Mountians and Easter

Hello again!I hope everyone has a wonderful Easter Sunday tomorrow! He is risen, He is risen indeed!
Easter is a bit different here. They take Good Friday and Holy Week very seriously. Thursday, no one was able to buy alcohol anywhere, and yesterday (Good Friday), the whole city shut down. Everything was closed and all public transportation stopped running. This is also the weekend most families go camping or on vacation, so churches usually aren’t too full on Easter.
Last weekend I went with a group of 9 other GAP students, my leader Justin, and three national missionaries to a group of indigenous people in the mountains of Costa Rica. We left Saturday morning after a hearty breakfast (pancakes) and arrived in the early afternoon. Our first stop was a church about 30 min. by foot into the mountain. We ate lunch around 4:30 in a little house made of tree limbs and planks tied together and a dirt floor. We sat on low wooden benches and watched kittens and chickens run around our feet as we ate. From there, we walked back to the church and got the equipment set up for the movies we were showing that night. The church had 2 single light bulbs hanging from the ceiling, which they screwed in when they needed light and unscrewed when they didn’t. When everyone arrived (and there were about 50 or so people there because they had all heard we were showing a movie) the GAP group sang a few songs then showed a movie about Adam and Eve and another called The Peace Child. After this, we served everyone supper. Then the pastor of the church and some other men got up and did a song in their own Cabecan language. After the song, everyone prayed out loud at the same time for about 30 min. It sounded so beautiful to hear everyone talking to God in their own language at the same time.
We slept in the church that night. The next morning, we ate breakfast (banana pancakes) and had church. It was the most laid-back church service I have ever attended. I’m sure most pastors back home would faint dead away if their congregations acted in such a laid-back fashion. We sang some songs, one of the GAP girls told the creation story several times, the missionary spoke a bit, then the pastor spoke for a while, then they got up and did some more songs, then we played a game. And all the while, the people were walking in and out of the church and talking to each other during the lessons. The service stopped several times and we just sat there waiting for what was next.
After lunch, we gathered the things we would need for the night, neatly stuffed them into our backpacks, filled our water bottles, and headed up the mountain towards the next village. It took us a little less than 2 and half hours to make it up. By this time, I felt like I had died at least one death. I believe hiking that mountain was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. And then to add insult to injury, as I staggered up the last large hill, panting and breathing with all my might and imploring my legs to take just one more step, our young Cabecan guides RAN it. I guess that’s what happens when you live in the mountains, you learn to run up cliff-like hills.
We reached the schoolhouse of the village in the late afternoon. I have never felt so away from all of society and civilization in my life. There were a few scattered houses down the hill from the school, but other than that, there was nothing. It was eerily quiet; nothing but a few mountain birds calling back and forth and the faint sound of the river rushing below. Once in a while a dog barked. There were green mountains all around us. We had taken a step back into time, to a place where there was no electricity and the world was unspoiled by pollution or garbage. We were the first white people in that area.
A little after our arrival, the boys went off and gathered firewood, and our guide built a fire in the building designated at the kitchen. By this time, it was dark, and with no electricity anywhere, I was very thankful for a full moon. A few of the girls and I made supper by candle and flashlight in the kitchen, while the rest shared the gospel and the Jesus film in the schoolhouse next door. This was the first time they had seen a movie and it was the first time they had heard about Jesus. It was a really awesome opportunity.
We fed everyone the food we had made, then my whole group (5 guys and 7 girls) settled into a tiny room between the kitchen building and the schoolhouse for the night. We ate breakfast the next morning (pancakes, again) then started back down the mountain. Going down was significantly better than going up and we made in back in an hour and 15 min. We swam in the river for 2 hours until lunch (I almost went down rapids and drowned but there was a perfectly placed root under the water that I grabbed before I went down, so all is well.) Then we ate lunch, packed up, walked 30 min. to the bus and took off back to San Jose.
And Villa sweet Villa, it was good to be home. I definitely appreciate my bed and shower and indoor, flushable toilet a great deal more.
Tomorrow for Easter, we are having a big dinner, and then we may be watching the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We are also having an Easter egg hunt and dying eggs. One can never be too old for such things. Happy Easter to everyone!