A Bitter Sweet Day

We started this morning around 9 am headed to an orphanage. It is not really an orphanage. It´s a husband and a wife who adopt children. Right now they have over 30 kids. We stopped at the Basilica in Costa Rica first. This church is very symbolic to Ticos. People make pilgrimages from all over to the country to visit this place. We arrived there to see many of pews filled with people. People were lining up for confession and praying...it was a very serious moment for these people. We than went to a natural spring behind the church. The church has been blessed by a priest so people could drink the water and it will heal sickness and disease. People fill up bottles of this water to take home to sick friends and family. The Basilica is a sacred place for these people. We next traveled to the house of the kids. When we arrived, I was very timid. Mostly because of the language barrier. I was assuming that it would be us coming up to kids and doing the ol buddy, buddy. Instead...it was them coming up to us and wanting piggy back rides, looking at our watches and jewelry, and taking pictures with our cameras. We were going to a farm but im not sure why we didn´t. We ended up going to a park. There we played soccer, caught tadpoles in a lake or laguna. The whole time was spent bonding with these kids. That is what made this whole day difficult, we meet the kids...play, learn, laugh and than say goodbye; likely to never see them again. It was sad...some of these kids come from horrific stories. Some are dealing with physical problems because of someone caused it. Saying goodbye ot the kid I hung out with, Luis, was very difficult. I didn´t want to! I could feel there love as well as the love of God around me when I was with these kids. They didn´t care that we couldn´t speak the same language. I am sore, tired, sad and rejoiceful from this experience. After saying goodbye, we drove back to San Jose for a brief rest and food. We walked to the mall to eat at the food court. I ate at Taco Bell! LOL, it was much better than The Bell in the states. Somehow though... I felt I was ripped off at the register. HAHA. Friends and I strolled around the mall looking at shops and seeing what the mall was like. The truth is that this the mall in San Jose is like any mall in America. Lots of stores, lots of people and lots of things I can´t afford. I wanted to buy some nice Costa Rican cigars. Well...I thought that a three pack of these cigars I know are good was 14700 colones or roughly $28. I was wrong...that was the price per cigar! A pack of three was nearly $100. I felt like a dumb stuck'up American when I said that I can´t pay for this. I didn´t even have that much money on me. Oh well...i´ll have to barter somewhere else! We went back to the Crusade house and talked about our day. Many people cried when talking about there stories with these kids. I stayed back while most everyone went home and played some games. Tmorrow, we are going to church and all taking a personal day as we are going to tour the city and do some shopping. Maybe I´ll find those cigars!