Estoy Aqui.

I'm here! A few things:
- It's hot. Really hot. It's also windy, but the wind is also hot, so you don't even notice it.
- It's buggy. I forgot about this and how much it drove me near the edge of my sanity the first time I came. Honestly, I called Mum and Dad in tears one night and was like "THERE. ARE. BUGS. EVERYWHERE. I can't handle this." And Dad made some crack about "are you going buggy?" and I almost hung up the phone. When it's dark out and the lights in the house are on, it feels like you're in one of those butterfly sanctuaries where all the butterflies come and land on you... except instead it's flies, moths, those neon green hopping bugs, more moths, mosquitoes, etc. I even had a tick land on me last night, even though I'm 99.5% sure they cannot fly.
- The beans and rice are even more delicious than I remembered.
- I have a lot of work to do. But it's fun stuff.
- Ina gets here in 2 days! So so so excited.
- There is another Finnish family on staff here and they have a 3-year old boy who fluently speaks Finnish, Swedish, English and Spanish. Did I mention he is 3? The funny thing is, we met yesterday while I was helping with a kids club and speaking Spanish to all the kiddos around me. He instantly chimed in in Spanish, and now he will not speak anything else to me but Spanish, even when I ask him questions in English. His hair is almost white from the sun and everyone who sees it must touch it.
- Miss you all.

On the Runway Again.

Hi from Houston Airport.
I know myself and a few others in the family have the reputation of being jet-setters, but until today I forgot how much I greatly dislike the experience of getting from point A to B. On the way home from somewhere, it's usually a good processing time to mull over a few months in another country. But today traveling definitely feels like a necessary evil to get to the good stuff -- being there and getting things done. Admittedly I prolonged the experience by giving up a spot on a direct flight for a slightly less direct route and generous voucher. It seemed totally worth it at the time, since I had a long layover and nothing to lose. Three hours later, sleep-deprived and in the middle of turbulence over Denver, (on a totally calm, sunny day.. go figure), I was second guessing that decision....

BUT. All of this just emphasizes how good it feels to be going someplace to get something done. It's been 5 years since I've been to Costa Rica and 7 months since I've been abroad and working on a something big and exciting. It's one of those weird God things how this all came together -- a few years ago my friend Salla (who staffs a YWAM base way out in the boonies of CR) noticed a huge need for information/education on sexual health among young people, and is now essentially writing a sexual ed curriculum. They want to be able to use this in a more formal setting (like schools), but also have it be flexible enough to use in other contexts, and address things like HIV, STDs, birth control, as well as purity, abstinence, and where God comes into play with this stuff. The topics are so up my alley it's ridiculous. I could whine about it not being in Africa, but the fact that it's in a context I'm familiar with already and where I can actually (rustily) speak the language is really, really good.

More from the hot and dusty boonies of Coral de Piedra. Love to you all!

With a gigantic grasshopper on the first trip to Costa Rica, in 2005.