At our language school, the same guys that run the school also head up a very cool ministry (Voz que Clama) to the indigenous population near Tuis. On the same site as the school building, the ministry owns a house in which 7 physically and/or mentally handicapped indigenous people live. Also, once a month, the ministry takes a trip to the near-by indigenous region of Chirripo. This region encompasses a large area and 
many small villages. Voz que Clama has been building a relationship with one particular village called Mandarin Quiche.
So... when we arrived at language school we learned about this awesome ministry and that they were taking a trip to the village during one of the weekends that we were in town. So we were given the option of partaking in this incredible experience. After praying about it with the team, adjusting our class schedule, and rescheduling our rafting trip, we decided to go for it! Unfortunately, we came very unprepared for such a venture and had to rely on our new local friends for some necessary items.
At 6am on Friday we met up at the school. There was a total of 26 people in the group... 2 ministry leaders, 5 random gringos, 18 men/women/youth from the mission church, and 1 Canadian film-maker. We all piled into an old-school SUV and a large truck for a 2.5 hour trip up a bumpy dirt road to the start of our trek at Alto Quetzal. Our journey had several purposes... including using a GPS unit to map the trail and a potential helicopter pad and bringing in wood in order to build a new house in the village. So, we bought several wooden boards and brought them along with us on our grooling hike. Each guy and each two girls were responsible for carrying one large board. The hike started out tough... 2 hours of very steep downhill, and then about 3 hours of hiking along the river, followed by an adventurous zip-line trip over the river, and about 30 m
ore minutes of hiking to our final destination! The trek was challenging... especially with the heavy boards... but were all made it in one piece!
Once we arrived at the small village... we threw down our cargo, unpacked our sleeping bags, and busted out our lunch. After eating lunch and resting for a little while we took a 10 minute walk to the village in which we were planning to build the house. At this village we delivered the building supplies, meet a large group of gringos from California that were spending the week constructing a new church for the village, and then all met together for a short church service in the native tongue of Cabeica. After the service, the gringo group set up a small battery-powered DVD player and popped-in 'The 10 Commandments". The whole situation was somewhat humorous... especially with Moses' cheesy dubbed voice! After the movie... or just the short portion that we watched... we headed back to the other village to get some shut-eye.
I ate some graham crackers for 'dinner', brushed my teeth, and slipped into my sleeping bag. Unfortunately, several factors (hard concrete floor, HOT temperature, and several incredibly talented snorers) lead to a long, sleepless night.
The next morning we woke up... or stopped attempting to sleep... and prepared a delicious breakfast of fried cheesy tortilla sticks and sugary coffee! Then we headed back to the other village to continue construction on the small house that the ministry had previously started. Since the team was so large... and the house was so small... instead of getting in the way of construction, the girls hung out with
the local kids. We brought some crayons which we used to draw cute doodles on the old church benches... and then we washed everyone's hair with apple-scented shampoo and french-braided the girls' clean hair. It was a little difficult because there were A LOT of kids and a few of them definitely had little creatures living in their hair... but they were all SO beautiful and an absolute joy to be around!
About 11am we headed back to the sleeping village, ate lunch, and packed up our bags for the return trip. Around noon we hit the road. We headed back to toward the river... crossed one-by-one on the zip-line... and then continued the journey along the river. The return trip seemed much easier at first since we didn't have the awkward boards to carry... but then we hit the CRAZY ascent back to Alto Quetzal. I tried to keep my spirits up and stay motivated to the end... but the hike was intense. It seemed like the uphill trend would NEVER end! But little by little we got closer to our goal, reaching the top by about 5pm. Once everyone had arrived we piled back into the truck and began the long ride back toward Tuis. I really wanted to sleep... but unfortunately.... due to an old tail-bone injury I was unable to sit down during the bumpy trip... and sleeping while standing up... while having to maintain a firm grip turned out to be quite impossible!
many small villages. Voz que Clama has been building a relationship with one particular village called Mandarin Quiche.So... when we arrived at language school we learned about this awesome ministry and that they were taking a trip to the village during one of the weekends that we were in town. So we were given the option of partaking in this incredible experience. After praying about it with the team, adjusting our class schedule, and rescheduling our rafting trip, we decided to go for it! Unfortunately, we came very unprepared for such a venture and had to rely on our new local friends for some necessary items.
At 6am on Friday we met up at the school. There was a total of 26 people in the group... 2 ministry leaders, 5 random gringos, 18 men/women/youth from the mission church, and 1 Canadian film-maker. We all piled into an old-school SUV and a large truck for a 2.5 hour trip up a bumpy dirt road to the start of our trek at Alto Quetzal. Our journey had several purposes... including using a GPS unit to map the trail and a potential helicopter pad and bringing in wood in order to build a new house in the village. So, we bought several wooden boards and brought them along with us on our grooling hike. Each guy and each two girls were responsible for carrying one large board. The hike started out tough... 2 hours of very steep downhill, and then about 3 hours of hiking along the river, followed by an adventurous zip-line trip over the river, and about 30 m
ore minutes of hiking to our final destination! The trek was challenging... especially with the heavy boards... but were all made it in one piece!Once we arrived at the small village... we threw down our cargo, unpacked our sleeping bags, and busted out our lunch. After eating lunch and resting for a little while we took a 10 minute walk to the village in which we were planning to build the house. At this village we delivered the building supplies, meet a large group of gringos from California that were spending the week constructing a new church for the village, and then all met together for a short church service in the native tongue of Cabeica. After the service, the gringo group set up a small battery-powered DVD player and popped-in 'The 10 Commandments". The whole situation was somewhat humorous... especially with Moses' cheesy dubbed voice! After the movie... or just the short portion that we watched... we headed back to the other village to get some shut-eye.
I ate some graham crackers for 'dinner', brushed my teeth, and slipped into my sleeping bag. Unfortunately, several factors (hard concrete floor, HOT temperature, and several incredibly talented snorers) lead to a long, sleepless night.
The next morning we woke up... or stopped attempting to sleep... and prepared a delicious breakfast of fried cheesy tortilla sticks and sugary coffee! Then we headed back to the other village to continue construction on the small house that the ministry had previously started. Since the team was so large... and the house was so small... instead of getting in the way of construction, the girls hung out with
the local kids. We brought some crayons which we used to draw cute doodles on the old church benches... and then we washed everyone's hair with apple-scented shampoo and french-braided the girls' clean hair. It was a little difficult because there were A LOT of kids and a few of them definitely had little creatures living in their hair... but they were all SO beautiful and an absolute joy to be around!
About 11am we headed back to the sleeping village, ate lunch, and packed up our bags for the return trip. Around noon we hit the road. We headed back to toward the river... crossed one-by-one on the zip-line... and then continued the journey along the river. The return trip seemed much easier at first since we didn't have the awkward boards to carry... but then we hit the CRAZY ascent back to Alto Quetzal. I tried to keep my spirits up and stay motivated to the end... but the hike was intense. It seemed like the uphill trend would NEVER end! But little by little we got closer to our goal, reaching the top by about 5pm. Once everyone had arrived we piled back into the truck and began the long ride back toward Tuis. I really wanted to sleep... but unfortunately.... due to an old tail-bone injury I was unable to sit down during the bumpy trip... and sleeping while standing up... while having to maintain a firm grip turned out to be quite impossible!
We all arrived safely back to Tuis! Despite the difficult trek, everyone really seemed thankful for the opportunity to travel to an unknown land and love God's children. I feel incredibly blessed to have been able to participate in such an awesome opportunity!
2 comments:
sounds amazing. i'm just a little jealous. ;-)
That sounds like an awesome and torturous experience at the same time! (The zip line looked especially cool!)
How bad were the bugs?
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