I made it! Praise God, I made it. I was pretty intimidated and overwhelmed the first few days. I was just made really uncomfortable by my unfamiliar surroundings and not being fluent in spanish so I was, indeed, culture shocked! We had the weekend off to do whatever and so I think that I needed that to just collect myself and let it set in that I'm going to be here until the end of July. I feel a little more at ease after hanging out with the interns this weekend.
So I am an intern for Students International and I will be working at the tutoring center ministry site. There are several different ministry sites that include photography, social services, sports, business, and some others. As an intern, I will be here for two months with the other interns and we help lead groups of students that come down to work on short-term, 2 week long mission trips. I stay with the other two girl interns, Sarah and Bre, with our host family Mita and Carlos. All of the interns and students and most of the staff live in Desamparados, which is kind of like a county or sect of San Jose, Costa Rica.
It's definitely unsettling when you arrive in a strange city where every house looks like a cage. There are literally bars on the front of every house and two sets of doors to lock. After being here for a few days, I actually feel a lot safer, surprisingly, knowing that I'm locked in behind two sets of doors :) Perhaps I'm a chicken...
I was really homesick at first and just wanted to leave but I know that's not an option. It would be so easy to just check out now and go back to comfortability but I can't let that happen. God has opened up so many doors for me to be here and has granted me with this opportunity for a reason and I will not squander this. I feel unbelievably blessed to come down here to be whatever God needs me to be. Even though I feel separated by language and culture, God can work through any circumstance and any obstacle. He is with me and I cling to that.
