Bingo in Desamparados San Antonio

My phonetics teacher invited us to her neighborhood to play Bingo to raise money to make improvements to the playground in their community. On Friday, Gabriella (my teacher), described for us her neighborhood, she said it is very poor and that they want to improve the playground area to give them a place to fellowship as a community on a regular basis. She described how expensive it is to make improvements, one in particular being to add lights to the terraza so they can play Bingo at night. 200,000 colones she said to add lights. This is $400 USD, and I thought how this amount of money can be raised in minutes in the US...

So, I tried to rally a few friends to go with me but I found no takers, so I set out on my own on Sunday afternoon about 4:30 to make the 2.5 mile walk down to Desamparados San Antonio for Sunday night Bingo.

I found the street called Calle Trejos, looking for La Casa de Manuel Obando with the directions Gabriella gave me. The narrow tributary roads that feed Calle Trejos are nothing more than dirt paths, but small residences line them with their corrugated tin roofs hanging over small stoops where dogs lay and children sit on tricycles in front of darkened doorways.

After passing up and down the street at least twice, each time not finding la casa, I noticed a woman slipping down one of these narrow roads with a cooler in hand, so I followed her and then looking beyond her to the very end of the road, I could see out underneath a patio a small gathering of people sitting around a few picnic tables...this had to be the place.

So there was no turning back. I was no longer in our comfortable gringo outpost around our school. I was a true foreigner. I was nervous. I wondered how long I would have to stay...having to stay turned into wanting to stay and I did for three hours, playing game after game of Bingo, maiz (corn pieces for chips) and premios (prizes) included, elbow to elbow with Tico children, their padres (parents) and abuelos (grandparents) and tios and tias (uncles and aunts), hamburguesas and helado and calientes perros (hot dogs) and tres leches...Spanish numbers being thrown at me like major league fastballs...being the guest of honor as the Gringo in a strange land...

I think my first genuine cross-cultural experience, the beginnings of shaping my perspective on ministry in Latin America...