were in tonight. What a joyous bunch they were at supper.
Our after dinner prayer session turned into a 2 hr marathon! They had one journal question, asking them to tell something they learned this week about each group member. Then we went around the circle and talked about each person, one at a time. The kids really got into it, the stories and compliments were just a flying, at times we were laughing hysterically, and a few times we were brought to tears. It was truly touching, and to watch each person just glow as everyone discussed all their finest qualities was such a rewarding experience.
It might interest her mother to know that everyone talked about how generous Sarah was, and how she never complained or whined, no matter what was asked of her. Or MG's father might be interested to know that everyone said how hard working she was, how she always took the dirtiest most unpopular jobs, and wouldn't quit until it was done and done correctly. Ashley got high marks for her generosity in both her spirit and her kind heart, while Alex was hardworking, helpful and sensitive {he even got an AWWWWW from the girls after one of the stories}. The siblings were pretty funny as they were amazed at the difference between behaviour here and at home[ I sometimes had to refocus them to talk more about behaviour this week as opposed to what they experience at home]!
Personally, I was most surprised by Colin. All I really knew about him was he was nuclear physicist, so I was kind of imagining the absent minded professot type who walked into walls while doing logarhythms in his head, or dreaming about calculus while sawing off his own hand!. I am very pleasantly surprised he is extremely good with tools, and very patient in showing kids how to do all the different jobs...a good reminder to not prejudge people for sure!
Lisa got lots of kudos for her sense of humour, in particular her one mannerism that has brought a high level of hilarity to each day. Thanks to Lisa , we are walking aroung saying in really high pitched whiny nasal voices
"My name's {insert someone elses name here} I always {insert annoying habit\mild insult\random statement}
Meh meh meh" It is actually quite funny, as usually two of them go back and forth until someone runs out of responses.
An example of this from this morning {remember to usual really high voices and go really fast back and forth}
{they are playing "slapjack" a card game that appears to be a contact sport, and has caused several injuries}
Jesse "No Way! I had the card first!"
Tristan " My name is Jesse. I alway think I have the card even when I don't. Meh meh meh"
Jess " My name is Tristan. I always make fun of Jesse even when I'm stealing cards meh meh meh"
Tris "My name is Jesse. I make fun of Tristan Making fun of Jesse becuase I'm mad 'cause Im losing meh meh meh"
Jess " My name is Tristan. I'm ..uhm... MEAN"
Tris " Myname is Jesse. I have a really small vocabulary Meh meh meh"
It is actually very helpful, because if anybody has the littlest whine everybody jumps on it Meh meh mehing or if they start arguing about cards , it quickly turns into everyone laughing.
That hurt.
The boys just walked in and wanted to read the blog, and I wouldn't let them [ they are technology free remember], so they started saying " my name 's Jennifer. I won't let anyone read the blog meh meh meh"
which started my laughing hysterically [ teenage boys in particular are ugly with their voices]
Unfortunately I had just taken a big drink of water, which I ended up aspirating what I didn't spew all over myself. Which spawned " My names Jennifer. I spit water on myself MEH MEH MEH I can shoot water out my nose meh meh meh all I do is blog Meh meh meh I won't share meh meh meh I need a towel meh meh meh" and on and on and on 3 of them at me at once the little monsters. I just made them go to bed.
The other saying we have is everybody says " Really?" in this drawn out nasally voice when anyone make any kind of statement. it started out as an imitation of Mary Gwen, but has spawned a life of it's own, and when anyone says it, several more people immediately echo it, to gales of laughter.
anyway, we leave tomorrow morning for the last time from this mission site, to travel to the cloud forest of Monteverde. It is a 4 hr bus ride , so we should be seeing a lot of new countryside. Our lelevation here is somewhere around 700 ft acove sea level, while Monteverde is over 5000ft, so the secenery is quite spectacular. I know from the last time that the internet was sketchy in places and you have to paytourist prices for it, but we are in a different hotel this time, so perhaps Colins little blackberry or whatever it is will work and I can use it.
At any rate, I will get some sort of message out from there, but for now, the mission work is over, and we are off to learn more about the local culture. We will be going on a coffeeand sugar cane plantation tour, as well as visiting the national park cloud forest and learning about the eco system and all it's inhabitants.
That's it for now, the kids have done incredibly well so far, and I expect the same to continue!
4 of us went running at 615, we could go 15 minutes later because it's saturday, and we didn't have to battle the school traffic. the hills get bigger every day I think... isn't it supposed to get easier at some point?
We celebrated March 19 the feast of St Joseph the worker in an appropriate fashion... we worked!
{cool fact> St Joseph is the patron saint of Canada AND Costa Rica}
The morning was a bit differenjt, as Ashley, Christine, Anna and I were dismantling bunkbeds for a move to a different mission house, some were painting steel at the new mission houses, Tony was finishing up the welding, and a bunch were cementing in the playground / although they ran out of water for an hour and ended up hauling water by bucket fuls for a while.
After lunch we hauled beds from site to site, and then finally for the first time we all worked together on the the smae job site for the last 2 hrs of our mission work. Everyone was inspired, trying to finish cementing the walkway . Shovels were flying, the assembly line of wheelbarrows, trowelers, bucket brigades ... the pace was amazing. But with everyone there, and everyone experienced and knowing which part of the assembly line they were, they had the energy of 10x the people. They were all working up a good sweat, but having a marvelous time, and oh so proud they got it done, lots of pictures and posing with their projects, and high fives all around.
The before and after pictures are pretty impressive actually, and it is easy to why the kids are so impressed with their own work. It has been a long week of incredibly physical work, and some of them are pretty worn out, but you'd never know by the mood they were in tonight. What a joyous bunch they were at supper.
Our after dinner prayer session turned into a 2 hr marathon! They had one journal question, asking them to tell something they learned this week about each group member. Then we went around the circle and talked about each person, one at a time. The kids really got into it, the stories and compliments were just a flying, at times we were laughing hysterically, and a few times we were brought to tears. It was truly touching, and to watch each person just glow as everyone discussed all their finest qualities was such a rewarding experience.
It might interest her mother to know that everyone talked about how generous Sarah was, and how she never complained or whined, no matter what was asked of her. Or MG's father might be interested to know that everyone said how hard working she was, how she always took the dirtiest most unpopular jobs, and wouldn't quit until it was done and done correctly. Ashley got high marks for her generosity in both her spirit and her kind heart, while Alex was hardworking, helpful and sensitive {he even got an AWWWWW from the girls after one of the stories}. The siblings were pretty funny as they were amazed at the difference between behaviour here and at home[ I sometimes had to refocus them to talk more about behaviour this week as opposed to what they experience at home]!
Personally, I was most surprised by Colin. All I really knew about him was he was nuclear physicist, so I was kind of imagining the absent minded professot type who walked into walls while doing logarhythms in his head, or dreaming about calculus while sawing off his own hand!. I am very pleasantly surprised he is extremely good with tools, and very patient in showing kids how to do all the different jobs...a good reminder to not prejudge people for sure!
Lisa got lots of kudos for her sense of humour, in particular her one mannerism that has brought a high level of hilarity to each day. Thanks to Lisa , we are walking aroung saying in really high pitched whiny nasal voices
"My name's {insert someone elses name here} I always {insert annoying habit\mild insult\random statement}
Meh meh meh" It is actually quite funny, as usually two of them go back and forth until someone runs out of responses.
An example of this from this morning {remember to usual really high voices and go really fast back and forth}
{they are playing "slapjack" a card game that appears to be a contact sport, and has caused several injuries}
Jesse "No Way! I had the card first!"
Tristan " My name is Jesse. I alway think I have the card even when I don't. Meh meh meh"
Jess " My name is Tristan. I always make fun of Jesse even when I'm stealing cards meh meh meh"
Tris "My name is Jesse. I make fun of Tristan Making fun of Jesse becuase I'm mad 'cause Im losing meh meh meh"
Jess " My name is Tristan. I'm ..uhm... MEAN"
Tris " Myname is Jesse. I have a really small vocabulary Meh meh meh"
It is actually very helpful, because if anybody has the littlest whine everybody jumps on it Meh meh mehing or if they start arguing about cards , it quickly turns into everyone laughing.
That hurt.
The boys just walked in and wanted to read the blog, and I wouldn't let them [ they are technology free remember], so they started saying " my name 's Jennifer. I won't let anyone read the blog meh meh meh"
which started my laughing hysterically [ teenage boys in particular are ugly with their voices]
Unfortunately I had just taken a big drink of water, which I ended up aspirating what I didn't spew all over myself. Which spawned " My names Jennifer. I spit water on myself MEH MEH MEH I can shoot water out my nose meh meh meh all I do is blog Meh meh meh I won't share meh meh meh I need a towel meh meh meh" and on and on and on 3 of them at me at once the little monsters. I just made them go to bed.
The other saying we have is everybody says " Really?" in this drawn out nasally voice when anyone make any kind of statement. it started out as an imitation of Mary Gwen, but has spawned a life of it's own, and when anyone says it, several more people immediately echo it, to gales of laughter.
anyway, we leave tomorrow morning for the last time from this mission site, to travel to the cloud forest of Monteverde. It is a 4 hr bus ride , so we should be seeing a lot of new countryside. Our lelevation here is somewhere around 700 ft acove sea level, while Monteverde is over 5000ft, so the secenery is quite spectacular. I know from the last time that the internet was sketchy in places and you have to paytourist prices for it, but we are in a different hotel this time, so perhaps Colins little blackberry or whatever it is will work and I can use it.
At any rate, I will get some sort of message out from there, but for now, the mission work is over, and we are off to learn more about the local culture. We will be going on a coffeeand sugar cane plantation tour, as well as visiting the national park cloud forest and learning about the eco system and all it's inhabitants.
That's it for now, the kids have done incredibly well so far, and I expect the same to continue!
Friday 18 March 2011
Back on Our Heads!
10 pm and all is quiet. Physical labour is DEFINITELY the best way to get teenagers to go to bed.
Last night Tony was the first to go to bed, he was asleep by 730! and the rest were in bed between 8 and 9, but when I got up at 556 { thats when the trucks arrive at the local icecream plant next door}everyone was still asleep, in fact a few had to be woken up at 715 for breakfast! There is no doubt they are finding this work exhausting.
I am not nearly as bad off, because I am doing a lot of organizing people, and chaperoning kids walking from job site to washrooms etc, and I am making a concious effort not to get too physically tired, as SOMEONE has to be able to deal with 17 exhausted poeple at the end of the day. Everyone is doing great really, but I am always watching for ones who need a break without even realizing it, or ones who need to change jobs because they are starting to have trouble coping with some of the frustrating aspects.
What aspects you ask? mostly wood splitting, nails bending, moving mountains of sand and gravel, sand in every orifice, cement splattering, having to wear two layers of hot gloves to handle steel, the heat, and above all trying to smear sunscreen on filthy skin and then having the aforementioned sand and dust add another sticky layer.
I have a bunch of converts. No one would evern DREAM of leaving the house without a hat and sunscreen, everyone is in in white Mickey mouse shirts that are grewyish brown within 10 min of hitting the job site, everyone packs extra sunscreen and reapply every 30 minutes, and we drink literally gallons and gallons of water a day. The only people I have to remind occassionally are the men!
And yet slowly but surely we are all getting patches of pink in weird places as sunscreen is missed oor more likely smeared or sweated off. Even Paige who had informed us quite proudly that she is like her mother and never burns has to her horror a pink face in spots despite hat and sunscreen. But they are all quite pleased with themselves, although I overheard several talking, saying they would probably whine if they had to do this work at home, but here it seems like fun!
In fact I would say the crew has really meshed as a team and is really having a wonderful time despite the grueling labour and the unrelenting sun. Our bus trip home from rafting went fast as can be as the busload sang most of the way home, in harmonies no less! We must really be morphing into our disney characters, as I think we sang most of the songs from all the Disney movies! Lots of other kinds too, with Paige hitting all the high notes, Anna Liz and MG leading the singalongs,while Tristan stunned the bus when he debuted for an audience a solo in his beautiful tenor { I have been trying to get him to join the Kingsbridge choir for years... now that the girls know he can sing, maybe they can help ne drag him into it!}. Of cours Paul and Tristan alos did a significantly less musical rendition of "the Devil went down to Georgia" including their interpretation of the fiddle tunes which was wildly appreciated by the team.
Since it is Friday , I requested a meat less menu, so the kids got a taste of a typical Costa Rican menu. Rice, Beans, Tortillas, Chapote squash, guacamole, a kind of green beans fried in eggs, and tons of fruit. Most of them really liked it.
It is almost 1030 so I need to get some Zs, but I would like to mention our prayer session tonight. The recurring question of ' what good deed to you do for Lent today" was changed last night to an anonymous deed, and it was fun to listen to everything they had done in clandestine fashion. For example, Ashley kept filling people waterbottles when they got low, Lisa swept bedroom floors, MG washed the bathroom floors, Paige emptied garbage, Liz cleaned up everybodies shoes... our house looks significantly better, and everyone got lots of positive reinforcement by the expressions of pleasure everyone made.
Our Journal question which we discussed asked for a comparison to the Evangelical Mthodist church service, and asking if there was anything from the that style of worship that they would like to see at home.
Just as a heads up, most of them want more singing and dancing! in church, so Marianne if you are reading this perhaps you could whip something up for our return. I do miss Natalie this trip, she was an awesome help organizing each prayer service, though Lisa has stepped up and helps me out sometime.
Anyway, my good deed was not waking anyone up to run... I had to wait 15 minutes before a chaperone even got up, and needless to say they were running nowhere! So since it is not a good idea to go out alone, I didn't get my run, but we are getting up tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed! And by the way, since I couldn't run, and had 90 minutes to kill before breakfast this a.m, I entertained myself by drinking coffee about 3 1/2 cups MMMMMM. But don't worry , it didn't affect my behaviour at all, and don't believe your kids if they say it did!
Hasta manana
Last night Tony was the first to go to bed, he was asleep by 730! and the rest were in bed between 8 and 9, but when I got up at 556 { thats when the trucks arrive at the local icecream plant next door}everyone was still asleep, in fact a few had to be woken up at 715 for breakfast! There is no doubt they are finding this work exhausting.
I am not nearly as bad off, because I am doing a lot of organizing people, and chaperoning kids walking from job site to washrooms etc, and I am making a concious effort not to get too physically tired, as SOMEONE has to be able to deal with 17 exhausted poeple at the end of the day. Everyone is doing great really, but I am always watching for ones who need a break without even realizing it, or ones who need to change jobs because they are starting to have trouble coping with some of the frustrating aspects.
What aspects you ask? mostly wood splitting, nails bending, moving mountains of sand and gravel, sand in every orifice, cement splattering, having to wear two layers of hot gloves to handle steel, the heat, and above all trying to smear sunscreen on filthy skin and then having the aforementioned sand and dust add another sticky layer.
I have a bunch of converts. No one would evern DREAM of leaving the house without a hat and sunscreen, everyone is in in white Mickey mouse shirts that are grewyish brown within 10 min of hitting the job site, everyone packs extra sunscreen and reapply every 30 minutes, and we drink literally gallons and gallons of water a day. The only people I have to remind occassionally are the men!
And yet slowly but surely we are all getting patches of pink in weird places as sunscreen is missed oor more likely smeared or sweated off. Even Paige who had informed us quite proudly that she is like her mother and never burns has to her horror a pink face in spots despite hat and sunscreen. But they are all quite pleased with themselves, although I overheard several talking, saying they would probably whine if they had to do this work at home, but here it seems like fun!
In fact I would say the crew has really meshed as a team and is really having a wonderful time despite the grueling labour and the unrelenting sun. Our bus trip home from rafting went fast as can be as the busload sang most of the way home, in harmonies no less! We must really be morphing into our disney characters, as I think we sang most of the songs from all the Disney movies! Lots of other kinds too, with Paige hitting all the high notes, Anna Liz and MG leading the singalongs,while Tristan stunned the bus when he debuted for an audience a solo in his beautiful tenor { I have been trying to get him to join the Kingsbridge choir for years... now that the girls know he can sing, maybe they can help ne drag him into it!}. Of cours Paul and Tristan alos did a significantly less musical rendition of "the Devil went down to Georgia" including their interpretation of the fiddle tunes which was wildly appreciated by the team.
Since it is Friday , I requested a meat less menu, so the kids got a taste of a typical Costa Rican menu. Rice, Beans, Tortillas, Chapote squash, guacamole, a kind of green beans fried in eggs, and tons of fruit. Most of them really liked it.
It is almost 1030 so I need to get some Zs, but I would like to mention our prayer session tonight. The recurring question of ' what good deed to you do for Lent today" was changed last night to an anonymous deed, and it was fun to listen to everything they had done in clandestine fashion. For example, Ashley kept filling people waterbottles when they got low, Lisa swept bedroom floors, MG washed the bathroom floors, Paige emptied garbage, Liz cleaned up everybodies shoes... our house looks significantly better, and everyone got lots of positive reinforcement by the expressions of pleasure everyone made.
Our Journal question which we discussed asked for a comparison to the Evangelical Mthodist church service, and asking if there was anything from the that style of worship that they would like to see at home.
Just as a heads up, most of them want more singing and dancing! in church, so Marianne if you are reading this perhaps you could whip something up for our return. I do miss Natalie this trip, she was an awesome help organizing each prayer service, though Lisa has stepped up and helps me out sometime.
Anyway, my good deed was not waking anyone up to run... I had to wait 15 minutes before a chaperone even got up, and needless to say they were running nowhere! So since it is not a good idea to go out alone, I didn't get my run, but we are getting up tomorrow, so I'd better get to bed! And by the way, since I couldn't run, and had 90 minutes to kill before breakfast this a.m, I entertained myself by drinking coffee about 3 1/2 cups MMMMMM. But don't worry , it didn't affect my behaviour at all, and don't believe your kids if they say it did!
Hasta manana
Thursday 17 March 2011
Happy St Patricks Day!
And Happy Birthday to Ashley!!!
440am came early, and Ashley was awoken to our enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday.
by 5am , we were on the road for the 3 hr bus trip to the Parquari river.
We stopped on the way to visit to the National Basilica of CR. The kids were amazed by beautiful white humoungus church, and were awestruck by the sweeping cathedral ceilings with all the beautiful statues and altars / I guess the movement after Vatican II to simplify the ornateness of the churches didn't make it all the way down here! I thought it was cool how all the statues of the saints had Latino features, and I had Lisa take a picture of the 12 foot statue of St Vincent de Paul to shoiw the Society in Goderich.
Everyone enjoyed seeing the panorama on the way to the river. Coffee and pinapple plantations, and sugar cane fields all in mid harvest. We saw some tractors working, 3 JD, a Ford and 2 Sames, both in the fields and hauling trucks of the cane. Banana and coconut trees are every where, and all sorts of fields under mesh with flowers for export.
The river experience was according to my raft " the funnest thing " they have ever done in their life, although Emilie in particular was pretty apprehensiuve at the start. But she did loosen up when I put her and Jess in my boat, because they both knew I would never be able to return home without them or their mothers would kill me, so she was pretty confident I would dive in after her and save her or die trying!
Of course, our prayer service tonight could be extremely short as Emilie did enough praying for all of us for the first hour. Or at least she started a prayer a lot... " Dear God" "Oh Dear God" ... Paige even let out a "Oh my Jesus" while I mostly got water in my mouth during the rapids because \i was laughing at them! Of cours, by the end of the trip, Emilie was begging to sit at the front on the bow, so Louis our guide said yes, and Emilie managed to slip off into the river as she was sitting donw, and Paige and I had to rescue her! We all thought it was pretty funny,
All the rafts enjoyed the 18 mile trip , with it's Class 1 to 4 rapids, and the lunch on the side of the river, feeding fish and seeing an Native with his wooden boat. I haven't really heard all the individual stories yet, I do know Tristan caught Taylor as she was heading out of the boat, and all the teams seem to think their boat did the best, but Obviously my boat was by far the best at teamwork, or so our guide told us!
No one got any injuries, in fact if we throw Paul out of the average, we have had an injury free trip under my supervision so far! Of course, when they are on free time playing dodge ball or monkey in the middle or whatever game they are on,l they are running into trees, diving on the gravel, wiping out on hills ... they seem to be a competitive bunch. Lets just say nobody has a scrape or bruise that wasn't self inflicted? This technology free idea is a little more physically dangerous then letting them zombie out in front of computer screens!
Its 9pm and most of the kids have been in their beds for the last 1\2 hour and I am about to join them. I am wearing my St Patricks Day scarf that Alex gave me, but aside from a prayer to St Patrick at our meeting tonight, that is it for festivities. I think this is the frist St Patricks Day since I was pregnant with Tristan that I haven't had a beer and toast my ancestors. Man, the sacrifices I make for these kids... and yes that was a whine, but hey! they won't know until after I am home, so I won't have to do extra dishes.
At least it was a Feast day, and according to Father John, we get on bye on Lent, so I was able to have a piece of the surprise birthday cake I ordered for Ashley MMMM good! Very fance with all sorts of fresh fruit and beautifully decorated.
Special thanks to Father Gary for expediting the wire, all has arrived and both Charlie and myself are thrilled!
That s it I am beat like a drum and off to ZZZZZ
Erin Go Braugh!
440am came early, and Ashley was awoken to our enthusiastic rendition of Happy Birthday.
by 5am , we were on the road for the 3 hr bus trip to the Parquari river.
We stopped on the way to visit to the National Basilica of CR. The kids were amazed by beautiful white humoungus church, and were awestruck by the sweeping cathedral ceilings with all the beautiful statues and altars / I guess the movement after Vatican II to simplify the ornateness of the churches didn't make it all the way down here! I thought it was cool how all the statues of the saints had Latino features, and I had Lisa take a picture of the 12 foot statue of St Vincent de Paul to shoiw the Society in Goderich.
Everyone enjoyed seeing the panorama on the way to the river. Coffee and pinapple plantations, and sugar cane fields all in mid harvest. We saw some tractors working, 3 JD, a Ford and 2 Sames, both in the fields and hauling trucks of the cane. Banana and coconut trees are every where, and all sorts of fields under mesh with flowers for export.
The river experience was according to my raft " the funnest thing " they have ever done in their life, although Emilie in particular was pretty apprehensiuve at the start. But she did loosen up when I put her and Jess in my boat, because they both knew I would never be able to return home without them or their mothers would kill me, so she was pretty confident I would dive in after her and save her or die trying!
Of course, our prayer service tonight could be extremely short as Emilie did enough praying for all of us for the first hour. Or at least she started a prayer a lot... " Dear God" "Oh Dear God" ... Paige even let out a "Oh my Jesus" while I mostly got water in my mouth during the rapids because \i was laughing at them! Of cours, by the end of the trip, Emilie was begging to sit at the front on the bow, so Louis our guide said yes, and Emilie managed to slip off into the river as she was sitting donw, and Paige and I had to rescue her! We all thought it was pretty funny,
All the rafts enjoyed the 18 mile trip , with it's Class 1 to 4 rapids, and the lunch on the side of the river, feeding fish and seeing an Native with his wooden boat. I haven't really heard all the individual stories yet, I do know Tristan caught Taylor as she was heading out of the boat, and all the teams seem to think their boat did the best, but Obviously my boat was by far the best at teamwork, or so our guide told us!
No one got any injuries, in fact if we throw Paul out of the average, we have had an injury free trip under my supervision so far! Of course, when they are on free time playing dodge ball or monkey in the middle or whatever game they are on,l they are running into trees, diving on the gravel, wiping out on hills ... they seem to be a competitive bunch. Lets just say nobody has a scrape or bruise that wasn't self inflicted? This technology free idea is a little more physically dangerous then letting them zombie out in front of computer screens!
Its 9pm and most of the kids have been in their beds for the last 1\2 hour and I am about to join them. I am wearing my St Patricks Day scarf that Alex gave me, but aside from a prayer to St Patrick at our meeting tonight, that is it for festivities. I think this is the frist St Patricks Day since I was pregnant with Tristan that I haven't had a beer and toast my ancestors. Man, the sacrifices I make for these kids... and yes that was a whine, but hey! they won't know until after I am home, so I won't have to do extra dishes.
At least it was a Feast day, and according to Father John, we get on bye on Lent, so I was able to have a piece of the surprise birthday cake I ordered for Ashley MMMM good! Very fance with all sorts of fresh fruit and beautifully decorated.
Special thanks to Father Gary for expediting the wire, all has arrived and both Charlie and myself are thrilled!
That s it I am beat like a drum and off to ZZZZZ
Erin Go Braugh!
Wednesday 16 March 2011
The Inn of Bethlehem
Another Long Day... and it is only 6hrs 20 min until we have to get up and grab some breakfast before we leavefor white water rafting at 5 am. i am glad we are taking a break in the middle of the trip as some of my little lambs are looking a little worn down.
Today we 4 runners were up at 556am, and were joined by Anna, Liz, Christine and Ashley. The run was better as it was slightly cooler and not near the school traffic. \if you ever want a quick lesson in humility, run with a bunch of long legged teena ge cross country runners! Paul got lots of extra running as he would lead the group, then circle back and keep company with me, then sprint to the front so the girls weren't left alone either... I told them on the runs, THEY were chaperoning ME and had to make sure hey didn't leave me behind!
We worked on the job site, forming and cementing, while teams of 4 youth took turns sorting and packaging up all the donated items we brought down. We had 4 long tables right full of clothes, school supplies, construction stuff etc. It was a truly impressive sight! Cheers to Huronia, who daonated 85 shirts and nymerous hats... our team is especially grateful, as all of us have taken to wearing the white shirts they donated in an effort to reflect some of the sun, and even the most die hard "I want to get a tan, I look stupid with a hat, I don/t wear hats" are ALL wearing the hats to try to protect ou slowly roasting faces. You can tell we are all from the place anyway in all our matching clothes... The shirts are actually pretty cute, as they all have Mickey mouse on the back, so we look like a disneyland crew! We are going to have them washed and donate them AFTER we leave!
We divided the majority of the items into two sections, to take to the two poorest areas of town, and we also made 32 matching bags of donations for the youth at the Inn of Bethlehem... thats the english translation of the name, I can't remember it in spanish.
We visited the Inn of Bethlehem this afternoon. In CR abortion is illegal, so the catholic priests have established this as a home for teenage mothers. These mothers are all between 12 and 18, and have been removed from their home by the CR equivalent of Childrens Aid because of physical sexual emotional abuse, and the babies are the results of these abuses or rape. At the home, the girls are educated, taught a trade, counseled and receive child care for their childern who live with them.
Our youth were very moved by this experience. As Paige said, " To hear the horrible stories, but to see something good and beautiful coming from it all,, is really powerful". Our kids were able to meet some of the mothers, and play with the children, and are planning to facebook with them when they get home! What a small world it is anymore.
After supper we walked up to the local Evangelical Methodist church for a 2 hr service. The frist part , with it's music and clapping and dancing in front of the church was a hit with most of the group, but I think they found the translated preaching part with it's shall we say powerful style of preaching somewhat overwhelming. They did all enjoy watching one of the dogs that attended the open air service... he lay down beside his owner when she sat, stood when we stood, and actually put his head down to pray when we did at least some of the time, and slept during th sermon!
The walk back in the dark had its one highly entertaining moment when we Paul jess emilie and I who were leading the group accidentally turned down a dead end street, and then tried to trick the group into believing something bad was happening. Only Paige fell for it, and she took off like the hounds of H___ were after her, and we had to chase her down a bloick later! She took off like sh was shot from a cannon, and even us sprinters couldn't catch her, and it was all up hill <note from editor, I think everything in CR is uphill*
I am actually still laughing out loud as I sit here and type this, I have never seen anything like that before!
since it was allready almost 930 when we got back from church, I told them we wouldn't do our usual prayer session if they could come up with the 5 lessons they were supposed to take from Isaiih6 and they gor the first four 1* Be not afraid 2 Your are not alone 3 God is the reason for your existence 4 God provides but they missed that if you remember 1thru 4, then 5 You will be in gods righteouness, and so will you family and wonders and miracles will occur! \they said the preacher was yelling so loud by that point, they couldn't keep us with the translater, who wasn't nearly as animated! So I let them off the hook and sent them to bed.
Anyway, all is well all is good, we have only had one person caught for whining...and it was ME! But really, if you had the bright red stripes in weird places where you missed the sunscreen, you would probably whimper a bit from pain too! The kids actually think it's pretty funny, as they have been doing this prety rude but fairly humourous imitation of me in a whiny nasally voice telling them all to drink water and put on sunscreen... and then I end up being the one with the worst sunburn. Where is the justice in THAT I ask you
Only 5hr 46 min until breakfast... not that I'm complaining of course!!!! But I need some ZZZZ Buenos Noches from Carillos, CR
Today we 4 runners were up at 556am, and were joined by Anna, Liz, Christine and Ashley. The run was better as it was slightly cooler and not near the school traffic. \if you ever want a quick lesson in humility, run with a bunch of long legged teena ge cross country runners! Paul got lots of extra running as he would lead the group, then circle back and keep company with me, then sprint to the front so the girls weren't left alone either... I told them on the runs, THEY were chaperoning ME and had to make sure hey didn't leave me behind!
We worked on the job site, forming and cementing, while teams of 4 youth took turns sorting and packaging up all the donated items we brought down. We had 4 long tables right full of clothes, school supplies, construction stuff etc. It was a truly impressive sight! Cheers to Huronia, who daonated 85 shirts and nymerous hats... our team is especially grateful, as all of us have taken to wearing the white shirts they donated in an effort to reflect some of the sun, and even the most die hard "I want to get a tan, I look stupid with a hat, I don/t wear hats" are ALL wearing the hats to try to protect ou slowly roasting faces. You can tell we are all from the place anyway in all our matching clothes... The shirts are actually pretty cute, as they all have Mickey mouse on the back, so we look like a disneyland crew! We are going to have them washed and donate them AFTER we leave!
We divided the majority of the items into two sections, to take to the two poorest areas of town, and we also made 32 matching bags of donations for the youth at the Inn of Bethlehem... thats the english translation of the name, I can't remember it in spanish.
We visited the Inn of Bethlehem this afternoon. In CR abortion is illegal, so the catholic priests have established this as a home for teenage mothers. These mothers are all between 12 and 18, and have been removed from their home by the CR equivalent of Childrens Aid because of physical sexual emotional abuse, and the babies are the results of these abuses or rape. At the home, the girls are educated, taught a trade, counseled and receive child care for their childern who live with them.
Our youth were very moved by this experience. As Paige said, " To hear the horrible stories, but to see something good and beautiful coming from it all,, is really powerful". Our kids were able to meet some of the mothers, and play with the children, and are planning to facebook with them when they get home! What a small world it is anymore.
After supper we walked up to the local Evangelical Methodist church for a 2 hr service. The frist part , with it's music and clapping and dancing in front of the church was a hit with most of the group, but I think they found the translated preaching part with it's shall we say powerful style of preaching somewhat overwhelming. They did all enjoy watching one of the dogs that attended the open air service... he lay down beside his owner when she sat, stood when we stood, and actually put his head down to pray when we did at least some of the time, and slept during th sermon!
The walk back in the dark had its one highly entertaining moment when we Paul jess emilie and I who were leading the group accidentally turned down a dead end street, and then tried to trick the group into believing something bad was happening. Only Paige fell for it, and she took off like the hounds of H___ were after her, and we had to chase her down a bloick later! She took off like sh was shot from a cannon, and even us sprinters couldn't catch her, and it was all up hill <note from editor, I think everything in CR is uphill*
I am actually still laughing out loud as I sit here and type this, I have never seen anything like that before!
since it was allready almost 930 when we got back from church, I told them we wouldn't do our usual prayer session if they could come up with the 5 lessons they were supposed to take from Isaiih6 and they gor the first four 1* Be not afraid 2 Your are not alone 3 God is the reason for your existence 4 God provides but they missed that if you remember 1thru 4, then 5 You will be in gods righteouness, and so will you family and wonders and miracles will occur! \they said the preacher was yelling so loud by that point, they couldn't keep us with the translater, who wasn't nearly as animated! So I let them off the hook and sent them to bed.
Anyway, all is well all is good, we have only had one person caught for whining...and it was ME! But really, if you had the bright red stripes in weird places where you missed the sunscreen, you would probably whimper a bit from pain too! The kids actually think it's pretty funny, as they have been doing this prety rude but fairly humourous imitation of me in a whiny nasally voice telling them all to drink water and put on sunscreen... and then I end up being the one with the worst sunburn. Where is the justice in THAT I ask you
Only 5hr 46 min until breakfast... not that I'm complaining of course!!!! But I need some ZZZZ Buenos Noches from Carillos, CR
Tuesday 15 March 2011
Stars and Stripes
Hola!
We have had a big day, and it is already 930 so this just might be a short blog.
The stars are the kids ... what troopers they are . It is hot dirty sweaty working . Today we finished the steps, made a cement ramp, dug a drainage ditch and worked on forming the walkway and bench for the playground we are building. Lisa is deemed "MasterMortarMaker" , the girls are bragging about how big their pipes are getting thanks to the shovel work of making cement, and the first aid kit has been used 5 times ... all by Paul. Lets just say that his enthusiam with a hammer exceeds his aim, and no one is letting him near the saw because of it!
Anna has been such an enthusiaistic helper, trying every job, it was pretty comical when she started wheelbarrowing the cement. She didnt quite have it angled correctly under the mixer when they dumped it , and she ended up with a face covered in splatters. Good thing she had glasses on, she had to give them a good wash before she could see again.
Mary Gwen has earned the monicor Superstar Prepared as whatever anyone needs on the job site, she seems to have. A pencil, kleenex, extra gloves, sunscreen... you name it she has it. Handy girls to have around.
Emilie and Paige are proud as punch over their stairs, while Jess Sarah and Ashley are proud of their brick alying abilities. Thw work today was particularily strenuous, as we struggled to chisel old concrete and bound stakes into really hard ground. It was slow and frustrating, but the the girls stuck at the hammers and mallets, and are exceedingly sore tonight. Tristan and Alesx and Taylor did a lot of work with the pickaxe, while dDonny and Colin were exceedingly patient teaching all the kids the skills.
The Stripes are the kids too... almost everyone has at least a small strip of sunburnt skin where they missed with the sunscreen. We try to reapply at least once an hour, but between the sweat and the grime, sometimes it looks like we are just making mud pies on our faces. Jess and Alex brought baby wipes thank goodness, as every day at lunch we use them to wipe our faces... and they come away a dark brown, just like the ground.
With everyone in bed by 930 last night, Alex, Jessie, paul and I rolled out of bed for a morning run at 615. We only ran 30 min, but with the hills and the heat even that early it was long enough. The last streatch we had to walk, as we ended up on the road to to the elementary school, where we joined all the little kids on the way to school ...they stared at us with big eyes!Tomorow morning the rugby girls are running with me ... training for the season they say.
We were joined at lunch by the pastor of the local church. He gave a little talk about costa rica and answered all the kids (translated of course* questions. They really enjoyed it. We continue to take a siesta after lunch before returning to the job site, as after 4 hours in constant sun and 30 degree heat the kids are bagged. They were much better today about knowing when to stop, reapply sunscreen, and drink water, but it is still draining work. The extra rest gives them the strength and courage to return to thei work! If any of you know the joke about the devil with the punch line " Break's over... back on your heads!" that is the phrase we use after every break from work
Tonight we all took salsa dancing lessons... many of us think we are like Patrick Swayze, but the reality is probably slightly different. Tristan and Taylor were actually pretty good, Jess and Paul thought they were, Lisa and Paige were really impressed with them selves, while Colin rocked, and Alex and I could really cut up the rug. But we all tried and had fun and thats what counts ... or at least that's our story, and we're sticking to it!
It' just after 10 and everyone is settling down. Just thought I should mention at tonight's prayer session we talked about our worries and prayed for them. Most of the kids miss their parents and are worried about you worrying about them! So we have placed your care, and our worries, in God's hands... and we want you to do the same. All is more than well here, the kids are having a great time, working hard, praying lots... and the comment has been made that the food is better here than at home! So relax, enjoy the peace, we will be home soon! Julie... feed the fish!!
We have had a big day, and it is already 930 so this just might be a short blog.
The stars are the kids ... what troopers they are . It is hot dirty sweaty working . Today we finished the steps, made a cement ramp, dug a drainage ditch and worked on forming the walkway and bench for the playground we are building. Lisa is deemed "MasterMortarMaker" , the girls are bragging about how big their pipes are getting thanks to the shovel work of making cement, and the first aid kit has been used 5 times ... all by Paul. Lets just say that his enthusiam with a hammer exceeds his aim, and no one is letting him near the saw because of it!
Anna has been such an enthusiaistic helper, trying every job, it was pretty comical when she started wheelbarrowing the cement. She didnt quite have it angled correctly under the mixer when they dumped it , and she ended up with a face covered in splatters. Good thing she had glasses on, she had to give them a good wash before she could see again.
Mary Gwen has earned the monicor Superstar Prepared as whatever anyone needs on the job site, she seems to have. A pencil, kleenex, extra gloves, sunscreen... you name it she has it. Handy girls to have around.
Emilie and Paige are proud as punch over their stairs, while Jess Sarah and Ashley are proud of their brick alying abilities. Thw work today was particularily strenuous, as we struggled to chisel old concrete and bound stakes into really hard ground. It was slow and frustrating, but the the girls stuck at the hammers and mallets, and are exceedingly sore tonight. Tristan and Alesx and Taylor did a lot of work with the pickaxe, while dDonny and Colin were exceedingly patient teaching all the kids the skills.
The Stripes are the kids too... almost everyone has at least a small strip of sunburnt skin where they missed with the sunscreen. We try to reapply at least once an hour, but between the sweat and the grime, sometimes it looks like we are just making mud pies on our faces. Jess and Alex brought baby wipes thank goodness, as every day at lunch we use them to wipe our faces... and they come away a dark brown, just like the ground.
With everyone in bed by 930 last night, Alex, Jessie, paul and I rolled out of bed for a morning run at 615. We only ran 30 min, but with the hills and the heat even that early it was long enough. The last streatch we had to walk, as we ended up on the road to to the elementary school, where we joined all the little kids on the way to school ...they stared at us with big eyes!Tomorow morning the rugby girls are running with me ... training for the season they say.
We were joined at lunch by the pastor of the local church. He gave a little talk about costa rica and answered all the kids (translated of course* questions. They really enjoyed it. We continue to take a siesta after lunch before returning to the job site, as after 4 hours in constant sun and 30 degree heat the kids are bagged. They were much better today about knowing when to stop, reapply sunscreen, and drink water, but it is still draining work. The extra rest gives them the strength and courage to return to thei work! If any of you know the joke about the devil with the punch line " Break's over... back on your heads!" that is the phrase we use after every break from work
Tonight we all took salsa dancing lessons... many of us think we are like Patrick Swayze, but the reality is probably slightly different. Tristan and Taylor were actually pretty good, Jess and Paul thought they were, Lisa and Paige were really impressed with them selves, while Colin rocked, and Alex and I could really cut up the rug. But we all tried and had fun and thats what counts ... or at least that's our story, and we're sticking to it!
It' just after 10 and everyone is settling down. Just thought I should mention at tonight's prayer session we talked about our worries and prayed for them. Most of the kids miss their parents and are worried about you worrying about them! So we have placed your care, and our worries, in God's hands... and we want you to do the same. All is more than well here, the kids are having a great time, working hard, praying lots... and the comment has been made that the food is better here than at home! So relax, enjoy the peace, we will be home soon! Julie... feed the fish!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)