Heading Off & Week One

Saying Good-Bye

Our last few weeks in TX were a complete whirlwind; there were so many things to do and just not enough time!  We made it, though, with the help of so many people.  Thank you for the help, for keeping the kids, for having us for dinner, and everything else.  I am also very thankful for the wonderful send-offs the kids got from their teachers, friends, teams, and church.  Leaving especially meant E would be giving up a lot, but the teachers and sponsors of her activities made her feel very special and were very encouraging.  Thank you!

Prior to leaving, we had one last "hurrah" with our neighbors.   After many years of back-to-school breakfast parties, it was only fitting for our fabulous friends to host a breakfast farewell.  Driving away that morning was so strange . . . we have so many wonderful memories from our first home, and we were driving away from our best friends, children with whom my children have grown up, and people whom I've relied on and shared with for years.  (I miss you!  The kids miss your kids, too!)

We stopped and had lunch with J's dad and family and then spent the night with J's sister. His mom and other sister's family were there, too, so we got to see a lot of people before leaving, which was nice.  Thanks for being wonderful hosts yet again, Texas fam!

Week 1

Easter Sunday on our side porch

 

After a fairly short flight from Houston the next morning, we arrived in beautiful Costa Rica the day before Easter.  The three hour drive from San Jose to the small town of Tuis was lovely, complete with quick stops to experience the coffee and sugar cane fields that surrounded us.  Along the way, we were treated to gorgeous views: lush tropical vegetation, mountains, and birds of all sorts.  

Tuis was just as we expected - small, and very much like any small town in a third world country (thankfully, it is far from tourist destinations, so it is more traditional and typical of CR than bigger cities or resort towns).  The sights, sounds, and smells were reminiscent of places J and I have been in the Middle East and South America.

We were pleasantly surprised by our house.  With three bedrooms, two baths, living and dining areas, a kitchen, and laundry (complete with a dryer, which is a big deal here, even though it vents into the house), the house exceeded our expectations.  Most everything we would need, EXCEPT INTERNET!, was furnished with the home.   **It looks like we won't have reliable internet, so please be patient when waiting for emails, pics, or blog updates.

Easter Sunday was our first full day in CR.  The kids found a few eggs in our yard, but mercifully, we got to spend most of the day focused on what it is really about.  Church at the mission (also our school) was wonderful.  I could sense the Holy Spirit immediately, which was extremely comforting.  I hadn't been sure of how "Christian" our school was, but the presence of God was strong, and it was obvious that we were among true believers.  

After church, they was a baptism in the river behind the building.  They picked flowers on the trek down the hill and sprinkled them in a little pool before the baptism.  It was beautiful.

We then joined everyone at a church picnic at a church member's house and got to sample our first authentic tico (Costa Rican) food.  The highlight for the kids was picking and eating their own bananas.



April 2, 2013
Hope's 7th birthday!
We made a cake and decorated it with flowers and berries from our yard.  During our break at school, everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to Hope in Spanish.

 

School
 

We attend school Monday through Thursday from 8 am to 12 pm.  The kids are in classes together for part of the time and are separated by skill level/age other times.  Sometimes, L finds himself in his very own class.  Hmmm . . .
The kids' teachers speak only Spanish in class, so it is a true immersion experience.  It can be difficult and frustrating at times, which is probably part of L's problem.  :)

J and I are in class together and have a wonderful teacher named Karen.  She is very patient and very knowledgeable, and we're glad to have her as our instructor.  We do a lot of speaking and listening in Spanish, and she is careful to speak slowly for us and not use too much English.  

Home Life
 

During school hours, we have a house helper named Vicky come.  She is a sweet lady from the mission, and she keeps things clean and makes us lunch.  Our favorite part of having her is that she eats with us, and we get to speak a lot of Spanish.  I've learned many new words from her, and she is my go-to person when I have culture questions.  I just hope I translate the answers correctly in my mind!  

In the afternoons, we relax and spend time together.  As much as possible, we try to visit with the neighbors and use our Spanish.  We immediately made our house open to the neighborhood kids, so we frequently play soccer or frisbee in our yard with them.  The boys like to call for E to come play futbol; they are impressed with her skills and after getting over being shy, she now readily plays with them.  Sometimes we take walks or hike up the mountain behind our house.  J and I also try to make flashcards, study, and do homework, and we have also spent a lot of time trying to overcome the many difficulties we've encountered with electronics so far.  

The kids wake up at the crack of dawn, which happens to be around 5 am here.  Light filtering through the windows, coupled with the sound of roosters letting everyone know who is in charge, makes it impossible to sleep any later.  The number of birds here is unbelievable, and their calls and chirps add to the early morning noises, along with the inevitable dog barks.  Fortunately, the kids are whipped by the end of the day, so we eat an early, light dinner and try to get them to bed before 7.  J and I usually stay up to study, but there have been days when the sun and humidity have completely drained us, and we've gone to bed before 8!  

Random Things
 

- They don't use hot water here.  The showers do have mini-heaters above them, and if you turn the water on just a little, the heaters do a decent job of warming the water.  Dishes are washed in cold water and put into cabinets or buckets on the floor (not in our house) while still wet.  All laundry is washed on cold.  

- Our neighbor washes her laundry in a bucket in her backyard.  

- Ticos like things to look nice and be clean, so their houses are always tidy, and they try to look and smell nice when they have somewhere to be.

- The neighbors killed a giant snake just up the road from us.  We got to witness its demise (a car ran over it several times until it was dead).  It looked like a python to me as it was probably six inches in diameter, but it had giant fangs.  Apparently there are a lot of snakes here . . . eek!  Some are poisonous and some are not.  To be safe, the ticos kill any and all snakes they see.

- The other two families in school with us right now are headed to the mission field.  Both of the mothers are doctors, so their work is taking them abroad.  One family is headed to Peru with Samaritan's Purse, and the other is headed to Guatemala with a Guatemalan organization.
**J said that we are going to have to change our story because our reason for being here is not nearly as cool as theirs :), although hopefully one day we'll use our Spanish for short-term missions.

- Our house is a decent hike up a dirt road.  Along the road there are open gutters/trenches for the filtered sewage that comes out of pipes from each house. 

- Like in many other countries, toilet paper is never flushed down the toilet.  It gets thrown in the wastebasket instead.  I sure hope my kids start remembering that!  We are getting tired of fishing their paper out of the toilet.
- We have a couple avocado trees,  a big blackberry bush, a papaya tree, and a lime tree in our yard.  Vicky also uprooted a yuca tree yesterday so she could get the root for us to eat.  It was white and the consistency of a potato with the stringiness of a banana.  Muy interestante! 

- We also have a very small pond in our yard.  The mission created the pond with the intention of raising tilapia.  We're thinking the birds have just been well-fed because even though we consistently fill the pond with water and feed the fish, we haven't seen any signs of life.

- On clear days, we can see the Turrialba volcano from our side porch.  It is frequently cloudy up here, and rainy season is starting, so we didn't get a good glimpse of the volcano until a good 10 or so days into our stay.

-There are dogs everywhere!  The mission has adopted five street dogs, and our kiddos truly love them.  The little chihuahua, PG, is everyone's favorite.  Both he and Flea, Vicky's dog, have spent entire days with us - following us everywhere, hiking up the mountain, and playing with the kids, etc.  Flea even had a sleepover once.



Eek!  The snake near our house.

 

Weather
 

For the most part, the weather has been very pleasant.  There is usually a nice breeze blowing, so we stay cool in the house and at school.  When it rains, it gets downright chilly, and I've needed a jacket.  Fans are a necessity at night because we close the windows for safety reasons.  It is extremely humid all the time, and everything stays fairly damp.  Even our clothes in the drawers are slightly damp.  The only way our towels dry is if we hang them on the line outside where the breeze can work its wonder.  

Food
 

Today is not a good day to write about food.  We double-fried plantains in our cooking class this afternoon, and I realized last night that Vicky has used an entire bottle of vegetable oil in just 8 short days.  We're a bit tired of grease!

We, of course, eats tons of rice, and we've had black beans almost every day.  Ticos like to eat a lot of vegetables, so our ground beef or chicken is usually served with a variety of chopped veggies.  A fruit truck comes by on Thursdays, and we've gotten some delicious mangoes, pineapples, etc. from him.  

We buy fresh bread nearly every day, and the milk is similar to the milk in Europe in that it comes in small boxes and can be shelved.  I think we go through at least ten boxes a week.

Also like in Europe, the eggs are never refrigerated.  They are just stacked against a wall in the store.  I wonder if the U.S. is one of a few countries that refrigerates eggs?  The eggs are really fresh and really delicious -- we have no problems with unrefrigerated eggs!