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.