That said, the cold North Carolina weather did provide our first challenge of the trip when it brought us a dose of snow the day before we were leaving. Our initial itinerary was to meet at the church at 3am the morning of the 13th (Saturday) and head to RDU to catch our 6am flight. But then the weather reports started to indicate that the snow would start mid-afternoon Friday and continue all night, making a 3am drive potentially dangerous. Fortunately our group was feeling flexible, so we were able to drive up Friday and spend the night at a hotel just down the road from the airport. We met up in the lobby at 4am and began our journey southbound.
Though Costa Rica isn't actually that far away, it ends up being a very long day of travel. We flew to Houston where, thanks to a delay in our first flight, we had only enough ttime to get a snack before boarding the second flight. We finally arrived in Costa Rica at about 1pm (2pm EST). It took a while to get our things together, go through customs, and change over some money, so about an hour later we met up with Clarence (the liaison from North Carolina for mission trips), Bishop Hector, and our bus driver for the day - Olger (pronounced Ol-hair).
After a greeting from the Bishop we were on our way to Earth, the university where we are fortunate enough to stay on these trips. It took almost two hours to get out of San Jose and through the rainforests to Rancho Robertos, the excellent restaurant where we had lunch. Then another 40 minutes or so down the road to Earth. We arrived at dusk, oriented ourselves to our rooms and the campus, and succomed to our fatigue and went to bed early.
It's now Sunday morning, and we woke up to the sound of soft rain outside and the chirping of birds. We've had breakfast together, and we're waiting for a 10am bus to take us to Estrada where we will attend church at Santiago. After church we'll work for the afternoon, mostly preparing for a week of plastering the walls. The good news of this trip so far? There's rumors of a mixer. (Jennie, Clarence especially wanted you to know that). We're excited to see our friends in Estrada, and to begin work. More updates to come after that!
Below are some pictures of the group as we got off the plane in Costa Rica. The only person missing is our fine Junior Warden Gary Krasicky, who had the foresight to take the pictures in the first place. Thanks Gary!
Oh, and a special note. We were sad to learn at the last minute that Sandy Lampros could not join us on this trip because of some family issues. It being too late to get a refund, we searched for someone that would be willing to come to Costa Rica with virtually no advance notice. Amazingly, we found someone. So thanks to Katharine Vess who packed her bag, threw her passport in it, and joined us for the trip! And Sandy, we miss you.
Without further ado, our group:
Martha Parsons
Okay so it seems like we're experiencing some technical difficulties with this blog. So I'll have to list the other folks instead of showing the pictures. Sorry about that! Our other folks are Fred and Carolyn Giltzow, Katharine Vess, Gary Krasicky, Cynthia Norwood, Bob Ward, Ray Brown, Stuart Mills, Mav Hankey and Meaghan Kelly. And pictures or no, we're having a jolly good time!
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