rfs.

RFS is the most awful syndrome in the world. RFS stands for red face syndrome.. which I am the queen of. My face turns red allll the time, and it's just the worst.

Anyways.

Yesterday was the girls saturday program, but it was conjuntos, so it was guys and girls together, battle of the sexes. Some of the girls did a little dance performance which was cute, and the guys didn't really.. do much. My boss decided to give me a 20 minute advance warning that I had to sing and play guitar in front of everyone. I tried desperately hard to get out of it.. but she is really quite good and making me do things I don't want to do. So... I ended up playing a song I wrote.. and it wasn't terrible, but it definitely was not good either. Also.. 5 minutes before it started, one of the girls came up to me and asked me to sing with her, and I told her I didn't know the song, so she asked me to play guitar for her.. and I said again that I didn't know the song, and she said it didn't matter.. so we got the chords off the internet, and I accompanied her and 2 other girls. This was the greatest disaster of a song I have ever heard in my life. The 3 girls were all singing in different keys, none of which was the key I was playing in, and I'm pretty sure I was playing it wrong.. but I had never heard the song before and still haven't.. so I am excused.. anyways. It was quite the day.

Something cool is an answer to prayer.. There are some problems in my host family, and my host brother stopped talking to his dad quite a long time ago.. but they live in the same house. So.. I've been praying for my host family, and that my host dad and brother's relationship would be restored.. and last week they started talking to each other! It's little by little, but I've seen and heard them having just normal conversations.. and it's really neat to see how God is working in their lives. Neither of them are Christians.. and I've been trying to witness to them.. but they both are a little bit difficult to get through to. I have a couple weeks left though.. so I'll continue praying, and if you all could as well, that'd be great!

I didn't work on Friday, and I went to San Jose with a friend. We went to the gold museum and it was really neat. It's underground and has so much gold in it. They have lots of super tiny gold figures, and all the different types of money since colonial times.

I am starting to really look forward to coming home. I practiced packing my suitcase yesterday morning.. just to make sure everything fits.. aha. I will miss things here.. but I miss home.

Anyways

Love you all!

Thanks for all the prayer!

Jaclyn

"You never know how much you have until you don't have it.."

Thursday of last week the water was turned off in La Carpio.. I don't know all the reasons, but one of them was that a lot of the people don't pay their water bills, so they cut off the water supply... which kind of makes sense, but if they can't afford the water bill, why should the children have to suffer? I had multiple children come up to me this week telling me they were thristy and they wanted water.. and I couldn't do anything about it. So.. Tuesday they had a protest.. and really it was the dumbest thing ever. They didn't let anybody in.. they closed the road that goes into La Carpio.. and they started throwing rocks and lighting random things on fire. So... I'm not sure how that changes anything. They didn't get water until Wednesday or Thursday, and the refuge where I work still doesn't have any water. So.. yeah. That definitely sucked.

On Friday I went walking in La Carpio with my friends Callie, Walter and Ceci.. definitely the most sketchy walk of my life. La Carpio has quite the reputation of being super dangerous.. and I didn't feel 100% safe. But.. we walked pretty far away from the main road and saw the super poor houses. They literally live in the tiniest tin shacks.. probably smaller than my bedroom at home, which is 10x10 I believe. I went to my friend Ceci's house, and in her 'bedroom' there is one bed and her and her husband and her 5 year old daughter all sleep in that bed. It's just very... sad.. that we have so much and always want more and don't even appreciate what we have and always want more, and convince ourselves that we need more.. when really we have way more then enough.

The other day I was really missing my dad.. and I felt kinda homesick, and just really wanted to talk to my dad.. and I was sitting at dinner, and my host mom kept asking what was wrong, and I said nothing, and she said I don't believe you... are you sick? Ohh.. I know. You miss your dad. And then! I almost started to cry.. and then I thought.. I should go on facebook, maybe he'll be on. And! There he was. =) I was pumped.

Anyways.. nothing new really..

Love you all

xoxo

Jaclyn

bluh.

I hate seeing dogs getting hit by busses

I hate not knowing what part of an animal I am eating

I love the sun

I love coffee

I hate when things happen that I can't change

I hate not knowing what the future holds

I love teaching somebody something and having them show you that they've learned it

I love when Jesus feels close

I hate mosquitos

I hate not being able to go bare foot

I love seeing God's hand at work

I love seeing the sky clear up

lovehatelove.

I am in a love hate love relationship with Costa Rica I think...

Thursday night I was sitting at the computer at about 9 pm and my host parents had gone into their room to watch tv and my host brother was out.. and I saw this.. thing.. scurry across the floor. I thought to myself.. Wow, that is quite the large cockroach.. and then I looked again, and then was a rat running back under the couch! Being the big baby that I am.. I jumped on top of my chair and started yelling for my host parents, and they were just dying laughing as they came out of their room and saw me standing atop the chair screaming. Anyways.. they asked what happened, and I explained in very broken spanish (As I can't speak when I am freaking out) that there was a rat in the house and it ran under the couch. So.. they moved the couch and didn't see anything, and tried to tell me that it ran outside under the door.. which.. it had not! So I got off my chair and they went back to their room... and I did not move from my chair. My host brother came home and his friends were over too, and they asked what happened, and I told them there's a rat, so Jason (my host brother) went to look in my room for me, and it wasn't there.. guess where it was? In the kitchen! Awesome. So.. I didn't sleep well that night. I am still unaware as to whether or not it is in the house, because my family is in denial that it stayed in the house. So.. anyways. I am alive.. I don't have rabies.. it's all good.

Cool thing that happened... I had told one of the ladies that I work with (Lorena) that I wanted to buy jeans.. and so she told me she would take me somewhere where I could buy cheap jeans. So... I met her downtown yesterday afternoon and we went jeans shopping, and then Carmen (who I also work with.. these 2 ladies are the coolest people ever and have been best friends since they were 5) and Valesky (her daughter) met up with us, and we went for coffee.. and it was really great. I was super exhausted as I hadn't slept the night before.. and I hate shopping with people usually, because I like to just get what I need and go.. but I am learning a new thing called patience. Anyways. After our hangout time, I went to catch my bus home, and I got on the bus and the song 'you never let go' was on, and the words say, "Oh no, you never let go, through the calm and through the storm, oh no you never let go, in every high and ever low, oh no you never let go, Lord you never let go of me" and it was crazy, because I just felt like God was saying hey, I still got you, through every high, every low. And.. it was fabulous.

Anyways.. that would be all for now.

Sending love from Costa Rica!

xoxo

Jaclyn

Nicaragua anyone?

So.. I went to Nicaragua this past weekend with some friends because we all had to renew our visas.. and it was quite the trip. We got there Friday afternoon and went down to the beach, where I enjoyed a nice run and then we went for dinner. As I went with a group of people who love sleeping.. we went back to the hostel after dinner and they went to bed.. as did I because I wasn't allowed to go anywhere alone.. which was for the best.

Saturday we spent the day at the beach, which was super awesome. We took a surf lesson and then surfed for awhile longer.. and that was fun. I got really frustrated because I couldn't do it overly well and got a heck of a lot of salt in my eyes.. but it was really fun, and I didn't get sunburnt! WOoooo! (I wore sunscreen aha)

Sundayy.......Sunday we went into the city.. and a guy came up behind me and grabbed my hair and pulled me backwards and started telling me in spanish how good looking I am and how I should go with him somewhere.. and then.. some druggy started following us around.. and thenn. we were sitting at a friends house and this guy came up and started talking to us and he thought I didn't speak spanish, and he started talking to corey about me and asked if he could buy me and if I could stay in Nicaragua with him because.. apparently I am a princess and apparently super good looking.. and then corey said no he has to take me back to costa rica.. and the guy was gonna leave so he went and shook everyones hand.. and then stopped at me and put his hand on my head and started rubbign my hair and then tried to kiss me

but I put my hand up and said no.. and then Jefferson and Corey made him leave and then I started to cry. The worst was that he thought I didn't understand him because he was speaking Spanish, but I understood everything he said and just felt so uncomfortable.

But.. I am now back in Costa Rica and feeling at home and safe, which is good. I don't think I'll go to Nicaragua again anytime soon.. but yeah.

Home and safe!

xoxo

Jaclyn

btw!

Hey everyone,

So I don't have a whole lot to write.. the past week has been rather boring. As the refuge was closed I didn't have anything to do there.. and ESL classes were off Thursday, Monday, Tuesday because we had some doctors visiting and treating as many people as they could using la segunda where we have ESL class.

But! Now classes are back on for ESL which is nice. We had class this morning and it was awesome. I love ESL and I love the kids. Crazy story.. We only have 2 boys in our second class of the day.. their names are Ricardo and Christopher.. and Ricardo's house was robbed today. The boys went into Ricardo's house and there was about 7 guys in the house, and they pointed a gun at the boys (who are 11 years old) and said put your hands up. So the boys just stood there and the 7 men took everything out of the house. They took the TV, the DVD player, radio, computer, even the fridge.. and then they left. Before leaving they told Ricardo and Christopher that if they told the police they would kill them.. so they came to ESL and told us.. and Ricardo's eyes kept tearing up, and then he'd recover.. and then they'd tear up again.. and I didn't know what to do, so I went to get Kathy who is a counsellor so she could talk to them but they freaked out because they thought I was going to get the police... which I wasn't. But. ah. Just difficult.

After ESL class we had gringo time.. where the short termers get together and eat regular food and speak in English and just have some laughs.. definitely always a good time. We all did spiritual gift surveys this week so we talked about that today over lunch, so that was cool.

This week we are heading off to Nicaragua (both Katies, myself, Corey and Jefferson) to San Juan del Sur to soak up the sun! I am pretty pumped.. and hoping we don't have a repeat of my last trip to the beach aha. So.. if you could pray for safety that would be wonderful!

Sending love from Costa Rica!

xoxo

Jaclyn