Last day of painting! Although we have enjoyed our time at the Tarcoles Club House and have been more than happy to do our part in helping to make this building a place where it can serve the boys & girls of the area, we also had to admit we were happy to be putting on those paint clothes for the last time.
We went next door for our "usual" breakfast at Cecelia's. She's figured out how much we love the fresh fruit, how much I like the coffee, and how much the dogs like Hillary. We're starting to feel like family! I will miss her but she's on Facebook so we will stay in touch there...which is just crazy to think about. She even started taking pictures of us today!
We headed to Tarcoles a little later than we had anticipated, and we were met there by Glenn's two painter guys who had been waiting a bit for us. When we apologized they just said "No problemo!" and we thought "Pura Vida" :). They are the hardest workers - between the 7 of us we knocked out the rest of the painting and even the cleaning up by about 1:30. They will return to finish the front of the outside and the ceiling, but other than that it certainly looks different than it did on Wednesday morning! Here are a few more before and after pics.
After a leisurely lunch at our favorite Soda, we loaded up the car and headed back to Esterillos. We stopped in Jaco to wander around a bit, and somehow we found another ice cream shop to try. While we were there Penny text Karen that she wanted us to go with her to Parrita to Diego's regular Saturday night youth group. She said we were to leave at 4:45, so I had a moment of panic when I looked at my watch and it said 4:20, knowing we had a 15 minute drive and we were all pretty nasty from painting! No one else seemed very concerned, and they even were looking at me a little strangely as I was rushing us to leave. Um...yeah...my watch was still set to Central time so it was really only 3:20. Lol!
The only unfortunate event of the day started at lunch when Brenda mentioned she had a bit of a headache. After our ice cream stop she said it was turning into a migraine, and by the time we got back it was full-blown. We dropped her off at her place so she could rest, while the rest of us got showered and ready to meet Penny.
It's always a treat to spend time with Penny, and she shared more SOH stories with us on the drive to Parrita. On the way to the Parrita Club House we stopped at the previous clubhouse, which is now a small place of business - a mini-hair salon for both girls & boys; it also hosts a wifi/computer room, and they rent movies. We then drove through some government housing, and viewed how an incredible number of people live in some pretty poor conditions. It was here that SOH pretty much began, as this was where a former prostitute brought Penny to show her where many mothers were bringing their children to generate income for them. Most of the people living in the government housing were homeless prior to moving into these residences, and there are gangs, prostitution & children running around unsupervised.
The clubhouse is definitely a bright light in this area. Penny & her husband Chris, who is in construction, built the clubhouse from the ground up, and it was just completed in November of last year. It was pretty awesome to hear worship songs & prayers in Spanish, as well as Diego's message. Although I could garner bits and pieces of the Romans 7 passage & the message he shared, it was certainly helpful to have Paula there to translate! It was just an awesome "ah ha" moment that God is so everywhere. I was really overwhelmed! Afterwards we chatted with some of the kids before heading back to Esterillos.
We stopped for supper just down the road from our little casa where we enjoyed some wonderful food and great conversation. After we returned, Penny & Karen went to check on Brenda, who was still suffering from her migraine. They prayed for her, gave her some medicine & a massage, and put her to bed. Praying for healing for that awesome gal.
Things I learned today in Costa Rica...1) I am spoiled. 2) The second you step out of the cold shower, you are immediately hot again. Like immediately before you dry off. 3) I am really, really spoiled.
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