Lexi Yoder - We started off the day a little bit earlier than normal, so we could head up to the Irazu volcano and possibly miss the clouds or rain, which we did. It took us about an hour or a little more to get up to the top of the volcano. The way up we played a lot of games, many of which were riddles. Let's just say, I'm not very good at them but not everyone can be good at everything, right? Woody also gave us our morning devotions. He talked about sacrifice and what we have been called to sacrifice over this past week and maybe the last couple of days we have here yet. I never really thought about having to sacrifice things for this trip but we all definitely have. Maybe it be time, something valuable to you, or even the comfort of all things you know. Going on this trip has taught me to step out of my comfort zone, because there is a pretty strong communication barrier between us. An example today was while we were up on the volcano, a guy was going to walk down a steep, little hill but as he went to go down, his legs came out from under him and he wiped out. His family started to laugh and I was going to ask if he was alright but I didn't know how, so I started to laugh along as I simply offered out my hand to help him. He understood my small gesture and took it with a smile. That's when I realized that we don't need to communicate with words but with our actions. It's like that quote "Actions speak louder than words." The guy could tell I didn't know what he was saying after I helped him up so he simply stopped talking and just smiled. Laura had a quote earlier this week that has stuck with me, "We all smile in the same language." Experiencing a moment where this is very evident made me realize how smiling can unify us all.
Blaine Miller - We started off eating breakfast early to get on the bus. We had to travel for a couple hours by bus to go to the volcano. Then we went sight seeing. What amazed me was how far down the crater went - 1000 feet. The top was really cold and foggy. My favorite part was seeing the ride up and seeing the country side. In some ways it reminded me of home, a cool day in Ohio, but it’s much different from the way we live. Cows are out by the side of the road not fenced in. Farms are smaller and grow different crops. Being in landscaping, I wondered if they cut the grass up there? I didn’t see any landscape company or anything. The views were amazing, but it was cold. For lunch we ate at a restaurant near Cartago. The fish was good. Then we went to the local market. It was small, and I could imagine it being super busy on the weekends. While in Cartago, I saw three McDonald's. That's been a surprise to me, how many McDonald’s there have been?