Home Alone

GABBIE!!!! NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! That's right! Gabbie is OUTIE!!!!! I'll never forget her wonderfully positive atitude that she always had!!!! I'll miss waking up to he trillions of smiles!!!! The story is sooo sad... but that's getting to far ahead... first things first, the INDIAN VILLAGE!!!

Ok where do I start, guys I had a.... interesting.... village, I want you to learn from my mistakes so that if you ever have to walk up a two hour mountain and work for a family of indians for 2 nights in the freezing cold, please don't wear boots that are 3 sizes smaller than your shoe size! OW!!!! Ok maybe its not that bad, I just over exaggerate everything, it was actually pretty awesome!

Other than having to walk 1.5 hours up a mountain in boots 3 sizes too small for me, it wasn't all that bad of a trip.  On day one we obviously didn't do any work since it got dark pretty much as soon as we got up. But in the night, I felt like I was living in ANTARTICA!!!!!  I never got an exact temperature, all I know is that it was cold enough to keep me up all night, the only thoughts in my head were "What time is it", "Night has got to be over soon right?", "WHEN IS THIS GOING TO END???"

The next day we pretty much just worked all day (leveling out the ground and getting wood)
The next night we (Jazmin, Gabbie and myself) decided to snuggle and hug each other to keep each other warm... once again we all froze to death.

Well the point is if you eve want to go to an Indian village up in the mountains, get correct sized boots, bring plenty of warm clothes, and don't forget to bring BLANKET lolz

That leads us now to Gabbies departure!!! The night before Gabbie left we had a little goodbye party for her, I was almost ready to cry... Gabbie has made my experience in Costa Rica like 99% better than it would've without her.  We all said our goodbyes and woke up at 5:00 am to take Gabster to the airport.  When I was about to cry Gabbie told me "Don't cry because it's over, Smile because it happened" That little phrase always made me happy!  It makes everyone happy, Raquel is even trying to write a song about it :P

Well since Gabbie left we havn't really done anything, I was supposed to go to La Palma with Emanuel.... but he forgot to pick me up.  We were supposed to go to the beach, however with the Japan Earthquake, there were tsunami warnings.

One more thing, please pray for Japan, they need all the help they can get....

I know this blog post was short but I find blogging to be really boring... sorry I'll be sure to keep it updated for all my fans though lol

Around the world and back again!

Dear blog readers, all 5 of you, I'm very sorry that I havn't put up a blog post in so long, I've just been super busy!!!! And it's been so long that I don't remember exactly when what happened, so I'm just going to try to stumble threw them.  Plus my camera is dead and I have no more batteries thus I cannot put pictures on my blog, sozzy!

Goodbye Marty =( that's right, last Sunday Marty left!!!!! how tragic!!!! I'm going to miss all of the candy he would pass out to me and Gabster! I sure will miss that candy.... I mean Marty!!!

What's next on the list, we went to Mt Paols, I still don't know how to pronounce that, it's this volcano where you can go to the very top and look down into the crater, the only problem is that it was extremely cloudy and we could see approximately, a good 4 feet ahead of you.  Luckly we got to watch a movie about Mt Paols so we saw what it looked like anyways, YAY.

Time for the Monday/Tuesday talk.... We pretty much worked the entire time, Ok, I'm not the strongest person in the world.  Well, actually I'm probably one of the weaker people in the world, and I felt extremely accomplished with the work I did, even though I couldn't physically do very much to help, I did what I could and I felt like I was valuable.  As for Gabbie, OMG!!!! She is a work-aholic! she kept going and going and going until the job was done, all I have to say.... well done Gabbie!!! Your totally awesome!

Like I said before I have no idea when I did what, so I'm just going to put up my next story not too sure when it all happened, time for the trip to Coranado!  But to get there, we had to travel in public transportation, I want you to stop reading right now and clap for me! It was my first use of public transportation ever!!!! YAY! Well we stopped in San Jose where I bought Ice Creams for Gabbie and Myself (she had bought my bus ticket) and went on to Coranado.  Coranado was this small, poor town up in the mountains, thus it was actually cold! Never thought I'd say that!  But we worked with the kids doing another VBS, which let me just say was SO much better than the VBS in La Palma.  Gabbie, Jazmin and myself then went to the house of one of the church workers, I thought everything would be great, I ended up with this room full of toys, it was the woman's son's room, and I thought it was going to be great, until bed time... You see, Every room in the house was connected with an openening in the ceiling that went from my room to the living room.  I thought this would be fine until, unfortunately, it turned out that the house we stayed in had 3 caged birds in the house.... It's time for me to tell Gabbie's famous story....

Una noche atras, nosotros dormir en la casa con tres pajaros.  Todo noche, las pajaros dice "TWEET TWEET TWEET".  Nosotros no dormir.

This pretty much says that the birds were tweeting all night and we got absolutely no sleep! After waking up that morning I felt awful, since I did not have enough room in my bag to take my allergy medication with me, I had the WORST allergies in the world, my eye was extremely swollen like I was bitten by a bee or something, I'll pix of it on facebook for sure! Then we went back taking the bus again, honestly, even with the lack of sleep, horrible allergies, and creepy toy room... I had a good time in Coranado.

Now for my next big story, my trip to Golfito!!!! It was right after church we left, for a 5 hour car trip... We went to the Wesleyan church of Golfito, which is a little town next to the Pacific Ocean, after pinching myself to stay awake during a church service (I had no clue what they were saying) We ended up going to this building that was like a miniature hotel, we all got our own room... I called it my Parasitic Paradise! The next day we drove to Panama...

Dear Grammy,
DONT MOVE TO PANAMA!!!!
~Love RJ

Before getting into Panama, we were rudely delayed due to the expiration of Paster Luis's Passport, so he was unable to go on the trip with us, so obviously, it was just Me, Gabbie and Mama Zoolay.... and we went shopping, and shopping, and shopping! I was ready to SCREAM, not really, I enjoy shopping, I was just really hungry.  So when getting back into Costa Rica, what did we do? WE JUNKED OUT WITH MC DONALDS!!!! Me and Gabbie got Mc Pollos, fries, large cokes, mcflurries, and a bag of candy! Like I said, we junked out!  Plus getting out of CR and back in, I got my passport stamped again, so it appears on my passport that I have officially been to Costa Rica 3 times now!  Then, as if we didn't do enough, we went shopping again! Me and Gabbie were just snacking on our candies we bought, when we walked across these bongs.... and I was like OMG!!! They are selling bongs like right at the entrence of the store, what kind of place is this??? Of course that's not the only conversation that went on, but Gabbie would kill me if I told you anything else.

So on to day 3 of our Golfito expedition, We went to the top of a mountain to see the view of Golfito, it was EPIC, like one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen!  Shortly followed by a boat trip into the golf, it was nice to just relax with Paster Luis, Gabbie, Mama Zoolay and 2 Chiwawas (pardon my spelling) it really reminded me of the boat trips I used to take with my Grandparents in Wisconsin, it was nice to think back of those days.  Then, after junking up at Mc Donalds again, we left!

Now this brings us to this morning, it was normal like every other morning, until Sharon came to the awful realization that her Laptop had been missing.... after close examination they found out that the Wii and Paster Luis's car keys were also missing, thats right everyone... The Azofeifa's have been robbed! It was horrible to see, and I would like you to pray for them, they don't all know what else is missing yet, but prayer that the person who did this doesn't come back!

Also.... HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRAMMY!!!!!!!!

And that's about it, sorry for no pix, be sure to have some up next time, until then
Pura Vida

So Beautiful....

AHHHHHHH I HAVE MY FIRST SUNBURN!!!!! HELP HELP HELP!!!!!!! I put sunscrean on my feet, but my flip flops must have wiped some of it off, thus causing these results!

AHHHH

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted anything, I've been pretty busy.  But there's a few things I just HAVE to show you!

Friday: When me and Gabbie finished with our crafting ideas, we went to eat dinner and meet a new friend, MARTY!!!! Marty is this hilarious guy who knows how to have a good time, it's great! He'll be staying here until I believe Sunday. Later Friday night, Sussan came to visit us! She now works in San Jose so its like I can never see her!!! It's very depressing! The rest of Friday was pretty boring, so I heard comments from people that my last blog post was too long and I didn't even do anything very exciting.  So on to Saturday!

The Family Reunion

Me and Marty!!!

Saturday: We had to wake up early on Saturday because we had a party for the kids, I think it was a birthday party but I'm not too sure... Anyways, since Priscilla had 2 cakes in her car me and Gabbie had to ride on a bus, this is ironic because just the other day Gabbie was telling me that she wanted to go on a bus to downtown San Jose or something like that.  Well we didn't go to San Jose, but I think Gabbie is happy that she got to ride in a bus... We ended up going to like... this park, it's really hard to explain.  It was like a valley with a little house, a soccer field, a garden and a swimming pool.... Why is there never a place like this in America? It was "so beautiful..."

Everybody Was swimming in da Pool

Raquel and her friend on the swingset

Me and Gabbie Did all of these Boxes

The veiw

More View

More ppl at the pool

Gabbie!

Soccer Field

The building

Grass....

ME!!!!

She's gonna kill me when she sees this!

Well Gabbie, Marty and myself sat down in the shade most of the time, after eating the traditional dish.... Rice, game time came, I really had no clue what I was doing, my favorite part was the fashion contest, we had to dress up 4 girls in News Paper, it was great. When we finished with all the games we started sitting again, how exciting! I even got to eat my very first Yippy!  It's sort of like a kit kat but thicker!

Oh Boy, Emanuel is LOCO!

News Paper Fashion

RICE

My First YIPY

We met this guy named Jonny, it was great having 4 english speaking people at one table, It's been a while since I've heard it! Well Priscilla wanted us, as in me and Gabbie, to do a little skit for the kids, we agreed, my part was fun! I got to steal a ball from Emanuel!!!!! but then I had to give it back, they wanted me to say "Doma" and I yet have to figure out what that even means!  Later that night we met up with Jonny, he had hacked into his wii with a hard drive and has the ability to play any game on the wii that he wants without purchasing it.  So we played Just Dance 2, IT WAS SOOOO AWESOME! Especially when Paster Luis and Mama Zoolay did it together, it was sooooooooo funny!!!!

Sunday: Me and Gabbie woke up EARLY, since Paster Luis never told us what time church service started, well we got up way to early, it didn't start until 9:00.  When we got into the church service, I had a interpeter who was explaining to me everything Mama Zoolay was preaching.  Then.... the prayer, Oh My God, I had never heard something more beautiful, I was crying my eyes out!!! Even though I had no clue what she was saying, I could feel it, it was amazing. It was.... "So Beautiful..." Since it was the Sabbath, we didn't do much, no work.... no sleep.... we just sat around, and It's nice to have a day like that once a week!  Well, it was superbowl Sunday.... me and Gabbie were both rooting for the Packers... So Raquel, Gabbie and I all made homemade cheese heads, and dressed up and green and yellow.... if that's not enough for you? We also made our own Green Bay Chant!!!!

Go Packers, Go Packers

We love you cuz your not Slackers

Today's the day, just burn that play,

and everyone'll say, GO GREEN BAY!!!!!

Yes, I know it's totally cheesy, but thats Ok! 

My Cheese Head

We're so Cool

THE PACKERS WON!!!! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!

Monday: This was probably the busiest day yet! We had to pack up a bag of stuff for 3 days because we were going to La Palma for the next 3 days, La Palma is a very poor community.... the church there started out with just a few people in a house, they I'm so glad to say that now, a building is being rented and its almost filled with people, It makes me soooo happy! It's.... "so beautiful" Well when we got the the rampage began, we had already prepared things for the VBS, but you know how it is, nothing ever goes as planned! Me and Emanuel started talking, it was kind of hard to understand him just like I'm sure it was hard for him to understand me, but I see alot of me in him, like seriously, we act just alike, Serious with the Lord, yet know how to have a good time in the process. I am happy to say I survived, later that night we watched the move "Faith Like Potatoes" I have seen it before, it's an AMAZING movie and if you haven't seen it yet, I encourage you to go rent it, it will change your perspective on faith! 

Jazmine and I

Emanuel

Mama Zoolay and the kids

Raquel working with the kids

Me and Emanuel

The Ninos

"so beautiful"

Marty helping with the kids

El chico y la chica!

Tuesday: FISHING!!!! Thats right, Paster Luis, Marty, Emanuel and myself (along with 3 natives) all went fishing!!!! It was awesome and terrifying at the same time! Instead of rod and string, they actually used a sling and spear! It was neat to watch them do it, however most of the time Marty and myself just watched.  The 3 natives caught about 20 fish, Paster Luis and Emanuel both caught 1! I didn't want to get my camera wet so I only took a few pictures.

The River View

Cool Trees

ME

Paster Luis in the water

Wading in the water

Paster Luis and one of the Natives

The usual

Me being Beautiful

Working

Later we had a church service, the church service is always AMAZING, from what I know, I was on my knees praying and I was crying so hard at how beautiful it was, I started hyperventilating and passed out, Jazmine had to wake me up! I yet have to know how long I was out.  But I was hurt or injured in anyway, just got a headache from falling on my head.

Wednesday: After all of our hard work, Wednesday was our day of rest, we decided that we will go to Arenal, they had these natural hot springs there where the water ran from the volcano to little pools that hey had, the water was HOT, and it was all natural, no chlorine or any other chemicals, it was awesome! I kept on saying that everything was SO BEAUTIFUL, Gabbie was getting very annoyed saying I have no other way of describing something, so I now have my new saying.... Beyond my imagination!!!  On our way there we saw some monkeys, everybody was telling me the they were my Primos, I later learned the a Primo is a Cousin, Sorry Mimi, you've been replaced! JK!

Mount Arenal

Me and Gabster

Mount Arenal, City View

 And that about sums up what's been going on the past few days!

Wake Up Dancing!

Alright guys, I have a few things to tell you... well for the three or four of you who actually read my blog!

Wednesday: I had just finished my walk with Raquel we started taking a ton of photos using my mac.... no specific reason, we were just bored.

Dont ask....

Look at my Muscle!

LOOK AT HER MUSCLE

Headless me!

After taking all of these pictures, we tried to sing a song, Revelation Song, which didn't work out at all since I could only sing it in english, and she could only sing it in Spanish! Lesson to learn? Never sing a song in a different language from what your used to unless you have lyrics in front of you!

WE GOT GABBIE!!!!! SHE IS ALIVE!!!!! After Gabbie's plane was delayed another two hours, we waited at the airport for her arrival, after like.... a bazillion hours... more like two hours.... She successfully made it and we were on our way to start living life, in the Pura Vida mode!

Thursday: Waking up with Gabbie is a BLAST! with Gabbie's major jet lag she was more awake than ever and just wanted to do crazy things and dance! When I say dance, I mean more like.... running around in circles and jumping up and down, it released my inner child, since I would never do something like that alone, I mean come on! How do you dance like crazy alone??? We decided it would be a wonderful idea to make a dance video of our awesomeness! So we took like 8 or so video clips of us doing random dances, chose a song, by the way the song that was chosen was AMAZING! And randomly spread our video clips around to make an epic Dance Video, In case you haven't seen it already, here it is!

Wake up dancing

Since we couldn't get the video to work on my mac, I can only give you the video link.  For lunch, me and Gabbie got our schedules for the month, let me just say that Saturday the 19th is my only "Day Off" but on the schedule we have stuff that isn't a day off, yet we still get to visit the beach and a natural spring pool!  After lunch we all played a game called Super Banco, which means Super Bank.  This was pretty much a Costa Rican monopoly! Exact same layout except the cities and locations on the game board were different, we then played Uno, which surprised me that they called it Uno.... if in english the card game is called Uno, then shouldn't it be called One here in Costa Rica?

Later in the day, Gabbie, Paster Luis and myself all decided to go running, why did I ever decide this? I don't know! But I do need the exercise.... Paster Luis took us to a Coffee farm where they grow coffee beans, it was extremely beautiful, I have never seen anything this gorgeous! However it was a very, VERY long trail! After about 2 kilometers of straight running, I was dying! AND WE WERE OLNY HALF WAY DONE! Paster Luis decided we should go back the other way since I was out of breath, however if we were half way.... does it really make a difference whether we go ahead or back the way we came? Obviously this running was nothing to Gabbie, and Paster Luis runs all the time.... So I was gasping for air, literally picking up my knees with my hands to take a step, it was exhausting! When we got back from the running I was actually excited to take a cold shower! <--- THATS A FIRST!

Once I had finished cleaning up we practice a skit, it's the "Everything" skit, I'm Jesus in it! Sorry Nato, you've been replaced! Gabbie is once again just Gabbie, it's almost like we can restart the "Adventures of Gabbie and Jesus" skits!

Priscilla took me and Gabbie shopping, including a candy store, the candy store was really interesting, she got this chocolate covered jelly that I thought was going to be disgusting but it really wasn't that bad. Also since there is no "Victoria Secret" in Costa Rica, she got lotion that was nearly the same brand (kind of like the Victoria Secret brand of CR) for $17 dollars! Priscilla told me that they are having a Valentines Day party at the church and she wanted me to sing a romantic/love song, I asked Gabbie if she'd do it with me, so we started looking for songs that we could possibly sing such as, "Everything" by Michael Buble, and "Can you feel the love tonight" by Elton John. At the end of the day, I was extremely sore from the running and Gabbie's jet lag got to her again and was in desperate need of sleep! So we went to bed early-ish.

Today: Me and Gabbie woke up planning on doing our daily exorcise, we were both sore from running so just decided to take a walk in downtown Grecia! We walked past the landmark of Grecia, Cathedral de la Mercedes, it's a big red Catholic Cathedral, it's very beautiful.  

Outside View

Inside View

 When finishing our walk we went to eat breakfast and talk to Paster Luis, today is our first day of work!!! It's not hard labor, we just need to come up with Craft ideas and Game Ideas for the VBS (Vacation Bible School) we are going to on Monday.  And that's what we are doing right now, well that's what Gabbie's doing right now, I'm currently typing in my blog! But I guess I should go help the Gabster!

Until next time...

Pura Vida

Leaps of Faith

Over the past few days, things have gotten CRAZY! But I'd just like to note for everybody, I have safely made it to Costa Rica! But there's like, tons of stories I just have to share!!!

Sunday: This was my last day to actually hang out with friends (since Monday would mainly consist of packing and I'm leaving Tuesday) so there was some sadness at church, mainly since it was my last time seeing Barrett, Jordan and Elisabeth.  For lunch my family decided I should eat at the Twin Dragon's restaurant (which we like to to call the "Red Roof") I piged out, which is only appropriate since it would be my last time eating at a actual restaurant, at least that's what I thought.  On Sunday night, I went to our Sunday night Bible study, appropriately called "THRIVE" where after the lesson, there was a little celebration for me, I had a pretty good time but I didn't eat any of my cake since I had totally stuffed my face with food from the Twin Dragons.  I said my goodbye's to everyone there, and went to the Brighter Day Coffee Shop, where I met up with the Young Adults, we hung out for a bit and once again, we all decided to go out to eat.... this time at Pizza Hut.  I was (like usual) the only boy in the group! So I again listened in all of these girl conversations which can sometimes freak me out! But I'm used to it by now, we all said our goodbyes and that was about the end of the day!  That night I took a 2 hour long shower, after all, I won't be getting any hot showers!!

Monday: I woke up early Monday morning, we went to the church to pick up the VBS supplies that I have received as donation from people in the church, let me just say, my VBS suitcase was PACKED FULL! and weighed 48 pounds, thank you everyone who helped me out with this!  We then picked up a THRIVE shirt for Gabbie, I don't really know why since she isn't in THRIVE.... she lives in Maine!  And we picked up the check of generous donations from the people of BWC... I'm just going to say, thank you Lord! I made 1,600 dollars! I'd like to thank everybody for their help... and their prayers. Then it was time for... last second packing!!!!! It was CRAZY, at one point I was just ready to scream I was so stressed, after losing a pair of shoes and my glasses!  On Monday night, Jillian (who I enjoy calling Silly Jilly) came over and we played Lord of the Rings for several hours and ate delicious brownies, that was not something a normal  person would do the day before leaving for a 2 month period!  Later that night, my parents told me about the Airport in Costa Rica, they told me it was full of crazy people who wanted to give me rides and take my money and luggage! It really freaked me out!

Tuesday: A leap of Faith, I had no clue what to expect for the trip, my plan was to just wing it, just let God take control, and I did, my first Leap of Faith was just the decision to go to Costa Rica in general, I knew I was giving God 2 months of my life, which is a small amount when you think about my entire life, but for a 15 year old, 6'3", red-head boy, it's not something I would expect.  We drove to Atlanta, which took about 4 hours, eating out once again, this time at Zaxbys.  We waited several hours at the airport and when it was time to board, I took my second Leap of Faith, leaving my life, leaving everything I'm used to, my family, my friends, my life.... I said my goodbyes to my parents, and got on the plane.  Ok I'm making it sound more drastic than it really is, but I was pretty scared!  When I got on the plane I sat next to this really strange couple.... So I just plugged in my iPod, the plane ride was TERRIBLE, there was so much turbulence and it was so bumpy, I was shaking the entire ride!  When I got back the airport I got threw the immigration process successfully and moved on to the baggage claim, I got my 2 bags and my guitar and walked to the next area.  I was surprised, after my parents told me about all these crazy people that were supposedly in the airport, I didn't see anyone.  Then I walked to this area where you were supposed to get in a taxi, it's kind of like the room in-between the parking lot and the actual store of Wal-Mart, you could look out the window and see literally a thousand people screaming at me trying to get me to go with them.  I was terrified to go out of that little room, but I took my third Leap of Faith and walked out, and the first thing I saw was Raquel waving at me, I found my ride!

Me and Roquel

I got in the car and we made it to the church, at this point it was midnight, so Paster Luis gave me the keys to the church, showed me my room, and went to bed.  I got in my room and I just reflected everything that had happened that day, and I just broke out in prayer.

Wednesday (Today): I woke up this morning and first thing I did was unpack.  I had no idea what to do sine nobody else was awake, so I just did my daily getting ready.  Next, I opened up the shower door and turned on the water.... it was FREEZING!!!! So I took my fourth Leap of Faith and just jumped in, after about 30 seconds of pain and shivering, the water started to heat up.  I did my daily chores.

My Table

My room

My Bed

Well I just got done taking a walk with Roquel, and we'll see what the future holds.  I thank you all for your prayers, and ask you to keep on praying.

Pura Vida!