Score International

by Derek Schmitt, SWU Volleyball Head Coach
Monday, August 11, 2008

11 p.m. (Local Time) – We just wrapped up our final full day in Costa Rica and like all the others, it was a great day. I found out earlier tonight that Heather Craker, Monique, and Annika made it to Atlanta safely and were on their way home. We missed having them around today.

This morning, we held another volleyball clinic. It was supposed to start at 9 a.m., but as is the case with most things here, the times are flexible. The bus full of high school students finally arrived at about 9:45 a.m. There were about 20 “chicas” and 4 “chicos” who participated in the clinic.

As we did in the last clinic, we ran through each of the skills and then allowed some time at the end for each group to scrimmage. The “chicos” played first and since there were only four, eight of our players stepped in to play. A couple of the “chicos” were very athletic and showed great promise as volleyball players. The “chicas” played next and after several service aces and service errors, we decided to just initiate the point by just tossing the volleyball to both sides. They seemed to have a lot of fun. A couple of the “chicas” showed they’ve already worked on their volleyball skills.

After lunch, we headed out for our final ministry of the trip, food distribution. We stopped at a grocery store and purchased 11 identical bags of food. The bags included rice and beans, of course, tuna, milk, drink mix, spaghetti, vegetable oil, a giant loaf of bread, and a few of other items. (As a side note, I bought two cans of Mountain Dews and tonight, I drank my first Dew since prior to leaving on the trip and it was AWESOME!)

From there, we traveled back to the same neighborhood we went to for VBS on Saturday. We met up with Pastor Gabriel and some of the people from his church. We didn’t go down into the ravine, but stopped at two houses and then hit three more houses. It was the last of those five houses that provided a couple of stories. After giving the mother in the last house her bag of food, she showed all the girls beautiful earrings that she makes and sells for $1.00. She said she wanted each girl to take one pair of earrings as a gift. The girls were very reluctant and wanted to pay for the earrings, but finally decided to graciously take her up on her gift.

We went back to the bus and the girls wanted to get some money so they could buy more earrings. This is where the plot thickened. There were three young men who were hanging out by the house. Some of us men stayed outside just to keep an eye on things. Eventually, some of the guys from the church gave each of the young men a loaf of bread. I think they were ready to give them a bag of food when one of the young men displayed his anger with Americans being in the neighborhood. I’ve had a lot of difficulty understanding the language down here, but I was familiar with the language he used. He had ended up with two loafs of bread and as he voiced his displeasure, he slammed both loaves of bread to the ground and walked away. Needless to say, we loaded up the bus quickly and hit the road. We were never in danger and the staff did a great job of getting us away from any potential danger as soon as possible.

While this encounter didn’t turn out so well, every other encounter we’ve had with the people of Costa Rica has been extremely positive. I thought I was prepared for everything on this trip, but as I reflect on the past week, I realized there were many things I wasn’t prepared for. One of the things I wasn’t prepared for was the special friendships I (and we) would build with the staff here at Score International. They have been so incredibly warm and friendly. Here’s a quick rundown of some of our new friends:

· Marianella: She’s been with us just about the entire week; she has been incredibly sweet and friendly to all of us.

· David: He’s Marianella’s husband; he was with us the first few days and was a lot of fun. (David, I hope you finally got to enjoy your tiramisu!)

· Noel: He was with us both days we were in the “tough” neighborhood. I’d want him on our side and he’s a great singer, but I’ll tell you about that a little later.

· Cesar: He is just volunteering at Score for the summer and served as a translator for us during the week. He’s wants to go to college in the States, although he wants to go to a university that is in the SSAC, but now SWU. (We’ll think about forgiving him!)

· Guillermo: One of our two main bus drivers…what a gentleman! Personally speaking, he was so warm and friendly with my daughter Annika this week. Annika started off just calling him “bus driver”, but once she learned how to say his name, she’d say it over and over again. Finally, Guillermo got out the microphone on the bus and said “Annika”. When Annika left today with Monique and Heather, Guillermo and Annika gave each other a hug and a kiss. It was so precious. Guillermo has also been incredibly friendly all of us; he is one of those men you just can’t help but love. He’s taking us to the airport tomorrow so we’ll get to spend a little more time with him. I will miss everyone here because they are now my friends, but Guillermo, you are my Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz. (Sappy I know, but so true. I think I’ve shed more tears in the last 24 hours than I have in the first 37+ years of my life.)

We were able to do some last minute shopping before coming back to the villa. (I hope the airplane can handle all the hammocks we will be loading tomorrow!) After supper, we had our final team devotions of the trip. I had challenged the team earlier in the day to talk about how God changed them this week. Needless to say, there were lots of great testimonies and lots of tears, even plenty from the coach. (You are invited to hear the girls share their testimonies on Thursday, September 11th after our match with Reinhardt College which begins at 7 p.m.) While we were all sharing, Noel came out and asked if we would mind if he sang a song for us. We said sure. He brought over a boom box and played a CD. It was “Find us Faithful” and his voice is incredible. There weren’t many dry eyes in the group. God has been faithful with us in the entire process of this trip, from the decision to commit to this trip to the fund raising to the trip itself. It was such an appropriate song.

We finished the night sitting around a table playing a couple of card games. It was a blast! We were so loud; I hope the other groups in the villa aren’t mad at us.

To me, the number one goal of this trip was to minister to the people of this beautiful country. Mission accomplished! My second goal was for us to grow close as a team. Mission accomplished!

Tomorrow, it’s time to pack up, head to the airport, and make our way back to the States. Our challenge now is to make sure the changes that have happened in each one of us get on that Delta airplane instead of leaving them here in Costa Rica. I’m so excited to see what the rest of the season has in store for the SWU Volleyball team. (Whitty and Maegan, we’ve missed both of you and we’ll see you in a couple of days.)

We’ll be leaving the villa at 9:30 a.m. and then our flight is scheduled to depart at 1 p.m. and arrive in Atlanta at 7:15 p.m. Can’t wait to see everyone at home, but I know we will all miss the new friends we’ve made in Costa Rica.

Adios!