Abrazos Gratis!

So it has been a crazy fun week here in San Jose, a very full week of classes, work duties and homework! Thursday for our local outreach we went to downtown San Jose, and were on a free hugs campaign. Which for those of you who don't know is just a time were you go out with a bunch on signs and hug people on the street (only those who want it that is haha) It was such a fun time of getting out and interacting with people, and we had some very great reactions, people felt the love :) (as well as some very shocked, dirty looks, but oh well!) It was such a great day.

Rossela and I in downtown SanJose

Rayme and Maruco

Some of the Abrazos Gratis DTS crew!

Lauryn and I, Free Hugs team AWESOME

Morgan and Tawneke, part of our free hugs team

I finally named my bunny, his name is Gozo! (spanish for JOY)

Last Night we had a talent night and the staff did a wonderful interpretive dance, so instead of telling you guys about my amazing DTS staff, I hope you enjoy this video! Its really long but just a little bit of it gives you the idea. I am so thankful for these guys!

Just incase you guys thought I forgot about you, this is the ceiling of my bunk :)

Thats all for now from San Jose, talk to you guys soon!

Things I LOVE about Costa Rica

I am actually overwhelmed by how much I love it here, I knew I wanted to go to Costa Rica even though I didn't really know anything about it here and I had never been before. I hope you enjoy my list of probably fairly random things that I love about here (the YWAM base in San Jose, Costa Rica)
-THE PEOPLE! They are amazing, the staff here is awesome, I showed up with nothing (quite literally) and within minutes I had food, clean clothing to wear and prayers.
-The COFFEE, always delish and there when I need it
-Clean dry clothes off a clothes line in January
-The frosted flakes! They are easily a jillion times better than Canadian frosted flakes (maybe i just never was allowed sugar-y cereal but they are grrrrrreat!)
-Community Environment, I like living somewhere that people respect the space and are all part of taking care of it, we all have our work duties (trabajitos) and are responsible for maintianing some part of the base.
-CLASSES! we are able to learn, share and ask questions (SUCH a different environment from university)
-SPANISH! I came here knowing literally NO Spanish what so ever, but now I am able to understand a lot (all of the classes and main events are bilingual so you hear it a lot) And I am learning how to sing in Spanish to hopefully help out with the music on the base soon!!
-IT IS BEAUTIFUL HERE!!! Everything, all the green plants and pretty flowers, the mountains all around (I am in the Central Valley) and there are very few bugs to my surprise
-There are no screens on the windows, no need! its nice out and the bugs are so minimal! :)

Also some funny weird things about it here:
- the chairs in my classroom are the same chairs as the first 2 rows at DCC (just a different colour)
- my work duty is like the same thing i did at starbucks (seperating out garbage and recycling and tossing it into the proper bins)
- there are more but i just can't think of them right now...

Anyways in short I am really enjoying my time here! :) and I hope to have more pictures up soon!

Pura Vida

Church the first Sunday

"Family Night" on Wednesday

Thursday Jan. 14 update

Planting :)


Community Outreach

So I've settled in FINALLY

So I've had quite the crazy start! But I love it here! So heres what happened, as my plane was about the land in San Jose on Thursday night, we took back off without touching down because of wind gusts. So I spent the night in Managua, Nicaragua with some fun American girls I met on the plane, in a nice hotel for free! So I made it to San Jose on Friday morning, but because of my flight mix up, I had no luggage and there was no one to pick me up, so after some minor panic and a quick phone call home, I hopped in a taxi and made it to the base safe and sound (my cab driver taught me some basic spanish, he was sooo nice)

travel day

Nicaragua Airport

I got my luggage yesterday afternoon, and before that everyone was really nice and let me borrow clothes and shampoo and such. And nothing was broken or anything :) Here is my nice bed all unpacked and settled...

But thats all for now I've got to go for dinner.

Check out my video of the base, the building is so cool!

A quick tour of the base in San Jose

The Day Before...

So I'm leaving tomorrow morning for my DTS (Discipleship Training School) with Youth With A Mission based in San Jose Costa Rica! As you may have guessed I am very excited, but also a bit nervous... I still have quite a bit of packing and running around to do today. I wanted to start this blog to keep everyone at home updated as to what I'm doing and all the cool things I will be experiencing over the next 5 months that I will be gone.

Last Sunday at Dakota Community Church

For all those who are curious for the first 3 months I will be living in San Jose (the capital city) going to Bible School, living in a dorm with all of the other girls in my DTS and doing work duties, some community outreach and church stuff. For the 2 months after that my DTS is scheduled to do our outreach in villages and rural communities in Costa Rica!

Very exciting stuff, I just feel like I am on the edge of something huge right now and though I'm going to miss everyone at home I am just itching to get started and meet everyone there! Its a very weird mix of emotions.

I'll do my best to keep everyone updated!