Before I write this blog, I want to tell all the readers that while I write this, I have 15% battery life on my tablet, about 5% battery life in my body, and about 2% in my mind, so if you notice any glaring spelling or grammar mistakes, I humbly ask for mercy.

Day 6:

Day six was a relatively relaxing day compared to the other days we've had.  Early in the morning, we got up and ran with Ricardo, the owner of the farm we are staying on.  He took us through the many hills and backroads of the Costa Rican mountains, and while the run was immensely difficult, it was amazing to see the more natural side of Costa Rica.  Afterward, we ate breakfast and had another clinic with the kids of the Santa Domingo area.  By now, we were all well acquanted with the kids as many of the players had guys that they had gotten to know really well.  Although the kids primarily spoke Spanish, it was amazing to see just how much English they knew.  Most of the kids attended private schools where English was taught, so to hear them practice their English on us, and likewise with our Spanish.  We practiced after the camp then went to the local mall for some shopping.  Contrary to popular belief, the prices were actually higher than we expected.  The culture of Costa Rica seemed to be about surfing and skating, so brands like Quicksilver, Vans, and Volcom were on display.  The extra rest from not playing a game really helped us regenerate for...

Day 7:

Everything I said earlier in the blog about the battery charges were a result of today.  We started the morning early with breakfast, then headed to another clinic for the kids.  Today was a game day, so we divided the kids into age groups and played games all day.  The kids really seemed to have fun today and the competitive side of the players really stood out.  We followed the clinic with another team practice where we took batting practice and the pitchers worked on individual work.  After practice, we grabbed lunch then headed over to Cesar's house to paint.  Part of our service to Cesar was that we agreed to paint three rooms in his home, in addition to four or five walls on the outside of his home.  This process took about three hours of work in the sun, and this really took a lot out of the team.  It was great to be able to help Cesar and his family after all he had done for us in translating our instructions during the camp.  After we painted his house, we headed back to the field for our 4th game.  The tiredness definitely set in as we ended up dropping the game 9-8.

Throughout these days, it's been a real struggle keeping our spirits high on such short amounts of sleep.  Our team is ready to spend a day sleeping and resting, but unfortunately for us, we don't have a day like that planned in the schedule.  God has been faithful in keeping us free from injury and sickness throughout the trip and more often than not, we've overlooked that provision.  I think this is a problem we have in America today.  We are constantly looking for God to provide unessential things for us, and because of this, we are blinded to seeing the provision he gives us every day.  My prayer for this trip is that we would see that God is in the business of providing for his children, and even though we don't always get what we want, God gives us exactly what we need.  

I apologize to all the readers for being lazy and missing a day yesterday.  I was about to call it a night and pick it up again tomorrow, but I couldn't convince myself to do it, no matter how tired I was.  As I've written in the past few blogs if you would like to see pictures from today and yesterday's happenings, go to the link below.  Thanks for reading!

In Christ,

Christian Garcia, CCU Baseball

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