It was all just a dream.

We built that wall with our bare hands.

It was all just a dream. A three day dream full of adventure, victory, and sadness. It wasn't as cool as Inception, but it was pretty close. We had some heroic moments, some disastrous moments, and some downright awkward moments. I'm actually quite thrilled to be alive right now. Seriously. Here's what went down:


We woke up Monday morning after a long night of watching movies and the Academy Awards (which was actually quite annoying, considering the performance given by Anne Hathaway and James Franco), and headed to the Indian zone. Well, we took a bunch of detours and made a few stops first. We stopped at Jazmin's apartment to drop off furniture (she goes back to college next week). Her apartment has a banana-yellow refrigerator. I've never actually thought about refrigerators until now, and now I know that I want a banana-yellow refrigerator.


Next we stopped at McDonald's for lunch. I have to say that I have never eaten as much fast food in the States as I have here. In the past month I have eaten at Burger King and KFC once each, and at McDonald's four times. I find it ironic that I had to leave America to become a fast food junkie. We'll see how well I adjust when I return...


After lunch we drove to the hardware store to buy boots, and I sure am glad I bought them. You see, before we left for the trip I was told to bring money for boots. I simply thought, Gee, I already have these pretty purple tennis shoes that I love dearly. Why not just wear those and save my money? Well, because that would have been a major mistake. 


You see, we got to the Indian zone around 3:30 (we left the house around 9:30 that morning, if that tells you anything about Costa Rica time). I had been told that we were going to hike up the mountain, stay for one night, build a wall, and come back down. This means I packed an extra shirt, a pair of socks, an extra pair of underwear, and my toothbrush. I mean, how bad can 36 hours on a mountain be? I spent 12 years of my childhood on a mountain and I turned out fine.


Yeah well, this mountain was different.  I consider myself fairly athletic. I have lots of 5ks, a few triathlons, and a marathon under my belt. I can climb a mountain. I was told that it would take two hours, although the natives can do it in 45 minutes. And Monday afternoon I found I can climb a mountain carrying my backpack, a cooler of food, and my sorry self up a trail of red mud to the very top of a mountain in one hour, eleven minutes. But I can't do it easily. After five minutes I was huffing and puffing (where was my inhaler?), sliding in the mud (thank God for those sexy boots), and begging my legs to keep carrying me. I was following Mario (the pastor)'s wife. RJ followed us for a few minutes, and then dropped back. The rest of the gang was way behind. 


I'm a bit competitive. Okay, scratch that. I'm VERY competitive. And I wasn't about to let myself fall from the native's pace. No way. So I huffed and puffed, sweating in places I didn't even know could sweat. My poor shirt was drenched and my sunglasses were sliding off my face. About 30 minutes into our journey, Mario's wife turned around. Cansado? she asked me. Heck yeah, I wanted to say. Can't you see I'm a fat American who ate McDonald's for lunch and can't carry this cooler across the parking lot, let alone up a mountain? But no, I did what I always do. My face lit up, and I replied in a high pitched, cheery voice, No!


It's this lack of proper communication from my brain to my face and mouth that concerns me. I think it's some kind of legitimate disorder. After all, that's why I was hiking up the mountain in the first place. I began to rewind in my head: 
Lacee: Hey Gabbie, wanna come to youth with me?
Me: That sounds like watching paint dry. Of course!


Robin: Gabbie, do you want to come on a missions trip to Alaska?
Me: It depends who's going. *looks at the list* No (expletive) way. I'd love to!


(Repeat the above with Seattle).
The youth group: Gabbie, since you've been on so many other mission trips, do you want to go to Costa Rica this summer? We're doing a VBS.
Me: Don't they know I hate grimy kids?? Sure, why not? 


Pastor Luis: Gabbie, do you want to come back to Costa Rica in your gap year?
Me: No way, it's as hot as hell down here. Nothing would make me happier!

Pastor Luis: Gabbie, do you want to hike up to the indians?
Me: I hate hiking and roughing it. I do. I really do. Don't say yes. Don't say yes. Don't say yes. Don't say yes. YES! I hate you.


Mario's Wife: Cansado?
Me: You bet. I hate this. I want to die right here, right now. No!


And that, my friends, is why I was hiking up that dreaded mountain on Monday afternoon. And after one hour and eleven minutes, we reached the top. This is one of those legit mountain tops, where you have a 360 degree view of everything. There was nothing I wanted to do more than drop my bags, punch the air, and scream expletives at the top of my lungs, cursing the mountain. You know, just like they do in those mountian climbing movies. But I didn't (again). I just calmly walked to a bench, sat my stuff down, and walked around. It was beautiful. It really was. But that doesn't make it worth the climb, in my opinion. We are going to have to get a lot of work done to make it worth this journey, I thought. And luckily, we did. We built a wall.


But it wasn't easy work. There is no electricity and no running water. I'm not just talking about no indoor plumbing. I'm saying if you're thirsty, you take a five gallon bucket down to the river, fill it up, and carry it back up. Have you ever carried a 5 gallon jug of water up a mountain? Yeah, neither had I until this trip. I had the opportunity to take part in this ritual on Tuesday morning, and it's not something I want to do again. I will now always remember to give thanks for water, even if it's one of those little outdoor spickets that you have to pump. I'm fine with that as long as there are no more rivers, but really I prefer indoor plumbing. 


Obviously, since there was no electricity or plumbing, cooking was a challenge. Luckily, we had Zulay and Mario's wife, both of whom enjoyed cooking outside over a fire and roughing it (puzzling, I know. I don't even like to cook with a real kitchen). If it weren't for them, I would have simply resorted to eating leaves and woodchips, so I think God should give them a special place in heaven for keeping the gang alive on that mountain. 


We didn't actually work on Monday, unless you count climbing the mountain and cooking over a fire work (which I do). It gets really dark really early, so we were in bed by 8:00. No problem, right? Wrong. Here was our sleeping arrangement:

Left to right: Me, RJ, Jazmin.

It may look like a sleepover, but it's not. The house was actually raised off the ground, and there were slits in between the wood, so the cold mountain night air seeped in quite rapidly. And people (I won't mention who) liked to snore and talk in their sleep. And it rained. And we only had one sheet each. Without pillows. And no one brought a jacket because I mean, Hey, it's Costa Rica! I've been melting my entire stay, so why bundle up now? Yeah, okay. No one slept at all. And since we went to bed at 8:00, we were all restless by midnight. 
And see,  I could have totally done this for one night. Really. But when we woke up Tuesday morning we were surprised (astonished, actually) to find out that we would be staying one more night. I wanted to break down and cry. By noon I was filthy from getting water and carrying logs and trees to the building site and digging holes. And I was thirsty and hungry and tired and sore from the night before and, most of all, I wanted to watch TV. But I kept myself under control since we still had a lot of work to do. After all, I'm physically able to do this kind of work, so there was no point in wasting my ability. And I knew I could last until Wednesday night without a shower. If I had showered Monday morning, that would have been great. But, when I thought about it, I hadn't showered since Saturday night when we got back from Mahanaim. Once again, expletives ran through my head. 
I had slept so horribly on Monday night that I devised a plan to ensure a better night's sleep on Tuesday: I would work myself to death so that when my head hit that wonderful wood floor, I wouldn't be able to do anything besides pass out. That didn't work so well. Instead, I was even more awake. But RJ, Jazmin and I had decided that snuggling together would help us stay warmer throughout the night. Yes, we were warmer, but every time someone moved (which was about once every 20 minutes) we all woke up and struggled to get comfortable again. Obviously we weren't meant to sleep those nights. That's okay. We're all just a bunch of teenagers. It's not like we like to sleep or anything....


So Wednesday I was filthy, tired, thirsty and hungry. (We had food and some water, but I don't like relieving myself in the woods, so RJ, Jazmine and I tried our best to limit trips to the restroom. Mission: Accomplished). After finishing our wall, we hiked back down the mountain (it only took about 30 minutes!) to find that the cars had been broken into. Nothing important was taken except RJ's iPod. He tried to play it cool, but I know he was weeping on the inside. Moral of the story: Don't leave things in cars. 


So I survived. We survived. Praise Jesus. The funny part is, on the way back to Grecia I actually had a brief train of thought. It went like this: 
Ha, I could do that for a little while. No problem. I'm strong. I could live without my computer. I could cook over a fire. Well, first I would need to learn how to make a fire, but that's beside the point. The people are nice. It's a beautiful place. I could do that. 
Yeah well, then we passed McDonald's and Jazmin wanted to stop for dinner. My train of thought switched expeditiously switched tracks.
What was I thinking? I couldn't do that. Forget it. I love McDonalds, electricity, and showers way to much to suffer like that. No way. Absolutely no way.


Well, the thought was nice while it lasted. I totally went on the adventure because Jesus told me to, and if I had to do it again, I would. I could. Maybe. All I know is that I will never take the following things for granted again:
-Microwaves
-Stoves (even though I don't use them that much)
-Ovens
-Refrigerators
-Food other than rice and beans
-Electricity
-Easily accessible water
-TV
-My computer, Leon
-Showers
-Hot showers
-Insulated buildings
-Paved roads
-Non-muddy trails
-Pillows
-Mattresses
-Clothes to layer when it gets cold
-And a bunch of other stuff I don't feel like typing.


So I woke up this morning, in a bed with a pillow and real mattress, in a real building, and I couldn't have been happier. I also felt like I had just woken from a coma. For some odd reason I couldn't remember what had happened. I feel that it was my body's way of telling me that we're not cut out for the whole "roughing it" thing. 
Here are some pictures:

Beginning our journey.

Zulay and Jazmin climbing

Still climbing.

The horribly foggy view.

This is Mario. He's the pastor of the church. He has five sons, one daughter, a super nice wife, and one arm.

Pastor Luis eating breakfast.

Me eating breakfast.

Jazmin!

The kitchen.

Fixing the roof.

Carrying the logs.

Zulay works, too :)

Jaz and her happy face.

The first parts of the wall!

My happy face.

Campfire songs.

Piece by piece

Yeah, don't take RJ on a construction trip...

The happy face slowly disappearing...

Pancakes from the mountain. Yum.

My sexy boots after the hike up. Thank goodness I didn't wear my purple shoes...

Mario's house.

But whatever. Today was my last day in Costa Rica and I couldn't have had a better time here. I've been to La Palma, Golfito, Panama, San Jose, Coronado, Mahanaim, and the Indian zone, as well as the Poas and Arenal volcanoes. I've stepped out of my comfort zone (okay, I was kind of pushed out), and I am super proud of myself for that. I'm also proud of RJ for not dying on me during these adventures. He seemed pretty close at times. 


Now I'm off to the States to tour the country by Amtrak. I'll be visiting 16 cities, so I'm sure I'll have lots to write about!


Oh yeah, and while I'm still on the Costa Rica topic: I'm organizing a construction group to come down first week of January to build a church in La Palma. I promise, it's not like the Indian zone. Don't let this post scare you off. If you can build things and want to come to Costa Rica, let me know! (Or if you speak Spanish. We'll need some translators). My email is hoekstra.gab@maine.rr.com.




And here are some more random pictures of good times down here: