To my neighbor

You know the one you are. You share some portion of the back wall of our courtyard. You play loud music everyday between 10am and 2pm. First of all, let me say I appreciate that you do not play loud music between 10pm and 2am - that would be a different story. But the constant thumping of the same song playing over and over is too much. Please choose a different song or turn down your bass. Thanks.

PS - To my neighbor across the street on the right. Please remember that you use a clutch on a car, NOT to go slow, but rather to engage your car into gear to move more quickly. If you want to make sure you are not going too fast, use the break instead of increasing your RPMs and pushing in the clutch. I would appreciate it - and so would your car.

Amazing farmers market

This weekend we had a chance to go to the local area farmers market - and it was amazing. We got this spread that you see to the left that includes pineapples, bananas, oranges, berries, mango, melon, beans, lettuce, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, fresh basil, celery - and also four fresh pastries and three glasses of fresh squeezed juice (orange, carrot and pineapple) all for about 14 dollars. Really quite an amazing deal. The biggest thing is trying to find the best people to buy all these goods from (some vendors are better than others) and also making sure to use up everything you buy so it does not go bad.

So I think I've started making friends with our security guard who watches our block (Hector). I try to buy him a soda when we I go to the store - or when we got back from the market I gave him an orange we bought - just little stuff like that. The other night he knocked on our bars and gave us this fruit which I think he called a gauva. It looks about like a boomerang and the outside is really hard. But when you open it there are these huge seeds surrounded by a fleshy white substance that looks like mold. You eat the mold like substance and it is surprisingly good. I kinda equate it to eating sunflower seeds. It takes alot of work to get to the good part of this fruit - and the end result is probably not worth the hassle - but it is certainly a good time killer. I can see how as a security guard this would be the perfect fruit. All that being said, I found out from other missionaries that in general Costa Rican folks view security guards / maids / etc on the low end of the totem poll and generally will not associate with them. So I imagine that my reputation is totally ruined - if you were hoping to run with high society down here while visiting - it won't happen with me as I will forever be known as the gringo who hangs out with Hector.

Space in our kitchen runs at a premium so Christy and I went to EPA (think home depot - only the music playing in the store is all in Spanish...and when you leave the store the check every receipt like they do at Sam's club....and there are security guards combing the parking lot. Besides that, identical to Home Depot). We got some rope and little hooks so that we could hang our bananas like you see on the left. Bananas here are so cheap you end up buying tons - and our kids have been eating about 4 or so a day - so needless to say we have lots of the little yellow guys and we need somewhere to put them. I think this is a great idea except when Elizabeth realized she is tall enough to start pulling down the lowest bunch.

The other thing we did not know about Costa Rica is that little plastic and even sometimes metal stuff is pretty expensive. We were originally hoping to get some sort of hanging basket to put some of our fruit/veggies in to get them out of the way - but I'm sure something like that would cost 25 dollars here. Luckily in the garden section of EPA we saw these cheap wire planter baskets for about $1.5 - we simply removed the hay mesh from the basket and used some of our string and I think it works great. As you can see we wisely let Christy tie the ropes on the baskets because it was an exercise in patience which is not something that I excel at.

Here is one more thing that I tried to explain to a few folks and I think I failed. It is a hotbox - basically a box with a 15 or so watt bulb that you keep on all the time. On 'this' side of town (San Francisco de Dos Rios) I don't think it is needed quite as much but up by San Antonio de Belen it gets so humid all the time that moisture and mold can grow in your electronic equipment and ruin it. Also, books and computer paper get too moisture laden and either will not work in the printer or can even start to mold as well. So this box stays just warm enough to keep everything dry, but not dry out your wallet from electricity bills or worse yet, start everything on fire.

Awesome movie....oh wait, its in Spanish

That is how I have felt the last week as I watch TV. I will turn on the TV and see some movie that looks good on TNT or some other channel - get excited - only to be let down because there is some poor voice over a movie I like. I just need to keep telling myself that very soon those shows will be a valuable way for me to continue learning more Spanish.

Totally unrelated to TV - we found out again why all those bars are on the windows. I was talking to my 'big brother' at language school who has been helping us and he told us that last night a couple who was just about ready to graduate from the school turned on their lights in the middle of the evening - and standing in their bedroom was someone who had broken into their house. Praise the Lord that he clearly did not have anything else other than robbery on his mind because he fled in a hurry instead of standing for some sort of a confrontation. The same thing could certainly happen back in the US - I just think it is much more common here. It is a sad thing when you have to start asking yourself 'What would I do if he attacked me...' and 'What are the laws in Costa Rica if someone breaks into your house and has some sort of a fight...' We certainly live in a fallen world.

My super power

I have a super power. Much like superman is SUPER strong, Magneto can control metal, Wolverine heals himself quickly, Batman ...well, actually he does not have a super power. But you get the point - alot of people DO have super powers - and I am one of them. Did you all know that? Would you like to hear about it? I knew that you did. So, you see, I occasionally get painful bumps on my head. I know THAT isn't a super power, but rather more of a problem, issue...some might even call disease....but let me me finish. After these bumps rise and fall, usually taking several weeks - I lose my hair in that spot. Again, that is NOT a super power, that is more like anti-super-power. But...here is the super part. After three to four years...my hair grows back. Thicker and darker in that spot. There are scientists that would kill to have my genes mutant qualities that allow for this. But I'll never give it up. UNLESS - one of you wants to 50% profit share with a secret that would put rogain out of business. Just let me know.

A long awaited promise - some pictures of our new van's bling bling.

This gas cap. Don't mess with the star of power.

Wheel bling.

Break light bling.

I particularly like this one because it says AWD on our roof rack. Believe me, our van is not AWD.

Meyer Household 6, Roaches 2

It seems only fair really, to give them two points to our one. Christy opened the medicine cabinet last night to find one sitting in a cup that we had holding toothbrushes - just staring and laughing at us. Oh sure, he still died a terrible death by bleach, but his cleverness of penetrating the impenetrable steel box gains his kind valuable points in catching up to the humans.

For those of you that have not seen one before, here is what an electric shower head looks like. I've have it on good account that you can get zapped by these things (no wonder - look at the exposed wires with little more than electrical type holding them together). Lisa Befus calls them 'widow-makers'. Luckily we have been fortunate thus far. As long as you do not want anything more than a trickle from the top - the water actually gets pretty warm. As far as I am concerned, as long as I have hot water, it can be a torrent or a small trickle, I'm pretty happy either way. That being said, I have almost no hair so I'm not sure my opinion is the same as the rest of the household.

Meyer household 5, Roaches 0

We are about 100% moved into our new place and it is already starting to feel like home! Our bags are unpacked, furniture moved to where we want it and have generally bought the essentials that we need to make food, eat and sleep. It is a surprisingly quiet area which is wonderful for sleeping. We have a guard shack for our block right outside our gate and the guard, Hector, seems like a really great guy and appears to work 7 days a week for 14 or more hours a day! There are parks everywhere in our neighborhood - only 5 minutes away there is a large Japanese style park with playground equipment, a pond, ducks, and some bamboo mazes. Elizabeth and I went there today and played for a while.

There seems to be less insects on this side of town than there was up in Belen. I suppose that is because it is more urban. That being said, less insects but more roaches down here. About 5 have tried to entered our house within our line of site. We have won all five battles with shoes or chair legs.

More than I remember

In the 'old' days I used to have a fairly slim key chain. I had one key for each of the two cars I owned. A house bolt lock and a house knob lock. Maybe one key that I had for work, some 'valued' shopper cards and that was about it. If I wanted to get into my house no more than 2 keys was ever needed. Now, I KNOW I am in Costa Rica because my key chain has grown. To get from the street into our place you need 1)One key for the pad lock on the front gate 2)One key for the gate itself 3)One key for the gate on the front door and 4) One key for the door knob. Oh sure, I suppose you could scale two walls and just use one key for the lock on the back and then break down a couple doors - but that sure would be alot of work. If you wanted to get the van out you would need 1)Key for #1 padlock on the gate 2) Key for #2 padlock on the gate 3)Key for the gate 4) Key for the 'Dr Hook' club lock on the car and 5) Key for the car. My key chain has grown so much I even added a beener so that my belt loops takes the weight instead of me so I do not get a sore back :)

Christy and I are officially moved into our new place down in San Francisco de Dos Rios (San Fransico with two rivers). We unpacked our bags yesterday and then today managed to take a walk around the surrounding area. We are only 1/2 mile away from many local shops and also a pretty large grocery store. The trek to language will be a bear (20 minutes) especially in the rain, but at least we can drive if we really need to.

I feel like we have officially been assimilated into Costa Rica. We went to some street shop today and I ordered (in Spanish) 'one entire chicken meal' (only 7 bucks - it easily would feed three). They excitedly told me something in Spanish, I said No Habla Espanol. I'm so tired of saying that - but the chicken was great - minus the pickled/unripe banana/onion sauce they gave us.

Two steps forward

Thats how I feel today. I drove out with my amazing Tico friend Walter in the Befus' van in search of people to fix the damage I caused yesterday. First instruction from Walter...'Do NOT say anything, or else we will get charged twice as much.' With that in mind we were on our way. After pricing out the repairs at a couple shops it turns out we were able to buy a whole new back hatch door (1/6 of the entire van body) for about 300 dollars. To paint and install it will be another 200. I thought I would be out thousands repairing the van...but it only cost 500 and should be done in about a week! I'm liking Costa Rica better already!

Next we were able to pick up our van from the used car lot. They did all the fixes they said, and cleaned it up so nice I hardly recognized it. One of Christy's first comments about the car after she had time to look at it...'Is this our GAS CAP?' Yes, its that amazing. I'll have to be sure and take a picture of it soon and put it out here. We got insurance on the car without much hassle. Insurance was taking a little longer than we thought....Walter was late to help drive the kids home (he runs a transportation business that picks up and drops off kids from La Palabra) so we had a site seeing trip at about 120KPH back to Belen...it was exhilarating but slightly intense. I was driving my new turbo diesel van like a Porsche.

Then tonight, Lisa Befus watched Sammy and Lizzy for a bit so we could go have a date night by having dinner. It was the first time we've really talked for a bit about how we were feeling, talked about our time here, talked about language school, encouraged each other, etc. Basically, it was very nice and exactly what we needed after yesterday.

The worst day so far

Several reasons why this is the worst day yet. I'll make it a running list to the number one reason

- I saw this (see to the left) outside on the wall of the house we are staying at. I heard someone say that 'tarantula' season is coming soon - but I did not really believe that I would see one. Well...this makes one. I'm not what you would call a 'bug' person - so I took the liberty of walking about 4 feet around the wall this thing was near. Even when I took the picture, I used super zoom on the camera. And yes, I realize they are not that poisonous - I do not care - they are big and hairy.

- Sammy gave Christy a fat lip with my alarm clock in the morning

- It took us 2.7 hours to drive from our new home by language school to La Palabra over by the airport. This in 'light' traffic should take about 35. In heavy, I'm not sure, but this drive could not have been much worse.

- I had to go bathroom the whole way home on that trip

- We realized yet again that we know zero Spanish and it is frustrating to be out and about and not communicate

- Our big brother who has limited previous Spanish experience and has been in language school for a semester was clearly still having trouble communicating with folks. This is very likely how we will be after one semester and was slightly disheartening to know that we may not be further along in 3 months.

- We found out that parking a van very similar to what we just bought is VERY difficult in the gated front area of our new home. For those of you that can, think first Austin Powers movie as he tries to turn the golf cart with a 125 point turn.

- I turned Matt & Lisa's van's back window into something like you can see to the left. Actually, their back window actually exploded (safety glass continued breaking for 15 minutes - pretty cool). And I dented their back hatch/trunk so bad that it no longer opens and the lock is broken. I know that, much like I would be with my own car, they don't really care that the van got dinged. Its just a van and it will get fixed. But that does not make me feel any more silly for having done it.

- I broke the window and hatch by backing into a garbage holder out front of someone's house. I could use the 'it was too low to see in my mirror' excuse...but I simply should have been paying better attention. A garbage holder, how stupid.

- The whole van mess ruined our first impression of the house as we basically just threw our luggage in and then left. We wanted to get the van back home quick (read: 3 hours in traffic) in case it started to rain so it did not get soaked.

- The whole van and house experience left me very humiliated, frustrated, upset, annoyed so that the whole way home I was irritable. As I got cut off again...and again....and again....and again....AND each time someone drive up on the side walk, or the grass, or up a hill, AND bikers almost hit the car as they drive down the center 'lane', AND as the police on dirt bikes did the same thing AND as we saw trash every where and rats crawling through it just outside our car - for the first time I was upset at every one here and generally frustrated with Costa Rica.

But, now we are home. Matt & Lisa were understanding and kind about the whole van thing. It will be relatively quick and cheaper than I thought to fix and we've had a chance to unwind a bit. Hopefully we'll not have too many more days like this in the near future and be off and learning Spanish at the language institute soon.

Towel animals, mobsters and mosquito bites

It does not take much to impress me, and here is proof. Every day we were at Jaco they would do the coolest little animal designs with our towels when they cleaned our room. Given that pink puppy is Elizabeth's favorite buddy - it was no surprise that this little towel dog was her favorite. Also of no surprise is that the more we tipped our maid staff, the more flowers and more elaborate designs we got made on the bed.

Here is another thing that was moderately humorous and a little terrifying to me. So we are looking to buy a car so we can get around. Obviously my personal checks are worth little down here unless I'm willing to wait months for them to clear. Also, most places will not take large charges on a credit card. Financing is out of the option as interest is outrageous down here for used cars (think 20%+). Lastly, to wire the money using western union would cost an additional 5% for the wiring fee. So...what do you do? Cash. I've never felt a) more like a mobster in my life and b) happier to rid myself of US dollars when we bought the car today.


Last thing for tonight, some amazing pictures of mosquito bites. Now I know all you folks back in the US are saying...'Little bites...no big deal...we got them those thare things too!' Well, each bite produces something equivalent to a hive sized welt on your body that last for many days. I've shown a picture of Elizabeth's leg where clearly some bored insect went to town. The sad part is, they have them all over their faces too. They seem to be worse in San Jose than they are in Jaco - not sure why that is.

Beyond random pictures for the day, things are going great. Our ever changing move in date saga for our apartment seems to be settled. We can move into our house anytime we want to starting tomorrow! I think Christy and I are going to take a load of bags over there tomorrow and check the place out. However, we likely will not move in until Friday or Saturday when we have our car and close things out in Belen. Also, as mentioned before, we finished paying for our car which is a win.

Things I am reminded of today

1. Be only slightly alarmed when the security guard is running down the main drive, walkee-talkee in one hand, gun out in the other

2. Number one is likely a false alarm even if there were gunshots in the direction of Belen the night before

3. Lemon trees have thorns

4. Lemon tree thorns are big and can draw blood

5. When blood is drawn, it hurts

6. Just because you do not see a banana tree on the property, does not mean it does not exist

7. Because of point six, don't assume the security guard is stealing bananas from someone else's property when he walks by with a branch full of 50 bunches of bananas and starts to harvest them with a machete. (The banana trees are on the very back corner)

8. The sun is hot and can burn you - quickly - and thoroughly when you are outside, bald head and all, for three hours

9. You can shake orange trees to get down oranges

10. ALWAYS heed the advice of the security guard (the one you did not trust in point 7) when he comes running towards you, yelling, when you shake the orange tree. He isn't saying 'do not take those!'...he is saying...'Do you see the beehive the size of a football in the tree above you?'

Back from Jaco

We made it back in one piece from Jaco - and as much fun as the beach was - we are happy being in San Jose. I can go back to eating 2000 calories a day instead of feeling like I need to 'get my money's worth' of melted processed cheese on fries and nightly burgers. After reading the last blog post of Elizabeth, I wish I had brought my camera to the beach the final day we were there. Dead in the sand left over from high tide was the skeletal remains (with some minor decomposing still happening) of a blow fish. Instead of just letting lie, of course I carried it on a stone saying 'EVERYONE! Come look at this!!!' Christy was not even impressed enough to come look at it - she really missed out.

God was good to us on so many levels this week. We originally thought we had to wait until May 1st to move in to our new place. Then we found out last week that we would probably be able to get in about a week early. Today we found out we'll probably be able to get in on about Wed of this week which means we'll finally be able to unpack our bags and begin to get settled. All we need to do is pick up our van sometime early this week so we can drive down there. Also, we had Wheaton Bible Church commit to supporting us during our time down here which places us about at full support for our trip!

La Palabra is off tomorrow (it is a national holiday) which is good as it seems that all the missionary teachers down here could use one day to relax and catch up on the school work. The school hired a new Bible director to replace the one that quit unexpectedly last month - and it seems that he is doing very well. They are still short several English teachers, so we are praying that God will help fill those positions quickly to ease the burdens on the teachers that are here.

Thats about it for now. No funny stories today, but I'll work on it starting this week. We are going to try and get our drivers license for Costa Rica this week - If it is anything like it is in the states, I'm sure that will be a gold mine for blogging.

I've turned into a pufferfish

I think Elizabeth has what I will call the 'Nana' gene (by Nana - I mean Christy's mom). Christy's mom might be the slowest eater (Christy wanted me to say 'Time to savor her meal') save for maybe my own grandpa - its a close race. There have been several nights since we have been in Jaco, where if either Christy or I stays with her for a while (e.g., 45 minutes after a meal), she WILL eat all the food on her plate. Tonight, she had more food than I did on my plate, ate it all, and then ate ice cream too. Then she wanted a hotdog and a frozen strawberry daiquiri - NA of course. At the end she informed me that she had so much she turned into a puffer fish. Yikes.

Our new home (till the end of the year)

I've shown these pictures to a few already but I figured I would put them out on the blog. The Hyundai Starex van is our new ride. It is a 12 passenger van like I posted before - but it is about the size of a US minivan. The picture on the left is representative of ours - they look almost exactly the same. The MAJOR difference is ours has more bling on it (read: faux chrome around the trim, lights and the gascap - it is sweet). An example of the back two seat configuration is seen on the right. Basically - the trunk is a row of seats and the back seat and middle seat have fold down seats as seen in the picture.

I have a few shots of the place we will rent while at language school. It is a 3 bedroom 2 bath house. It has a washer which is nice (no dryer). No hot water (just little electric heaters on the shower heads - very common in Costa Rica). It has a nice place to park the van out front which is great. I wish their was razor/barb wire - but it should work just fine. It is only about a 15/20 minute walk to school in the morning and it is very reasonably priced.

The backyard of the place we are renting. We have no 'lawn' - but there appears to be a nice little patio to put a hammock on. If that is left there, we will take it down immediately so the kids do not get killed.

Small bedroom 1

Master bedroom w/ bath

Small bedroom 2

Living area

Kitchen shot 1

Kitchen shot 2

Front picture 1. That guy is Lynn, our big brother from school. He has a VERY thick Mississippi accent - so I'm sure this Spanish conversation with the Landlord is amusing :)

The front 'yard' area. This will be a great place to park the Starex.

And all I want is Pizza Hut...

We are staying at a hotel where we get all of our food included. We get absolutely great food breakfast, lunch and dinner. I can also get chips, fries, cheese, burgers and hotdogs whenever I want. And all I am craving right now is the Pizza Hut across the street...mmm....Pizza....

Jaco Beach

Christy and I have been at Jaco Beach (pronounced Ha-Ko) the last couple days having a nice time. Jaco is not known as the 'nicest beach in Costa Rica' by any stretch - it is however about the closest Pacific beach from San Jose which is why we decided to go there. Down town Jaco is really no different than any-beach-town USA except that maybe it is a little less developed (that is changing) and it is not as safe. By that I mean you just should not be out at night really and if there is no need to carry much cash or your passport - don't. For the most part, people come here because it is incredibly close and also because they have great waves for surfing. We are staying at an older Best Western hotel that has served our purposes just fine. In the front they have this little toy car like you usually see outside of grocery stores for that the kids can ride for some amount of change. The kids LOVE just being in it - even if we do not have a 100 colones (20 cent) coin to make it go.

We have been getting a taste of the different animals in Costa Rica almost from day one. When we were staying with the Befus' there was an amazingly beautiful - and loud - bird that started going nuts every morning at about 5:45. Also, there are different sounding Cicadas than I had ever heard before. Here by the beach, there are lizards everywhere which for a midwest boy for me who only ever saw salamanders in window sills is pretty exciting. Can you find the one on the picture in the left? I almost stepped on it while it was resting on the sidewalk and it dashed into the grass, they are so well hidden there. The other one on the right is much easier to see. This one is only a little over a 1.5 feet long, but there are a couple that are well in excess of 3+ feet just tooling the grounds. I also saw one run today - and they are surprisingly agile and fast! If one ever started chasing me I would not even know what to do. In my estimation, man to lizard in a hand to claw battle, lizards are by far higher on the survival of the fittest scale.

What good would blog entries be without me making fun of some signs? One of my favorites one is on the left. I'm not even sure what this sign means. In case you do a U-turn please run into the pacman shaped 'C' ? Watch your step on the tripper-thingy as you enter the door and remember to turn around as you pass through it? In all honesty - I think it means use the stairs in case of emergency based on where it is placed - but who would even get that? Another one that Christy and I liked was on the right. If you have guitars, drums, harmonicas - hey - no problem. But you'd better not be playing trumpet on the first floor! What it should actually say is, 'No playing any instrument loud because it might distract the guests at the hotel - and that is OUR job when we play loud dance music until midnight on the weekends. Thank you.'

One thing that is very evident here is God's amazingly beautiful nature. One of the best way to see that is in the sunsets. I asked Christy the other night 'I wonder if the locals ever get tired of the sunsets...' and two seconds later a local hotel guard came over and said something in Spanish that I could interpret from his hand signals and voice as 'Take a look at that sunset - it is amazing'...that answered my question. And to be fair, who would? I snapped a couple pictures so everyone could see. The picture on the left shows one side of Jaco Bay mountains as the sun is setting. Where the 'clouds' appear to hit the water in the distance you can actually see more land which is a very large peninsula. The picture on the right is a similar one with the kids looking cute. Sammy has his favorite bucket and lizzy is enjoying a stawberry icee drink. She's actually enjoyed MANY of those over the last few days :)

To give you a little different view of the beach I took a snapshot of the other side of Jaco Beach. There appear to be some amazing mansions up on the cliffs in the distance. The waves are quite large here and I have enjoyed body surfing in them even though there are signs that say 'Drag your feet to avoid getting stung by the rays in the water.' The right shows the hotel. Don't be deceived, we are not staying in the large luxury condo building, if you look just below and to the left of the life guard / security guard tower - you can see a little sliver of the old Best Western that we are staying in :) However, that large building right next to the hotel shows you the massive development going up in this area. Ramada is building a five building complex that will be a resort/hotel/condo area. Also, there appears to be another huge hotel project going up about 1/2 miles down the beach. Lisa Befus told us that welders are hard to come by in the central valley where San Jose is because they have all come out to the beach to work on the large hotel projects up and down the Pacific coast.

Totally unrelated to the beach, we appear to have found housing! This is a huge answer to prayer. The Prather family (our big brothers at the language school) toured two houses in walking distance to the language school for us on Saturday and after a brief phone conversation we have chosen one. It meets almost all of our requirements and we are looking forward to making it our new home over the next nine months as we gear up for language school. The move in day is May 1st, which is two days AFTER language school orientation starts - but honestly we are so happy to have a place to move into eventually that the wait almost is not that bad. Luckily, we can just stay with the Befus' until the place opens up.

Let us know how you all are doing and how we can be praying for everyone. Talk to you soon!