Team Costa Rica: Sunday Funday

Today was a great start to our week. We started with an early morning devotional given by Kelly which was excellent. I missed having church today so I really appreciated her thoughts on trying to serve others in the way Jesus serves us. I know I will keep that with me through the week.  I can tell that faith is very important to our group and that makes me feel closer to everyone even though most of us are strangers.

After breakfast we got onto our mini-buses and traveled about an hour away to La Paz Waterfall Gardens. It is set on a beautiful mountainside and features gorgeous waterfalls that are exactly what you picture in your mind when someone says “tropical waterfall”. They also have excellent animal exhibits (like a small zoo) featuring local wildlife. The toucans were my favorite, but the sloths and jaguars were also fantastic. Our visit to the gardens was topped off by an excellent buffet lunch consisting of typical Costa Rican cuisine as well as pizza and french fries for the less adventurous. 

This afternoon we had training from Ariél (a large Costa Rican man, not a mermaid princess). He is amazing and is our guide for the week. He helped prepare us for our upcoming culture shock tomorrow by opening our minds and our hearts.  I think everyone will be very ready to serve.  The rest of the afternoon was spent prepping our supplies and prepping our minds for the clinic workflows.

We ended our day with more excellent Costa Rican food and some “life stories” which basically consists of a few minutes where we share how we got to who and where we are. We will take turns for this throughout the week and unfortunately it was my turn tonight and everyone got to see me “ugly cry” because that is what happens when I talk about the things that are most important to me: my wife, my kids, my Savior and serving others.

+ Dr. Brian Muir, Family Medicine DO, Idaho