Weekend Update(s) with Kiki Noa

Why hello there!  I have seriously dropped the ball on updates, and for that I apologize--my schedule has just seemed to fill up instantly the past three weeks, so to make it up to ya'll, I will fit as many pictures as possible into this post.

Two weekends ago was the United World Mission/Latin America Mission retreat.  It was awesome.  There were missionaries from Costa Rica, missionaries staying in CR while studying language and then getting headed to go to Paraguay, there was a couple from South Africa there (they were so awesome!), AND there were people from the home office in the U.S. that came down for the weekend.  It was such a treat to see everyone I've gotten to know since being here, matching faces to names I've read in emails, and meeting new people.  It was such a blast!  Here's the video one of the missionaries put together--and I pulled out a few photos I thought you might enjoy.  (If the video doesn't work, let me know and I'll try to fix it)

Edwin (top) playing with Elliot and Quinn

The whole UWM Group

Me; either very pensive or very tired.  More likely tired.

 I'm pretty sure I've mentioned that I started working with Suzanne, another missionary here, to help care for her son, Edwin, while she's at work.  I decided to pull out some pictures of them just so you can match names and faces too!

A great shot of Suzanne laughing

Last weeknd, I went to Cauhita with my roommates.  Oh yeah, I have roommates now!  They all moved in while I was gone at the UWM retreat, and so pretty much overnight it went from just me in the house to me and four other girls.  They're awesome.  It's so cool having more people in the house, people to talk with and hang out with--and to go to the beach with!  I am seriously SO excited to have all these girls living here!  For future reference, when I mention either Marissa, Kelly, Meagan, or Jasmine, I'm talking about one of my roommates (unless I specify otherwise, obviously).

"Welcome to Cahuita"

Cauhita is this cute little tourist town that is right along the coast.  I went with Marissa, Kelly, and Meagan, as well as the five other people in their study abroad program, and we stayed in a hostel that was literally an eight minute walk from the beach. It was so nice.  It was wonderful to get away from the city a little bit and enjoy the sunshine and waves that the coast has to offer.  It was also a great way to get to know my new roommates, as well as other people my age!  It was such a great time, and I hope that we all get to travel together again sometime!  I'm still waiting on a couple of other people's photos to be uploaded to Facebook, but for now I'll give you the ones I have.

Welcome indeed!

The Alarm Clock

The hostel was right across the street from a chicken farm...sort of.  I mean, they had a lot of chickens/roosters and little chicks that they were selling.  Does that qualify it as a farm?  IN any case, <------ THIS GUY was the wake-up call none of us had asked for (at 4:00 in the morning and every hour subsequently!)  But he wasn't even the worst of the wildlife.  Before we went to the beach, we bought water and snacks to munch on.  We got to a nice spot with not too many people (though there were not too many people anywhere--a huge difference from San Jose!!), a mix of sun and shade, and space for all of us.  After a while, I opened my bag of a sort of Chex Mix, ate some, and then rolled the bag up, put it next to my things, and went to enjoy some sunshine.  A few minutes later Meagan calls me over to say that raccoons had come and taken my bag away!

Filthy bandit raccoons.

 And there they were.  Enjoying MY snack.  You can even see them enjoying it in the background of this picture!  I was shocked and appalled with them (but that dissipated fairly quickly because they were still pretty cute).  Lesson learned: either it it all right away, or guard it somewhere very secure.

Aside from the raccoon fiasco (and the early wake up calls) the weekend was a ton of fun, and I think we all enjoyed getting some sun and seeing some sights.

Nick and this little cutie!

Also, we were able to buy some fresh fruit (the pineapple here is SOOOO delicious!) and the daughters of the owners of the hostel (or friends of theirs, at least) wandered over and gratefully accepted some pineapple as well.  This little girl si so adorable, and her hair is so awesome!!

Once I finally get the group shot(s) I'll post them here, don't worry!

Group Shot!

Finally, that brings us to this weekend (like, yesterday).  Kelly and Jasmine went on excursions to Puerto Viejo (about half an hour from Cahuita--but with much more going on), and so Marissa and Meagan and I had the weekend to ourselves.  After asking our host parents what there was to do in San Jose at night that DIDN'T include going to a bar (go to a movie, or the theater, basically) we decided not to go out.  It came up that Marissa had yet to see Frozen, and so more or less immediately my room got converted into a mini home-theater and we watched Frozen.  Saturday, we headed out to walk around downtown a bit, just so they could get used to the city and learn how to get around to a few places.  It was a nice afternoon out (though I'm pretty sure I got a bit sunburned from it...).

Marissa and me

Meagan and Marissa

Me and Meagan

Also, as two bonus pictures, one I think I forgot to write about (or if not, then just a refresher, I guess) of Cecilia and Herbert, and their neighbor and her son.  Also, a night shot of the city because it's just so gorgeous every single night.  I love the way the area lights up at night, it's so pretty!

Left to Right: Cecilia, Roger behind his mom, Irma, and Herbert on the end

As you can see, I've been fairly busy the past few weeks--too much time soaking up the sun to update my blog ;)  Really though, I am sorry for not keeping up-to-date with it, I'll try and get back to a regular schedule!!  However, this Wednesday (the 19th) I'll be in New Jersey visiting our dear friends Lonzell and Judy Wilson (also, the tourist visa here only lasts 90 days and so I need to leave the country for a few days and then come back to renew it).  So who knows if I'll be too busy enjoying their company to update....spoiler alert, I probably will be.  The point is, I've been doing a lot of traveling lately, and that takes up a lot of my previous free time, where I would be updating my blog.  In any case,  I hope you enjoyed the update, and if there's something you want to hear more about, leave me a comment below! (Or if you just want to comment you can leave a comment below too....)

Thanks for reading!

Peace and Blessings,
Kiki