"We are the Champions..."

Whew! What a busy weekend! Rebecca and I have both been all over the place this weekend doing various things. Yesterday we woke up early and took our “loaner” Land Cruiser for a drive. We had intentions of going to watch the sunrise, but when I got up at 4:30 it was raining. So I happily went back to bed until about 6:00 and then we woke up. By then it had stopped raining and we still jumped in the Cruiser and went to our predetermined spot. It is about 20 minutes from the house and it is at about 6500 feet. Our house is at 3500 ft and the view from this spot is really pretty. San Jose sits in a valley and from this vantage point you can really see the whole city and across to the other side of the valley. Supposedly on a really clear day you can see the volcanoes on the other side, but there were too many clouds Saturday morning, although we were not disappointed. The temperature change is also remarkable. We took along our jackets and luckily so. They came in handy. We returned from the valley view and back to our house and then went out to breakfast for a typical breakfast dish called “Gallo Pinto” the painted rooster. Don’t ask how the dish got its name because it is basically red beans and rice, but it is very good and cheap, which is another bonus. Most Saturdays we have gone to the farmers market and the bakery, but we really didn’t need anything from either place this weekend so we just came home after eating.

Now, for explanation of today’s title, “We are the champions.” Yesterday the school hosted a 3-on-3-basketball tournament. For those of you who know me, my height is deceiving as I am not much of a basketball man. I have never been what you would call great, although I enjoy playing. So for most of our time here in Costa Rica, I have gone to play basketball on Tuesday nights at the school. A great time to speak English and not think about homework, conjugating verbs, and putting sentence structures together. So fast-forward to yesterday to the tournament. The crazy thing is that people actually asked me to be on their team. I humbly said yes knowing there are better people, although most are smaller. Size does help, and when you play “Ghetto” ball like some of these people, (my fellow students and the Costa Rican’s) it helps to have a big man down under to take care of business. We formed a team of 4, which was nice as it allowed us to rotate a bit and stay fresher. There were a total of 12 teams that showed up. Now mind you this tournament was open to anyone, open to the community and the students alike. We played our first 2 games and lost heartbreakers. Our first was lost in overtime to a good team and our second to another good team in which we lost by only 1 shot. Regardless those first two games placed us into the tournament. Our first game was fairly easy and we handily won, which was a confidence booster after our first two losses to good teams. This whole tournament got started at about 10:30. After winning that game we were slated to play the team who had beat us previously in our second game. They were a tough fight but we ended up beating them solidly and it was sweet redemption since it was single elimination once the tournament officially began. Our next game was a nail biter. Technically it could be considered a semi-final game and we were already farther than we expected. The competition for the semifinal game was great, but we hung in there actually keeping a lead most of the game. The games were 2-10 minute halves for a total of 20 minutes of half court play. With the score tied and about 20 seconds left the opposing team shot and went up by 2. We knew it would be tough to either tie the score or shoot a three and win, but with 2 seconds left my teammate Kevin shot a three point shot and made it. It was AWESOME! We won the semi-final game by 1 point at the buzzer. So by now we are a lot farther in the tournament than we anticipated. The championship game slated us against the very first team we played and lost to in over time. It was again a HARD fought battle and once again at the end of regulation we were tied, so we played another overtime tiebreaker of 2 minutes. And as the title says, we are the champions. We prevailed to beat this team by 2 points and it was awesome. I have never been the champion of anything, even though this was just a simple weekend 3-on-3 tournament. And to cap it all off, we all received great prizes. My team each received a bottle of Gatorade, and the runners-up received a Snickers candy bar. That is what you call a tournament on a budget. But the pride was greater than the prize. So finally after playing ball all day my team left about 4:30 or 5 and went to eat some pizza and talk glory stories. I am pretty sure my teammate Kevin made the newspaper with the Costa Rican play of the day with his buzzer-beating 3-point shot, but I have not heard yet. All told it was a great day, although I am paying for it today. After 6 games of rebounding, and taking a pounding under the basket I am pretty sore, in fact really sore, but it was worth it. Lots if fun.

So where was Becca during all of this? Here is the other side of the story. She stayed home for the morning and early afternoon. We both were planning on going to a “Quincenera.” It is a 15th birthday party for girls and they are very important. This one happened to be for the daughter of our maid. We where slated to leave at around 3:30, but when we kept advancing in the basketball tournament, I stayed behind and Rebecca and Brooklyn went to the party without me. It sounds like they had a good time and enjoyed seeing what happens and a mellow version of this popular party. Luckily there were a few other couples from the school, which made it a little less foreign to Becca. She and Brooklyn returned home at around 9:00 pm and all three of us went to bed exhausted.

We awoke for church this morning and made it for the 8:00 am service. Once again it was great and the pastor spoke about planning for the future. It is good to sit under the teaching of this pastor and hear him tell it how it is. What's even better is the fact that we are actually able to understand him!!! Maybe we are learning something after all....

After church was over, we attended another birthday party. It was for one of my teammates from yesterday, Steve. It was more of a brunch and actually really enjoyable, until Brooklyn let us know it was time to leave and take a nap, if you know what I mean. So we promptly came home and took naps, and woke up and my girls went to another birthday party. This one is for a 10-year-old boy at one of the local churches. I stayed behind to do homework and other logistics and now here I write this. They are still gone and after a busy weekend I think I will just relax and have cereal or macaroni and cheese for dinner. We are both looking forward to school once again this week although it is going to be very busy at least for me with a lot of worship practices and chapel services and who knows what else will just come up. All this and we even have another national holiday Tuesday, which means no school. Anyway, we still feel more and more each week as a part of this community and as we meet more people and learn more of the culture we are living in, it becomes more exciting to be doing what we are doing. Our calling has nothing to do with airplanes or hospitals or things. It has everything to do with people. And as we invest ourselves in getting to know more people, their lives, struggles, praises, and lives in general, then do we see our calling begin to bud, and it is exciting!




(Picture of a nearby Catholic Church on the way to our lookout point)