Forgot these two things!

First of all....congratulations to my brother and sister-in-law on the birth of their new baby - Leah Meyer! She was born on Saturday afternoon weighing in at just over seven pounds. The family is doing well and I am excited to have my first niece on the Meyer side of the family. Although, a bit sad because I will not get to see her until the end of the year...that will make her 8 months old! She'll be almost walking by then!

Second picture...Lizzy with her face painted like a princess! Her preschool had a field trip yesterday - I think to a library - where she saw puppet shows, made crafts and obviously got her face painted. She was so proud of it that we kept the paint on until right before bed time when we took a shower.

A different perspective

One of the things that has been really healthy for me since we have been in San Francisco de Dos Rios is experiencing the paradigm shift from the language, to the culture, people I interact with, etc. From about high school on I've been around (for the most part) very well educated, intelligent and well off individuals. Its amazing how ignorant this often leaves me in my day to day interactions. For example, I enjoy talking with our security guard (guardo) Hector quite often to practice my Spanish - which he graciously agrees to. I had an extra, smaller, english-spanish/spanish-english dictionary so I gave it to him yesterday. He was a) really excited and b) really appreciative (he kept asking 'You're sure your not just loaning this to me, right? You are giving this to me?)...so I felt happy he could use it... Until I realized after we used it together for a while that he can not read or write enough to use it very effectively. It does not make the gift any less special to him - but I totally take for granted that people I talk to may not be able to write well if at all. This is probably true too when we ask our empleada Roxana to leave a list of food she wants us to pick up at the store. She usually does, but you can tell the written words are hard to write and often spelled like they sound rather than how they should be spelled. Do not get me wrong, I'm not getting elitist here because I can read. Nothing is further from the truth. I'm more speaking to how embarrassed I am of my own ignorance of what is for the most part the real world. When you grow up in what I often described to my friends as 'whoville' (think Dr Seuss) - I think this kind of thing happens early and often.

Totally unrelated to the topic above - crime has been on the rise here. There have been a string of 4 armed robberies involving students of the language school in the last week alone which is certainly not a good thing. I will not get into the details as not to worry people - however - you can certainly be praying for God's protection of the students and local ticos, justice to be administered to the criminals executing the crimes, and God's grace over everyone in this city. I do not really feel very much in danger, however, it does push Christy's nerves quite a bit and is a big reminder of the fallen world that we live in. On the plus side, even though crime is up, our health is up too! Everyone in the family is back to almost 100%!

To leave you with, a few more pictures today. The track I sometimes run at is starting to feel the effects of the rainy season. You can see the name of the school that we study at everyday. Unlike in America, they do not feel the need to make the sign loud, bright and noticeable. In general here - if you want to keep things for a while down here before they get broken into - you should go with a more muted description. I took two silly pictures of Christy and I studying today at school during our chapel hour break (there is only chapel on Monday and Thursday - so the other days usually see chapel hour spent studying). Lastly, a picture of a beer truck. Why the beer truck? Because it says Pura Vida! You'll have to take my word for the Pura as a tree is blocking the way. I've mentioned this before that everyone uses this expression and it is used for everything. Its a very tico phrase, so if you find yourself passing through Costa Rica, yell it to someone and wave. I'm sure they will smile and yell it back.

GOAL!!!!

I'm not sure what soccer game is on tonight....but some Costa Rican team must have just scored. Our street is going crazy.

5 reasons why I love rainy season

1. Clothes never dry
2. You are cold and damp pretty much all day
3. You never see the sun
4. You can not easily leave the house to go to anything without getting soaked
5. All the paper in the house starts feeling wet

Wait....I think I misread the title of this blog. Sorry, I'll try to more positive next time. Christy and I are really just starting to understand what 'rainy' season means. Also, we are slightly terrified to see what October - the worst month - will look like.

Lizzy has a cold and Sammy is getting over bronchitis and an ear infection. I've hardly eaten anything in the last 2 days as my stomach is in no mood for food. Pray that we can get healthy as we go into this next week of school. Also pray for La Palabra de Vida which will lose 3 English teachers in the next two months as three fellow missionaries head back to the states. As of now they do not have backfills for those positions.

I think I just paid 24 dollars for my blood type

For some reason I thought you could drive on your US license forever down here, but I recently found out from Christy that is not the case. For us to get a Costa Rican license, one step is to go to the doctor and get a checkup. I guess I should really have quotes around two parts of that last phrase. Lets try again....you go to the 'doctor' to get a 'check up'. For any of you who have seen the simpsons, I've given you a sample of what one of these doctors might look like on the left. We got in, and he asked us our height and weight. He asked me if I took any medicine - I said yes for blood pressure. He asked me to read an eye chart, I did. Sounds pretty thorough, right? What you don't know....he ballparked the English height and weight measurements into metric. He did not write down any of my medicines. Without taking my blood pressure, he KNEW that my pulse was 68 and my BP was 110/70. Thats amazing. Equally as astounding, Christy's was exactly the same. I always wanted perfect blood pressure, now I have it. When I was reading the eye chart, my right eye was really blurry for whatever the reason - after I opened my left eye I could see that I got them all wrong. However, my vision is still 20-20. PHEW. And I thought that maybe it was slipping. On the plus side, the appointment was not a total waste. A) I can get a license now. B) I found out my blood type was AB+. This is bad for everyone else because my donated blood does almost no good. Good for me because I can accept all blood types.

Not even sure what this is

Something was making a terrible noise in the kitchen at about 7:30 tonight...I went in and saw this insect on its back flapping its wings like crazy trying to get over. I'm not even sure what it is but you can see the wing span is pushing several inches long. I don't know if it had a stinger or not, but if yes, it would practically be a screwdriver. I mata toto'd that thing and it eventually died. Pretty gross.

Not so gross is two pictures of the kids I snapped today. When we were at Pequeno Mondo a while ago Christy mentioned that she wanted to get Sammy a backpack for his stuff at school. I rolled my eyes for a while but eventually caved and I am happy I did. Seeing a two year old boy with a backpack on is pretty cute. Seeing one with his sister's arm around him is priceless.

My closing thought for the day....about once every two days you hear some car driving down the street with a megaphone attached to it blaring some message. Sometimes it is an advertisement, sometimes it is a public announcement and sometimes something else. However, everytime to me it sounds like the Germans telling me to 'Put down your weapons....we will not harm you'

If you think that is funny and want to laugh like I do, click the link and listen for yourself. I actually got one walking home today from class. Thank goodness I had my digital recorder for Phonetics.

For the record, this message is actually about selling eggs.

If a tree falls in the middle of the forest....

If a tree falls with no one around in the middle of the forest, does it make a noise? (Yes, of course). I have another phrase I'd like to try for a spin...

'If everyone has an alarm that is going off all the time, will it help OR does anyone actually care?"

Lets try a quick test case. This will be visual as I do not want to bludgen all of you folks from the US with noises that are incredibly annoying. You have not been trained to simply ignore them like me.

Lets pretend this is a normal area outside. Some of the people are cars, some are houses, some are actually people. In this situation, Waldo is your car.




Bad news, someone is robbing Waldo (remember, your car). If you find him in three seconds you can save your car. Luckily...your alarm - the red circle - is going off so it helps. Because this is the US, look with 10 other people too....they would normally help you out.

Oh no! You are now in Latin America and Waldo is being stolen! Now you have only 1/2 of a second to find him before it is gone. Also, you can only look yourself this time - no one else cares about your stuff. Everyone's alarm is going off....oh dear.


In the US....you hear an alarm go off and even if it is not yours you get concerned. If it is a car alarm you will look over and make sure no one suspicious is there. If it your neighbors house alarm you will likely call the police or at least look over for lights or suspicious activity. Down here, you basically hear alarms all the time - to the point where you totally zone them out. I would say that it is to the point that if I saw a large suspicious man with sunglasses on driving down the road in a nice car with an alarm going crazy - I'd laugh becuase his alarm was probably malfunctioning. Most of the car alarms down here are both proximity and/or noise triggered which is funny....we get cars on our street that are set off all day becuase someone parks next to a gate and everytime the dog inside the gate barks or walks close to the front it goes off. Awesome.

I was joking around with my tico friend Walter about it this week. He laughed when I explained how futile it was. He said...'This is Costa Rica my friend! Pura Vida!' Pura Vida indeed!

As mentioned I was with Walter yesterday getting some routine maintenance done on the van. I guess when you by a new car imported from Korea down here it is a really good idea to change the timing belt and get the fluids flushed. It was important for me to go with him to mechanics/stores he knows because as a gringo i would a) get charged more and b) probably get bad service. So...we went out together at 7:30am to the mechanics. Walter took the 'back way' which was a rush for me...nothing like dodging people, bikes, crators in the road...etc. When we got to the mechanic he dismantled my entire enegine into the 'keep' and 'throw away' pile. Walter and I gathered up the 'throw away' pile and went to the store to by new parts....things here are different like that. You don't have the mechanic do it because he will probably charge you more to go get the pieces and also, you don't actually know what he is installing that way. It could be good, or aftermarket, or used....better just to do it yourself. We also stopped at about 8 other stores for various things that day. It usually went something like this...

1. Talk to someone to explain what you need
1' - Walter sees someone he knows and talks for a while
2. They find what you are looking for.
3. You inspect said piece.
4. You say yes, and hand the piece back.
5. They take your name on a piece of paper and tell you to go to the cashier.
5' - Walter sees another friend.
6. You go to the cashier and pay.
7. You take the slip of paper that says you have paid and you take it back to the guy who had the part.
8. You then take the part and the paper to another man who then stamps your paper.
8' - Walter sees another friend.
9. You are now free to go...Pura Vida!

I learned two things. Process is key when you buy anything from a 190 colone screw to 200 dollars worth of autoparts. Also, Walter knows many people! At the end of the day I was able to replace my timing belt, timing belt assembly, air conditioning belt, air conditioning belt assemply, some big plastic cover thing in the engine, oil filter, air filter, fuel filter, oil and some other stuff for about 300 dollars. In the states this would probably cost closer to 1500 - so its a good day!

As odd as I make things sound down here - often times they are more efficient. I went to pick up my liscence plate on Friday and it was a piece of cake. I handed a form (only three lines I needed to fill out) and my title to the car - they stamped it and said go to window seven in 30 minutes. I came back and picked up my plates and left. No wait at either place. There is no way any DMV in the states is that quick.

To leave you with today...a small slide show. I took a couple shots with Lizzy's camera when I ran on Thursday to help show you some things we see every day(almost). Enjoy!

I guess I still look gringo

So I had a first last weekend - I got to pay my cell phone. ICE is the nationalized telecommunication company in Costa Rica, so if you want to pay your phone bill you head to any bank or grocery store and you can pay it there. We were at Hipermas (Walmart for those of you that remember an earlier post) so I decided to try. I got to the cashier, showed him my phone and then read off the number in Spanish (I do not actually know how to say 'I would like to pay my cell phone now'...I find that pointing, grunting, and speaking English in broken tid-bits usually gets the job done). He typed it up, told me it was 4200 colones - about $8.50 for an entire month. I love government subsidies! I handed him a 5000 colones bill....then he noticed something. To preface, to have a cell phone in this country you almost need to be a Costa Rican. The only reason I have one is because my tico friend put it in his name. So...back to the cashier...he said 'Su numbre es walter?' I stared at him because I did not understand him. Again, and then again he asked 'Su numbre es walter?' I finally got it and said 'Walter...yes...thats me!' He rolled his eyes and gave me my change. I guess he can tell that my name probably is not Walter Rodriguez (this may be the wrong name, I'm drawing a blank on Walter's last name...but it is much different than Meyer) and I indeed do not look Costa Rican. I'll be sure next time to be dressed for the occasion like in the picture above.

So on Monday our empleada, Roxana, started working. An empleada literally translates into 'worker', but down here used in context it basically translates into house help or a maid. It is not very expensive and is absolutely a life saver as we have begun language school. She comes from 9 until 4, Monday through Thursday, to help us out in a variety of ways. First of all, let me say she is amazing already. She has cleaned everything twice over in the house...in places I would not ever even think about touching (e.g., windows inside and out, under the sink which smells really bad, behind the refrigerator and stove, etc). She also cooks us lunch was has proven to be very tasty, and it is nice because she sits down and eats with us during which we get a chance to chat for a while. However, I have noticed one downside - she finds my hiding places for stuff! Like most gringos who live here - we have scattered all of our valuables all throughout the house. I thought my hiding important papers under big pieces of furniture was flawless. However, the last two days I have done it, the folder ends up back on my desk. I guess Roxena think I must be misplacing my folder underneath the dresser and nightstands. Silly Josh.

We used to have a whole bunch of cash stuffed in a coffee tumbler in with our dishes, but I felt like I needed to move that because I give it a 50% chance that on any given day she might decide to wash the clean dishes to make sure they are not muy sucio (very dirty). Mind you, I do not think she would steal any of our stuff...however, the last thing I want to do is even tempt this wonderful woman to what probably amounts to several months worth of salary in a travel coffee mug.

No longer babies

I had one of those moments today. One of those 'my little kids are no longer my little babies moments...' Can you believe it? Sammy is only about 2 and Lizzy about 4 and I am already starting with these. Just two simple things today specifically....

I got Lizzy out a new toothbrush - nothing fancy. On the handle is a little face with a smiling character on it. She said...'Wow! Thanks dad! I realllly like this toothbrush. It is really cool!' My daughter is old enough now to use many many slang terms. She may know more than me. Another example...'Dad, I'm sitting on my bare bum now - I just used the potty...'. Who taught her to say bare bum? Did we move to Britain?

Starting yesterday Sammy can now count up to ten in Spanish as well as saying 'Hola' and 'Chow' without being prompted. He was just in our play room / office this afternoon and he came up to me and said 'Uno, Dos, Tres, Quatro, Quatro, Ocho...' and started doing something else then.

Absolutely amazing - they grow up so fast.

raising wok - hidden dragon

We have a game that my aunt and uncle were kind enough to give us as a gift as we were leaving the states. Its similar to scrabble, only faster. Although Elizabeth is not old enough to play the game - she can not read or write - she can play with the game. We had the letter tiles out and she was arraging them into all sorts of nonesense strings of letters. After reading for a while, all the sudden I looked down on the floor and saw this. 'raising wok'. Pretty odd, huh? I'm not sure what the chances are of her just arranging the letters into words is - especially compound words like raising - but they just have to be pretty low. Some might say 'maybe she is a genius!'....I love my daughter very much, but genius she is not.

A gender confused day

I wore a new shirt this morning. Well, at least it was new to me. We picked it up at repeat boutique - a place where Christian workers can get gently used clothing donations for free - in Wheaton before we flew down here in March. I got some pants and some nice Polo's that I was looking forward to wearing. After our first break of the morning, I mentioned to Christy that I liked my polo, but it was odd that the buttons were on the wrong side. Well, I started putting two and two together, and Christy checked the size and it was a 'L'. Given that the polo fit me just about perfect and I am no hulk - that sealed the deal that it is a women's polo. All that aside, I feel pretty good knowing that Annika Sorenson and I both look pretty good wearing Callaway Golf Polo's. Needless to say the shirt is getting retired - if anyone is interested - let me know and I will keep it for you.

During our language class, we were practicing asking each other our names, asking what other people's names were, etc. We each had a picture of a group of people and we took turns asking others what someone's name in the picture was and what they 'were' - a very open ended question. We could say what our relationship to them was, what job they did, what they did in the picture, etc. So, me trying to be funny, my conversation went...

Other person: 'Como se llama El?' -- What is his name?
Me: 'El se llama Henry' -- His name is Henry?

Other: 'Quien es Henry?' -- What is Henry?
Me: 'Henry is muy caliente, no?' -- Henry is very hot, no?

At this my teacher turned bright red and started laughing hard. I said it trying to be funny but I really thought that caliente meant 'cute' or something you might call a baby (which is by the way would be something like 'que lindo') . No no...caliente means hot, and in that context it is kind of like saying 'sexy' but turning up the meaning by about 5 notches. So, we all had a good laugh and learning experience at my expense. And, everyone looks at me a little differently now.

Besides that mishap I think the first two days of school have gone well. We are very busy doing work for class - so we will need to make sure to find the balance between studying for school and spending time as a family. During one of the orientation sessions a long time missionary reminded us to think of things in terms of eternal consequences. If we get a C in school - no one is going to care and it almost certainly will not have long term eternal consequences. However, if we neglect our relationships - it can have a huge impact. Certainly valuable words from a missionary who has been out in the field over 20 years.

Josh was wrong again

I've got it from two sources - the anonymous post and my security guard that the noises are not gun fire (although I still say it still sounds like a small rifle). The post calls them bombas and Hector called them bombitos. My AltaVista Babel Fish translator said fireworks are called 'feugos artificiales', to which Hector said 'No no no no no'. Thanks AltaVista. I'm betting that those in the tower of Babel would not have made such a mistake - at least not until the tower was destroyed and people scattered.

Thanks for the concern about Elizabeth everyone - she seems to be doing much better! The only problem now is that she hates the medicine we have to give her. Although I do not think it is great to mix antibiotics with dairy and/or other products - we just had to. She gets loaded fresa tang in the morning and loaded milkshakes in the evening - and we do not have to listen to complaining. Parenting 101. Its the second class just behind parenting 100 - bribery.

Did anyone notice how I just threw in a Spanish word up there? I'm practically fluent. Speaking of that, class starts for us on Wed! Pray that our ears and minds will be open to learning the language. I'm sure they had to create a beginning-low-remedial-are you kidding me-you are so dumb class for me - but I'm going to try my best.

Take two and call me in the morning

So...in the last five nights, beginning at about six in the evening, we hear - several times each evening - what is apparently two gun shots. At first we thought...maybe those are fireworks! But, we heard some fireworks yesterday, and these are different. Having been hunting several times myself I am pretty sure these are guns. If anyone can explain it, I would appreciate it. I'm not concerned yet as I have not heard about a string of 20 execution style murders near San Francisco de Dos Rios....but I am still curious....

Unrelated to gun fire - a slide show compliments of Lizzy. My parents got her a digital camera for Easter. Its more of the 10 dollar variety - so the picture quality had to be set low to get more than a handful of pictures. Given that she is 3.5...I tried to maximize the number of pictures she could take before it filled up. As we looked at these pictures, she had a huge grin on her face as she said...'There is one of the wall! And another of the wall! Do you see the wall dad?' Enjoy!

At least we know where the hospital is

I was not planning on going to the hospital today. Does anyone ever plan? Maybe for a delivery of a baby...or a surgery...but certainly some of the worst times to go there are when you are not planning to. Elizabeth had a 100 degree fever last night - no big deal really. She still was sick in the morning, but did not seem to be complaining. We went to the market and got some fruit and vegetables....when we got home we had her lay on the couch, watch TV and try to get healthy. Christy was hanging laundry and I was doing some dishes when I decided to go take her temperature again. I'm so happy I did because when I got over to her she was having a feberal seizure and was starting to turn slightly blue from choking on her own saliva. We were able to sit her up, clear out her mouth and she started coming to slowly over the next 30 minutes. We took her temperature and it was about 105 degrees. Luckily there is an amazingly kind doctor down here who looks after missionaries who laid the groundwork for us over at Clinica Biblica (the best hospital in San Jose - probably in costa rica) and also another missionary who speaks spanish was able to drive with us over to the hospital to help us find it and also translate during our stay. They found that she has a throat infection which was likely the cause of the fever and also thus also the seizure. To make sure we are getting Elizabeth a brain scan sometime in the next week to make sure the seizures are not something other than feberal. At the end of they day, we are so happy that she seems to be doing better, but as a parent nothing is worse. Combined that with being a husband watching your daughter sick AND your wife in tears, and I'm pretty sure I'd rather have both my knees broken then go through another ordeal like that. Hey, at least nothing happened to the car today....

Oh wait, I managed to ding our car today too. Awesome. We were trying to get to the hospital in such a hurry that we decided to 'go without the spotter' while we backed out of our cage. Whoops. I did not even hear the van nick the metal and make this dent (can you see it? Let me zoom in...) but it is there. All we can do is laugh about it now. Its just a car really. Oh well, the security gaurd Hector I'm sure got a kick out of it!

Totally unrelated to our tiring day. I have a few pictures. One is a reason why you should never let kids play with chalk out in your courtyard - at least not in nice clothes. The other is a picture of a new fruit I tried

today. I still have no idea what it is called - the man today at the market used the word orange but that could be just to describe the color or the name itself - I have no idea. But you cut it open and it is basically monkey brains inside. You scoop it out, and eat it - but do not chew because the seeds are bitter. Christy liked it, but I have to be honest, it was not worth the 30 cents I paid for the three of them.

A big encouragement

I've been meaning to write on this and just keep forgetting - so now as I am scrambling to get ready for school seems the appropriate time.

We went to a Spanish speaking church this weekend - we later found out it was a Colombian church - and it was awesome. It was a non-denominational church that we had heard of from another student at language school. After an hour of music worship - that takes some getting used to - we moved towards the message. Sunday was the last week of their missions month. I knew something was special when they mentioned 'month' as most churches in the US will focus only one week if anything at all. There were many special testimonies, they were sending off one couple as missionaries and welcoming back a couple other missionaries they had. Thankfully they had someone to translate into English this week for us so we did not miss much. Here I am, Mr Gringo learning Spanish as a missionary in Costa Rica - and this church has more passion and heart for missions to the world then I feel like I do on good days. What an encouragement for Christy and I, but also for everyone back home, knowing that the young evangelic church in Costa Rica is beginning to send out workers for the harvest. God is good!

Before we left the VP of ministries for Latin America Mission told us that one of our ministries would simply involve being an example of what missionaries do, how they act, etc for Ticos. As their church continues to grow and evolve, having examples of healthy missionaries will be helpful and really important. I can see from last weekend how right he was.

If I don't like Walmart in the states....

Do you think I would like it here? Every once in a while I fool myself into thinking it would be nice to 'get out for a while' so we drive over to the Hiper Mas. I mean, come on, it has a whale as a mascot. A WHALE! How could anything happen there. Well, truth be told, nothing really does happen there except what you might consider Walmart on steroids. Although the picture to my right is not an actual shot of Hiper Mas - I would never feel comfortable enough to take my camera there as it would probably be stolen - it might as well be. I think the trip will be fun, but it usually ends up with the kids fighting over the steering wheel in our 'kids kart' shaped like a car while Christy and I argue over what we do or do not need and how much I really want to go. Hiper mas, and walmart for that matter, may be the single biggest family poison we have seen in a while - at least for people as 'patient' as me.

Since we have moved into San Francisco, I have found myself even more tired than usual. I guess maybe it is the 'hurry up and wait' of language school while we are going through orientation but not actually in class yet, the inability to talk, the months of not feeling like I am home, constantly being sick with some sort of cold, or any number of reasons. What ever it is, I have been grumpy. That is a big prayer request for everyone back home that God would give me patience and wisdom as I go about my days and continue to lead our family. I certainly will be the first to admit that I need constant and consistent help in this area. I'm very thankful that the support network at the language school seems to be so strong.

To show you how grumpy I am now, I don't even know what 'Todo Cuesta Menos' means, but I do not even care. The happy whale above is telling me 'Todo Cuesta Menos' but all I want to do is go to bed. For the record, I think it means something about 'always low' - probably 'always low prices' like walmart back home. The reason I know that is that walmart owns another store named 'Mas X Menos' which they translate into 'More for less'. Either way, I'm sleepy and leaving now.