A Mule Gets More Rest

“You guys are valiant. Your hard work was inspirational because we know that you are not accustomed to working like this.”

I believe that G-d calls us to be faithful with the little things, and today our little thing seemed big. Today we carried an additional 100 bags of sand up a hill and across a field to the building site. For us weak gringos, this was a daunting task.

Hogar Is Where the Heart Is

For months, we had been making plans to build a house for Pastor Franklin, his wife Yolanda, and their baby. When one of Ana’s (Moshenek) friends heard that we were coming to attempt to do this, he decided to donate an entire crew of his workers to build as much of the house as he could in a day and a half. He even paid for the materials. The only responsibility that he gave us was to prepare meals, and bring the sand.

It was extremely hard work, in very hot conditions, but the L-rd gave Ben and I the strength to complete the task that he set before us, and then he chose to bless our work by using it as a ministry to the Ticos, who are used to lazy gringos.

At this point, we still need to build the second floor, roof, and interior of the house. The team that Cuyo sent has been a tremendous help, but there is always more to be done, and more materials to buy. Please ask for the L-rd’s blessing in this task, so that we can move forward and complete the pastor’s house quickly, as he is currently living in the tiny church building.

He Likes to Cuddle

I learned something new about Ben Talmadge today. Apparently, he likes to cuddle. I realized this as I was asking him to move to his side of the bed in the middle of the night. It was not exactly a safe night to cuddle with me either, because all night long I had wonderful dreams in which I was becoming a werewolf, and all of my friends were vampires, so I had to fight them all.

Luckily Ben was not injured in said, cuddling while dreaming of violence, incident. Most of the day, was spend traveling to Media Vuelta on the Sarapiqui river. Food is very cheap and very good in Costa Rica, which is a blessing because we ate out twice today, which may be a person record.

I Take My Coffee With Two Flies Please

Upon Arriving in Media Vuelta, Ben got his first introduction into Palmas de Mamre missions and Ana Moshenek. Ana is a little lady who has done missions work in Costa Rica for almost 20 years. She felt a calling when she was in her fifties to leave her successful real estate practice and to a plot of land in the middle of a country that she did not know and did not speak the language. Since then, she has been serving the community through missionary training schools, medical services, and church planting.

When we pulled up in the public boat to the dock of Media Vuelta, we were greeted by an energetic Ana Moshenek, who was simultaneously glad to see us and irritated that we were many hours late. Immediately upon our arrival, Ben and I were directed to her boat, where 30 sacks filled with sand were waiting to be carried up hill and across a small field to the site where we were about to build a new house.

We carried the 50 pound bags, dumped them, and then travelled to a nearby beach where we refilled the bags and repeated the process. All in all, it took about 1:30 hours, and Ben and I each carried about 1500 lbs.

This is not at all an unusual situation in foreign missions, as I am sure will become obvious to any of you who have not had similar experiences. Many missionaries struggle because of the rigors of the work, and it takes a special person to be able to find a balance between getting things done, and caring for your own mind, body, and spirit.

Siesta Anyone?

I slept so much last night. In fact, as I lay in the floor, people were stepping over me and going about their business. When I finally woke up, I went to my sister’s room which is further out of the way and slept some more.

This is what happens to me after traveling for two days without sleep. I go into hibernation mode. Luckily, my first full day in Costa Rica was marked by more than just sleep. My sister, Anna Grace, has been here in the city of San Jose for two weeks now. After a magnificent breakfast prepared by her host mom, Grace, we set out on an adventure to find “botas Ulis” which we gringos refer to as rubber work boots.

I believe that all big cities are fundamentally the same, and that one of those fundamental characteristics is that the people of the city will give you directions to any place that you ask them about whether they know the location or not. This was the struggle as we ran about San Jose asking anyone and everyone where we could buy these boots. Finally, we found a bargain hardware store that carried what we needed, and we were able to take a long, hot bus ride back home in the city of Tibas, which is a part of San Jose.

After another fantastic meal prepared by grace, I began my third round of sleep , which lasted about three hours.

My father is connected with Campus Crusade, which is a ministry to college students, and through his connections, Anna, Ben, and I were able to spend the night with some campus crusade guys and girls, as well as teach an English class, which was a new experience for me.

40 Hours of Daylight

*** The next several posts will be shorter and without pictures because I am much busier in Costa Rica and have less time to write and take pictures ***

I did not sleep last night. Not a single wink.

Our plane finally arrived at 1:00 AM (3 AM Alabama time). The lady sitting next to me had just finished doing some mountaineering in the Chugach Mountains. She was about 5’2” weighed probably 125 lbs, and had blonde hair and extremely tan skin. The most unusually thing about her was her hands. They were very short and stumpy and covered in scrapes and scars, some of which were more than an inch long. She looked like she could crush my hand in hers if she wanted to. She was reading a book that I think was written in Portuguese or Italian. I could read most of the book, but some of the words were foreign to me.

We landed in Salt Lake City, where we changed planes onto a much smaller aircraft and then flew on to Denver. It seems to me that the further you go east and south on this continent, the prettier the girls become. It was funny for me to see a dozen girls in Atlanta that looked just like the one girl who stood out in Anchorage.

In the Atlanta airport, my dad and I met up with Ben Talmadge. After swapping out luggage, I was left with one backpack containing all of my stuff for two weeks in Costa Rica. After saying our goodbyes, I parted with my dad for the first time in a week, and was about to set out for Costa Rica, but not before the waiter at a restaurant had a chance to spill ketchup all over me. He was extremely apologetic, and I was not particularly bothered by the incident, but the manager still decided to pay for my meal and the waiter brought me some ice cream for dessert.

The flight to Costa Rica was peaceful after that. It was wonderful to see nighttime for the first time in over a week. I sat next to Bryan, who is a senior at Gettysburg College. He is on his way to Costa Rica to live with a family for three months to make up for four semesters of foreign language classes that he needs to graduate. He does not speak any Spanish, and his host family does not speak English.

We caught a taxi to Grace’s house in Tibo. The driver charged us either 18,000 colones (~$36 US) or $25 if we paid in US dollars. Grace lives in a nice big house, with two trees in front of the yard. She is very motherly, and already I feel at home. I am glad that Anna Grace has someone to stay with who will make her feel at home.

Please Report Unattended Baggage

As I sit here in the airport, there is a man being trained as part of the custodial staff. He looks like he is about 43, and from the way the lady who is training him talks to him, it sounds like he must be on hard times. There is a certain way that people speak to someone who is taking a job purely out of need and not desire. It is like a mixture of pity and contempt but without any malicious intent behind it.

The Anchorage airport is virtually empty right now. A couple of passengers are walking toward their gate, dragging behind them a train of shabby wheeled luggage. Another man rises like a grumpy bear from the corner where he was sleeping as dad and I set our stuff too near to him. The custodial staff wheels his squeaky cart down the terminal, and the only other man in the area is testing his blood sugar with a black self tester.

I think I prefer airports when they are empty. Something about the quiet intercom and the sleeping travelers is very peaceful to me. It helps me to think. The other thing I like about empty airports is that you are never rushed through security. Nobody is behind you in line so you can take as long as you want to put your boots back on, and while you are doing it you can ask the security staff a friendly question or two. It is like drinking a cup of coffee with a bear.

Was Alaska Worth It?

This trip has been very good for me. Though I don’t feel like I have been greatly changed or learned some life affirming truth, I do think that I have had a wonderful opportunity to grow closer to my dad and talk with him about some stuff that I wanted to talk to him about. I also think I have sorted out a little bit better what direction I need to go with this life. Finally, this time has been a good starting point. It has been a gateway to bring me into the next phase of my life. I am so glad that G-d has given me this opportunity.

On another note entirely, I took a picture of a pretty Alaskan girl today. This was note worthy to me because I have noticed that girls here do not seem to be quite as cute as girls in the south. Researchers are still in debate about the cause of this interesting phenomenon.

And There She Was...

In the Valdez museum yesterday we watched a video about the earthquake of ’68, and one of the narrators of the video was a lady named Nancy Lethcoe. Today, as my dad and I hiked the goat trail through Keystone Canyon, we rounded a corner and found Nancy walking straight toward us.

Nancy was very excited to find to Alabamians hiking on the trails that she helped to clear. She was so excited, in fact, that she made us turn around and took us back to a spot to show us some downed telegraph wires and explain to us the history of the trail.

We asked Nancy about how people made it in a town where a gallon of milk cost $7 and tourism only lasted for a few months of the year. She explained to us that the median income in Valdez is $66,000 a year, but that if you were not a part of Aleyaska, the company that installed the Alaska pipeline, it was very hard to make a living at all.

Another girl that we talked to, who moved to Valdez from Ecuador three years ago, said that she had to work very hard every summer because there was nothing for her to do in the winter.

Much Later That Day…

We travelled from Valdez all the way to Anchorage this afternoon, and on our way into town we decided to stop at the Alaska Botanical Gardens, a not for profit garden located next to Campbell Airstrip and a local school. The Gardens were neatly designed with good walking trails and many small metal tags to identify the native plants that were growing naturally (a.k.a. randomly) throughout the garden.

We decided to hike the garden trails as a way to stretch our legs, but also because we wanted to see the Iditirod trail which circles the garden. We hiked the trails quickly, seldom stopping because of the swarms of mosquitoes that surrounded us.

At one “scenic” overlook, we noticed several cars stopped on the roadway below us. Without paying them much attention, we continued down the path to avoid mosquitoes. As we rounded the next corner, I looked up and there not 12 yards away from me off the side of the trail was a black bear with two cubs.

Without even stopping to take a picture, I said, “hey bear!” and turned around to walk back down the trail where I had come from. My dad and I stopped about 30 yards down the trail and turned around to watch the mother bear who was not paying us any attention in spite of the small size of her cubs.

I took several pictures as we backed down the trail, but I wish I had taken my dad’s advice, and taken a picture of the mother bear immediately as I saw her. A picture of a black bear from only 12 yards would have been a close up portrait with the lens that I had on my camera at the time. I guess my mothers warnings have had their effect on me afterall.

Congenital Heart Defect

Dr. Griffith recently told me that going on a road trip with someone is the best preparation for marriage. I can see why. Living in close proximity to someone else for most of the day is not easy. Even being with my dad this much, who I know well and who is a relatively peaceful guy, is difficult. I found myself getting frustrated with him this morning over something as simple as how to empty the sewage from our RV.

Outwardly I was frustrated because I felt like he never bothered to do things the right way, like pulling up directly alongside the dump station instead of catty corner, but inwardly I am sure this comes from something deeper. I doubt my frustration has anything to do with him actually. I think that my frustration is an outward manifestation of some heart problem that I can’t quite identify.

It is very easy for me to become frustrated or irritated by someone who does something in any way other than how I think it should be done. In fact, it is easy for me to become frustrated with someone for no reason at all. I am an easily frustrated person. What does that mean about me?

I just finished praying that the L-rd would reveal to me why I am so easily frustrated and irritated. I hope he will teach me this over the course of my trip.

On Another Note…

Valdez strikes me as a very odd town. It has a strange blend of urban and rural feel to it. The town started in 1898 as a gold rush boom town, built on soft, super saturated ground at the base of the Valdez Glacier which was the first route that prospectors took into Copper Country. After the massive earthquake in 1968, in which the town was torn to bits, the dock sank, and tsunamis killed 33 people, the town was relocated to a more geologically stable area, with perfectly laid out blocks.

The blocks and sidewalks make the town feel like a city, but the large spaces between buildings and the mix of residential and commercial buildings give the town a more rural feel. The city is neither urban nor suburban, but it is not quite rural either.


Surprisingly for a town of 4,000, Valdez has a community college and at least 4 museums, three of which we visited today and all of which were of good quality. The museums deal predominantly with the history of the town, but also feature videos and exhibits about the Alaska pipeline which ends across Prince William Sound. One of the Museums contains an impressive collection of stuffed wildlife, Native art and tools, and other items collected by Maxine Whitney, an early resident.


The town definitely deserves its nickname, the Switzerland of Alaska, because everywhere you look, you can see beautiful snow covered mountains. Not only are the mountains beautiful, but so are the birch forests, the rocky beaches along the sound, and the bald eagles that roost in trees all over the valley. I wish that I could be here to see the bears, eagles, and fishermen that come out for the massive salmon runs.