Another week has passed, and it’s officially September tomorrow! I can’t get over the rate at which time passes here…crazy. We found out our schedule for the next few months—here’s what it will tentatively look like:

On September 20th we will drive down to Talamanca, which is south of San Jose in the Costa Rican jungle. Here we will experience NIKO, which is nicknamed “survival camp.” No one who has ever taken part in NIKO is supposed to tell anyone about it, so all I know are very basic details. We live in the jungle, can’t bring any toiletries such as toothpaste or deodorant, and have to complete a series of physically strenuous tasks. From what I’m gathering (in bits and pieces), I think it will also involve finding our own food, crossing large bodies of water with all of our stuff, and competing with another team for something-maybe finding our way somewhere the fastest? I’m not totally sure, but it sounds pretty cool, and I’m excited to go.

After NIKO, we will return to San Jose on Sept 26th and have two days to get ready for outreach. We leave for Pachuca, Mexico, on Sept 29th and stay in the city for one week. The following three weeks we’ll be in Mexico City, and the following three weeks after that we’ll be in Uruapan, Mexico. We will be doing a variety of things during the outreach, including physical work, working with children and prostitutes living on the streets, and assisting churches with whatever they need.

Not much else to report for now…I was on the weekend work duty team here this weekend, and we decided to spice it up a little:

Yes, what you see above is our 80’s theme for Saturday…imagine rolling out of bed and sleepily walking to the dining room to get your gallo pinto for breakfast, and seeing the work duty staff decked out in side pony tails, stretchy pants, and pink eyeshadow with Pat Benetar playing for all to hear. I think we made everyone’s Saturday morning a little bit better.