Mission Trip to Rincon July 22-July 29

Sunday, July 22
We arrived in Rincon and unloaded all of our stuff.  We established room set up and ate lunch.  Got ready for work and I pretty much set the rules with the kids.  There wasn't a whole lot of space for them to play that wasn't in the sun and wasn't anywhere that didn't make me a little nervous for them to go without supervision. Later that evening we took kids to the ocean and got to swim around.  The kids really like it!

Monday, July 23
Today hit me hard.  I pretty much used this as my re-coop day.  I stayed in the room almost all day.  I think the idea of all of the changes hit me hard and I really didn't want to be around anyone, try to speak Spanish or understand what little I could, and didn't want to deal with all of the stuff that was going on in my head. Leyton and I took a nap and I slept through lunch--it was fish:(  The kids liked the fish, which I was surprised because it was the whole fish--head to tail! YUCK!
After lunch Bruce and I and the kids went down to the ocean, just by ourselves--it was nice to just be the four of us.  Emme also tried snorkeling--she took to it VERY QUICKLY! She was able to breathe through the snorkel after a few tries! After that, she was staying in the very shallow water where she could float on her belly and crawl on her hands at the same time! She really enjoyed snorkeling! Over all it was a tough day for me, but after that, I felt a little better--just wanted to be able to work and not have to worry about the kids and deal with all of the problems that continued to come up!
Tuesday, July 24
The focus of the work while we were there was the roof and the electrical.  Along with the huge trusses, all of the metal roofing had to be painted, the old church floor had to be dug out, an electrical trench had to be dug out and the gutters and trenches for that had to be dug as well.  Because I wanted to try to stay close to the kids, I started helping painting the church benches, they had to be primed and then painted a pretty green color.  The workers started to put up the huge trusses and started to mix concrete for the new church floor.  Later in the afternoon, we went back down to the ocean and let the kids swim.  Emme started snorkeling in deeper water by herself! She learned how to float on top of the water and still be able to breath through her snorkel.  She only took in water a few times!  She did awesome!!  We also found the hermit crab beach.  There were thousands of hermit crabs all over the shallow shore--from teeny tiny to about the size you would find at the mall--the kids (and me) really enjoyed playing with them! 

After lunch, Bruce got to go iguana hunting again.  This time he got to use his machete to hit the iguanas on the back of the neck to kill them completely.  One of them he hit so hard he chopped the head right off! EWW!!  When the tica women started cleaning the iguanas, Leyton sat there and watched the whole thing--yuck!  Emme watched for a little bit, but said she didn't like it!  After dinner, Bruce and I went for a walk and a swim in the ocean by ourselves.  It was good to have it just us.  We talked and swam and just reflected on everything that had happened in such a short amount of time.  On our way back from the ocean, we saw a monkey.  We didn't get a picture, but it was a black howler monkey and looked just like this in the picture below:

Wish we would have gotten to see it closer, but it probably would have eaten our face off!! Overall a good day!
Wednesday, July 25

(125 degrees and 10:30am) Wednesday started off with heat, humidity and bugs.  Sitting at breakfast the bugs were bad and then low and behold, the sun came out--and it was hot and out all day.  The sun made us realize that we had pretty good weather the first few days, but now this is what Rincon will be remembered for!  I started working on concrete, shoveling, and helping with the electrical wiring.  I was pretty much out on the work site all morning, the most I had worked the whole trip and right before lunch, Eliel, one of the tico workers from the Abraham Project, ran up to me and said, "su hija" which means your daughter.  As I was running to check on her, one of the interns said she cut herself.  As I got to where Emme was, one of the tica women was holding her hand and she was crying.  As I was walking toward her, I saw the trail of blood to the sink where she was.  My heart sunk.  She sliced open her thumb on the second knuckle of her left hand.  When I got to her, she told me she cut it on one of daddy's knives, which really surprised me.  At home, she never played with them and when she found one she always carefully carried it to one of us.  I called for Bruce from the work site and he came running and looked at it, then Steve Thomas came and looked at it and we all decided that she probably needed stitches.  So Bruce, William, Steve and Emme all headed to the clinic.  I stayed there with Leyton and waited for them to return.
Before she left, she confessed to the whole story.  She said her push pop sucker fell on the floor and the spring popped out.  She wanted to fix it, so she climbed on the bench and grabbed one of Bruce's knives to fix it.  When she was trying to fix it, the knife slipped and she cut her thumb wide open.  Luckily the knife was very sharp and it was on the outside of her thumb--no serious injuries and the doctor sewed it up real nice.  Bruce said they were really nice and did a good job. Emme watched the doctor put in two stitches--she was a real champ! That is Bruce's daughter!

After that situation, I pretty much stayed close to the kids.  I wanted to work and I felt like I was being lazy a lot of the time, but I didn't want something like that to happen again!
In the evening, we had a small worship/devotion.  Eliel played the guitar and we sang a song in Spanish--sorta! After that, the ticos sang a traditional Costa Rican song of friendship and when people leave.  It was nice, as always, to fellowship with the ticos.
Thursday, July 26
I helped painting the tin roof, everyone worked on concrete, there was a lot of welding, shoveling, wheelbarrowing, etc.  A lot of work still had to be done, and we were fighting the rain with the painting.  Bruce got shocked twice- once on a wire and once on the welder.  All of the guys were welding with sweaty, wet clothes and standing in a puddle of water.  Can you say, "NOT SAFE!"?  But I guess it had to get done, so they did what they had to.  Micah took several good shocks as well!  Ask Pappy for the video! :)  We got to see a lot of the wildlife--we heard howler monkeys, and looked at the toucans through the binoculars!  The kids really liked that!  And later that evening, Bruce was asked to be a part of killing the pig for our supper.  He got to kill it and shave it.  You'll have to ask him about that, because I was no where to be found!  But when they made the pork chops and everything else, it was sooooo good!  Fresh pork tastes soo different AND better!

Emme and Leyton got the ride the pastor's horse--Thanks Sara!

Friday, July 27
Had to do a lot of painting today.  All of the rafters were set in place and the purlins were finishing, so all of the metal roofing had to be painted.  But of course, we were fighting the rain!  Which makes waiting for the paint to dry=long time!  They finished the church floor, the stage and continued to have to shovel for the gutters and weld. The kids really had a rough day.  Josua (Eliel and Rode's son) punched Emme in the eye, Emme and Leyton both have heat rashes, they both got bitten by lots of mosquitoes and ants.  The kids were tired and so was the whole team.  Steve Thomas, William, Jonathan and the interns all left in the morning, so everything that had to be finished was on us (finishing the roof, painting, shoveling and electrical).

We got a call from our big brother and he said he found us an apartment.  We were supposed to go look at it Monday when we got back to San Jose.  He said it was a smaller 2 bedroom, but it was on a dead end street.  We were very excited about that--safer for the kids and a place for them to play.  We were very excited that God found us a place to live--WHEW!!
Friday night we had a HUGE rain/thunder/lightning storm.  It woke up everyone up, except my kids!  It was the strongest, loudest, brightest storm I have ever experienced.  You could seriously feel the electricity! It knocked out electricity for a short time, and it probably rained 5 inches in a matter of seconds.
Saturday, July 28th
Today we fought rain on and off all day, but we managed to get all of the big pieces of metal roof pained.  Everyone was working on the roof-painting, nailing, welding and electrical.  In the evening, a group of us went fishing.  Bruce and Leyton had just showered, so I was stuck going fishing with Emme.  She really wanted to go--I didn't, but I wanted get to have the experience.  So I put on my big girl panties and went!  We actually had a lot of fun.  She caught two fish and I baited my own hook!

On the way back to shore, we saw glowing organisms in the ocean.  This occurred when something ripple the water, our hands, the motor, etc.  They said it was plankton--I was unsure, so I researched it myself.  Here is a website:
What's Glowing in the Water?
They were right!  It was really neat.  Emme actually got one on her hand, she wanted to show her daddy.  She kept it all the way till we got to shore, then it lost it's light.:(
Sunday, July 29th
Our last day there and it was all about trying to finish everything.  We finished painting all of the metal roof, finished all of the electrical, got all of the metal roof laid, except for the very top, middle of the roof, finished the rain gutters, and finished the church floor and stage.  Of course we wanted to finish everything, but we did a lot in just one week.  We ate lunch and started to pack up.  Before we left, the pastor and his wife, along with all of the workers all prayed.  Of course there were tears of joy and sadness--we didn't want to leave again.  But as Flori, the pastor's wife said, "we will see each other again."

Before

After
Although we didn't want to leave, I was happy to be getting back to San Jose to get to our apartment and start to have somewhat of a regular routine.  I can't wait till we go back to Rincon and see the completed project.  It has been almost a year in the making! So blessed to have been a part of the church rebuild! Gloria a Dios!