Family Time

What's one of the best things about an internship with eMi in the Costa Rica office? Being a part of host family! For sure! I have been blessed with such a generous and loving host family here in Atenas that treats me as one of their own. Yesterday we went down to San Jose to meet the extended family. The five of us pile into this little green honda hatchback, Wesley (my host dad) says a prayer for our safety, and then we set off on these crazy Costa Rican highways that cut through the mountains up, down, round and round. Heidi (my host mom) wouldn't let me eat much before we left so I didn't get car sick, but that was quite alright because our first stop in San Jose was breakfast at the Ferreria, which is a name for a large outdoor market full of fresh fruits, veggies and more....yumm! We picked up some freshly made Gallo Pinto (Costa Rican rice and beans) with eggs and this kinda strange fried cheese, and had ourselves an authentic Tico breakfast picnic. It was delicious! Then my host brother Stephen took me for a local's tour of San Jose. Churches, pigeons and colonial architecture pretty much sums up San Jose. It was a lot of fun to explore the city and continue to practice my Spanish! Later we returned to the grandparents house for a birthday celebration! I met aunts, uncles, cousins, nephews, family friends and their household parrot. Yes they had a parrot, and this parrot talked back! "Hola! Hola" It squeaked it a pitch I can't replicate. Let me tell you it's pretty entertaining to have a conversation with a parrot. Back in the living room we all crowded around and sung Happy Birthday (or Cumpleanos Feliz) to Heidi's dad. Besides the Spanish and other cultural differences, I think its pretty cool that we Americans and Costa Ricans both circle around a cake and sing and celebrate the person whose turning another year older. I also can't say how blessed I feel to have this opportunity to be a part of this family for a time and get gain some insight on a culture different from my own. It was awesome and totally exhausting day. I also feel so blessed to have an awesome family back in Colorado. Lately there have been a lot of wildfires and last week there was one was within a few miles of my house. I have been thinking and praying for you constantly family! I praise God that the fire is almost contained now and did little damage to our community. While I am totally loving every minute here in Costa Rica, I am looking forward to spending some time with you guys this summer and my friends in PA! I have been real busy lately trying to finish up that last details of this church project and I have been bad about keeping in touch and posting on this blog. You all can be praying for the work here in the office, that God would be establishing the work of our hands and helping us finish these projects before the other interns and I leave for the states. I'll post more updates soon! Pura vida! :)