Today began fairly early as we had to meet the paint delivery folks at the Tarcoles Clubhouse at 8:30...or so we thought. But we'll get to that later. We went "next door" for breakfast where we were served eggs, black beans & rice (a staple with pretty much every meal), toast and the best coffee ever. Seriously. It is fabulous. Basically the lady who lives in the place next to us, Cecelia, has a little restaurant and serves meals. It's kind of like a Bed & Breakfast for us. She & her family are awesome and she's so patient with me as I continue to try and use Spanish to communicate! We had two SOH friends meet us for breakfast - Josh, who is from New York, is fairly new to SOH & runs the clubhouses in Jaco, and Sarah, who is a seasoned 40+ year missionary and has been with SOH for some time now. She loves Africa and told us "I was actually on my way back to be a missionary in Africa when I met Penny Williams!" That seems to be a recurring theme :)
Breakfast was so nice - it's pretty hard not to enjoy drinking great coffee while watching the waves crash just a few yards away. Not my typical Kansas morning view!
We packed up a few things and headed out on the 45-minute drive to Tarcoles with little or no directions. I drove and Karen navigated, and we made it right to the clubhouse with one minor turn-around...which was actually just trying to get out of the area where we are staying! We had enough time to spare to walk down to the beach area, get the clubhouse opened up, & find all the light and fan switches (which was NOT EASY!!) before 8:30. When the delivery didn't arrive right away, we took advantage of the extra time to pray over our day, and to write some scripture and positive words all over the walls we would be painting. By then it was almost 9, so we started sweeping and prepping the walls as best we could...and then we swept some more...and drank more water...and planned out our painting strategy...and waited some more. By this tine it was 10:15 so we decided that Hillary and I would drive back to Jaco to the paint store to check in with them. Just as I started the car Penny text Karen that they were on their way, which turned out to be a really good thing because later we learned that the paint store wasn't actually in Jaco! I told the girls that God probably saw me getting in the car and said, "Get those guys on their way...they don't have time for Jen to get lost and spend all day trying to find her way back" :)
A couple of things I learned about painting in Costa Rica. Stir sticks are optional, as are paint can openers, although a long stick and scissors work in a pinch. I also learned that light grey paint really looks like white. Oh - and an X-Acto knife doesn't work as well as a true scraper. Just some tips.
We had a great time painting, covering a LOT of mint green paint with grey/white and priming a all the walls with pictures painted on them. We enjoyed a fantastic lunch just up the road a few steps. The food here has such great flavor - not spicy, just really flavorful. And they cook with very limited pots, pans and kitchens. Less is more.
We got back to our place around 5:30 & decided to go walk in the ocean before supper. I had a slight tragedy when the right sole of my Teva's came unglued, so I returned to our casa before the rest of the girls. I decided to slip on my running shoes and go for a quick run. In Costa Rica there are so many dogs running around - all very friendly fortunately. As I rounded a curve two dogs were running around and thought I was their new playmate. I almost stepped on one and the other jumped up and gave me a nice scratch on the leg! I kept that run short. Between that and smashing my finger in the mop handle, I am in need of some band-aids.
Supper was fantastic - fresh-caught fish with potato cakes, rice and beans of course and a wonderful cucumber, greens & tomato salad. Served with fresh avocado - right off the tree that was growing behind our table. Cecilia topped it off with a fresh fruit drink that was outstanding.
By the way, crisis averted...super glue is being delivered by Sarah in the morning to fix my Teva's. And bringing band-aids. Whew.
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