No work today….at least not this morning. Today, after breakfast, we went down to the road in front of La Finca to catch the local public bus to the middle of the town of San Pedro. There is a saying in many countries……”how many people can you put on a bus in ______; one more.” Well, that’s the way it was this morning. When the bus stopped for us it was already full, including standing room only. Seventeen of us scrunched on it and the bus started off down the road. There were several more stops before we reached town and each time we scrunched a little closer to each other. Just one stop before ours the bus nearly emptied out as all the students got off on their way to school. The ride wasn’t very long, maybe 5 miles, thankfully. We then walked a couple of blocks to a primary/kinder school. It actually was 4-6 year olds and Pastor Johnny told us it was one of the original schools in the town. Soon all the little kids came in by class. All of them were dressed in blue uniforms. Some were very fair skinned and had light hair and some were more darker skinned with very dark hair. Stephen told us that the Costa Rican is fair skinned and the darker skinned are probably Nicaraguan. We had several things planned, singing, puppets, Bible verse, story and crafts but we were not able to do all as the students were all on different schedules. Some of the classes had to leave half way through to either go home or go eat lunch. Luis helped with telling the Bible stories to the kids and Anne led the songs with much energy. We went with some of the kids to their playground and played with some of them for a few minutes. We finished up just before 11 a.m. and made our way down the street, through the park and got on the bus just before it left to head back to La Finca.
We had a short period of time to rest before lunch and then head back to the afternoon session at the school. This time the bus was empty and we all had seats. The afternoon session was much smoother. Perhaps because we were more organized or maybe because the kids were much less energetic. We did about the same program as the morning but we were able to add the crafts in the afternoon as the whole group of students stayed in the room. This time Paola told the stories and Anne, again, led the singing. After we were finished one of the teachers asked to pray for us. It was a good ending for the day. We had about half an hour until the bus came so stopped in a small store on the way to the bus stop for cold sodas and ice cream. We were joined by students on their way home but it wasn’t nearly as crowded as the start of the day.
The rest of the afternoon was free time. There was a cool breeze on the patio so several of us enjoyed sitting there. Devotions started at 5:30 tonight and were done by Kay Lynn. We followed with a supper of quesadillas and then went to work. Yes, work at night! There are supposed to be several of the church people here and the goal is to pour the first section of the columns. Apparently while we were eating they poured and completed one of the column sections. So, we helped to mix and pour on the second column and started filling in dirt around the base of the second column. As soon as the second column was poured the church people left and we were told to stop shoveling dirt into the hole in the ground. All done by 8 pm.
While we were working several boys showed up and started playing soccer in the completed part of the auditorium. Part of the vision for this church is to be a place the community will come to for a variety of activities. This is one of them. Therefore, soon after the concrete was poured for a floor they painted lines on the floor for a soccer field. Tonight is the first night people from the community, not associated with the church, have used the auditorium. Just before the game started the coach asked Pastor Johnny to speak to the kids for a few minutes. He was all smiles as he is seeing his vision become a reality.
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