Orientation and the arrival

On monday we finished up with our Orientation week in Colorado Springs. It was a great 4 days for me and 8 for everyone else. We went hiking at 2300m and i saw my first frozen lake! the altitude was difficult though. We had times with small groups (those of us going to costa Rica, another group of those going to Uganda etc) to talk about strengths, personalities etc. we also had plenty of time for prayer and worship and general getting to know each other. 

The other Costa rica interns and i left mid morning on Monday. We flew first from Colorado Springs to Atlanta. The security checks were extreme, and i discovered travelling on an Australian passport is not always an advantage!  Our flight was delayed by half an hour so we only had 24 minutes to navigate one of the world's busiest airports. but we managed it just. they we closing the door as we arrived. The rest of the journey went quite smoothly. the added advantage was that our luggage was the first off, probably because it was the first on.

As soon as we got through customs we were surrounded by hundreds of people wanting to sell us a taxi ride. The permanent staff were all there to meet us, which was lovely. That night we stayed with staff as we didn't get into Atenas until 11:30 pm and most people are in bed by 9pm.  

Tuesday morning we came to see the office, had devotions went out for lunch and talked about cultural differences. Cultural differences was interesting for me, as i need to change things from the North American perspective. But I did remeber to refer to my jumper as my sweater yesterday.

In the evening we went to our host families. I was struck by how friendly and welcoming my host families and in general all Latins are. 

More information coming soon! I'm off to language school on saturday.