We finally made it home, safe and sound!

No time to blog on our last full day in Costa Rica. We were too busy!

Our trip just got more exciting! Catching up from Friday...

Here´s a little more about our day in this community.

Just a hodge podge of items left over from Thursday. More pictures too!

Here´s a recap of the rest of Tuesday afternoon. Trust me, it calmed down a lot!

We managed to get this great group shot... Take a look!

We are planning to spend all day today and Friday morning in this community, one of the poorest communities around.

We´ve set up shop in Concepcion Alahuelita today.

Tuesday got even more exciting. Are we medical workers or firefighters? Read on...

This morning we began with breakfast.  It was mushroom omelets, rice and beans and queso.  Plus orange juice and Costa Rica coffee.  Yum!  We boarded the bus for Cristo Rey.  This is a very poor section of Costa Rica.  This became quite evident when we arrived at the church where we will be working today.  "Don´t go past the bush outside our building,"  our hosts told us.  "And don`t go down the hill for any reason.  Even the police don`t go down there!"  Apparently, there`s a river down the hill where all the drug addicts and thieves hang out.  It`s the worst section of town.  Needless to say, we`re all staying in large groups! The morning got off to an exciting start when a man from around the block ran to our clinic and was clearly panicked.  He was working with his partner for a utility company and his co-worker had fallen off a ladder about 25 feet down.  Mike Dominguez and Dr. Angie Sylvester plus a few others ran over to help.  When they got there, they said the man, in his mid 20s, looked like he was dead.  Luckily he only suffered a shattered shoulder and arm.  They were able to stabilize the patient until EMS arrived 20 minutes later.  The EMS crew was grateful for the support....

We want to hear from you! Please send your loved ones a note!

Here´s a quick update.  We are filthy from the heat and dust blowing around and now we´re back at home.  I´m in the library which is working great, except for the fact that they close at 6:30 and are already kicking me out.  I don´t even have the $$$ to pay for my time.  They have turned out the lights! These little girls have won our hearts today.  They are in the picture at the bottom. Their names are Andrea and Melanie and they were with us all day long.  Everyone is so excited and happy that we are here. 

...

Well, it turns out there’s no real Internet connection anywhere. Only in Internet cafes and in offices. So this morning, I’m at the office of one of our hosts, Jhonny. It’s a 25 minute drive from where we are working, and Jhonny had his grandfather and grandmother (who speak no English) take me there. Pastor John Rapp, our trip leader, came with me. We do have a library at the seminary, and we’re working to have it open later in the day so I can give updates more often.

We woke up today at 6 a.m. and had breakfast at 6:30. It was eggs with ham, rice and beans (I knew it!), plus fresh fruit, coffee and a roll.  Then we loaded onto the bus and headed a short drive away to a local community. A small group of people...

We arrived at the airport at 3:30 a.m. Sunday. When I went over to Margaret’s house on Friday, (she’s our clinical coordinator), there was an abundance of bars of soap and children’s T-shirts. I offered to pay for an extra bag so we could bring more. So we packed bars of soap into every single pocket of my suitcase. I also had 250 bottles of toothpaste from my dentist (Thanks Dr. Vlk!). I realized pretty quickly that I would need another bag too!

At the airport, Julie Grivetti was kind enough to pay for my third bag of supplies, but it was still a bit too heavy. So, soap bars came out, and went into my backpack carry on, as well as into several other people’s bags. Let me tell you... soap bars can be very heavy!

Everything ran very smooth -- the connecting flights and going through customs. Quite a feat for travelling...

On Sunday, January 10, our team participated in a special send off at Adventist La Grange Memorial Hospital