winding downnnnnnnn

The roomie and me
Me and Mom at the parsonage after church in Santa Rita
Fried tilapia goodness (not the chicken nuggets)
Me and Mom in Pital at the feed the children program
Me and Marion in Pital
Lunch one day :)

11/4/12

Howdy,

Wow, April is here and has been a great month thus far. On March 31^st a team from Montana arrived to work in Pital. They didn’t stay at the camp because Pital is a pretty good distance away and the church there is prepared to house groups as well as cook for them all week. What makes this totally worth mentioning is that the Pastor of the church from Montana is non other than Mark Calhoun! Mark was a member of our church in Wichita until he graduated from seminary and became a big(ger) deal and moved on to do big things. His whole family was on the team as well as a lot of other cool people. Went and visited them with Marion in tow on their first full day here.

Then on the 3^rd another celebrity arrived! My mommy! It was quite an adventure getting her to the camp. Alissa and I left around 10:30 from the camp and drove to the bus terminal and took the bus to San Jose, a 2.5 hour ride that flew by because we were watching the end of season 2 of Glee. We got to the airport a bit early
and unlike the airports in the states if you aren’t a passenger you can’t go into the airport so we had to wait in this outdoor restaurant. Picked her up and took a cab to the bus terminal and the bus to Ciudad Quesada. This trip was not measure in Glee but in utter misery for my mom, who had already been traveling for 12 hours by the time the bus was moving. What should only take 2 and a half episodes of Glee ended up taking about 4.5 hours of misery due to traffic or some other nonsense. We thought we’d get in with enough time to make an evening out of it but, alas, absolutely not. We picked up a pizza – what a great first out-of-the-country meal for mom… and headed back to camp to get her settled in and tucked in.

We had a good time while she was here, definitely not anything you’d think of in terms of a Costa Rican vacation, but she came and was my mom and was there for me and that was what I needed and she got a couple trips to a bakery. So everyone was happy. We visited the group in Pital and went to Santa Rita for Easter and to visit Beatriz and Naomy and give Naomy a birthday present. After all of that we were starving and tried to find a nice place for Easter brunch. The church service was great and it was lovely to see everyone there we love, but had we not looked at the calendar, we never would’ve known it was Easter. Well, that theme continued with lunch… we found a little place in I-have-no-idea town that looked A. open and B. decent. Firstly, they didn’t have Coca lite so all of us caffeine addicts about went nuts; Alissa and I were semi-satisfied with coffee and mom just had to put on her patience pants and wait. Secondly, Mom and I ordered pollo empanazidos con papas and Alissa ordered fajitas de pollo. Mom and I received chicken nuggets and fries and Alissa got grilled chicken strips… whoops. It was good nonetheless but…

The rest of our time, aside from an interesting adventure in a old truck, was spent making food or typing Marion’s poetry. Editing and typing is right up my mom’s alley, however her doing it on her vacation makes her a saint.
She left Monday super early and I was sad to see her go, but am excited that I will be back in Wichita sooner than later in the scheme of this gig.
Mary has been gone since before we got back from Panama and she gets back tonight probably in the next hour or so (it’s Wed 10:07). Actually I think I just heard her car pull up. Marion misses her a lot so that’s good she’s back for him. She needed the vacation however, so I’m glad she was able to get away. We made a cake when my mom was here and yesterday I went into the kitchen to put a piece away for Mary and I couldn’t find the cake anywhere. Turns out Marion had hid the last two pieces for him and Mary to eat with coffee when she got back. Very cute.

The last team I will be here for arrives next Tuesday, the 17^th and leaves the 26^th and Alissa’s parents and aunt and uncle arrive on the 28^th to take us on a four-day tour of Fortuna and Monteverde. The itinerary looks amazing and full of fun things to do, granted we were beyond sold when we saw that the hotels have mattresses. Real ones. With multiple pillows. Then after that little adventure begins about a 2-week-countdown till I make my return to the good ol’ US of A. Then what? Yeah I still don’t know. I’ve begun the hunt and thus far I’ve sent a lot out and received nothing in return spare an interview request… from a company that doesn’t exist and an email telling me that the position I applied for was in Hawaii and not Seattle… whoops. I’ve come to terms with the fact that I might have to start in Kansas to get experience and more importantly money… before I can just plant myself in a big ole expensive city.

Well Coconut refuses to let me type anymore.

Buenas Noches a todos!

Love Molly

p.s. A special shout out to Kim Vines!! Thank you so much for the card and the necklace. rock chalk! thanks for reading! Also, i'm super duper proud of Matthew!

I can't think of a title

Name sake of Red Frog beach

Where we docked from

View out our window of our Hostal

View of San Jose from the plane

The little plane

When Alissa and I were leaving Panama and re-entering Costa Rica, the customs man asked when I planned to leave Costa Rica and I told him, and he said oh, so you need one month on your visa. And I said No, I need like 90 days I’m pretty sure. Then it dawned on me, give or take a few weeks, he’s right. I have 6 weeks left. How did that happen?? How is it possibly almost a year since I graduated? I suppose I have gone places and done things, but it feels surreal.

Let’s recap so I can figure out where the time went…

May-July: Lawrence/Wichita/KC

August: Kanrocksas Music Festival'

Colorado

Red River, NM

August-November: Seattle (With Bend, OR, LA and Walla Walla intermixed)

November-December: Wichita/Lawrence/KC/Atlanta

January-May: Costa Rica and Bocas del Toro, Panama

Oh. Ok. Everything seems to be flying by. Here are the things I can think of to share since my last update:

Happenings in the States:

1.Ben and Taren are getting married!!

June 15, 2013. As of last night I’m a groomsmaid! That’s right, standing up there with my bro. I’m quite honored, and happy and excited about this.

2. My BFF, Kara, moved to Australia yesterday… I’m sad I wasn’t there to say bye and I’m super sad that by the time she comes back to the states it will be almost a year since we’ve seen each other. Boo. Thank goodness for Skype.

Happenings here:

1. 1. My mom is coming! She’ll be here April 3-9. Alissa and I are quite excited, especially since she’ll be here for Easter. It is a very different thing down here. It is a week known as Holy Week, and the entire country celebrates this and businesses are closed, school isn’t in session, the buses don’t run for two days on Thursday and Friday. We are really excited for her to be able to see all that we’ve been doing since she left in January, and to see the progress on the projects her and the team from Wichita started. We will also be cooking up a storm, I hope!

2. 2. Alissa’s parents and Aunt and Uncle are coming later in the month of April and apparently have some fun activities planned for us, which is so greatly appreciated and will be such a treat and kind of a finale for me and my time here.

3. 3. We had to renew our visas. You have to leave the country for 72 hours and then come back. So naturally we found the closest Caribbean paradise -- Bocas del Toro, Panama. Bocas is a group of several islands on the Caribbean coast of Panama, near the Costa Rican border. Google it. We left last Saturday and got back on Tuesday. We had a great time. However, turns out the Equator is real close to these islands. I have the burns to prove it. Yes, I’m extremely fair-skinned and burn easily but I lathered on the SPF 45 religiously. I can’t imagine what I would look like had I not. Yikes. Despite our new-found disdain for the equator, we absolutely LOVED our trip. We flew in a cute tiny plane for an hour flight and landed in Bocas. Found a hostal on the water with a neat view and comfy beds (and by comfy I mean an actual mattress, not a 3 inch piece of foam…), AC, a TV (with ESPN!! – which normally would not matter one single bit, but hello, KU basketball) and a private bathroom. We toured the town, watched a lot of Glee in our room, sad I know, but we’re not ashamed, went on a boat to another island to Red Frog Beach, layed out, tried to float in inner tubes we bought that were too small… ate chicken wings and went back to our island. Came back to the hostal after getting carry out burgers and watching KU win! The following day we went on another boat to a different island. First we passed thru Dolphin Bay where there are Dolphins. Obviously. Then we went to another island that basically resembled any image you picture of paradise. White sand, clear water, palm trees and no man-made anything. We snorkeled here, charbroiling our backs, laid out and read and headed to another island for dinner. Had yummy shrimp with side dishes pretty similar to Costa Rican food. Then back to our hostal. Paralyzed by torched skin (sick) we stayed in for the night, got pizza and watched more glee… Journeyed back to Costa Rica and are back to the routine.

Happenings in the future:

ha. No idea. I really want a job in Seattle. Either at World Vision or at an Ad Agency called Cole & Webber United. I shall start the whole application process soon and what not, so wish me luck.

Other than that, I know not much, life is happening super fast and super slow at the same time and I have no idea how I feel about it, or what to take from it. Any advice is welcome.

Oh. I also have a cat named Coconut. He/she (gender still unknown) is the lone survivor of the pack of 5. Sad news. But Coconut is thriving and precious. I will be bringing him/her to the states, mark my words. Coconut is also the cat formerly known as Dizzy.

Adios,

Molly

Brief Overview

Alejandro and Gabby... married!
At the reception
The kitties
The group that worked on Beatriz's house and Beatriz's family
What we got done on the two rooms
Me and Naomy
Molly and Alissa :)

Hello!

So here's a brief run down of what's been happening:

1. The Kentucky group left and the Maryland group arrived.

a. Lots of people. Lots of plans. Lots of meetings. No sleep.

b. learned to... crochet. yikes.

c. Tiled the Methodist School Bathroom

d. Finished the tiling in the Santa Rita Parsonage bathroom

e. Alissa thinks i have an unhealthy obsession with tiling.

f. she may be right.

2. The Maryland group left and the South Carolina Group arrived.

a. they were super awesome. Fantastic. Love them.

b. Naomy's (Beatriz's daughter) dog had three puppies. She named them Molly, Alissa and Jimmy. Jimmy died... Molly and Alissa are adorable.

c. A box of kittens were dropped off at the camp.

- Garbanzo Bean, Dizzy, Sheldon, Bonkers, Naomy (Naomy was a given being that she named her puppies after us... turned out Naomy is a boy though. oops.)

d. we started the foundation on two rooms to be added on to Beatriz's house

3. The South Carolina group left and the Bowling Green team arrived

a. they are 9 college kids, easy going. easy peasy

b. Alejandro, the pastor from Santa Rita, my favorite community, got married Sat. the 3rd. It was my first Costa Rican wedding and it wasn't too different than an American wedding. It was beautiful.

b. I'm realizing today that time has been flying and i've hardly had time to talk to anyone on any form of communication. I apologize and will be trying to fix that soon.

Love to all.

Blessings,

Molly

Hola como esta bien y usted

http://alissasheehan.wordpress.com/

Read her blog. she posts more often. At first I was inspired to post because of her, but then I was further inspired to just post the link to her blog... More from me later. :)

AHHHHHH

A few awe-inspiring photos...

Sunset at camp. Photo is truly unaltered.
Volcano Arenal today
Downtown Ciudad Quesada
Right outside downtown
Very Clear view of the volcano yesterday

Times are crazy now... we have a team of 60 here again and this is a rare moment to update. We've been working like crazy it seems and i've never been so in love with sleep! This team is from Maryland and arrived Friday. They will be doing Vacation Bible School and some random construction stuff and stuff. We're kind of unclear on the specifics because it is a lot of random odd jobs.

Two exciting things going on for me (that don't have to do with Costa Rica)

1. My brother got engaged. Yay! Too bad i'm out of the country... this was probably intentional so i can't try and get my hands all over the planning or ruin the proposal or something. I love Taren, his fiance, she fits well with my family -- i think my parents like her best out of myself, Ben and her. Seriously. But that's okay.

2. We (Me, Alissa and Jimmy) are going to Bocas Del Toro, Panama on March 24. Bocas is a string of islands on the caribbean coast and from pictures and reviews... it sounds amazing. We are very excited to basically sit on the beach and do nothing. or in a hammock. or a raft in the ocean. We are going because we have to leave the country before the 90 day mark of being here to renew our visas. Tough problem :)

I'm liking life here. I really am. Today marks 6 weeks of being here. I was here studying abroad for 5 weeks, so this is officially the longest I've lived outside of the country. I have discovered that this however, is not something I could do long-term or for life like so many missionaries. I can't put a finger on what it is exactly but I just know that it tests a lot of my weaknesses and flaws and I don't know that I'll come out on top of them... but perhaps that is my purpose here. Well until next time i hope this tides you over. I'll even include pictures.

Love to all!

Molly

5-2-12

(pictures later... that's too much effort for right now, i wrote this two days ago and now is the first time i've had to even be able to get on the internet...so take what you get ;) )

Well, I’m a very terrible blogger… I apologize. This always happens; I get to the point where I haven’t updated in so long that it’s unbelievably overwhelming to try and play catch up. The days all blend together and I get discouraged and then I just give up, which is terrible. So instead of beating myself up, I’m just going to make do.

True to form of my exceptional talent of procrastination, tonight is quite possibly the last chance to sit and breathe before craziness ensues. In four days I will have been here a month! It’s unbelievable until I really think about how much we’ve already done.

We’ve fallen quite comfortable into a routine when there isn’t a team at the camp. We wake up about 8:30, eat breakfast, go to the office about 9:15-9:30 and set about doing whatever Mary needs. The most recent set of tasks include, transcribing some of Marion’s stories about the history of his time in Costa Rica since 1950. There’s a HUGE 3-ring binder full of typewritten (is this past tense for the verb describing writing with a typewriter?) stories and they are amazing. It’s so interesting to learn about so many different things through one person’s memoirs. Life has changed so much in this country since he first arrived. I mean, obviously, just as in the U.S., technology, street conditions, etc… The thing that gets me I think, is imagining doing what I’m down here doing minus the ease. It took a lot more determination and dedication to preach his faith all over this country. It’s hard to believe the same person in the stories is the one that I see every day here: the 93-year-old, joke-crackin’ man with facial hair identical to Santa Claus. It’s beautiful, really and I’m quite honored to do it, as is Alissa.

In addition to that project, we’ve all but finished translating the CRM Web site into Spanish. We will send everything, once edited, to the webmaster, who will then hopefully make the Web site interchangeable between English and Spanish.

We take a lunch break and eat in our cute little house then go back to the office until usually 5 or 6 or so. Then home for dinner, dominos or movies or TV shows on our computers then crawl into bed so that the mosquitos can feast.

Tomorrow, all of that changes (except the mosquitos): a team of 60-ish people arrived yesterday. They kick off a string of constant teams all the way through the week before Easter, April 8^th!) They were all wearing hot pink shirts and come from Kentucky and Maryland and there’s not a chance I can remember a single name. I’ll wait until they’re not all dressed alike and are in daylight. Today they went to La Fortuna to go to the hot springs and resort for dinner and a church service up there. (This is the general Sunday tradition for most groups).So we saw them last night and then they left this morning before we got up. We went into Ciudad Quesada on the bus to meet friends of Alissa from Dallas. They have visited the camp several times and are in the area for about a week. We met them at the Methodist church in Ciudad Quesada, and then they took us for pizza and ice cream. It was delicious and the service was great, lots of music, an hour’s worth, to be exact. Downfall = standing for an hour. Bonus = projection screen with the Spanish lyrics. This is an upgrade from the other two churches we’ve attended since we’ve been here.

However, I must say that of the three sermon’s I’ve heard, this one was the least inspiring. The first two were in La Fortuna and Santa Rita, respectively. Those two men were so amazing: yelling until red/purple in the face, so excited about it and so intriguing. The neatest thing is that even though the majority of the people we gave gone to the services with can’t understand a word of Spanish, they still get the message loud and clear. Very cool experience.

The last time I posted we were expecting the Wichita team’s arrival. I was delighted to have them here, especially as our first team. They were a group of 7 women, a very different dynamic than ever before. Marion said that it was the first time there had been an all-same gender group (I can’t remember if he said ever, or in quite some time), which was pretty cool, people like to be the first anything I think. I was very excited to see my mom and was happy she could see me getting settled in and could lend her magic to getting our house organized.

The project as I previously mentioned below, in Santa Rita, was absolutely perfect for the team in terms of their skills, their size and personalities. It was a great week and we got nearly all the work done. The people of the church were fantastic: they made us hot meals for lunch everyday, and helped along side us to do the work, even the kids. They were so gracious and so accommodating to us. They even threw me a surprise birthday party, during which they smashed my face into the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had. Totally worth it.

By the time we left, we had painted all the walls, inside and out, painted the ceilings, made curtains for all the windows, tiled the bathroom, tiled the island in the kitchen, replaced the roof on the Sunday School building and painted the inside. In addition to the physical changes, we had made great friends with the people there, so much so that the women cried when we left and the kids wanted to come with us. As a group, we talked about how all of that is the reason people go on mission trips instead of simply sending money. Darn good reason, if you ask me.

I loved being able to spend time with some of my favorite people and use them as my guinea pigs for this whole gig at the same time J I wish I could get a monthly dose of them, but skype will have to do.

The following Sunday after the team left we went back to Santa Rita to attend the church service (the pastor’s house is the one we worked on). They were thrilled to see us and we were amazed to see that they had finished the Sunday School building and were almost done with everything else. We had the privilege of being with the pastor’s fiancé when she saw the house for the first time. The kids all asked where all the “white ladies” were, haha. One little girl, Maria Fernanda asked if she could go back to the States with me so that she could ice-skate. How precious.

In other events, we celebrated Mary’s birthday on the 3^rd. It’s hard to throw a party for a woman who is go-go-go all the time! We basically had to tell her that something was happening just so that she would be in one place for long enough to feed her some cake. She is truly amazing I think it made every employee’s day to be able to honor her. However, I’m hoping we can go at least a few weeks without any more birthdays… apparently there IS such this as too much cake…

Well that was a pretty decent chunk of info. I’m sure I’ll think of a million and a half other things to say, but that’s where I just have to back off and appreciate posting this at all. Thanks for reading!

Love to all,

Molly

Stay tuned!

So... i'm not posting now, but I really need to, so this is me promising to within the next 24 hours... the next team comes Saturday and we have non-stop teams until April! So i better get to typing.

For those of you few readers put a little pressure on me, please!