Portantorchas has welcomed me with open arms. I arrived safely on August 12th, and I began the Porta life right away.
I met my sweet roommate. Her name is also Grace! She’s from Texas, and she loves the Lord. She inspires me to get out of bed and run, she is adventurous, and is overall the best roommate I could ask for. We share a bunk room. I sleep on the top, and she sleeps on the bottom. We have our own bathroom, closet, and dresser. We decorated a little bit to make it feel like us and to make it feel a little bit like home.
I met the incredible Portantorchas staff! They are all on weapons for the Kingdom of God. They all live on campus and have made so many sacrifices to love and serve us. The truly do life with us. They play soccer with us, pray with us, cook for us, and welcome us into their homes. I know Jesus’ character better after knowing them! Many of the staff members only speak Spanish, and they are full of grace with my thousands of mistakes. They are simply excited that I try to speak with them!
I met 30 other students. There are 25 girls and 6 guys here total. Students have come from the States, Canada, Germany, Spain, Albania, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. It is incredible. International friendships are a beautiful gift. We spend every meal time together. We play games together. We worship together. We serve one another. We go on “caminatas” together. Caminata is a word that you will likely hear me use a lot. It means a walk in Spanish, and at Portantorchas, we set time aside for a walk with just one other person. The idea is to be able to focus on getting to know one person for an hour or so.
Costa Rica is beautiful. I have hardly explored any of this country, but I am in awe of its beauty. On campus we have so many plants, trees, and flowers. We even grow lemons, limes, and coffee beans!
I have enjoyed all of the food here. Although, because we are a place with people from all over, they like to cater to that. So most of the food we have had is not exactly Costa Rican. Some food highlights were gallo pinto (rice and beans for breakfast-this is the Costa Rican way), and chalupas (Mexican origin).
Classes have been awesome. I have already learned a lot, and I have only started ‘Worldviews’ and ‘Spiritual Disciplines.’ Spanish classes begin next week. That is the moment everyone has been waiting for. I have been impressed with my Spanish, and it has been easier for me to communicate with people than I thought. Even at places like the local farmers market or grocery store.
One morning this week I was working out in the gym around 6am. A girl in the gym with me got a call from an airport employee because her luggage had been lost and he was going to deliver it to her. He started the phone call by asking if she spoke Spanish. She doesn’t, so she handed the phone to me to speak with him. He told me that he needed the address. I gave it to him, but he was still confused. Eventually, he said he was coming. We then found out we could send our direct location to him. He hung up the phone, and we continued working out. She gets a call from him again later and he tells me that he had arrived. We start walking towards the entrance but we soon realize we have no way to open the gate, so we try to go to the other entrance. This doesn’t make sense because we cannot see out of this gate, and we still do not have a way to open the door. We begin frantically running around campus to try to find a staff member that is awake and can give us a key. Of course, the one staff member my friend finds also only speaks Spanish. When they were walking to find me again she tried to explain her situation to the staff. But, she didn’t fully understand the English and she led us to the wrong spot. I corrected her with the best Spanish I could. She then was able to open the door for us. We walked to the door but his car was not there yet. We looked at his location and realized he was one streed over. I did my best to ask him to move over to our street. He said he was coming, so we waited. Finally, he shows up. He gives her the suitcase, but this is not over yet. There is another student here that also needed his suitcase out of this man’s truck. There was a lot of miscommunication, and I couldn’t understand that he needed him to be there to sign. Again, really testing my Spanish. I have to run to get a guy from the gym to grab the guy that needed to sign for his suitcase. Eventually, it was all good. There isn’t really a moral to that story but my parents told me it would be a good one to tell on my blog. So, here it is.
This week I have played soccer in the rain and jumped in the lake after, gone to the super market and farmer’s market, walked to get ice cream, played ping pong, shared my testimony, and I have spent a lot of time just growing in my surrender to the Lord. This place is incredible.
