Where to Begin?

We are back in Costa Rica.  Have been since Friday evening.  And as I look through the almost 500 photos I took and the pages of my journal, I have no idea even where to start sharing about our time.

I guess let's start with the basics.  We got in to San Pedro Sula on the 15th around lunch time.  Wes picked us up and after buying groceries (which was a trip, trying to figure out yet another currency!) we trekked the hour and half through the mountains to get to camp.  This is where we discovered that Elliot can get car sick.  Hummmm...note, when he says his mouth hurts, it means get a bucket ready!

We got on to camp property and I was blown away!  Such a peaceful green space!  And so strange...there are pine trees everywhere!!  And just about the time you think you are walking through the woods in Michigan on a hot and muggy day in July, you turn your head ever so slightly and see a banana tree!  Or you step on a mango! Or an iguana runs across the path!  And then you remember, this aint Michigan.  See the pine trees and the banana trees right next to each other?  So strange!

We stayed in one of the cabins that campers would use, just a simple block building.  For some reason, I hadn't realized we would be camping for the two weeks, but that's really what we did.  We ate most breakfasts by ourselves up at our cabin (boxed milk comes in very handy!) and then lunches and dinners with the Williamsons.

 And speaking of the Williamsons, what a fun group of people!!

Up until this point, we had only spent about 6 hours with them in Northern Indiana back in '09.  Needless to say, all the kids are a lot bigger than they were then (Elliot is now as big as Forrest was).

 
The boys had a great time with the Williamson kids, and Ellie, Becca, Joel and Abigail did such a fantastic job with our boys!  Elliot followed  Joel all around investigating toads, lizards, bugs and just about anything they could find.  And Joel did a great job at telling him, "don't touch that!"  or "After you touch this toad, you need to wash your hands!" Here are the boys showing you how big the toad they found was.

We were able to help out with some of the stuff that needed to get done around camp.  Noah and Wes had many little projects they were working on, like a chicken coop, building bunk beds, running errands into the local town.  I helped Cindy do loads and loads of sheets from the work team that just left.  It was good to be part of the day to day of Manatial de Vida.

And now, before I turn you cross eyed from reading too much on the computer screen, I am going to stop.  Two weeks spent in Honduras is just too much material for one post, so, you'll just have to wait  to hear about our trip into town, our mini vacation to the beach, Staff Fellowship, daily challenges, camping and a whole lot of other fun stuff.  Stay tuned.