June 17th?, 2010

            I am beginning to feel emotionally drained. Mark, my youth pastor, warned us of this. Everything here is emotional in some way or another. Usually in a good emotional way, though. I can feel the tears building up, just because of everything that's been happening. It's been a rather emotional week- but I love it! I don't want to cry. I want to stay emotionally strong during this trip. I almost feel like this is an extremely long dream...surely I'm not in Costa Rica, in Central America?!? That's loco!

       My team is so...strange! :) We got home from visiting a local high and up at the guy's camp a terribly loud ruckus is heard. All the guys are standing outside screaming and chanting, "Andy! Andy! Andy!" Soon, all the girls join in the fun- not real sure of what exactly is happening though. When suddently, Mr. Cliff runs out of the room chanting, "He poops! He poops!" Apparently, he's been constipated ever since we got here. So now our team throws a fiesta in his honor, for his uh, accomplishment. Oh, I love my team. We can rejoice together in the smallest of things...even Andy's digestive problems, Ha-ha!

     Scorpions! The entire camp has gone into complete brouhaha ever since Ben found a four inch scorpion in his bed. Everyone is refusing to fall asleep for fear of these little monsters.

    Last night, Lucila ( another one of our translators ) and some of the other girls were sitting at the table after dinner and she began to tell us about her love life. I promise you, Lucila has got to be one of the funniest women I have ever met! All the girls and I were seriously falling off our chairs, gagging and wheezing from laughing so hard! Ohh, the stories she has to tell!

   It's nice to just be able to relax and talk with the people on my team. We are really getting to know each other well, people I never thought I'd get to know at church. Sometimes though, I feel that with a few, God is really testing my patience..

       This afternoon, Emily, Dana and I just could not take the horrible stench of our clothes anymore! We were all running low on clean shirts and underwear so we decided to be resourceful, and use a bottle of "Suave Bottle Wash" in the sink to wash all our clothes in. It was a fun time, as we sang and danced around, splashing each other with cold, soapy water while trying to urge the smell to release its cling on our clothes. We then hung up all our clothes with clothespin on a string.

    

     I was certain that with the help of some Febreeze, our clothes could be smelling like an "Ocean Breeze". I couldn't have been more wrong. The next day, the clothes were rock-hard ( I guess air drying will do that ) and reeked like a wet dog! Oh, it's awful! I can smell myself right now, and it's not pleasant! So much for our afternoon of hand washing clothes.