You know the parable of the two sons, and the one son says
he’s not going to help his father in the field but then does, and the other son
says he will but doesn’t end up helping? And the first son is the more
righteous?
Well greetings from Costa Rica from son #2. I’m so so sorry
for not keeping everyone updated even though I said that I would. I promise I
will do my best to write more (hopefully a promise I can keep hahah).
What a crazy few months it has been here!! It’s the whole cliché
“Time is flying by” “It’ll be over before you know it” type of thing right now. It truly
feels as if February ended and May began.
It's been so difficult to force myself to sit and blog. Everyday on the bus, Alexa and I say "we need to blog today." But every time I sat down to write a blog post, I would say “no
I’m not in the right mindset”, “I really should clean my room”, “or I’m having
too difficult of a time right now” and kept making excuses that I would blog
when I had all of my ducks in a row.
But after the past three (four?) months, I was forced to
come to the conclusion that I my ducks are nowhere to be found, much less in a row,
and I should blog anyways (it’s currently 10:45 on a Sunday night with laundry
on my bed and in the dryer haha). Anyways….
Story timeee!
This past month, we’ve started running low on energy for
planning lessons. It’s been really hard to sit and focus and come up with new
material (especially since neither one of us are trained teachers). It’s been
difficult for so many reasons, sometimes we feel unappreciated by the children
or other teachers there. Other days, we’ve sat with coffee and our computers
trying so hard to come up with something, and nothing happens. Or we’ve just
felt too exhausted to pull ourselves together. But last week, Alexa had a
really great idea (to incorporate acting into our lessons about public
servants). Almost every kid enjoyed it. The presentations were incredibly
adorable, and they really really seemed to learn the words. It was a week that
helped rejuvenate my mission here. I know that the months that follow are still
going to be filled with more low moments, but I am so excited to have a lot
more of those incredible ones.
I was talking to some children in the morning (3-5 year
olds), and I had to go help in the lunchroom so I said “me voy, caio para
siempre”(“I’m going, goodbye forever”) ((obviously joking)) and one of them
goes “noo teacher! Te quierooooo” (no teacher! I love youuuuu) and jumped onto
me and knocked me over and smothered my cheeks with kisses. It made my whole
week/month/year/life.
“I have never been given the finger that much in my life,
much less in one day by a 4 year old” –an actual quote by The Alexa Henault™
after spending 20 minutes chasing down a child who clearly didn’t want to be
caught.
Well I celebrated my 23rd birthday March 5th,
and was showered in love by the mission group that was here and by my boss and
especially my roommates. Even though on my actual birthday, I was lying in bed completely
sick and miserable and unable to eat (due to actual sickness and not typical 20-something
birthday fun haha). I was soo afraid of feeling lonely on my birthday, since
loneliness is something I’ve had to get used to here. But loneliness was the
last thing I felt (mostly because I was sleeping and wanting only to be alone).
Ok but seriously, I have never felt less lonely than I did on my birthday. I
missed being able to spend time with my family and my community back home, but
I got to spend it with the new communities I’ve been cultivating here that were
not even yet 6 months old. It was very special to see how far those
relationships have come in such a short amount of time.
Yesterday marked 8 months of being here. This past month, I’ve
had dreams of having a tooth fall out. These dreams (usually nightmares haha)
typically mean that you’re going through a big life change. Which I have been. Last night, I had the same dream, and it
really stuck out to me. I was eating something, and a tooth I had crumbled and
fell out of my mouth. I kept part of it to reattach it and ran to find my mom.
She shrugged like it was normal, and we walked together to the dentist. Then I
woke up. Anyone else’s guess is probably as good as mine, but moral of my dream
is that my mom is always there to help me make these choices (and always gives
the best advice). And honestly, I am dealing with a lot of changes that I have
just made or am about to make. I also get to see my lovely mother (and sister +
co. haha) in a little more than a week. So with her guidance, hopefully I will
have some exciting news soon c:
