Middletown UMC in Costa Rica - DAY 3 (Wed, 06/08/2011)
The morning started with the sweetest fresh pineapple I have nearly ever tasted. Then we were off to familiar turf. Back to Pastor Orlando's church. We were waiting for a Costa Rican delivery of cement blocks and the tanks and pipe. Needless to say, it didn't arrive as soon as we expected. I sat down to start journaling about yesterday and out of nowhere the team had a wheelbarrow full of mortar and were fixing a broken wall outside the front door of the church. I still do not know who's idea it was to do it, but Padre wanted it done. They were on that wall like white on rice. Before long they had it completed.
Once the blocks and tanks arrived, a few stayed behind to work on assembling the manifold while the rest of us followed Padre (Pastor Orlando) on a tour into the slum community which his church serves. This unnerved some, scared some, made some overjoyed, but everyone was blessed by the opportunity. Pastor just knocked on the doors of the homes of some of his congregation members. Many of the women who were taught H&H yesterday live in the slum. We went to Karen's house and stood around and just observed the area, since she was not home. Her neighbor poked her head out and sent her 8 year old daughter out the door to go walk by her self to the top of the hill where she would wait for a ride to school. Over worn tires, broken glass, stray dogs, and loose gravel and concrete, she hiked to the top of this hill, uniform clad with a white shirt, blue flowing skirt and hot pink Barbie backpack. I was able to talk to her when we stopped at the top to chat with Karen who we crossed paths with on our way out. Maria was her name. Maria is 8 years old and she likes going to school, math especially. Maria lives in a slum and is susceptible to contaminated water. So far she is not one of the thousands, but in my book she never will be. She will always be Maria. She has a name. She is a person, an individual. These numbers and figures and ideas I have been talking about for two years now finally are real.
Maria was the first of many children to come. We taught Health &Hygiene to the after school program and they loved it, feeding the caterpillar, singing songs, watching skits. Steven learned health and hygiene today and he is no longer at risk of being a statistic. (photo of Steven). Jose will live to see his 9th birthday tomorrow because he learned that by washing his hands with the 10 step process while singing feliz cumpleanos, his hands will be clean.
The kids taught the Costa Rican children a game called ninja, that they all loved. Trampling the language barrier underfoot, they played and played and played while Glenn taught Pastor Orlando and two women how to operate the purificador. We loved watching the lightbulbs light up as Glenn explained the operation to them. "Amarillo!" cried the children when they tested the water and it was chlorinated in 15 minutes or so. "Wow, es muy facil!" exclaimed the woman holding the pool testing kit as she reexamined the process in her head.
We had a worship service with Pastor Angel back at Iglesia Christiana, and while only two members attended, worshiping the lord while singing in spanish was phenomenal.
I would get to more details but the frogs are cooing, the roaches are screeching and scratching and that blasted rooster keeps on crowing. So Im not sure if its morning or night, the critters have me all confused. What I do know is that I have fallen asleep writing this twice so far. I've gotta get more sleep.
Buenas Noches y Pura Vida, Nathan
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