Ways I know I am no longer in the States

After talking with many people (local and foreigners) and beginning to experience the culture, here is a list of things that make me go 'huh' now that I am living in another country...

1. If I forget to by peppers, mangos, tomatoes, flowers, books or kites while at the store - I can get them in the middle of the highway where people are standing in the road as car rush past them

2. Anyone caught driving under the influence is given a 25 dollar ticket

3. If there is a death in a car accident (and there are), you need to wait upwards of three hours for a judge to come to verify the death before the road can be cleared and traffic can continue.

4. While I am eating my meal at the mall that I got from the food court, my tico friend says 'I think that lettuce should be okay for you to eat...I think...' after I just finished my last bite.

5. When buying a used car, the price may not be negotiable; however, I can have them switch the door on the car I want to buy with a better door from another vehicle. Also, they will give me the nicer looking rim, a better tire and a newer radio from other cars on their lot.

6. You need to work with a lawyer to buy a used car. However, none of the lawyers you work with have any specific training.

7. Motorcyclists have complete control of the road (including into oncoming traffic) and get VERY upset when they are almost hit

8. If you hit a motorcyclist and they are seriously injured or killed, people would say 'It happened again...' (In Columbia I learned if this happens you have someone meet you at the airport with your passport and you leave the country - it could be worse!)

9. Every time I buy something I have to divide by 1000 and multiply by 2 to figure out how much something costs me in dollars

10. Electricity is so expensive that you either need a propane run dryer or you need to hang your clothes on a clothes line

11. When you hang your clothes on the line during rainy season, they never dry and will mildew and rot

12. Pineapples are about a dollar and bananas are 4 cents each (yum!)

13. I never have to ask myself 'Are U-turns legal at this intersection?' because whether or not they are, it just does not matter. If I think about it too long traffic will pass me on four sides on a two lane road

14. Instead of using a ladder or scaffold to fix a building or a truck, they just use a front loader (seems actually like this would be too expensive with the price of gas)

15. Although rotundas are usually more efficient than street lights, you begin to wonder if that is true when six different roads with three lanes each lead to the same circle hardly big enough to hold 2 lanes of traffic.

16. You need to wash all your fruits and vegitables with BLEACH before eating (at least we can use tap water in most places though)

17. Changing the odometer before you sell a car isn't against the law, its just good business.

I could go on, but there is a small list. Mind you, I'm not down on the country at all - Christy and I are having a good time. However, we are feeling the beginning effects of culture shock - and that will likely increase as we start the learn the language even more.

Please continue to pray that we will find somewhere to live over by the language school sooner than later so we can get settled in. On a positive note, I put a down payment on a vehicle that will be great both for our family and as a means of ministry (it is big enough that we should be able to take some folks with us here and there as the need arises).

Day Three - I wish I knew some Spanish

This is our third full day in Costa Rica and we are slowly adjusting to the new time zone (two hours before Eastern - they are on Central without any daylight savings) and our new surroundings. We are also having to adjust to the sun coming up a little before six and starting at 5:15 the loudest big chirping outside our window that you can imagine. We have spent the first few days unpacking and repacking our luggage into a more organized fashion than '50 pounds per bag' allows you to do. We've also toured the La Palabra de Vida a bit, had several nice meals with Matt & Lisa Befus and even walked into San Antonio de Belen to tour the town a bit and buy a few essentials.

Today I am doing the unexpected and even teaching an 8th grade science class for Matt in 2 hours. Many of the teachers are out with the Senior class on their annual weekend camping trip so they needed some additional help covering a class. Its been a while since I've taken Geology, so this might be interesting! Actually, I am just handing back a test, going over it and also showing a video so it should be pretty low key.

Tomorrow morning I am going out with a tico, Walter, who is going to help me car shop. Walter provides transportation for the students to the school - but he has a real servants heart and loves helping out people affiliated with the school. He also was able to get a cell phone for us (which is huge because it is nearly impossible as a foreigner to get one). We were thinking about buying a smaller car but a couple things have made us reconsider: 1) A larger car (7 or more seats) allows us to tote people around who may come visit us or any students who may need a ride. 2) The driving around here is so crazy that being in something a little bigger will probably be a safer for Christy and the kids. There is a Hyundai 12 passenger van that is about the size of a US minivan (the extra 5 seats are little fold down ones here and there throughout the car) that we will probably buy. Its a little more money, but we feel like the benefits outweigh the costs of the car. The only issue will be renting a place that has a gated front of the house big enough to store the van.

Also tomorrow we are going to drive over to where the language school is and meet our 'big brother' from the school who is going to help us find a place to live and show us around the area. Pray for us as we attempt our first driving outing in Costa Rica! There are almost no road signs, motorcycles are crazy and people drive all over the place. Even the idea of an address here is crazy - for example - La Palabra's 'official' address is 300M north of the large Panasonic factory in San Antonio de Belen. Awesome.

I've included a couple pictures of the the school grounds. One is shows the newly constructed preschool building (half of which is operational). Work teams from the US that come down to do construction have made these possible. Also in the picture you can see the Volcano in the background. I snapped a couple pictures of Christy and the kids playing on the preschool playground - Lizzy loves to swing so that was a good time. One picture is a shot of the gym and the soccer field. This is looking from the backside of the property back up towards the school entrance. Lastly, I have a picture of what happens to the kids after a long day of playing, exploring and traveling :)

We are happy to be here and are slowly settling in - but it will be so nice to move into a place of our own by language school and start to learn the language. During our walk into town there were so many times where communication was absolutely impossible - and that is so frustrating. Its a huge motivator to learn the language.

As an FYI - we have easy Internet access now so feel free to get in touch if you would like. After next week I think we will be a little more out of touch until we can get settled in.

We made it!

Just wanted to write a quick note that told folks we made it to San Jose okay. The travel through the airport was not as bad as I thought it would be (although my back kills right now from lugging all the bags). The airline lost one of our bags, but I'm sure it will turn up sometime soon. We had a great meal with Matt & Lisa Befus tonight - and we are staying on the La Palabra campus in a spare room. All in all, Christy and I are excited to be here - but honestly just very very tired. I'll write more when I get some sleep.

And we're off (almost)...

Happy Easter! We've been having a good time in Boca Raton with Dave & Julie Phillips. We attended Church at First Baptist of Boyton Beach (where Dave is youth pastor) on Friday evening. Also, we have fulfilled two of Elizabeth's most exciting events – the zoo and the beach! We went to a little local aquarium down town Boca (kind of like Cosley Animal farm for those of you familiar with Wheaton) on Friday afternoon. We went to the beach Saturday late afternoon and got to spend ten minutes there before it started down pouring - but I think that was good enough for Elizabeth. I promised her we would see an even more impressive beach at some point down in Costa Rica.

We had a great time on Easter Sunday when Julie's parents invited us over for an Easter meal. We had wonderful Ham, Potatoes and green beans. Also, they prepared an awesome Easter egg hunt for the kids. They are expecting their first grand kids mid 2008, and their excitement was overflowing on our kids :) I've included a couple pictures of the kids during the hunt and also counting their plunder (and a picture of the dress you made Elizabeth mom!)

One immediate prayer request is that we will have no problems finding a place to live in the first week down in San Jose. A mild over site on our part - but we have found out sense talking to our big brother from language school that because there are about 3 more weeks left in the trimester at language school there may not be many places to rent until graduation at the end of the trimester. If we can not find a place, we can stay for a while at La Palabra and/or cover the gap by staying in a hotel. Both are adequate solutions - but I know that Christy and I are looking forward to beginning to settle in down there and beginning to unpack all of our luggage into what will be our new home for the next year.

I've also included a couple pictures of the family while messing around with dad's new computer. We decided at the last second to buy a relatively inexpensive laptop in case a) anything happens to Christy's computer and also b) to make it easier for both of us to stay in touch. Also, higher ticket electronic items have a markup of 200 or more percent as compared to the US - so we figured it would probably be an investment well spent.

We hope everyone is doing great - and we look forward to being in touch! We may not have easy access to phone and/or Internet initially, but we will work hard to get it so we can stay connected with everyone. We love you all and will talk with you soon.

Beautiful Miami

Greetings from lovely Miami! The weather was sunny almost all day andthe temperature was about 80. With Chicago's brutal winter to date, I was happy to dress in sorts and sandals to be sure. After a good nights rest on Tuesday night that was desperately needed by both kids and parents – we had a great day at the Latin America Mission headquarters. We had a wonderful chapel with a guest speaker, a man in charge of the Latino Pastors Association of Miami who challenged us not to worry about this world, but instead focus on what the Lord is calling us to do.. We then had meetings with many people in the LAM office ranging from the new president, finance, personnel director, and various others. Most of our questions were answered regarding how our pay worked, exact timing of insurance, T&E expenses, etc. We also signed forms that allow LAM to come get our bodies if something happens to us while in Costa Rica – now we know it is real and we are on our way! Lastly, Christy and I gave a quick update during a potluck lunch and we were officially sent off by those in the service office of our agency.

It was interesting to us both how intertwined the new president's family and our's seemed to be – all be it unknowingly. First, he and his wife (and a multitude of his extended family including many children) have all gone to Wheaton – much like Christy's family. Because of this, he has spent a fair amount of time in that Chicago suburb – where we grew up. Also, several of his kids went to University of Chicago where Christy went to school. Lastly, I found out he was actually in Madison working at the Intervarsity headquarters for several of the years that I attended college. We even went to the same church – Black Hawk Evangelical Free. We may have even seen each other – although to be fair, I went to a service depending on when I woke up – not because I was trying to develop relationships with those in the same service as me – so I attended at a different time each week :)

I have not gone too hog wild with the camera but I tried to take a couple pictures so you could all see how we are doing. I shot a few pictures of the kids today in the hotel room being silly. One is of Lizzy sitting on top of the air conditioner in front of the window. The other is of mostly naked Sammy jumping on the bed and making faces. They have both been acting a little off since we started our journey – although probably Elizabeth even more than Sam. This could be simply because of all the changes or because she is 3.5 years old – I'm not sure which reason is more dominant. That being said, we have stayed in 3 places thus far in March and that number is going to grow to 7 or 8 by the end of the month (my friends house, another hotel, La Palabra and depending on when we find our home by Spanish language institute).

The other picture is of a new backpack that Christy's mom bought us. Its pretty slick as a low level security bag to store goods in. The hotel room we are staying in has a small safe so I can put passports, checks, etc in there – however, for larger items (like our computers) I can put them in the inner bag of this backpack(which is laced with metal mesh so it can not be cut through) – and then I can since the top shut with a cable and lock it to items. Our hotel room here does not have a great place to latch it too – however, I locked the bag to a car seat and to the arm of the hotel chair when we ran out to get dinner. Of course, anyone with time and the right tools could get through this – but if you only have 5 minutes or so in someones room this would be a great deterrent.

My favorite interaction of the day:
Dad: “Lizzy, you can brush your teeth first but then I get to brush them, okay?”
Lizzy: “Okay”
Dad: “What did I just say?”
Lizzy: “I don't know.”

It brings back fond memories of Bill Cosby and his stand up comedy routines....

Totally unrelated, I found out some information on how LAM does their donation receipts. If you are signed up for automatic support, they will send you a receipt each month and a year end summary at the end of the year. If you have pledged to donate money each month, each time you send a check in or log online to make the payment, they will send you a letter with a your current payment and your year to date payment. Also, on the letter will be a coupon for future donations. However, they will not send you a year end statement. This is just something to be aware of for those of you supporting. If you have any questions, let me know!

Miami!

We left from Chicago this morning at 10:50 (delayed by 1 hour as per normal O'hare operating procedure) and got into Miami at 3:30pm. We are nicely settled into our hotel room - had a great dinner and are getting ready for bed. We are all tired, but are looking forward to meeting with everyone at LAM tomorrow and Thursday.

When I am a little more awake and have more time I'll update with something a little more substantial. Thanks everyone for all your prayers.

Let the packing begin

I was smiling as I read again my last post because of the shear enthusiasm in the post for leaving to Costa Rica, but clear neglect at remembering how much is involved in the actual process of moving. Do not get me wrong, Christy and I are pumped to go; however, I think we are both just a little pooped from our exhausting 1.5 weeks of travel and beginning to pack for the trip.

We just got back from a Illinois to Richmond to Michigan whirl wind tour that was great in that we saw lots of friends and family, but exhausting as we drove well over 30 hours getting to Richmond, Detroit and Spring Lake. While in Richmond we had a chance to connect with folks from the church including lunch with our old small group, time of prayer during Thursday lunch hour and play group time for Christy and the kids. I also had adequate time to hang out with many old friends from Capital One on Friday during lunch and in the evening on Friday afternoon . The last thing I did while in Richmond was take my little girl and get about 3.5 inches chopped off of her hair. You can see it in the attached picture. Special thanks to Todd and Nancy Behrens who let us crash at their place the entire trip there. We had a great time with them playing in the backyard, sharing meals, and having the kids play together - their child Brandon is only 4 months older than Sammy. I lovingly taught him how to saw 'Go Badgers!' which both his parents loved as they are die hard Florida Gator fans (see Brandon wearing orange and blue - 'his' favorite colors). They could be mad, but hey, they have multiple national championships in the last two years, so lets be reasonable.

While in Michigan we had an opportunity to stop for a day in Detroit and see my mom's parents and my fathers dad. We had a wonderful time of sharing over breakfast with Grandma and Grandpa 'T' and also enjoyed watching Elizabeth build a fort with their pillows up in their room. Although my Grandma Meyer continues to slow with age (he is over 90) we enjoyed walking around his building and looking at the birds and fish with the kids. I also beat him 2 of 2 games in Cribbage which is a feat given his massive amount of experience. In his younger years if you did not count points for yourself on the board, he would take your points (aka - cheating in most cultures). Luckily though, he did not do that this game or else I may have lost one of the games.

Lastly, we had a nice stop at my parents place in Spring Lake, Michigan where we had the nice surprise of having both of my brothers and their wives come and visit. As time goes by, it is a rare opportunity that we get everyone together, so it was nice to visit with everyone. Kristen and Jon (my middle brother) are due in May - it is sad that we will not get to meet our niece until she is probably crawling. However, we left them with a small something - two army duffels full of little girl clothes :)

Christy parents were kind enough to watch the kids for a majority of today we managed to get a fair amount of packing done. I was telling Christy that my back hurt this evening and I could not figure out why - until I remembered that I was weighing myself on a scale and then picking up large bags and weighing myself again (in an effort to get our bags to as close to 50 pounds - the airline limit - without going over). Usually I would first weigh when the bag was at 20 pounds, then at 40 pounds, then at 60 pounds, and have to reweigh at least four more times per bag to get it under 50. It looks like a small tornado went through our place (Christy groaned when I showed her I was posting this picture - but it is the reality), but we are making progress to getting all packed up. You can see five bags all packed which you can see in the picture. We can check 8 at the counter, carry on 4 more, and have an additional 4 'personal' bags - which I am sure we will have all. It will be a site to see for sure.

Please pray as we continue packing that we would quickly and efficiently get everything we need for the trip into our bags. Also pray for our patience as we continue on this journey. Lastly, pray that we would not forget why we are going and also that the Spirit would continue to be there long before us working in the lives of those in the language school and at La Palabra.