Happy October

Well it’s October now and I have only 10 more days left in Limón, so I am trying to take advantage of the little time left and do as much as possible. The past 2 days have been a prime example. On Saturday I was invited to join the congregation of Getsemani Baptist Church on an all-day outing. Kind of like an all-church, family picnic – Costa Rican style. We met at 8am and boarded buses for the 30 minute ride out or town to our destination. As people had arrived and loaded the buses with coolers and Tupperware containers I began to wonder – hmm, what kinds of things do Ticans take on picnics? Probably not the same potato salad and cold chicken thing that may be common at similar activities in the US. Turns out I was right – not quite the same. I was quite impressed with some of the things that were revealed and made available for the hungry after we had arrived at our location. Quite the smorgasbord really, with more traditional foods such as arroz con pollo (a rice with chicken dish) and beans (black or red and prepared in a sort of home-made refried style, and trust me, they taste WAY better than the canned stuff), plus “snack” foods like diced potatoes with chopped onion and cilantro and served on mini tortillas and one of my new favorite things: peyibijes which are really hard to explain but it’s a type of food that looks like an acorn and you boil it then peel off the skin and then eat it with a sprinkle of salt and/or a little mayo. I don’t really know how to describe the taste either – they are kind of dry, and it is a little bit stringy-like. Its orange in color and I would say that it might be kind of similar to what a pumpkin might be like if you cooked it (not the guts inside, but the shell part, minus the outer skin of course). Anyway, I think that is probably a really bad description, but chances are you might not like the taste so much anyway (my parents were not a big fan) but hey, I like it. So anyway, truth be told that my first experience with a Costa Rican “picnic” was quite impressive. People even brought their rice cookers to plug in and heat up the rice dishes and water heaters to make coffee. There were even some American standards as well: pasta salad, tuna salad, crackers, cookies, chocolates, and the like. So the day was spent at this private park place with 2 pools, water slides, soccer field (of course) and tables and chairs, etc. Oh yeah, and one very non-American side item: a monkey on a leash. Seriously. I guess the owners of this little place have a pet monkey because about halfway through the day this guy walked out with a monkey on a rope and then tied him to the fence post. It really was quite the sight to see a monkey leashed up like a dog or something. It did provide quite a lot of amusement and entertainment for us though, we were all taking pictures and some people were even petting it or letting it sit on their shoulder. Everything was hunky-dory until the monkey got mad and grabbed onto a girl’s leg and bit her foot. Yikes. No major damage though, she made it out alive and was a lot less freaked out than I would have been! All in all it was a good day though of hanging out, getting to know some of the members better, and definitely feeling like I was a welcomed part of their “family.” And that is not to mention another ever-important life lesson learned: “It’s all just fun and games until the monkey decides to sink his teeth into your foot.”
Now today is Sunday and I have already been at church for 6 hours today and will be leaving here in a few minutes for a few more. Some may think that I am crazy, or have a lot to confess, but it really has been quite a blessed day. I started off by visiting the Progressive Baptist Church for their service at 8:00am. This is one of the churches that had participated in the Youth Camp we had back in July, and I had been wanting to go back and visit them but for various reasons had not had a good opportunity until today. It was great to see Pastor Armando and also a lot of the young people who I had met at the camp. Pastor Armando had a great message to share with the congregation, and I had the opportunity to share with them just a few words of thanks to them for welcoming me so warmly and how appreciative I am for the opportunity God has given me to be here and how I have learned just how much He loves me. That service ended just before 11, so I grabbed a cab and headed over to my regular stomping grounds at the First Baptist Church in time for the 11:00am service there. Then it was home at 2:00pm when I was good and ready to eat, and my little Sunday afternoon treat: Grey’s Anatomy. Of course they are about a season behind here, but I got on board the Grey’s train late anyway, so to me it feels like new material on prime time Thursday night television. And now I must sign off to finish off what has become my typical Sunday in Limón by attending the 6:30pm service at Getsemani Baptist. Before I came to Limón, I don’t think I had ever attended a Baptist Church in my life, and now I made it to 3 in one day. Just another of the many unexpected blessings of this whole experience