Niemann Family: Costa Rica Missions Trip Day 3

June 22

We started the day with breakfast at Cecilia's place and were once again met with wonderful service, fresh papaya and pineapple and that great coffee. We had a great time visiting with Sara, & heard more about the miraculous story of living pain-free with severe scoliosis. The twist in her spine is obvious to anyone who stands being her and looks at her spine and hips, but she was healed at age 15 of all pain and went on be a skilled cheerleader (can you say Dallas Cowboys?!), have 5 children, a serve as a missionary for 40 years. What a story and what a lady!

After breakfast we walked a few doors down and saw where the staff lives. While we were walking around their pool area, we ran into Brenda, an awesome gal from San Diego who flew in the same day we did to serve with Seeds of Hope for 5 weeks. Her schedule was fairly open for the day so she came with us to paint, which turned out to be a godsend for all of us. She was a huge help, and having a younger person there for Hillary to connect with was awesome.

After praying over the clubhouse, Karen accidentally gave Hillary a roller full of paint to the forehead, giving her a new color for her bangs! We spent a lot of time priming some of the more challenging walls, and I have to give Brenda and Hillary a huge pat on the back for tackling the hardest walls of the whole place. They rocked it! Still not sure how we are going to get to the top corners but I'm sure we'll figure something out. There's a whole other wall this same size to the right of the rock column!

We had lunch at the same "Soda" where we ate yesterday, and again it was fantastic. Luckily Brenda speaks a little more Spanish than I do so the communicating went a little quicker! That great lunch gave us a little pick-me-up that we all needed to blow through the rest of the afternoon. Two more days of painting should finish the job!

The drive back and forth to Tarcoles from Oeste Esterillos where we are staying is absolutely breathtaking. We can see the ocean on one side of us from the highway, and the scenery on the other side is just as gorgeous. Planning to stop to see the sunset tomorrow or Saturday.

So things I learned in Costa Rica today...you really have to use your core when standing on a stepstool on top of a table...paint rollers will bend and even break plumb off when painting heavily textured walls...scissors are not as handy as a flathead screwdriver when taking tacks and staples out of a wall...and it takes a LONG TIME to cool down & quit sweating after you run 2 miles in this humidity. Just sayin'.