Yesterday, I went to the countryside with Iris, my Tica mom, for a Sunday School teacher's retreat and to throw a surprise birthday party for one of the volunteers. I went with 18 other people and, by the end of the day, we were family, aka "Team Invincible."When we arrived at the camp, called Roblealto, I sighed in amazement, because the view was very beautiful. We were in the middle of the mountains in Heredia. It was sunny with only a few clouds in the sky. There were many wooden cabins on the hill and each cabin was named after different places in Heredia.
First, we met our guides. Their names were Juan Carlos and Genesis. They guided us in many teamwork games, beginning with warm-up activities. We learned a chant/song about preparing a pizza, played "Cat and Mouse" with a colorful tarp, played a game called "the accordion," and tossed a ball around in a memory game. It was great practice for me in learning to understand game instructions given in Spanish.
After we learned all the names of everyone on our team, we were ready for the next test/challenge. Juan Carlos guided us to a place with a large metal see-saw. He told us that we needed to find the balance/equilibrium and maintain it for a minimum of 20 seconds. We had 20 minutes to complete the activity, but it was much more difficult than we thought. We couldn't complete the test, even when everyone stood in the middle, one person controlled the balance, and everyone held their breath. When our time was up, we had a time of debriefing with the guide. It was a great time to reflect and realize how to work better as a team.
After this, we had some clarity, and we wanted more than ever to prove that we were Team Invincible. Challenge #2 was a little lake of water and mud that we needed to cross together. We needed to help each other to cross it, and, when we had finished, we were extremely dirty and wet. Other team challenges included: walking like a spider (hand in hand ducking under ropes as we climbed down the hill), scaling a wall, crossing a log that moved when you stepped on it, sliding down parts of the hill, and another mud/water pit that we needed to cross on all fours, by crawling. There were many times that we cheered each other on: "Yes, you can do it!"
After the final mud/water pit, my team found a river to wash in, and I was very excited. The water was freezing cold but we didn't care, we only wanted to wash off all the mud. Besides, we were already dripping wet from swimming through the muddy water pit.
The best activity of all was the water slide. We had such a fun time, and we didn't care that we were fully dressed. We laughed a lot!
Later, after very quick showers, we prepared for the surprise birthday party. [Sidenote: Instead of yelling "Surprise", people here yell "We're here!" I thought that was funny-of course, you all are here, but wow the cake wasn't here before. Maybe we should yell "The cake is here!" instead.]
The party was very beautiful and the women transformed that little cabin into a quaint cafecito-driven fiesta. There was coffee, beautifully decorated cups filled with a drink called rompope (which tasted like a mix of birthday cake flavor, coffee, and something else), a cake and a pinata. [It was so interesting how toasts were given, prayers said for the birthday girl and her mother, gifts given but not opened, and everyone (all adults, except for the 15 year old b-day girl) dove for the candy as it sprayed out of the pinata around the room.] The girl was very surprised and loved receiving all her gifts.
It was definitely an unforgettable birthday party!
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