Pura Vida

                Getting ready to live in a new place and start a new adventure in my life, I sit at Terminal A of Denver International Airport awaiting my flight to Jackson Hole, Wyoming. With all the adventures and fun times I have had at this point in the summer, I could already say its been a good summer and head back to school, however it is very far from time to go back to school.

                Last Thursday, I returned back to my home in Houston from Puerto Viejo, Costa Rica from a mission trip where I joined 14 others including Al Martin and Zack Esgar. Back in December when I first heard about this trip, I had had no idea what to expect. Josh Hurst approached me during free lunch and told me that the Wesley is trying to put together a team to go to Costa Rica to a skatepark ministry to help spread the love of God. 3 of my favorites: traveling, skateboarding, and sharing God’s love. Done! I was going to find a way to go to Costa Rica, if for no other reasons than those listed above. Little did I know how much this journey would impact my life.

                We arrived in San Jose, CR and took a 5 hour bus ride to the small surf community of Puerto Viejo. The drive was beautiful going through the coffee and banana plantations and the mountains and valleys of the rainforests of Costa Rica. We got to our hotel which was a quaint place located directly on one of the beautiful beaches of the Caribbean. There was nothing wrong with the hotel, purse, however there were some differences that took a tad bit of getting used to. Coming from 15 years of living in Houston, I didn’t think the heat and humidity would cause me a problem, not realizing there would be zero air conditioning in CR. From the time we exited the doors of the airport to the time we went through those same doors ten days later, I was hot and sweating. This was the main reason I spent those ten nights sleeping in a hammock outside on the balcony of our hotel. This was actually a rather pleasant experience because falling asleep to the sounds of waves crashing was not all that bad, minus a few near attacks of small predators. Another thing that took some getting used to was you could not flush toilet paper in the toilets…and that’s all I’m going to say about that.

                Our first day consisted of an orientation about what we would be doing with the ministry “Concrete Jungle”, which indeed did find its inspiration from the Bob Marley song. After orientation, we went on a city immersion of Puerto Viejo to learn about the culture. It quickly became prevalent that there was little enforcement on illegal drug activity here as you could smell it everywhere. The locals were surprisingly friendly and helpful to us tourists. One of my favorite parts of this trip was trying the local Costa Rican cuisine which amazing. The main foods that were served with almost all meals were rice and beans. I also got to try a smorgasbord of new exotic fruits including sea apple, mango, guava, cas, starfruit, passion fruit, and papaya.

                The next day began the work of our actual mission because up to this point it felt like no more than a vacation which I was not complaining about. Part of the reason we were down there was to construct a house for a single mother of 4 who did not currently have a permanent home. We had 6 work days of 6 hours each day to help build the house. The weather was a scorcher and the days were long but the fellowship and relationships that we built took away any complaints we might have had. The managers of the project were some of the most amazing guys I’ve met. Only one spoke mild English but communicating through mannerisms was a system that worked without fail. You don’t need to speak the same language to appreciate a smile, and to get a smile out of anyone down there helped to remind me of my main purpose of being there; to love others as myself and make them happy, and to see that a smile was all it was about. For lunch, we would make sandwiches and have them mid day, but on one of our workdays, the mother who we were building the house for came out and cooked beef and chicken kabobs for our team. It was such an honor for her to treat us in this way but again to see the smile on her face from the moment she arrived at her future house to the moment she left impacted me more than a simple chicken kabob ever could. Two of the nights that we were down there were skate nights at the park. This was especially fun and humbling for me because there were kids half my age doing things on their boards that I could only dream of. The use of this skatepark was a rather creative way of bringing folks around a good Christian environment. The church and skatepark were in one facility so the kids who came to ride the park would be introduced to something else. Finding a medium like the park that many people of this surfing community could enjoy was a sure way to bring people to church.

                This mission trip was the seed of many ideas in my mind to be a disciple of Christ, something that I will hope I will be able to carry on while I live a new chapter of life in Wyoming. I will spend the next five months of my life in a new place, making new friends and gaining new experiences as I work as a culinary intern in a hotel in Grand Teton National Park. All the way back during the spring semester at Texas Tech when I had my phone interview to now, I have been looking forward to this moment and this chapter begins now.

                                                                                                           Love yall, Haymaker:)