I told Kel today that I don’t have words to describe our experience in Costa Rica so far…other than just literally telling you what our life is currently like.
But even that is hard to describe.
In Costa Rica, plans are mostly impossible to make. A car breaks down, an appointment was never made, the car’s tags are expired, the boat’s motor gets flooded, it doesn’t rain so you have no water (and therefore don’t take showers for days and days), things take longer than anticipated, 17 people you’re growing accustomed to living alongside leave within minutes. But somehow, through all of that, the internet has been reliable. Technology is amazing, friends.
Today we made cheese.
It wasn’t supposed to happen that way.
I was going to feed the chickens and meet up with Nelson, the farmhand, so he could walk me through the process. I had sort of helped two young women two days ago make it…fumbling through Spanish to ask questions and understand what was happening, and mostly considering how to make the process more efficient.
The thing about a language barrier is that when you show up to make the cheese and Nelson never shows up (except to show you how much Caujo to add and that the cheese will be ready to make in treinta minutos) is that eventually you realize that maybe he’s thinking you’re making the cheese. By now it’s been an hour, because you fed the chickens and the pigs and tried to knock some coconuts down (for the chickens) and walked around looking for Nelson…and so it’s time to just try to mimic what I saw my new friends do a few days ago. And I wouldn’t normally care about messing something like this up, but the fact that it gives the farm much-needed dollars feels a little like pressure.
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| our first attempt at cheese! |
So, we made cheese.
And it doesn’t taste half bad.
We wake up around 6:00AM.
Today Kel immediately was asked down to the river with a bucket so there would be water to flush the toilets with. And then he went to help milk the cows, but got there in time to see one of the pigs slaughtered and taken away. I recently got assigned chicken duty– so I put the baby chicks out each morning and make sure they have food and water all day long. They have to get fat. Fat, so they can be eaten.
There were 17 refugees here when we arrived. A family from El Salvador who had gone through some really tragic things and needed a place to stay. We became friends through pointing at objects, asking questions by using the wrong conjugations, trying out Google translate (which is actually hard because if I ask a question I didn’t know how to ask, they’ll usually answer the question in a way that I’ll never be able to understand). They cooked El Salvadorian food for us…blended beans that you dip your fried banana into. I didn’t love it. But I was thankful for their generosity and kindness. One day, the police showed up asking for passports. A few hours later, they were packing their bags, praying for us, and walking down the dirt road with rolling suitcases. I still don’t really know what happened or why it happened. But, I’m thankful for them and our time together with them.
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| Kel getting coconuts for las gallinas (hens) |
It’s a little lonelier on the farm now.
(And part of why we made cheese).
But, the really pressing question is the one I don’t have words for.
There’s a part of my soul that could be quite content with barefeet, hairy armpits, fresh-grown fruit at my fingertips, being in the middle-of-nowhere, learning a language fluently, interacting with the local community in the various ways that this mission does–through schools, churches, business on the farm. Basically, the farm sustains the ministry.
We talk a lot about the dreams and ideas we have. Starting up a discipleship program, bringing people out to learn about hard, manual labor through farm work while also learning what it means to follow Jesus more wholeheartedly. Continuing the sharing the Gospel in local schools, helping out local church plants, being a resource, building relationships with people internationally. So much has already happened here for the sake of the Gospel…and there’s so much more that could be done.
But there are a lot of dreams we would be leaving behind. A lot of ideas that haven’t come to fruition. A lot of relationships we are in the midst of. A lot of people we get to walk through life with and learn more about the Lord alongside. Foster Care. Camp ministry. Family. Community. Church. Things (and people) we are passionate about and things we believe in.
So we’re here.
We made it.
We’re learning about life on a farm.
We laugh a lot and sweat a lot.
Keep praying for discernment.
(and for it to rain!)
(and for us to make better cheese tomorrow!)