Chirripo - Day 2

I apologize for the extreme length of this blog... I just had so much I never want to forget...

Thursday, March 14

Chirripo: I have NEVER been so sore in all my life.  I felt like my thighs were being stabbed just by trying to get up off the floor to go outside to use the bathroom (I mean tree).  Walking down steps or down a slight hill was nearly torturous!  I thought that after 6 months of living in this country and walking almost everywhere had gotten me into pretty good shape.  Boy was I wrong.  My muscles were not used to this.

These sweet people live in a house with a dirt floor, one bed, one hammock.

After a quick breakfast, we headed over to the school.  It was another 15-minute hike through the jungle and my legs were screaming with every step.  On the way, we stopped at a house that the pastor wanted to show us.  This is a typical home for these people.

 Dogs, pigs, chickens and people all living under one roof... along with the smoke from their fire.  The fires serves to give them a place to cook, a source of warmth and light at night, and the smoke helps to keep the bugs away.  It also gives them asthma.  

This is where this family does their laundry.  A rock, a tub and a bucket of water.  It makes my life look like a piece of cake.

Once we arrived at the school, we looked around a bit and greeted the kids.  

Ryan also got some great photos and I have to give credit to him for many of the photos on this blog during this trip.

Eddie proceeded to entertain the kids as only Eddie can… no language barrier gets in his way!  

David and I tried our best to do a lice check and treatment on some of the kids.  We were way under prepared for that, so it was kind of a failure.  I know nothing about treating lice and we only had one kit (which is maybe enough for 2 people).

Jaden was staying at Freddy and Samia's house, and Hector was using the payphone to call collect.  He offered for me to call Samia, and I burst into tears at the thought of a chance to talk to Jaden.  Poor Hector… any normal person would not start crying when asked if they want to use the phone.  I declined because I figured that if I was crying I couldn't really talk to him anyway.

Eddie was doing such a good job entertaining the kids, we decided to try to play “freeze tag” with them.  In Tuis, the kids call it “Conhelado” so that is what we taught them (that means “frozen”).  They LOVED it.  

Eddie would chase them and they would squeal with glee.  Once they understood the concept of the game, Eddie was sweating in no time.  He elected one of the older boys (who seemed to understand quite a bit of Spanish and helped Eddie translate) to be on his team to tag the kids.  Eventually, we moved on to other games such as “blob tag,” “Cat/Dog” (or “wishka/chichi” in their language), Over-Under, and any game we could think of that involved a ball or no other materials.  

There were about 20 kids playing with us all morning.  I don’t know what happened to their classes… their teacher locked up and said goodbye as we were still playing. 

Eventually, we had to go back for lunch.  When we did, we found an almost working shower. 

In a matter of hours, Adrian, Johan, Jefferson and one of the indigenous men had built a shower.  The water wasn’t working for it yet, but it would be in a two hours or so. 

There was also a new door step made out of cement.  We were waiting for it to dry, so we were not walking on it.  While we were all inside, we had a visitor.  As she approached, Hector tried to tell her not to step on it.  She didn't understand:

She ended up standing on the wet concrete in her sweet, little, sore bare feet... but that's okay... it was almost dry. 

David and Ryan were in the church organizing medical supplies and clothing to hand out to the people.  After watching Adrian tear corrugated tin with his hands, I headed in to help with the sorting.

Eddie was also hanging out in the church trying to teach a song to one of the musicians who was interested in learning a new song.  Eventually, we did a lesson for about 15 kids on how to brush your teeth and handed out toothbrushes and toothpaste.

After an interesting afternoon of trying to help all the people who came in claiming to be sick.  We weren't doctors so, we checked the temperature of each child whose parent’s claimed they had vomiting and diarrhea and handed out gummy vitamins.  We came the conclusion that they probably live in that condition most of their lives.  It is so sad to see that, but I know that Daniel and Hector will continue to plan trips to help these people in anyway they can.

Two of the pastor's daughters.

Here are some more pictures that Ryan took of some of the people there.

David looking at a woman's foot.  She was suffering with a painful fungus.  Many people there suffer from that because of their poor foot care.  The only shoes they wear are rubber boots, which are meant to keep their feet dry.  The problem is, when they get water in them, the water just sits in them and never dries. 

 Also, here are some pictures Ryan took during the evening church services.

This is the living/sleeping quarters we stayed in.
I didn't take a picture of it in the day light.

The church lit up inside only by candlelight.

The pastor reading the Bible in their language by candlelight.

These people are worshiping the same God I worship.  I had the stark realization that I never really knew these people even existed.  I know nothing about how they live... yet one day we will all live together in Heaven praising the same Jesus!  What an amazing God we serve! 

The jungle... at night.

Herwin, the pastor.

Herwin is a 30-something young man with three kids who loves the same God I love.  He is also a "chief-in-training" for his tribe.

After dinner and another church service where Eddie preached on the "Good Samaritan," we headed to bed.  The rat disturbed our sleep again around 10:30 pm and I opened my eyes to Adrian with a flashlight and machete trying to find the rat.  We never found it, but a few minutes later as I drifted off to sleep, I heard tiny footsteps scamper across the wall near me.  It took a second for it to register in my head, but once it did, I sat up and screamed as I hear the footsteps run back the other direction.  Eddie grabbed the flashlight, but we didn’t see anything.

Hector proceeded to pray aloud that God would give us a peaceful nights sleep, and after that, we all had a restful night’s sleep.  If you do not believe in the power of prayer, you haven’t experienced the instantaneous answer to prayer like we did that night.