The Meyer Blog

Mes de Patria

2010-09-09T10:13:00.002-06:00

Patriotic month.

On the 15th of this month is Independence Day here, as it is in most of Latin America. The blue, white and red flags and decorations are showing up everywhere. Houses have decorations. The classrooms and hallways have accordion streamers and balls, flags and the shield of Costa Rica decoration. The street vendors have replaced or added to their wares of fruit, drinks, and cellphone accessories with flags of all sizes and the traditional candle-lit paper house lanterns.

All this week, La Palabra de Vida (and every other school around the country) is having almost daily civics assemblies with dancing, recitations, national hymns, and skits. Lizzy's class is participating in the assembly next Monday with a traditional dance. We decided to buy the full outfit, for the assembly, but also to take with us as a souvenir of our time in Costa Rica. Though not traditionally in the colors of the Costa Rica flag, this skirt is essential in the traditional dance. Lizzy was so proud of her new dress that she performed her dance for me (Christy)without music in the front yard. She takes her participation in the dance very seriously and has put much practice into it.

From Lizzy dancing

Getting Ready to Go

2010-09-07T09:21:00.003-06:00

Hi…Christy here. I’m hijacking the blog and writing a post since it has been quite a while since Josh has posted. Josh is busy these days working on applying to grad schools, while at the same time still teaching, grading, and prepping for classes at La Palabra de Vida.

I, on the other hand, have been arms deep in planning for the transition that we are going to go through in just 3 short months…selling our stuff (since we are not shipping stuff home), packing bags to send home with people who have visited us or the school, figuring out what we need to do for Sammy and Lizzy for schooling in January, and making travel plans, while homeschooling (preschool) Sammy and taking care of my increasingly mobile funny-girl Kate (whose current favorite word to say is “tickle, tickle, tickle”).

My preparations for the move have made me realize some of the things that I will miss, some that I won’t, some of the things I am looking forward to, and some of the things that I am not…so here they are:

I will miss looking out of the window up into the Escazu mountains while I am washing dishes…but I am looking forward to having a dishwasher again.

I will miss the fact that my children are becoming bilingual…but I will not miss the times when I feel like my Spanish makes me sound like a toddler.

I will miss the open windows and doors with outside air flowing through the house…but I don’t think I will miss the little critters that come with having more open houses.

I will miss the beautiful weather here, I’m not looking forward to leaving during the best weather here…and arriving just in time for a cold Chicago winter.

I will NOT miss the geckos in the house. Although people like them for eating bugs, I do not like finding random baby geckos, cleaning up gecko droppings, or hoping that I get a chance to find them before Kate does.

I will miss having a clothes line…I know, this one might seem nuts to some of you. I might be glad to get rid of it if I had to line dry everything…but we have a dryer, so I only have to line-dry when I want to do it or have time for it. Hanging cloth diapers out to dry is one of my favorite household chores.

I will miss the fact that every time family comes to visit, we get to see a cool new part of Costa Rica….but I am so very excited that, for a while after we get back, we will to be able to see family almost every day.

I will miss the friends that we have made here.

I will NOT miss the sugar ants. They don’t bug us too much, but when you see a stream of them coming into the house, you kind of wonder what the kids left somewhere that they are going after.

I’m sure that Josh could add many things to both sides of this list….but he is going to have to add his own post to do it. We’re excited and nervous to be moving on to the next stage in our lives….curious to see where God is taking us.

Back from the U.S. and gearing up for the new teaching year

2010-02-03T10:45:00.003-06:00

The end of 2009 proved to be a bit more busy for me than I first had imagined it would be. Baby Katherine Grace Meyer was born at the end of September, wrapping up the final trimester at La Palabra and finally our trip back to the U.S. We had a great time visiting friends and family - as well as having the opportunity to take part in the exchange program which included 13 students from La Palabra de Vida being in the Chicago area for 3 weeks.

I have created a slideshow below which contains pictures of the ministry in general, with many specific shots from 2009 and January 2010. Thank you all so much for your continued prayers and support throughout 2009 - Christy and I are really excited about what 2010 will bring!

I finally got to use this thing!

2009-08-01T05:58:00.002-06:00

So when we first moved to Costa Rica, I bought what any guy would have - a machete! Because....you never know when you might need one, right? And, five dollars is a small price to pay for a knife (sword?) the size of my leg. But, for the first time in our 1.5 years down here I got to use it for real! Yesterday we had a thunderstorm of grand proportions - including hail and everything. It blew over several banana trees near our house - so I went to town trying to get them off the electric fence. I also cleared out some banana leaves in our back yard so we can start to line dry some clothes more effectively. Nothing makes you feel more HUGE then machete-ing huge leaves like they are butter - lets be honest though - palms and banana trees don't put up much of a fight.

10 + 1 = 8

2009-07-06T19:20:00.006-06:00

So I was sitting with my daughter at the dinner table this afternoon and next to us was one penny and one dime. She asked me something like 'What do you see daddy?' and I promptly (and proudly) answered '11'. She said no. I smiled a sly smile and said 'Okay, 9...' She said no again. I was left with nothing to say except 'you are too smart for me, what is it?' She quickly responded with '8'. Christy looked at me and smiled, wondering if I would understand. I looked at the dates and saw no eights or clever combinations - certainly not that my four year old would be able to do the math on. I just was puzzled and annoyed. Until she explained, with the help of Christy, that when the two coins were put together, side by side, they made the shape of an 8. She is absolutely right and there was nothing I could do but smile. How many times do (dare I say 'we' as adults?) just totally miss something right in front of us because we assume we already know the answer. Worse than thinking that we already know the answer, how many of us think that EVERYONE else must be wrong. I fall into that category quite often. Thank goodness I have my daughter to help ground me in my own bias and thoughts of superiority.

Shame, let down, sadness....

2009-06-28T07:20:00.005-06:00

These are things I feel after waiting so long to update the blog. But, in the words of of my favorite Jane Austin book/movie 'Do not worry Lizzy, this too shall pass, and probably more quickly then it ought...' Its from Pride and Prejudice - I highly recommend you at least watch the six hour A&E special version if not even read the book too.

We recently sent out a prayer letter to everyone – if you did not receive it please do let me know. I’m also posting one on the blog here and will be sending one out via email today….

So much has happened since the last time I blogged! Roughly two months ago I had the opportunity to go for an over night retreat with my 7th, 8th and 9th graders. During that retreat there were several team building events – if you have ever been to a low ropes course, you have probably done something similar to what we did that weekend. However, they also had a military style obstacle course where you had to swim through mud water, walk up muddy slopes, climb rope ladders, run through tires, crawl underneath barbed wire (okay – it was just rope – but I was imagining that it was barbed wire), and other such activities. I’ve never had the opportunity to do that and it was quite a bit of fun.

To be honest, I often don’t feel *that* much older than my kids, especially the 8th and 10th graders, but one picture in particular really sealed the deal for me realizing the cold hard truth. I AM that much older then my students. If you look at the picture here, you can see that I both tower over my students (hard to do given that I am only 5’8’’) and I am also generally much more ‘thick’ then they are. In general, I’m just old. Christy has felt a bit old lately because Elizabeth has started telling her ‘Mom, your hands are rough because you are OLD!’ I’m not sure where she learned this (I certainly did not tell her to say this – even I have limits) but I guess all you can do is laugh because the kids don’t know any different

Roughly a month ago I had the chance to attend a camp with the 10th and 11th graders which was fun as well. We went to an area called Savegre which was absolutely beautiful. This camp was situated in a mountain valley right along the Savegre river so in every direction around us were mountain peaks. Also surprising to many, it was VERY cold in the evening time. I was wearing long sleves, to t-shirts, a long sleeve t-shirt, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket over it, but was still shivering during our evening meetings. There was a high ropes course there; however, it had rained so much recently that we were only able to use a smaller section of course including a ‘leap of faith’, a ‘rapture’ – where you get pulled up in the air by your team mates, and something called a hammock where you basically jump off a 40 foot balcony and swing like a monkey for a couple minutes. During this weekend, we had the president of the board of directors come and speak to the children and on the side we also did a brief study on the Biblical character Daniel.

One thing that was interesting was the ‘serenades’ at night. I guess this is more or less Costa Rican tradition. The first night everyone ‘goes to bed’ at 10pm (realize, no one is ACTUALLY going to sleep) and the girls prepare for their serenade. It starts at 11:30pm. For this year, the girls had black lights strung up everywhere and had hold up posers in bright colors that had the words to the songs that they were singing. The girls holding up the posters wore black so you could hardly see them and four girls in the front playing instruments wore white. Overall, pretty cute. The next night we ‘went to bed’ at 10:30pm – but then the guys had to get ready to serenade the girls. The must have pulled the pedals off of about 500 roses because they put rose pedals all over the floor. They also had formed some PVC in the shape of a heart, put alcohol in it, and set it on fire. When I saw this getting set up, I asked Matt ‘…this is going to melt the PVC – what are they doing….?’ (I was also thinking, why are you allowing this). Sure enough, about 10 minutes into the serenade, poisonous black smoke was billowing from this now melted blob on the ground. Matt and I were able to put it out while the boys continued ‘signing’ – if that’s what you could call it – to the girls. Overall, an experience to see, and a neat look into the culture.

More recently, Christy and I were able to spend two weeks in Miami and help Latin America Mission out with an orientation for folks interested in becoming missionaries. It was a hard time in La Palabra de Vida because Matt taught all of my classes (thanks Matt!), but a great time for us because we got to basically just act as a taxi service for the folks in orientation, answer questions, and just basically just be friends to them for 10 days. The orientation included presentations on the history of LAM, the nuts and bolts of Latin America Mission, advice on support raising and also a whole bunch of team building activities. This last thing was something new to the orientation from when Christy and I went through it in 2007, and something I think is a huge improvement to the program. It was truly a blessing for Christy and I also to be able to hear the story of every one of the candidates and why they felt called to missions work.

We just entered into the ‘spring’ break of La Palabra de Vida which means that I have the ability to rest for the next couple weeks. Before I started teaching, I thought this was a crazy amount of vacation, but now that I know how much is involved with both prepping and execution of the school work, and also emotionally with the lives of the students, I am really looking forward to the couple week break. My folks are coming into town which means the kids will have endless book reading times and outside bicycle riding times – which will be great.

I hope everyone is doing well, and I’ll try to use this break as a catapult to blogging a bit more in the future...

Things I've realized in the last couple weeks

2009-02-19T21:35:00.003-06:00

1. Waking up at 5:00 a.m. every morning has not been as bad as I thought it would be.

2. I like to be planned out at least 3 weeks in all my classes

3. Total lack of an understanding of 'forming lines' or 'waiting your turn' still makes me annoyed

4. I also do not like having meetings that always run 6 minutes late when I only have 15 minutes inbetween to get somehere.

5. Even though #4 bugs me, I still hold my students for 30 seconds sometimes when they only have 3 minutes to get from one class to another.

6. Number 2 is not possible

7. I'm a little sad that football is over.

8. I am very happy that I just realized that we have 3 locals channels on our cable that are broadcast out of Denver.

9. We might have to travel out of country in the next 30 days if our Visa does not come through.

10. Although waking up at 5:00 am is not bad, it is still not very much fun.

11. Teaching students, much like leading teams, is difficult.

12. Sometimes the most simple assignments yield a wealth of information and context on students, their backgrounds and the struggles they are dealing with.

13. Riding a bike on the road is not nearly as terrifying if it is 5:40 in the morning

14. I miss Hulu.com

15. I'm hoping sometime to climb Mt. Pico Blanco

16. As much trouble as I have with my classes sometimes, it is still easier than teaching Lizzy and Sammy like Christy does

17. If I don't bring water to class in the morning, but the third class my mouth gets dry and I start spitting (accidently) on the folks in the first row

18. I take too long when I grade assignments

19. We still have big time 'I miss the states' moments - and probably will for the next two years

20. The second 60% I lost on Bank of America stock was much easier than the first 60% (math joke - get it?)

I've included a picture of me teaching that Matt Befus took unexpectedly. You can see how animated I get! The room I'm using too just got upgraded and we have a project unit and stereo,DVD,etc in there. Its pretty sweet. This is my 7th grade 'B' class. This year they split the 7th grade class in 2 because there was so many students, it would have been difficult to have them in one class.

British Propaganda

2009-02-02T19:04:00.008-06:00

Sammy is into Thomas the Train in a big way. By the looks of the toy shelves back in the United States over Christmas, so are many other kids. I'm fine with it - which is a good thing based on how many new Thomas toys, books, adventure sets, etc that he received from my parents over the holidays. That aside, I do get a kick out of reading some of the older Thomas books. This is both because of the British-isms you find in there (see below) in addition to the down right silliness that are in these books. Lets take a closer look...

(Picture 1)
In this page of our book titled 'Breakfast time Thomas' written by the Reverend W. Awdry, we can see that Thomas was acting 'Cheeky' this day as he tried to pull away from the station without his engineer! (This was against the best advice of his friends Percy and Toby the Tram).

(Picture 2)
After Thomas loses control of his engine - he crashes into the stationmasters house (NOT a great way to keep your job in these tough economic times). Notice that I'm pretty sure two people and the Catog (hybrid creature) did not survive this crash. This picture also sets up the next one...

(Picture 3)
I think its great that the author really focuses on the big picture in the final page. Never mind the fact that a TRAIN ENGINE just crashed into the house - you ruined our breakfast you 'miserable engine'. The girl looks upset that her shirt got untucked and the boy looks mad that his gel did not hold his hair in place. He should come to Costa Rica because there are MANY kids with Mohawks and I never see one piece of hair move. (P.S. - I guess the station master was the only one who didn't make it).

Did you ever just want to know whats next?

2009-01-30T20:47:00.002-06:00

I did. Multiple times in the last couple days actually. As I may (or may not) have blogged about in the past - time isn't a real big deal down here. There are some interesting implications to that when you work in a position that is VERY time dependent in a cultural where nobody cares - but thats for another day. What I'm looking for here is a simply schedule of events. Nothing big. Not a Gant chart, not workflow diagrams, not something to the second or even to the 1/2 hour sections. Actually, I wouldn't even need times - just a 'here is what we hope to cover'. I've had 4 days straight of showing up somewhere and being at the mercy of whatever just comes next. It nearly KILLS me. One of those days began with meetings at 6:15 a.m. and finally ended at 9:50 p.m. (yes, I'm serious. We just had three breaks - our bus ride to the place, 30 minutes after lunch and about 40 minutes after dinner). I joked around with the one other Gringo there that in the U.S. - I think people would have just left. However, I just would have had a list of events, I'm pretty sure I just would have been annoyed and not down rightupset.

However, as usual, two good nights of sleep and a weekend ahead of me (with the super bowl!) tends to calm the mind and soul.

P.S. The hot water heater still does not work

2009-01-25T19:17:00.000-06:00

For those of you wanting to know - I'm still a failure as a plumber.

The Beach!

2009-01-18T16:37:00.010-06:00

My whole family including both my brothers (and their families) and my parents came down to Costa Rica - for what might be one of the last large Meyer Family hurrahs - about a week ago. My parents rented a house in Manuel Antonio - a rainforest / beach area roughly three hours away from San Jose, Costa Rica with plenty of space so that we could enjoy the pool, the beach, good eats and time with each other. As with all things, sometimes God's plan is a little different than ours. Our trip was cut short - as in never happened - because as it turned out we needed to stay much of the time in San Jose nearer a top tier hospital (no one is in critical condition and all my family has since returned home - so no need to worry - but thanks for starting to worry). After you leave the San Jose area, the quality of care and options start going down hill fast. However, in the middle of that week My eldest brother, his wife and my family were able to go out for a few days and enjoy the property as it had already been rented.

The kids were a bit concerned at first that we may not get to go to the beach and enjoy the pool, ocean, sand, food, etc - you can see their agony in this picture. But, after we told them they were quite happy to be going - minus the three hour drive up non-U.S.A approved style roads through the moutains. Actually, I think my brother and his wife were even less excited about that drive - its pretty brutal for anyone who gets motion sick. As the driver right in front of the AC - its a little easier.

One of the more fun things we did (I think) was go to the butterfly garden. We had done this tour before with Christy's parents when they visited and it really is great. They have a wonderful selection of butterflies in the garden itself, as well as a unique exhibit that shows the different styles and stages of larva through butterflies. Really quite impressive. If you are willing to pay just a bit more, you can get a guide to walk you through not only the entire butterfly garden portion - but you also get to tour their reptile exhibit too which for given the size of this park is quite amazing. You walk on a catwalk above a grand selection of crocs, caymons, snakes, turtles, lizards and other creatures. Last time we were there Sammy was sleeping through the lizards - so I think he enjoyed it. The other plus side about this butterfly garden / park is that it is under cover of the rainforest so you don't get quite as zapped by the sun.

Although not uncommon to see out by the beach, here in San Jose we see almost no lizards so its neat to have them just outside your bedroom window getting some rays on the warm roof tiles. I especially liked these lizards better than the ones in Jaco because I'm pretty sure if this guy got angry at me - I would still be eating him for dinner instead of the other way around.

The last pictures that Justin was kind enough to take include a little beach time with Lizzy and I. Although I will never understand why kids love to get messy in sand (in their hair, their suits, their toes...everywhere) - getting in the ocean itself will always make sense to me. Although the waves are a bit intimidating people the size of Elizabeth and Sammy - they both did great in the water. We had bought little floaties (innertubes) for them to use - and as long as daddy was close and holding on - things were good. Luckily on this particular day you can see the waves were not too bad - only one capsized on Sammy and that was mostly my fault for not paying attention (needless to say he was done with the water and wanted mom after he coughed up some salt water).

I hope the new year thus far has been good for everyone. Christy and I are excited, if not intimidated to go back to our 'old' roles in the family. Starting tomorrow I'll be spending full days at La Palabra de Vida with teacher orientation and lesson planning, and Christy will be home all day with both of the kids. Lizzy is going to be home schooling with Christy starting tomorrow (pray for them!). In addition to my teaching at La Palabra, I've officially started another class at Covenant - Reformation to Modern Church History. So, if you want a survey course level detail history of that topic - feel free to drill me on it. :)

We will be in touch!

Rattle Rattle Shake Shake

2009-01-09T19:47:00.002-06:00

As you may have heard - there was a 6.2 earthquake in Costa Rica, very near to San Jose, yesterday. Being unprepared gringos from a location in the United States with no earthquakes, I must admit that we were fairly unprepared for an earthquake of that magnitude. There have been smaller ones to date (in fact, three days ago there was a 5.0) - but those more just feel a bit odd but are not frightening. However, when the glasses and plates start dancing, my car is rolling in the driveway - and you can physically see how the house is moving different directions than the concrete walls outside are window - it is certainly a time for concern. Praise the Lord that everyone in our family is safe. Also, all of our friends here in Costa Rica at La Palabra de Vida and beyond appear to be safe and sound. However, please do pray for those families that have serious housing damage, and worse yet, lose of life in their family (I believe the death toll is up to 15 by today). I'm actually fairly concerned that the 15 is probably woefully low given that some of the smaller poor shanty towns are probably not getting either the news coverage or asistance that they need.

Unrelated to the earthquake, my parents and my brother and his wife landed (2 hours after the earthquake - I guess it is related) safe and sound. My middle brother Jon, his wife and daughter will be landing in 1 hour and we will be having a Meyer family vacation / get-together which given the current market and also hardness to find time to get together could be our last for a while. Its fun to see everyone and I'm hoping a few days at the beach will be fun time together.

I've been working on reading up on 8th grade science text books and working through lesson plans so that I will be one step closer to being able to teach at La Palabra this upcoming school season. I will be starting some teacher meetings at the end of this month and into early February and then my first foray into full time teaching begins. Yikes!

I tried the last two nights to post some updates on the hot water heater (of which their are plenty) - but both times I lost my posts. Can you believe it? As a summary, the offical store trip count was about 10 - and we came in about 50% over budget - but on the plus side it does make hot water. On the negative side - it could at any point blow up and ruin the back half of our house. More to follow....

I hope everyone is doing well - we'll be in touch.

A shop-a-holics dream

2009-01-04T20:53:00.008-06:00

Well, I finally got around to unburying our camera out of the hotbox so I thought I would snap a few pictures around the new place. The first one here is one of the reasons why my living room is my 'new favorite room'. Actually - I told Christy it is the first room in all of the places in Costa Rica that we have stayed that has a room that I really like. Our ceiling is a bit unusual in that it is totally wood paneled. In the family room, there is huge piece of timber that is roughly 16 feet tall, that serves a major support for the roof. However, in all directions (and in all other rooms) there are vaulted ceilings with the amazing wood paneling. I can just sit out in the family room, listen to music, read and enjoy the setting.

Another exciting thing that occurred just today actually is that we bought a mid-sized on demand water heater. I'm not sure if I mentioned before, but our house does not have hot water at all (except for that water coming out of widow-makers in the showers in the two bathrooms with have). However, Christy and I figured that it would be pretty easy to buy an on demand water heater and feed some hot water to both our clothes washer and also the kitchen sink. You would not believe it - but I am excited about the water to the sink. During raining season, when you are always wet, everything is damp, and it is about 62 degrees - washing your hands in freezing cold water is a good way to both be uncomfortable and catch a death illness.

One implication of the hot water that I mentioned to christy at the hardware store is that I will have to yet again face my arch-rival...plumbing. For those of you who have never tried to adjust plumbing or even make new plumbing from something roughed in - you may not understand. However, its an art. Even when you think you have it 'all figured out' and buy all the pieces of PVC, the glue, the bends, etc....you WILL go back to the hardware store no less than 16 more times to get the right pieces. After my ominous warning - Christy and I began our adventure.

Given my healthy respect and FEAR of plumbing, I think that plumbing must be a shop-a-holics dream. You KNOW you are going to buy the wrong parts, and probably miss something, but you can combat this by buying every bend, every union, every connection possible. And they are only about 100 colones each! We are talking about 20 cents a piece. So, you can go crazy at the store. You can see a small collection of the pieces that we will likely never use because they are incorrect to the left.

As if hearing my words and exactly on que, when we got home we realized our first (or what will be many) problems. I was all excited as we pulled the unit out of the box, one side saying 'cold water' and one saying 'hot water'. So easy, what could go wrong. We bought all the PVC and connections for 3/4'' - this is what washers use. However, if you had rulers as eyes, you would be able to see what is wrong. Yeah, you guessed it (you didn't really probably) - these are 1/2''. Which means although I had hoped to start doing the plumbing tonight, it was almost silly for me to start because if you start gluing the PVC together before it is totally cut and assembled, you are bound to make a mistake unless you vocation is working on This Old House. So....as other road blocks and bumps come about on this - I'll let you know.

Totally unrelated - you have all done it before. You are packing for a trip, space is tight, however - there is something you really want. When your spouse is not looking you unzip the bag and smash something in - forcing the zippers on the bag to scream for mercy. Well - even if you haven't - you can imagine. I did that this last trip - but the sad part is that it was not even with one of my own things. Someone once gave Sammy a mini-Wisconsin helmet for Christmas. I saw it when we were home in December and what started out as an innocent 'that would look nice on my teaching desk' turned into me risking the life of one of our suitcases AND stealing (commandearing?) this helmet for my use in 2009. None the less, I am happy it is here with me in Costa Rica. If it could talk, I think it would be happy too.

One last picture to entertain you with. I've never really seen this before in a house, because Ive never seen a house that had vaulted ceilings in every single room. But in two of the rooms, the closets are just built out into the rooms. However, the ceiling is so tall that they did not continue the concrete to the top. The first week we were hear I told Christy that it would make sweet storage. She then mentioned how ugly it would be. Case closed, right? Maybe not....

Happy New Year!

2009-01-02T22:29:00.003-06:00

As declared in the prayer letter we sent out, I'm going to do my best to try and update the blog a bit more often. TBD how this promise (for the second time actually...) shakes out.
We had a very busy December as we finished up moving (again) to our new house. We had been living on the Campus of La Palabra de Vida at the English house. It was a very convenient in that when we were teaching we could simply wake up, throw on some clothes and go teach (okay...slight more was involved) - however - it was time to move out. In mid-January there is another family coming down to help teach and they will be staying there. Also, although we enjoyed being close to the school and Matt & Lisa, we were excited to have a 'space of our own' that we could arrange just so. Luckily, we found a house that we can rent for a reasonable low rate given the normal expenses in the Belen area - and also it is only 1km away from the school (thats about 1/2 mile for all my American amigos). This means I can walk to the school every day without any hassle - giving Christy flexibility by not having to wake up and take me to work and also by having the car. The neighborhood is loaded with kids, which is exciting, if not tiring. Everyday Lizzy says, 'Can I go play with my friends?!?!?'

We moved in early December, and after what seemed like only a few days to unpack, we fly back to the United States. We spent some time in Colorado, Illinois and also Michigan. Although it would have been fun to see everyone - we quickly realized that two weeks in the states quickly gets taken up by not only time with family - but also travel. we spent close to 3.5 days of our short trip home either in car rides or planes. I think next year, if possible, we will try to take a longer trip back to the states so that we can see more of our supporters and be slightly less rushed.

We flew back into Costa Rica on New Years Eve and thankfully had no problems with customs or immigration. Actually, we might have set a record by making it through immigration, getting our bags, and going through customs. I can not imagine it took us any more than 30 minutes to do all of that - incredible! We had 8 bags crammed full of goodies that we brought back from the states - including two army duffels. Given the new airline rules on bags, we had heard that they might try to charge us more for those bags as they were outside the size limits - but our check in lady did not even mention it. God certainly was watching over us as we made our travels to the states and back.

Over yesterday and today we have been trying to finish unpacking boxes (and the stuff we brought back from the states) and make our house a perfect home. We have been hanging towel bars, mirrors, baskets, etc - trying to get everything just so. Starting next Monday I'm going to try and hit the books hard to start planning for the 2009 school year. This was something I had hoped to do on our short trip to the states but surprise surprise - I did not get to it. Also next week I need to take our car into the shop with our friend Walter because the turbo (it is a diesel, do not get too excited) is not working. Likely this will cost us around $1000 to fix - ugh. However, the little extra power is a) Nice to have around San Jose and b) almost necessary when you drive through the mountains. The last thing you want to do is stall out on one of the very steep mountain curves because you do not have enough power.

Anyway, this post is a bit dry as it is more of an update - but, and least you all know what we are up to now. I'll try to snap some pictures of our house for everyone to see what we are seeing (where we live, our beautiful view of the escazu mountain range, etc).

Thanks again everyone for your continued support and prayers as we are down here. As Christy and I venture into yet another stage of live as I full time teach and she begins to home school Elizabeth - we will need the continued support.

Blessings to all.

Tryin to make good on my promise

2008-10-30T18:51:00.003-06:00

Well, here I am. Blogging again as promised - but I admit to being slightly dead now. Christy has been taking care of the kids in the middle of the night lately, and last night I could tell she was done. I sent her to bed at 8, and then I slept with Sammy and Elizabeth and kept them in their own room all night so Christy could sleep, peacefully, from 8pm until 5am - a rare treat. This morning she looked/sounded/felt like a new person. However, after I went nine rounds with Sammy who could probably give any kick boxer a run for his money while he sleeps - I looked and felt terrible. I can't wait to hit the sheets tonight.

I am longing for the weekend as I can just sit around, grade some students papers, do some seminary work and relax. This might be the week I buy the NFL football package again - so I can watch NFL games online. We'll see. Its 25 dollars a week (I get to watch any game I want, anytime I want, in HDTV online - if you feel like donated to the cause - let me know).

I hope everyone back in the states is doing well and can handle the ups and downs in the stock markets. I admit that its an exciting ride down here - but I'm sure its close to all consuming in the States - especially when you pile on the presidential election.

PS - How good is 'Without Remorse' by Tom Clancy and why is it not a movie?

12 years

2008-10-25T20:09:00.003-06:00

Christy just came out and reminded me (wished me more like it) a happy 12-year anniversary. No - we have not been married that long...rather, October 25th is when we first started dating our senior year in highschool. We did not get married until just after college four + some years later. I know all you 'old timers' are rolling your eyes, but it none the less is striking to me. 12 years ago when we were both seniors in highschool, I blinked and somehow arrived in Costa Rica with two kids. The major difference in me is less hair and some lines by my eyes now. Time is certainly short and presious.

We were discussing 'genetically engineering' in our English class the other day at La Palabra (what else would you be discussing?) and the question was posed 'Should we do research that would help people live forever?' and also 'would you want to live forever?' Most answers were 'No, God should decide that. Plus, who would want to live forever? I don't...' I first I thought they were joking, now maybe I just think they haven't thought through the question - but everyone answered in a similar manner...."No, I'm totally ready to die at some point because being here forever would be no good at all." Am I totally alone on this one to think they are crazy? I KNOW that everyone dies, and I KNOW that if I believe what I say I would believe, I shouldn't worry. But hey, I like being here. However, here I find myself learning to have faith from the very students who I am supposed to be teaching not only English, but setting an example of a Godly life.

On this downer of a subject, I leave you a testimony that my dad sent me the other day. Its from the former press secretary, Tony Snow, and his thoughts on life and his battle with cancer.

I think I need to take more to heart both the sentiments of Mr. Snow and my students.

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Tony Snow Testimony
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'Blessings arrive in unexpected packages, - in my case, cancer. Those of us with potentially fatal diseases - and there are millions in America today - find ourselves in the odd position of coping with our mortality while trying to fathom God's will.

Although it would be the height of presumption to declare with confidence 'What It All Means,' Scripture provides powerful hints and consolations. The first is that we shouldn't spend too much time trying to answer the 'why' questions:
Why me?
Why must people suffer?
Why can't someone else get sick?
We can't answer such things, and the questions themselves often are designed more to express our anguish than to solicit an answer. I don't know why I have cancer, and I don't much care. It is what it is, a plain and indisputable fact. Yet even while staring into a mirror darkly, great and stunning truths began to take shape. Our maladies define a central feature of our existence:
We are fallen.
We are imperfect.
Our bodies give out.
But, despite this, - or because of it, -
God offers the possibility of salvation and grace.
We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator face-to-face.

Second, we need to get past the anxiety. The mere thought of dying can send adrenaline flooding through your system. A dizzy, unfocused panic seizes you. Your heart thumps; your head swims. You think of nothingness and swoon. You fear partings; you worry about the impact on family and friends. You fidget and get nowhere. To regain footing, remember that we were born not into death, but into life - and that the journey continues
after we have finished our days on this earth. We accept this on faith, but that faith is nourished by a conviction that stirs even within many non-believing hearts - an institution that the gift of life, once given, cannot be taken away. Those who have been stricken enjoy the special privilege of being able to fight with their might, main, and faith to live fully, richly, exuberantly - no matter how their days may be numbered.

Third, we can open our eyes and hearts. God relishes surprise. We want lives of simple, predictable ease, - smooth, even trails as far as the eye can see, - but God likes to go off-road. He provokes us with twists and turns. He places us in predicaments that seem to defy our endurance and comprehension - and yet don't. By His love and grace, we persevere.

The challenges that make our hearts leap and stomachs churn invariably strengthen our faith and grant measures of wisdom and joy we would not experience otherwise. 'You Have Been Called'. Picture yourself in a hospital bed. The fog of anesthesia has begun to wear away. A doctor stands at your feet, a loved one holds your hand at the side. 'It's cancer,' the healer announces.

The natural reaction is to turn to God and ask him to serve as a cosmic Santa. 'Dear God, make it all go away. Make everything simpler.' But another voice whispers: 'You have been called.' Your quandary has drawn you closer to God, closer to those you love, closer to the issues that matter, - and has dragged into insignificance the banal concerns that occupy our 'normal time.'

There's another kind of response, although usually short-lived, an inexplicable shudder of excitement as if a clarifying moment of calamity has swept away everything trivial and tiny, and placed before us the challenge of important questions. The moment you enter the Valley of the Shadow of Death, things change. You discover that Christianity is not something doughy, passive, pious, and soft. Faith may be the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. But it also draws you into a world shorn of fearful caution. The life of belief teems with thrills, boldness, danger, shocks, reversals, triumphs, and epiphanies.

Think of Paul, traipsing through the known world and contemplating trips to what must have seemed the antipodes ( Spain ), shaking the dust from his sandals, worrying not about the morrow, but only about the moment. There's nothing wilder than a life of humble virtue, - for it is through selflessness and service that God wrings from our bodies and spirits the most we ever could give, the most we ever could offer, and the most we ever could do.

Finally, we can let love change everything. When Jesus was faced with the prospect of crucifixion, he grieved not for himself, but for us. He cried for Jerusalem before entering the Holy City. From the Cross, he took on the cumulative burden of human sin and weakness, and begged for forgiveness on our behalf. We get repeated chances to learn that life is not about us, that we acquired purpose and satisfaction by sharing in God's love for others.

Sickness gets us part way there. It reminds us of our limitations and dependence. But it also gives us a chance to serve the healthy. A minister friend of mine observes that people suffering grave afflictions often acquire the faith of two people, while loved ones accept the burden of two peoples' worries and fears.

'Learning How to Live'. Most of us have watched friends as they drifted toward God's arms, not with resignation, but with peace and hope. In so doing, they have taught us not how to die, but how to live. They have emulated Christ by transmitting the power and authority of live. I sat by my best friend's bedside a few years ago as a wasting cancer took him away. He kept at his table a worn Bible and a 1928 edition of the Book of Common Prayer. A shattering grief disabled his family, many of his old friends, and at least one priest.
Here was an humble and very good guy, someone who apologized when he winced with pain because he thought it made his guest uncomfortable. He restrained his equanimity and good humor literally until his last conscious moment. 'I'm going to try to beat [this cancer],' he told me several months before he died. 'But if I don't, I'll see you on the other side.'

His gift was to remind everyone around him that even though God doesn't promise us tomorrow, he does promise us eternity - filled with life and love we cannot comprehend, - and that one can, in the throes of sickness, point the rest of us toward timeless truths that will help us weather future storms. Through such trials, God bids us to choose: Do we believe, or do we not? Will we be bold enough to love, daring enough to serve, humble enough to submit, and strong enough to acknowledge our limitations? Can we surrender our concern in things that don't matter so that we might devote our remaining days to things that do?

When our faith flags, He throws reminders in our way. Think of the prayer warriors in our midst. They change things, and those of us who have been on the receiving end of their petitions and intercessions know it.

It is hard to describe, but there are times when suddenly the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, and you feel a surge of the Spirit. Somehow you just know: Others have chosen, when talking to the Author of all creation, to lift us up, - to speak of us! This is love of a very special order. But so is the ability to sit back and appreciate the wonder of every created thing. The mere thought of death somehow makes every blessing vivid, every happiness more luminous and intense.

We may not know how our contest with sickness will end, but we have felt the ineluctable touch of God. What is man that Thou are mindful of him? We don't know much, but we know this: No matter where we are, no matter what we do, no matter how bleak or frightening our prospects, each and every one of us who believe each and every day, lies in the same safe and impregnable place, in the hollow of God's hand.

T. Snow

Oh yea, I have a blog

2008-10-21T18:57:00.012-06:00

So, to be honest that statement above is not entirely truthly. I've REMEMBERED that I have a blog. Also, many of you have reminded me. However, in the very small amount of free time that I have I'd usually rather be relaxing, working on covenant school work, playing with my kids, exercising or just about anything but blogging. When you have so little free time, its hard to give it up doing something that can often times be mini yelling sessions at blogger while trying ot arrange pictures. Also, I honestly think that my first forray into teaching has been so frustrating (at times) that if I bring out the usual sarcastic Josh in writing blogs - it could turn into a whine session which would not be good for you guys or for me. All that aside, I think I'm ready to begin again in ernest - so I here I am tonight.

So much has happened sense the last time I wrote anything. Can you believe its been so long. I can not. The first (and probably most important) thing that many of you missed was my birthday. Fear not you late folks, I'm still excepting gifts whenever you would like to send them. I only expect 2x the gift for each month you have failed to send me anything. Although Christy and I are notoriously bad at taking pictures to 'capture the moment' I do have a few from this day. Once again, Christy put me to shame by making a better cake then I ever make her as well as buying more thoughtful gifts then I can dream up. I'm so grateful to have her as my wife - and so grateful that she is quick to forgive after I forget (I've actually only done that once) her birthday. The picture with Sammy is my new favorite with him and is now my desktop. I like the one with Elizabeth as well as its a good action shot. Lastly, in the shot with Christy and I - us being the only people we trust with our camera in our family of four - we took our own picture. The flash didn't go off and the picture is not centered - but the slight craziness of that picture reflects how our life is right now I think.

My parents were in town last week to spend some time with us. It was great as it was a week off (more or less) from La Palabra - so we had some time to just spend with them. First of all, big props as they brought down the maximum limit of luggage, packed to the brim, with stuff for us. It was a little odd that they wore the same clothes everyday, but then I had to remember that the rest of their bags were filled with stuff for us. I'd say at least 50% of this was gifts for the kids - lucky dogs. Even though this was the case - of course Elizabeth said 'Where are more gifts?' after opening the last one. They got Christy and I the new NLT study Bible additions which are great. At first I did not think they were too different then my old study Bible - but I was wrong. It is much more 'academic' in the approach of what information they give you. I love the book introductions and also how they give information on translation descrepencies and other things like that.

We spent some time here in San Jose showing them our lives at La Palabra, our old lives on the other side of town in San Francisco de Dos Rios, and just hanging out. We also spent three days out at the beach. We decided to go to Punteranus at the old Fiesta Resort. To be honest, the beach in Punteranus is really ugly. Its at the opening of a bay, so basically nothing gets washed out once it gets washed in, so there are logs, sticks, dirt, trash, etc on the beach. However, the hotel was amazing as it was huge, the food was amazing and it had about seven pools. The only major down side was the tropical storm that was passing through during our whole time there. I've included a picture of a tormenta so you could see what it looks like - the only difference between this one and what wewere experiencing is that we saw nothing but clouds, no clear skies. It literally rained for about 55 hours straight - awesome. All that aside, we had fun anyway. Lizzy and I would swim until her faced started turning blue - after which we would run upstairs and take a hot bath. The adults got some good card playing in - and the kids got to watch the new Veggie Tale and some Bob the Builder - everyone had a great time. The only downer on my trip was that I was hoping to have more time to study covenant and Spanish - but it just did not happen. Honestly, it was more my motivation then anything else, but we will blame it on that today.

Well we were driving back I got to experience many new '1sts'.

1. I had my car break down on the highway

2. I had to use the Costa Rican insurance company hotline (INS)

3. I had to try and explain, in spanish, that my car had no collant and was burning up. (I think the direct translation was 'The tank in my car for liquid that makes cold broken, car hot, FIRE!') Whatever I said they must have believed me as they sent a tow truck and a taxi.

4. I rode in a towtruck that was about the same size as the car that it was towing.

5. I helped (okay, watched) my friend replace the collant tank in my car

For your pleasure, I've attached a picture of the old tank in here so you can see what happened. You usually think there might be a small little crack in something like this, but oh no. Look at that picture and you can see the fracture running the whole length of the tank. My engine temperature went from cool to above red line in 30 seconds. The thing that I am so greatful for us that there was a 20 minute stop with traffic/construction (very common in Costa Rica) that gave me both the time and the patience to get out of my car, look for a problem and notice there was one. My friend said its good that I noticed the engine temp gauge as most people don't even look at it. He also said if I had driven on it - I would have destroyed my engine (few!)

To leave you all with today, I have a few shots of La Palabra de Vida where Christy and I are now. These shots are a bit heavy on the library because I originally took them for a work team that is coming down from my Church in Richmond, VA. However, I did include some other shots as well.

You know its time for a weekend

2008-09-19T19:00:00.003-06:00

When you start hoping your students do bad on a pop quiz. Mind you, I do not wish anyone ill. I actually want all of these kids to do great, learn alot and succeed. However, we started reading the Diary of Anne Frank last week. Well...CORRECTION....I handed it out and they were supposed to start reading. I know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to, they know they did not read the first ten pages like they were supposed to - so what is one to do? Coming from the teacher who said on the first day 'I LOVE HOMEWORK' as I have proceeded to give them homework a majority of the days - my solution was a pop quiz. Some questions were a bit more tricky, but some questions easy enough that you could almost guess the answer (e.g., what noise did they hear that scared them - answer: soldiers. One of my students guessed because there were tanks, guns, plans and soldiers. I gave him a quarter point for good guessing). Anyway, hopefully that will jolt them back into reality and allow them to study a bit more. At the end of the day, these are really smart kids - so I'm hoping that they throw all they have at this play as I think it is a great one.

I wish you all could hear this. There is a car alarm going off in the La Palabra Parking Lot - its like every $50 alarm you buy at Radio Shack back in the states. It prevents nothing - but it sure is both loud and annoying. Wait...it stopped for a second....oh wait...its back on. My ears hurt.

Anyway, did you all catch the news today? The U.S. government decided we needed another one trillion dollars in taxes and bailed out all the finance companies. I'm too tired to do a 'my analysis' of the situation. At the end of the day some variation of a saving plan was probably worth while, but when you think about the long term impacts its pretty staggering.

Anyway, hope everyone is going well. I'm going to try and listen to another Covenant seminary lecture before I get too tired to be of any use. If you get a chance, write us and tell us how you are doing.

Where do I start...

2008-09-04T13:11:00.002-06:00

Its been so long I hardly even know where to start. We just completed our second full week of teaching (my last post was right before our first day). I would say that Christy and I are starting to 'feel' like teachers which makes our class go a little more smoothly. She has a class of mostly 9th grade girls that - if not interested in learning - are at least a bit more respectful. I on the other hand have a class of mostly 10th grade boys who....well....I guess act like 10th grade boys. But, none the less after what was a totally frustrating first day, have seen glimmers of hope on almost every one of the kid's faces based on something I said or some topic that is resonating with them. I just need to lock those mental images up in a special place and refer back to them the other 90% of the time. We have a test next Tuesday, our first one, so hopefully the kids will not do too terribly.

Also, we are going to be reading the Diary of Anne Frank - hopefully the kids will enjoy that book. I remember it being a powerful book for me when I read it. I also hope it provides them a chance to see what World War II is all about. Christy asked her 9th graders what they knew about the war today and they mentioned they had not even studied it. That blew my mind. I think I shocked my class by finding out that Costa Rica actually joined the Allies in 1941 and allowed the US to base an airfield off of the coco islands. I'm not so sure they even believed me though :)

One thing that is nice about teaching Engish instead of something like science is that you have alot more freedom to do 'what you want' in your plan. At the end of the day, the most important thing they need to do is learn how to speak/write/read/listen to English. So, we have flexibility to take a curriculum and tie it back to the Bible alot. For example, the book we are using just had a lesson plan on superstitions - so I used a verse from proverbs which says 'The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.' From there we were able to talk about and contrast the worlds view of luck versus the Biblical view - all in the name of learning English. So...thats a pretty cool thing. However, as cool as that is, I am also looking forward to teaching more science next year as I am both a) intrigued by science and b) more comfortable with it as a subject given my background.

Lizzy has been going to the Kinder here which goes from 6:45am until 11:45am - five days a week. This is officially both the earliest and the longest (time each day) that she has been going to school. She really enjoys it, and it is fun to see her starting to learn more Spanish already. However, we can already see she is beginning to wear down some. This is not surprising given that Lizzy is actually almost a full year younger or more then folks in the class (you have to be 4 at the start of the year, which is in January, Lizzy didn't turn four until last month.....we got a special exception from the school to allow her to go. So, we need to decide what to do by either implimenting more quiet times, reinstituting naps, or maybe holding her out of school 1 day every week or two to give her some quiet time.

Rainy season has been in full swing here. Its getting humid to the point that if you leave papers out in the print hold - the edges start to curl. And in the worst couple days ink even started to bleed slightly on the water logged (from humidity) paper. Also, clothes start just to absorb water just hanging in your closet. Thank goodness we have the drier because I'm not even sure how would we would be do anything.

Oh yeah, we have a new empleada and she is great. Her name is Neli and she is just amazing with the kids. The first full day after coming back from school lizzy said, 'Where is my friend?' so I guess they have hit it off. Neli likes to brush and pull up Lizzy's hair in different types of pony tails - wich is just fine with Lizzy. They also play number and letter matching games as well. Also, she likes to hold Sammy and let him help sweep the floors, make the beds and do the laundry. Sammy is a natural helper (when directed) so this works out well. Best of all for us, in the last couple days we've actually been able to start and get ahead on school work. This is wonderful too because it means we can spend a bit more time doing some of a tutoring work as well. All that said, God has provided for us and we feel very blessed.

There are so many things that I could talk about like my 'new friend' - that is what Christy likes to call him. I met a random american through a strange circumstance who is martial arts guy and works down here in Costa Rica. He had coffee the other day at a place near buy and he is both funny and down to earth. I'm hoping we can hang out some because even though it is great to know students and other Ticos, its nice to be able to continue conversations with someone from your own culture as well too. Also, my brother who had lost his job just got a job ofer - praise the Lord!

Anyway, it is getting late and I'd like to get some sleep. However, I hope everyone is doing well. Sorry for the delay in getting this posted and I'll try to be both more prompt and include a little less text a few more pictures next time.

The First Day....

2008-08-31T22:41:00.002-06:00

Well, here we are. Tomorrow is our first day of teaching, and I don't feel like we know what in the world we are doing! Please pray for us! In all honesty, whenevery ou do anything new in life, you feel like this. We both agree that after a week or two we will be in the swing of things and back to feeling like our lives are normal. Another new thing tomorrowis that Elizabeth goes to kinder! She is so excited, and I am hoping dearly that her excitement and expectations are met. We got a 'special exception' to enroll her in the kinder because she is actually too young (about 9 months younger then the youngest person in the kinder). To pile onto that, she does not speak hardly any spanish....so....we'll see how it goes. If nothing else, she got to buy a whole bunch of school supplies with Christy - AND - got two new pairs of shoes.

So here is a question....lets say (hypothetically) you are supposed to teach a class on 'conditionals'. And, lets say just for yucks, you don't really know what conditionals are in your own language. And, for yucks, lets say you got a few questions wrong on a test on conditionals in your primary language. Is that cool? How do you proceed.... (PS - If you are like me and do not know what conditionals are in the English language, google it to learn more).

On the plus side, we have some other pretty excited stuff going on this week. We have what I think will be an AWESOME tutor starting on Tuesday. Also, I believe that sometime this week we will have an empleada starting FULL TIME to help us out. We are so excited because this is exactly what we have been praying for. Please pray that she would make instant and lasting relationships with the kids and that she would feel comfortable with us as well.

Also, please pray for Roxanna's (our old empleada) grandson as he is back in the hospital after having surgery a couple weeks ago. He had a very high fever, infections, head pain and was throwing up. I know that two days ago that had to put him on a ventilator and the situation sounds very serious. Christy and I will have to call her this week sometime to get an update.

Sorry I've been a bit thin on the posts lately - we have just been so busy. I'm hoping that in the next two weeks we will be settled into a routine again.

Donde esta la familia Meyer?

2008-08-25T22:44:00.008-06:00

Well, sorry for the gigante delay in doing any updates. Last week Christy's parents treated Christy, the kids and I to a week out in Manuel Antonio - which was awesome. We had great fun doing activities from Zip-Lining through the national forest (well...I was at home watching the kids that day, but given my love of high paces...it is for the better), mangrove tours, beach trips, nice eating and many other things. It really was a blessing. Also, I got a crash course in driving a diesel car up a curvey road behind trucks almost stalling out at about 7 kilometers an our. If you listened carefully you could hear me saying...'No no no no no, please don't stall, please don't stall.' Stalling for me or the car in front of me on a steep slope would almost certainly include me rolling into the back of the car behind me as our van emergency brake could not hold the car, our luggage and the passages in place on a 7 degree or more slope. All that being said, we had a great time and we made it home safe.

The last two days have been spent moving from San Francisco de Dos Rios over to San Antonio de Belen. The move went fairly smoothly but it sure was alot of work. It involved multiple trips back and fourth (3 on Sunday) and many hours of unpacking and finding homes for things. In addition, we are having to figure out small details like our washer that we bought earlier now is not working. I think it is either the water pump or the sensor to the water pump - so if you are a repair expert give me a call so we can talk through my issues.

Christy and I CAN NOT BELIEVE that we will be teaching at La Palabra de Vida in seven days. Please pray for us, the students and the school! Also, I start my new class at Covenant Seminary on Thursday. In addition, we will start private tutoring next Monday. Lastly, wes till have not found an empleada to help at our house and with our children. So, we still have many many continued prayer requests.

To end with today (its late and I'm tired)...a few pictures with some comments.

Every monkey we saw was like this. I was pretty sure that the mangrove guide was going to get bit. Afterward, he looked at us and pointed to elizabeth while saying, 'If she was by herself in the jungle, she would be KILLED!'. Lizzy looked slightly scared.

On our mangrove tour we saw bats just like this. Only they were snuggled up under the leaves and sleeping instead of being out on the tree ready to eat your eyes out.

We went to the butterfly garden which I have to admit I was thinking 'Elizabeth better like this dumb thing...' but after I went it was awesome. Our guide was great, the information was amazing, and they had a great reptile park too.

Here is a picture of Christy and her parents before doing zip-linning. At this time, I was home watching high-five on discovery kids with my kids. Just where I wanted to be (honestly). There were some great shots of Christy in action, but I'm sure she would be mad if posted anything before she approved. More to come...

Sweet revenge and a constant fluctuation

2008-08-12T18:53:00.006-06:00

Sweet revenge - its what we all want but so rarely can attain. Last week Roxanna brought me some fruit from her house and told me that she really thought I would like it. However, it was really important that I just eat the whole entire thing (at this point, I know something is wrong but I play along). So I pop it in my mouth, and it may be the most tart/sour/wow tasting thing ever - even now my mouth waters as I think about it. This is saying something given that I have a vey high tolerance (*talent* as I like to call it) for sour, sweet and hot things. It was actually a smaller not quite ripe Cass fruit. At the end of the day, I actually liked it, but she loved the fact that I puckered up pretty good.

No good deed should go unrewarded though. I asked her if she liked queso azul (probably not called that here, but you get the idea). She had no idea what it was - so I said I would try to find some for her to try. For the record, good cheese is almost impossible find down here - and when you do - it is big bucks. All that aside, I found a store that sold small amounts which Christy and I enjoyed quite a bit on a large salad. HOWEVER, I made sure to save a big chunk for Roxanna. After lunch this last Monday I looked really excited, told her how hard this cheese was to find, that it cost some money but I wanted her to try it, etc etc. Of course, I knew she would hate it. A strong stinky cheese like this is way to much for the average Costa Rican pallet. All I can say is, as puckered as my face looked with her Cass, her look of horror and disgust as she tried to finish the cheese was much better. Luckily at the end of the day Elizabeth helped her out and offered to eat the rest.

Enter some pun here like 'Revenge really IS best served cold...' Awesome.

Beyond acting in clearly incorrect ways (e.g., revenge) during my spare time, we have actually had quite a bit of changes in the last week. There was some conversation between our mission that we will deploy to (La Palabra de Vida) and us as to whether it would be possible to deploy out there early. We were originally going to take two trimesters of language school - but we have only just completed our first. They desperately need someone to teach English now - and after prayer, discussion with ourselves, others and our agency we felt the answer was yes - that we could go. There were some conditions with that (e.g., we would not teach a full load, we would work towards getting 8+ hours of private tutoring a week, etc). So, we've started taking steps to 'disenroll' from language school and work towards moving out to San Antonio de Belen. You can pray for Christy and I because the short notice move is pretty stressful. Lots of people to inform, disappoint, etc - which is always hard. Please also pray for La Palabra de Vida as they really do need more committed Christian teachers available through some pipeline.

Another matter of prayer that we learned about today was that Roxanna's grandson just had routine surgery a couple days ago but he is still in the hospital with a really high fever and infection. It was clearly weighing heavily on her mind today.

A servants heart

2008-08-08T20:56:00.003-06:00

So I read my testimony in class yesterday (the Spanish blurb I posted on the last blog) - and it was not overly incorrect which is great. I messed up some verb conjugations and a few other things - but overall pretty good. Poco o poco we all continue to improve!

Last week our grammar teacher, Graziella Arguedas, read her testimony in English to us and it was such an encouragement! It has echos of a post I had a few months ago eluding to thoughts on what is 'successful' in life and why. Its often easy for us, and for others back in the states, to assume that all of us missionaries have our heads on straight and our act together. But it only takes a few moments - probably seconds really - on campus at ILE to realize that we are sinners and in need of a savior just like everyone else. You can also quickly find out that not only are the maestros here great teachers, but they are also great people and great believers as well.

I can honestly tell you that this trimesters class with Graziella and the rest of my cohorts has been one of the best classes I have even been in. This is in no small part to Graziella and her infectious positive attitude and amazing faith. I'll leave this blog post with the testimony she shared with us. You can see two things....a)she is much better at English then I am in Spanish and b)she is faithful and a real encouragement. Praise God for teachers like Graziella who are here not only to teach us Spanish, but to help keep all of us crazy missionaries both sane during the transition and also focused on the Lord as well.

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Graziella's Testimony

It is really a blessing for me to be able to share with you part of my life.

There´s no way I could express or write all the wonderful things God has done in me, but today I want to testify and I want to give him the glory for his love and mercy in my life.

I grew up in a very conservative Catholic family. I even studied at a school with nuns. In fact, I was actually planning to become a nun.

It was only because I got a very good grade in the admission test for the University that I decided I was going to do something different.

Just shortly after I began my studies at the University, I met my husband. He had been a Christian for many years. He had served in many ministries. He had worked with teenagers, he had been part of the worship team, and many other things.

One day, after having spent a lot of time asking him many questions about his religion and his beliefs, I was touched by God. I surrendered to Him and I decided I was going to give my life to serve Him.

When my parents found out that I had decided to quit comming to the Catholic church, my real problems began.

They were blaming my boyfriend and they told me they wanted me to let him go. Since I didn´t do it, they got onto me and they told me I was not going to be their daughter anymore. They rejected me in many ways. They said I could continue to live with them but only because they were worried about what people would say if I left the house.

They didn´t speak to me for more than three months. The only way my dad would talk to me was writting notes on pieces of paper.

I was sad and lonely and I felt no one loved me.

Then I realized that not only God loved me but my boyfriend loved me and I loved him, so we decided to get married.

Of course, my parents were against that idea. My father begged me to get married at the Catholic church, but I knew I couldn´t do that.

So they said they were not going to come to my wedding. Noone in the family was going to come.
I prayed and prayed for months and God answered my prayers.

It´s a long story, but let me tell you, my mom finally decided she was going to pay for my wedding dress and my dad decided he was going to pay for the little reception we had.
Everybody in my family came to my wedding, even my grandparents.
It was so hard to go through this, but I had decided I was going to be faithful to God and He rewarded me.

I have always been rejected because I am a Christian, but I´ve seen God´s hands holding me and my family every single day.

Well, since I was studying linguistics at the Universtity of Costa Rica, I needed to practice my English.

Then I introduced myself to a couple of missionaries who were attending my church.
We became friends. I was helping them with their Spanish, and they were helping me with my English.

Then, one day, they suggested to me that I send my resume to the Academic Director at the language school.

This was exactly 20 years ago. I did and I waited, and waited. I used to stop at the front gate of the school and prayed and proclaimed that one day I was going to work here.
I finally got a phone call eight months later.
The director wanted me to come and watch the other teachers just because I had to be trained.
I did and I came to school for a whole trimester, every single morning, without getting any money for that.

But I learned, and I got trained. When the time came to be hired, the Director told me it was not going to be possible for me to get a job here because the number of the new registrations had gone down and they were not going to be able to hire anybody else.
I went home and I cried and cried. I remembered my brother making fun of me saying, “Is that what a christian institution does?”

Well, I ignored that and I kept praying.

Finally, four months later, the Lord opened the door and I got my job.

I don´t really know how to describe what this job means to me.

For many years, I´ve been able to meet incredible people who have helped me to grow in every aspect of my life. Not only professionally but also spiritually.

I´ve learned so much about the american culture that I always joke and tell them that I´m half a tica and half an american.

The Lord has gifted me with my language skills. Sometimes, it´s hard for my students to believe that I´ve never been in the States for more than three weeks.

Well, I have to admit that God made America come to me.

So, I´ve worked with missionaries for twenty years and they have all become part of my family.
My ministry here is not only to teach them the language, my ministry is to guide them, to help them go through their first cross cultural experience.

They have to know that their year here is not only a time to learn a language, it´s also a time for the Lord to polish them.

I love to encourage them every morning, and eventhough we have to face very difficult trials while working in this ministry, we pray for each other every day and we support each other.
This job is not a job, I get up every morning and I thank God for what he´s given me. I´m happy because I know I´m doing what He wants me to do.

All these people are my family and eventhough I´m just with them for a year, we know we´re going to see each other in Heaven.

Students always tell us, the teachers, that they are going to introduce us to all the people who got to know the Lord just because we taught them their language.
That´s our reward. That´s the best pay we can get.

Sometimes I start thinking that I could be doing something else to get more money. I know I could get another job. But I know that´s not what is important in life.

Money is not important when you know you´re doing the right thing for the Lord.
He provides everything you need, and He gives you even more.

So, I´m going to keep working here at the Language school until the Lord wants me to do something different.

I´m going to be encouraging my students, tutoring them, translating sermons for them, even interpreting for them when they come to preach at any church.
Finally, I would like to encourage all of you to stop and think. Are you really doing what the Lord wants you to do?

It´s been very hard for me. It´s been an up hill battle. It´s like climbing a mountain but I can tell you that no matter what comes, I´m going to serve my Lord because He´s my strength and my fortress.

I keep saying every day, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”.
He is the one who strengthens you all, no matter what comes, let me tell you,

¡Sí se puede!

That is in English, yes, you can!

God bless you all.

Graziella Arguedas

Writing in Spanish is hard!

2008-08-06T20:04:00.002-06:00

Every time I sit down and write something in Spanish, two things happen. a) I'm amazed by how hard it is because there are always simple words you do not know and have to look up. b) I'm also wildly encouraged by how much I have learned in a few short months of studying spanish. I came here with zero spanish! I really feel like God has blessed our time here thus far and Christy and I have learned both alot about Spanish and ourselves as well. Here is something I wrote tonight, feel free to take our your dictionary and start translating....(or just use google translate). I've not had it proofed yet, so please don't make too much fun of my incorrect spanish.

Cuando yo era el niño, mis padres crían y adoraban a Dios. Mi familia asistía la iglesia se llama 'College Church in Wheaton' o 'Iglesia de Universidad en Ciudad Wheaton'. Esta iglesia tenía muchas personas quien amaba Dios. Tambien, la iglesia tenía muchas programas por los niños. Yo asistía estas programas and aprendía mucho informacíon a Dios y su hijo Jesucristo. Cuando yo era muy joven, yo creí en JesuCristo, y preguntó a Dios, '¿Por favor, llegas y vivis tú en mi corazón?' Yo sé ya que yo no sabía todos las verdades de Dios; pero, yo pienso yo era un cristiano. Cada año, yo estaba aprendiendo mas casi JesuCristo y su palabra. Dos eventos muy importante en mi vida eran cuando yo tomé el misíon viaje con mi iglesia. Durante estes viajes, yo sentí la presencia de Dios. Tambien, yo miré muchas vidas cambiaba por JesuCristo.

Yo continuaba crecer y eventual fui a la universidad. Allá, tuve que decider que vida yo quise vivir. La universidad tenía muchas fiestas con drogas y bastante alcohol. Tambien, muchas personas allá no creía en Díos. Yo hice algunas cosas a yo no estoy orgulloso; pero, Díos era fiel. Gracias a Díos! Díos puse dos amigos en mi vida que eran los cristianos. Yo decidó ir después de Díos. Después de este tiempo, mi amistad con dios esta creciendo.

Yo sé que yo no soy perfecto; pero, yo sé tambien que Dios perdoné mis pecados. Dios me ama muchísmo y él murió sobre la cruz por mi. Por este, es possible para mi tener un relación con Díos.

Díos es bueno.

Princess, chorizos (finally!) and a birthday party

2008-08-02T13:51:00.006-06:00

As I mentioned in an earlier blog, Lizzy has been being more girl each day. She LOVES all things princess and she loves playing dress up. Although as a guy, I do not fully understand the interworkings of what playing princess are for a little girl - I do get the benefit of seeing her 'shine' when she feels like one. You can see in these two pictures we put her in a dress, let her wear her favorite necklace AND also put in a pony tail. Before we came down here we got her hair chopped because brushing it was a nightmare. It has only been recently that it grew long enough to pull it back. You can see from the two pictures that she is BEAMING because she feels pretty. I guess it will be our job as parents to always remind her feeling pretty leads to acting pretty leads to being pretty. It never really matters what you look like or what you wear - personality and confidence make the person. Even now as I look at these I smile - she is so cute!

I've been trying, unsuccessfully mind you, sense we came down here to grill. Every time I try my coals always go out and I could never figure out why. My new theory is that it is humid enough here that if you use the top to any grill, the coals get choked out. I grilled today without a top and SUCCESS. We got fresh chorizo (NOTE: NOT SALCHICAS) cooked on the grill. I had some fresh pico de gallo made from the morning and we had some wicked good grilling. The best part is that those little sausages are so cheap - It was about $1.50 for the 8 of them you see there. We will certainly be doing this again sometime soon.

The other fun thing we had this week was a birthday party! Roxana's birthday is actually today, but we wanted to do something a little special for her so we had a mini party on Friday. You can see Elizabeth made her a birthday crown which she is wearing. I made brownies in the morning and Christy and I bought her a large photo album - she LOVES photos - and gave her a little money to buy more film or whatever she wants really. Christy and I both though she was really surprised and happy. I glad we were able to brighten her day a little. She does so much for us it is nice to be able to give back.

Mi Amigos - Los Bautistas de Sur

2008-08-01T16:57:00.003-06:00

I love my Southern Baptist brothers and sisters down here. They are all great and I consider many to be very good friends even though our time together is short. However, as I mentioned before, their young sons and daughters have converted our little princess to speaking with a twang. That is funny to me, but not nearly as funny as some of the phrases that I have heard since I've been down here (some out of jest....some straight serious).

1.That don't make no sense to me
2.Wi-re Plyyy-ers
3.Wa'll
4.Hookey Spit
5.Great Honks
6. She practiced us gud today

Help understanding for Yankees:
1. Self evident - but serious
2. Apparently a tool you use on wires
3. For example - Wa'll going to walmart tonight
4 & 5. ????
6. This one was also serious

I have to be honest, I don't even know what 4 and 5 mean or how to use them in a scentence. I googled both and I got nothing. They are my favorite because David, a usually more serious guy used #4 in a scentence. Even the guy from deep Misssissippi said, 'What is that!?!?!' So David responded with 'You know, Hookey Spit!' as if clarifying anything about #4.

All doped up

2008-07-31T18:56:00.002-06:00

You know its concerning when you come out of the doctor with not just one medication you need to take to get better, but four. Yikes. For the past two weeks plus a few days I've had a cold which has developed into a crazy cough that I can just not shake. Each evening, I lose about two hours of sleep while I hack a lung into the sink. Needless to say, for the first time in a long time, I'm actually willing to take antibiotics to help my body fight this thing. The doc told me I have bronchitis and he is concerned if we let it go to long it can develop into a chronic cough. So, now I have antibiotics, expectorants, anti-cough stuff....AND....to top it all off I got a shot in my nalga today that is supposed to reduce inflammation of the bronchial tubes. Which brings me to another episode of...

Its not BAD...its just different.

When you need a shot of something here, there is really no need to go to a doctors office. You buy the vial and syringe at a farmacia (if you can find one that carries the medicine you need - it took me five to find everything today) - and the lady behind the counter gives it to you at the little tienda. Very strange. Nothing bad happen, the needles are all take and toss individually wrapped and sterile, the lady was so gentle I hardly felt anything. But, that does not prevent it from being just different enough from the states to be very very strange.

Costa Ricans love them some salchicha

2008-07-27T13:33:00.004-06:00

Salchicha. It sounds like something that would be awesome - like some sort of really fancy sausage. However, do not be confused. Salchicha is simply a hotdog without a bun. (Amusingly enough, hotdog is translated directly as 'perro caliente' in Spanish). Do not get me wrong, I'm not a hotdog hater - however - I certainly do not eat them very often - if ever. So, you can imagine my horror when I saw this add in our front gate. Does anything look more disgusting to you then this? Salchi Pops - mmm. Just when you thought Pizza Hut could not out-do themselves, they always come through....

You've been there before

2008-07-26T09:21:00.008-06:00

You don't eat breakfast. You had a small lunch. Its starting to get late and you you are hungry. You love pizza and do not get it very often. You stare at the three sizes....you don't even acknowledge the first two because towards the end you read 'Eliminator' as the last size. Its simply gravy that when you buy one eliminator, you get the another entire one free. Then, as icing on the cake, you impulse buy spicey buffalo wings as well. Needless to say, more than half of our already too small freezer is full of pizza and I feel moderately ill. On this evening, Dominos wins the battle, yet again.

I wish I could report that we are all healthy besides the pizza overeating, but, no. Christy got over her pink eye in the left eye on Monday which was nice, but then caught it in her right eye. Thankfully though she managed to chase that out with some antibiotics. Elizabeth and I both have colds and by Christy's increasingly low voice, she is either taking HGH or she has the same thing we do (PLEEEAAASSEEE be the second).

I have a few more pictures. A couple below show the kids and I having a fun activity last weekend - washing the car. I asked them if they wanted to help me. They assured me yes, but the did nothing of the sort. None the less, it was fun to spray them with the hose for a bit. I have also included some pictures from the traditional dance put on buy several of our teachers at language school. It was really great to see....the pictures don't do it justice, but you can get a small taste of the event from friday.

The 'anti-help' as I like to call them. Every time I finally got the car clean of soap, they soaped it up again.
The real brains behind the operation. Did you forget that I dented my van 2 months ago? I didn't. There is the orange dent from the gate in the picture.

This water is cold....why am I out here?

Who wants to be a billionaire?

2008-07-22T20:31:00.003-06:00

Times in the U.S. and around the world can be pretty scarey. Oil is expensive, food is expensive and how we might afford things in the future is uncertain. However, when I read arcticles like this, it is a reminder to me that as bad as things are, we are still in a different stratosphere then many other people. In the picture you can see the 500 million-dollar-note in Zimbabwee. They just added a 100 billion-dollar-note to keep up with their 2.2 million percent inflation. 80% of their population lives below the poverty line and they have shortages of basic goods. Puts it in perspective, no?

Little glimpses of the past...

2008-07-21T19:13:00.003-06:00

It seems to me that sometimes when I am missing the U.S. more than usual, little things that made me laugh back there often cheer me up. Today was one of those days. Believe it or not, it was not the 'Chuck Norris is so...' email that circulated back maybe 3 years ago - I'm saving that one for another day. Today, rather, it was an email that my brother sent me maybe....hmm....seven years ago that I cried when I watched it. At the risk of losing more prayer supporters I'll embedded it below. You have to use my lense. I grew up playing Ikari Warriors, Street Fighter (I,II,III, Hyper, Versus Capcom, IV, Super Hyper, etc) and also other competition martial arts style games. This little short makes fun of everything that was both stupid and unfair about those games, and thus, makes me laugh. This game actually looks about as fair as the original Star Wars Return of the Jedi arcade game for those of you that can think back that far. I'm thinking specifically when you are flying on your vehicle through the forest after the imperial storm trooper - yeah, thats right - crazy hard.

As I was trying to transfer some files...

2008-07-20T15:28:00.002-06:00

My computer told me the file would take a while. About 77 years....its going to be a long afternoon. I need to contact my friend who works at Microsoft and tell him it is crazy that this message would ever come up....ever.

Another week in paradise

2008-07-19T18:35:00.003-06:00

Generally, a slow week except for the following:
1. Sammy got a fever right before his birthday
2. Christy got Pink-Eye on Thursday
3. I caught a cold this morning
4. Someone t-boned our car back in the states (in a parking garage!)
5. Someone hit my van on Saturday here in Costa

However, I want to turn a new leaf and be positive too:
1. Sammy had a great birthday
2. We had a date on Saturday as one of our friends watched the kids. It was nice to sit in peace and talk some without having our ears yelled in or me having to say, 'No no no no no no no'
3. Our landlord fixed the shower in our bathroom on Saturday
4. The person who t-boned my car in the US admitted guilt so it makes it easier with insurance
5. The person who hit my car here damaged his fender, but luckily only hit my tire which was fine

Besides all that happenings, things are good. I happen to have a lot of pictures so I've posted them all at once below here. The slideshow was an easier route, but if you want any individual pictures you should be able to pull them directly off the online photo album. If you have a slow internet connection or worse yet a dial up, this post will kill you. Sorry.

Lizzy gets more girl every day. She constantly talks about painting her nails or dressing up. In this short video, Christy has dressed her up with the new play silks and made her into a butterfly princess. Lizzy was pretty pumped. As a guy from an all-guy family, I don't get it.

Sammy's birthday was last week, he had a great time. We were hyping it the whole week before - so when July 16th finally rolled around, he was pretty excited. Christy, as usual, made the day very special with cake and many fun homemade gifts. I got him a soccer ball that had Nemo on it, but I had already given it to him the month before so they kids had two balls to play with instead of just one. Roxana got him a cute outfit and also a toy car that moves and signs on its own. I hope it runs out of batteries soon.

Christy did not go to school on Friday because she had to go to the hospital to get her eye checked out. We thought Lizzy might have pink eye too (was a little red and she was rubbing it). Thankfully, she did not. She enjoyed the day because she got to stay home from school and play with mom and Roxana.

Here are some shots we snapped this morning just for fun. Its a lazy day now. I am sick and Christy has pink eye - so we listened to church online and played some.

2008-07-15T19:14:00.005-06:00

Sammy's birthday is tomorrow. However, tonight he came down with a 101 fever - poor little buddy. Here are some recent pictures of him to celebrate. Get well soon my friend. I love you.

Being silly with a hat.

Wearing dad's shoes.

Up close with the hat.

Not feeling quite right in the afternoon...

A fever on my birthday....how sad.

Why didn't you just ask me?

2008-07-12T19:14:00.004-06:00

Usually when we have any interaction with our landlord - who is also our next door neighbor - it has been with Zeidy, the wife. She has always been really attentative to all the questions we have, and is overall great. Today we met her husband for the first time. He came over to let us know he wanted throw away a whole bunch of bamboo that was stacked up in our front parking area It was not in our way, but I'm just as happy to have it go in the trash. He, like Zeidy, was really nice.

We got to talking about life, what we are doing, where we are going, etc...and in the conversation we mentioned that we were happy to have a working dryer now with the rainy season. He said - in spanish of course - 'Dryer, you should have asked! I have one just sitting in my house waiting for people who rent this house to use. The last renter did not want it so I put it at my house...' I mentioned that he did not have a 220V line into thishouse and he said, 'Its easy, I would have installed one quickly for you...' I guess he probably just would have taken a 220 from his house through the wall to our dryer? I'm not sure what he had in mind, but it made me think that it probably would pay off for us to ask more questions around here like 'Do you have...' or 'Could you...' Oh well, we know for next time to ask our landlords for help when we need it.

Tonight we watched about half of Horton Hears a Who with Elizabeth and Sammy. Sammy was not all that interested, but it was neat to see how into the movie Elizabeth was. Not simply watching TV for the sake of watching TV, but asking questions like 'Is he going to fall!?!?...' 'Where is Horton going?' 'Whos is he talking to!?!' I think that the whole idea of the book is probably a bit hard for a 3 year old to grasp; however, she was doing a great job picking up on the smaller themes. Little kids grow up so fast. I've attached another example of how big she is getting. We work a fair bit at helping her read some basic words (mainly every night when I read books before bed time) - and Christy worked on this little lesson with Lizzy this morning. I am impressed that she wrote lift by herself! 'F' is a hard letter to draw

Dia de Cultura

2008-07-11T21:50:00.008-06:00

Today was culture day at at school which means we did not have school! We did however get to experience a familiar site for many Costa Ricans - an example of a local carnival / fair. We came to school about the same time we would any other day, but instead of going to class, we went to several exhibits that contained many of the games that would normally be found at a local carnival. These include: trying to catch fake fish, bingo, ring toss, dart throws, jacks, bean bag tosses and many other games. We also got to learn about the art / history of making large masks / costums - AND - we got to experience a real live parade that contained a band and many of the life sized 'puppets' that might be in parades like this (see the video and pictures). Overall a pretty cool experience - I hope that we get to experience this in actuality too over the next couple years.

Thanks to Amie and Cohen, fellow ILE students mentioned in a previous blog entry, I have pictures and a small movie of the event (see below). I can't say thank you enough to them for being deligent about using their camera to capture meaningful events. In general, I don't use the camera unless something is shocking and/or amazing to me - however - there is certainly value in capturing daily events in our lives and they have proved that to me again and again in these few short weeks.

One of the more funny things that happened is that when the puppets were dancing and getting ready to leave - one came into the group of the students and starting dancing / coming close to everyone. I had Sammy on my back in a backpack carrier, and when the puppet came within a couple inches of his face, I could feel him stiffen up like a bored. He had a scowl on his face the rest of the time we were at school. I guess the puppets are good from a far but far from good.

Also amusing to me....I did not notice it when it was playing, but now all can think when I hear the band playing in this video is the Blue Oyster Cult Saturday Night Live skit titled 'MORE COWBELL!' If you've seen it, you know what I am talking about. Else, never mind this short paragraph.

Good news all over

2008-07-08T17:11:00.007-06:00

The first good news is that we got water back on Sunday early in the afternoon. I think the entire city of San Jose breathed a sigh of relief when the first trickle started pouring out. Although because many got their water back almost 12 hours before others, there was some mild water envy going on for sure. We were able to get showers, clean up the dishes, clean up the house and make a good meal on Sunday evening which was a blessing after feeling pretty gross most of the weekend. Some students at school were joking that they had beards because of the no water - I can't grow one so I felt a bit left out. None the less, I've attached some pictures to let you know how I feel about my long-time but recently reaquainted friend Mr Water.

More great news is that Elizabeth told me that she was not going to be bad anymore - but rather - she would be kind to her brother and good all day. What a blessing - I'm always wondering how best to parent her through example and through teaching - when all I had to do was ask her to be good. In all seriousness , she is a pretty awesome 3 year old so I could not ask for anymore - but that unprovoked (I think) comment from her made a) Laugh hard (not to her face) and b) Feel pretty good that she really is trying so hard to do what is right and make mom and dad happy.

Lastly,Christy and I have both been doing well in school with our grades, but more importantly we feel like we are really making progress with speaking too - and yes there can certainly be a disconnect between those two. We have lots of practice time talking with Roxana and others on the street or in stores.

Acabamos de terminar

2008-07-06T10:24:00.002-06:00

We just finished up. The plant hides the tank nicely and also keeps the kids away. We are venting it out on the bottom shelf of the grill - which also keeps the kids away. Also, you can see our innovation from last weekend, a shower curtain tarp to help keep the dryer dry (say that ten times fast).

Now....if we could only get the water to turn back on. Except for a couple hours, it has been off since thursday morning. Awesome.

I hope you have your fire suit

2008-07-05T19:30:00.011-06:00

Have you ever taken a 'shower' with a mixing bowl using stagnet water you collected at the last minute before they shut off the water? No? Me neither, until today. But, it felt great. Once you are past the initial 60 degree temperature of the water, its really not so bad. AND, being totally declothed in your courtyard is a little exciting too.

Also, today was the first day that I got to turn on our dryer when it was fully functional - hot air and all. The project is not totally finished yet, but we are getting close. Lets run through where all we have been...

1. Find a dryer that is only 110v that is not too expensive

2. Get someone to deliver it to our place

3. Figure out how to convert dryer to propane

4. Get parents to buy and send pieces needed for conversion to Costa Rica

5. Figure out how to install said pieces

6. Figure out how to get propane from the tank to your dryer

That brings us to tonight. We decided to stop into ACE hardware late this afternoon to see if they had propane tanks, regulators, hoses, etc that we needed to make our dryer work now I had installed (hopefully properly) the methane to propane conversion pieces. It turns out, they had pretty much all the pieces I was looking for. You see, as the instructions to the left show, I had a big shopping trip, I had to buy an elbow, an adapter, a metal flexible gas line connector, an ANSI plug 221.24 cm long, a CSA bolt 6.10 in depth, another adaptor, a 1/8' NPT pip plug for checking my inlet pressure and finally a shut-off valve with at least 1/2''. Thank goodness I found Ace. Also, thank goodness they did not make us buy the $100 dollar sink that Sammy pulled onto himself and shattered.

In reality though, ACE did not have all the piece I needed, so I I had to mix it up a bit. You can see my connection to the dryer. I decided to go with the 'straight' instead of the elbow. Also, who needs metal pipe when you can find rubber. Also, the whole 'shut-off valve' and pressure tester thing just seemed a bit silly, so I just took the hose straight to my regulator. Why buy all that extra junk just to clog up my perfectly good courtyard? To be honest though, I joked around with Christy, there were times in the states were I would install something differently than instructions or break the housing code a bit - but I always felt like I was making it better and there was no danger. As I was nearing completion of installing the propane hose, I've never been so worried about turning somethng on in my life. In case my parents are reading this, don't worry, I bubble tested all the connections on the outside of the dryer like crazy. I will do this again tomorrow and I will also do it on the methane to propane pieces I installed on the inside. If you are costa rican authorities - please ignore the description of said dryer. At the end of the day, I ran it for about a minute tonight and I think that it seems good. Gets warm (not too warm, not too cold) and it seemed like the internal temperature monitor was working as it flipped off the burner after it reached temperature.

Who thinks on the instructions I make for Roxana I should put 'Run inside' after turning the on switch?

GE was nice enough to include some pictures of what happy and sad dry dryers should look like. If everything on the install goes well, it will aparently shine and grow arms to give you the okay symbol. I'm not sure what mine will say, but I'd guess something like you see in the picture. It is saying 'hammer-head' in honor of my father. That is what he used to call other drivers when they cut him off. It seems like an appropriate name also for someone who breaks all sorts of codes and violations during a flammable gas appliance install.

Please Rain Today

2008-07-05T05:54:00.005-06:00

I find myself praying for rain this morning. Its not that Costa Rica is in a severe 20 year draught though. Nor does Costa Rica have raging wildfires that need to be quenched. Nope, I simply want to go out to my courtyard and take a shower. Starting on Thursday morning we lost water. Luckily it came back on for a little bit in the evening so I was able to take a shower after 2 hours of soccer. We woke up Friday morning to no water again. its now Saturday morning and we still have no water. I'd be concerned that our water was just shut off at our house (that has happened before too), but I know of many other houses in a several block radius who have no water as well.

I rate water like electricity in that you don't really know what you have until it is gone. And, given that the temperature it pretty mild down here, I'd even put it above electricity (e.g., I'd rather lose my power here than my water). We can't drink water, we can't shower, we can not clean dishes, we really can't cook because of a) no dishes b) you often need water to clean up and c) we need water to bleach much of the food we eat. Bummer.

Water, come back, we miss you.

Sufficiently American for the day

2008-07-04T18:09:00.004-06:00

I was not sure what we would do for the fourth of July - but I think we qualify as being sufficiently American for the day. The US embassy sponsored (or at least endorsed) an American get together picnic for the 4th. It was held at the Imperial factory grounds. Imperial is the nationalized Costa Rican beer company (they have a very cool logo) - however - the grounds were not simply a beer factory. They had vast amounts of open space, nice athletic courts, a swimming pool (not in use), etc. Pretty amazing actually. We got there at about 8:30am in the morning and got right to work by having cotton candy, TCBY yogurt with M&Ms & Oreos and Diet Pepsi. The kids were able to play many games like bean bag tosses, fishing games, a moon walk, etc. One of the best things was all the candy the kids won like Skittles, SOUR SKITTLES (my favorite), a three musketeer bar, runts, etc. To top it all of, we had a bagel, tons of cheese, and multiple hot dogs. At a minimum I feel like we earned out our 8 dollar entrance fee to the activity.

The one downer on the whole day was that our car got stuck in the mud. They made us park on about a 15 degree grade grass hill on the side of the road. I had a bad feeling about it when I parked, but we really had no choice. When I came out after the picnic and tried to back out, not surprisingly, my back tires just spun uselessly. We had four guys try to help us push it but with no results. Luckily, a city tow truck stopped and was able to hook up some cables and get us out. Praise God that they happened to be driving by because we could have been stuck there for a while.

Another unexpected thing happened. I found myself more annoyed with some of the oddities of Americans than I ever normally might be. One of the things we learned about during orientation is that reverse culture shock (readjusting to the society in which you left initially) can often be more difficult than the culture shock with the initial move. After only 3 months, I can see how if you were on the field for several years, or even more so for a full career, it would be very hard to move back home and not go a little bonkers - or at least feel like you do not fit in.

A perfect gift idea

2008-06-30T20:48:00.009-06:00

Have you ever been serenaded at 8:30pm by a chorus of three with trumpets and it sounded really nice. No? Well, me neither - but my neighbor did. Take a listen so you can hear what it sounded like in stereo! It was not bad, quite the contrary, but it was totally random. Now that we have had one half a trimester of emersion Spanish, I think that my serenade would look something about like this (thanks Kiki!). For the record, this is MUCH funnier if you are actually in your one semester of Spanish, this is exactly what I know (minus the mistakes and the one french word thrown in.

We had Christmas early this year. There is a missionary couple going back to the states in a couple weeks so we are buying pretty much all their stuff. This last weekend we helped move a majority of their things over to La Palabra de Vida where Matt & Lisa have graciously agreed to store it for us. However, we got to take some of the cool stuff with us now (e.g., some little computer speakers, a mini grill, some plastic drawers, a brita filter, etc). Sure, that does not sound cool - but when you don't have much to begin with - these things are pretty sweet.

Another exciting thing happened today, we've entered the next phase in our GE gas dryer saga. I could not find the parts to convert a methane dryer to propane down here - so I had to have my parents order the parts for me in the states. They then mailed them to me. The good news is, they have arrived! Who would have thought the four tiny pieces you see in the picture could cost so much. The bad news is that I have to use these instructions to install it. So, what do I do from here?

Option 1: Install this baby and dry some clothes
Option 2: Install this thing carefully, then have a fire extinguisher on hand
Option 3: Install this thing, hire someone to run the dryer for a while while I take the kids at least 1/4 mile away from the house.
Option 4: Hire someone to install this.

Well, option 4 is impossible because no one here knows what methane is...so I certainly will not trust them to install the part. Number three does not seem like the missionary way, so....I guess we will proceed with option two or some varient there of.

So Roxana asked me if I liked Tico food and I said 'sure, I like all foods...' I think she may have finally crossed the line here. I do not like green eggs and ham, I do not like them Sam I am. Not in a pan, not with a spoon, not in a bowl, not after noon.

A rare sighting!

2008-06-27T18:51:00.007-06:00

It is not very often that you get a picture of Christy and I together. Even more amazing is that there is not one, or possibly two, monkeys hanging over our shoulders or on our arms. Thanks to Amy & Cohen for the great picture right before chapel hour a few days ago. Although I am not much of a picture guy, I do always enjoy looking at the relatively few pictures that Christy and I have together.

PS - To my mother-in-law. I still don't shave very much, sorry.

PSS - That guy who looks like he is robbing a bank behind is named 'Mark'. He is 6'3'' and probably pushing 300 lbs in muscle. If I were you, I wouldn't make any jokes about how he looks in the picture. I know I won't be.

An unintended side effect

2008-06-26T19:08:00.004-06:00

I call it side effect because I am not sure if it is good or bad. We knew that our kids would learn Spanish while here in Costa Rica. The other language we had not counted on was southern twang. Nearly 3/4 of all the people at the school now are southern baptist and are generally from southern states in the US. Several of Elizabeth's classmates at school have accents. The other day she came home and told us she had a 'bew-bew' - instead of a boo-boo or an owie. She also asked me yesterday if she could watch a 'mew-vie' when she got home from school.

This is certainly something we will have to monitor as the future progresses. We can "unlearn her gud" starting in 2009 when we move away from the south.

Dear Josh, your humor is not funny

2008-06-24T19:10:00.005-06:00

In my grammer class today one of the questions in our work book was 'Do you read Tom Clancy books?' It was almost fate that I got this question because I just got done reading (lets be honest...rereading) The Hunt for Red October last weekend. However, before I even got a chance to respond, she wanted to move on past the question because she did not know who Tom Clancy was. I listed of of some books to jog her memory and she shrugged. Some other people said 'What about movies...do you like 'Hunt for Red October', 'Patriot Games', 'Sum of all Fears?' All that got was a 'I've never seen them...' from her.

Here is where my real zinger takes shape. In a totally seriously and incriminating voice I said, 'What, you don't like movies?!?' She looked at me funny. That was the end of my joke.

A couple others laughed but it is a good reminder to me that humor can be totally lost across languages. This is true if I am speaking spanish or english. Lets rephrase that last statement. This is ALWAYS true when I speak spanish and can even be true when I speak english. Even worse than humor being lost, I might (and probably already have) offended people. Something to be mindful of.

So our guest speaker for the week in chapel mentioned the tower of babel today in his message. For those of you not familiar, its basically one more time in history where God had about enough of humans trying to make themselves out to be gods when in fact we are certainly not. As I was flipping through some articles today, something caught my eye. Yet another crazy attempt at a building that is spectacular and a monument to human achievement. In order of my top three, here we go....(drum roll...)

#3) In motion building
#2) Dubai tower
#1) Mile high tower

I'm not an end times is here tomorrow type of guy (it'll come - who knows when), but it does at least make you raise your eyebrows when in the very region that the original tower of babel was constructed we see the exact same thing happening again four thousand plus years later. I don't know whether to laugh, cry or be concerned when I see articles like this again and again.

Is this mono? It feels like mono

2008-06-22T19:24:00.005-06:00

I've never had mono, but I'm pretty sure if I do in the future it will feel like this. I knew this morning was going to be a bit dicey as I spent all yesterday morning shoveling, lifting, dumping, etc 5 gallon buckets of cement up make-shift stairs and into forms. Matt & Lisa are putting a two story addition onto their house and they had a small army of people to help with moving the cement from the ready mix truck into the forms and the 2nd floor floor pan. I was silly enough to say I'd love to help them. When I combined my Saturday activities with a relative lack of sleep - I figured I'd be pretty sore and wiped today. Well, both of those were true, but actually much worse. I've hardly been able to keep my eyes open most of the day, I have a temperature of about 100, my stomach feels terrible (I've had a bowl of soup and two bites of salad all day), and I've made no less than 15 trips to the bano. Today is a good day indeed. If this stomach bug is like the last one, I might be on my weigh (har-de-har) to fighting in the welter.

On the plus side, as I was loading up the pictures I took on the camera to my computer to post them, I found this one there. Christy must have taken this on Saturday morning when I was over at the befus'. The kids are so cute. Everytime we give them a shower, they always want to be wrapped up like mummies and then rolled out onto the bed. Sammy has taken to saying 'That was a good one!'

I decided to snap a couple shots of our other weekend project. About two weeks ago, we bought a dryer at a warehouse store that sells slightly damaged, but brand new stuff. There was a small ding on the side of the dryer, but it was a great deal and they were willing to deliver - so we got it. When we got home, we plugged it in only to hear the seam on the drum hitting the side of the dryer (bump...bump...bump...).
We were able to take off the side panel and I hamered the main part of the dent out so that it would no longer rub against the drum. You can see where I made a couple ill placed hammer whacks in this picture - but no matter - it got the job done. All we need to do now is figure out how to convert this baby from methane to propane (methane does not exist down here) and get a tank + regulator - and we should be good to go!

To leave everyone with today - the ever present 'water gamble' I think we take. Many missionaries just by big 5 gallon bottles of purified water for all use here. We decided to 'rough it' and just have tap water which is for the most part safe. However, every once in a while the pressure in our water goes down a bit. We ask ourselves 'Is the pressure down....I can't tell....hmm.....should we drink it....' and usually water like you see in this cup starts coming out the tap. I feel the need to enter some kindergarden style joke 'If its brown...put it down.' Maybe THIS is why I feel sick today....

Have a good evening everyone. I'm off to lay in bed - hopefully all night long sleeping.

June 2008 Prayer Letter

2008-06-19T21:48:00.001-06:00

Hi folks. I finished up our prayer letter for June 2008 this week and have put it out on the site. Feel free to take a look - the link to it is on the right side of the blog or here. If you are a consistent reader of the blog, there is not much new, but you may want to take a look anyway. Also, we will be sending a soft copy sometime in the next few days and a hard copy in the next few weeks (it takes a while to cordinate those being printed, stuffed and sent back in the states. Thanks mom!)

More time please...

2008-06-18T20:27:00.009-06:00

WARNING - there is no coherent thought or 'logic' if you will behind this post. It is mainly just rambling.

I've been a little light on the posts lately, and that probably will continue at least through the remainder of the weekend. I actually made a switch this week at school - I moved up to a faster paced class for Grammar. This is huge blessing because I felt like I was not being pushed quite as much as I am used to in my original class placement (mind you, the placement was right, I knew no spanish initially, but I'm learning quickly and actually practice a reasonable amount of spanish outside of my class so I am ready for more). Also, I am now in Christy's class so we can study together - which is surprisingly pleasant now that the Josh competitive bug has for the most part been squashed. The one down side to the whole move is that I am really busy this week trying to catch up on everyting that others know and I do not.

Anyway....Christy has this website that she keeps all sort of flash cards and other useful information for us and other students. I took the liberty of updating it for her and making it awesome - she did not appreciate my updates. She told me to get my own web page...luckily, I have one - so I'll take her advice. We can have a poll, tell me, yes or no, do these two pictures make this site awesome? I think the answer is undeniably yes, but I am biased.

Totally unrelated to optimus prime OR megatron, I have a fun little thing for you to listen to. This sound clip serves two purposes. 1) You can hear the 'gun like' noises that I was talking about in an earlier post that are actually just fire works. Also, you can get a quick listen on how loud it can be here on any given time of the day. The loud bangs are the fireworks, the dog barking non stop in the background is actually odd - usually there are like three of them. You can also hear both elizabeth and some neighbor kid making noise. You kinda learn to tone it all out (much like the alarms on cars). Take a listen here...

Did I tell everyone we have someone else living in our house now? His name is Henery. You can see him in the picture here. Roxana was pretty convinced we should Mata Toto him...but he's so cute. Also, lizards eat bugs...although I'm pretty sure that any cucaracha here could take him one on one. Christy is secretly worried that we have like 1000 lizards in the house. Luckily she has not checked her long-sleeve t-shirt drawer in a while. Shhhh....

I'm so ashamed...

2008-06-15T20:59:00.003-06:00

After my 'lesson' with the dorritos you think I would have learned. I just looked at what I ate this weekend at quiznos for dinner on Sabado (saturday)....the grande (large) mequite chicken with bacon. 1300 calories. At least I had a diet pepsi....

Ohhh...this is why you do not drive at night

2008-06-15T12:46:00.003-06:00

When Christy and I go to the Multiplaza (this is a big mall up in Zapote) we usually take a back road because the the main road (calle) is massively under construction. I would actually need a video camera to do the the construction chaos justice, but maybe sometime I'll bring a high quality regular camera just to give you an idea. Think:

1. Normal crazy driving conditions and an excess of traffic almost all day, and
2. No road closures when there should be, and
3. No flag men directing 4 lane roads that are closed down to one so that opposite moving lanes feed into each other, and
4. Construction equipment and dump trucks backing up, turning, basically doing whatever they want in traffic, at intersections, etc.

Needless to say it is an adventure. This brings me back to my earlier comment of we take the backroad to get to the mall. Well, yesterday we drove on this road, and all of the sudden there was this hole in the ground. I had to snap this picture with a small camera (thanks Lizzy for letting me use your camera) as I was driving so it does not really do it justice (you can not see the depth or the actual size). However, you can take my word that a mini could easily fit into this hole. I really don't know how deep it is, and this is surprising because I only had about 1 foot of clearance on my left side when I drove by - and I could not see the bottom from the drivers seat of my van. I would say that makes the actual depth in excess of 12-15 feet. I know sink holes happen in the states too, I think the major difference is the response to them (e.g., road shut down, repaired quickly). Here, someone was nice enough to put a trash can in front of it with some yellow ribbon...but that was about it. I can't imagine this will be repaired correctly any time soon - but they probably will throw some concrete blocks and stuff in there before someone gets really hurt.

I took some pictures of the mall and the surrounding area but they did not turn out well. I wanted to show the contrast that exists as the Multiplaza is a very nice mall ( on par with anything in the states), but looking out back from the parking lot is a very rough barrio. Think rusted out pieces of tin and large sheets of plastic to make the roof and walls of most of these houses. Its a reminder that although Costa Rica has so much, there are so many with so little. I'll take a better camera next time and try to get a couple shots.

Happy father's day to my dad, my father-in law, and to all you dads out there.

Is that bag regulation size or what?

2008-06-11T20:58:00.010-06:00

So for our anniversary which was on Monday, Christy bought be a 'goodie' bag of things that would be considered treats down here for me. Snacks mainly. Dorritos (Fiery Habanerno), 2 liters of diet coke, gummy candy, etc. In general, things like that are expensive - at least relative to the states - in Costa Rica. That brings me to Tuesday evening...

As I was finishing nearly the last of the dorritos in the full size bag, I finally got around to reading the back label. There are 14 servings in one bag. Can it be possible that I ate 14 servings in one day? I mean, I'm hardly even up for that long. If you factor in the 7 hours I slept, and the 7 hours I was at school - that only leaves 10 hours of real eat time. Nix 1 hour after each dinner and lunch because I am too full to eat - and that leaves 6 hours. Is it possible that I ate roughly two servings per hour of my beloved dorritos? Surely my body does not feel like it just took in 1750 calories.

Then I remembered...I bought a two bags last week(they met a surpringly similar 1 day demise). That makes 1.5 bags per week. Pretty amazing that 18.75% of my recommended 2000 per day caloric intake was spent on chips. Even more amazing that on a 'per day that I had chips in my pantry' I exceeded my caloric intake by 31.25% on chips alone each day. Does this equate to some sort of addiction? I always thought pringles were the single most dangerous snack...but Fiery Habanero just made it to the top of my list.

Speaking of things that are both spicey and unhealthy - Sammy discovered a combination today. He found that when he mixed Iguana XX Cayene Pepper sauce with his own eye, bad things happen. He kept saying, 'I want ketchup...I want ketchup...' I told him it was not....but he wore me down. I put some on his plate. He ate it. He liked it. He dipped his cucumber in it. He ate more. He was happy. And then....he thought it was SO funny to put his cucumber in his eye. He thought this for about 2 seconds. I've never heard such a shrill scream come from my son. Nor have I ever seen his little legs move so fast as Christy was carrying him to the bathroom to wash his eyes with water and milk. I must admit, I laughed (please don't call child services).

Pretty rainy

2008-06-09T19:17:00.014-06:00

If you are like me, the whole idea of 'rainy season' does not really mean much. Does it rain all day, for part, or not really much? A drizzle, a downpour, nothing? Well...I just snaped a few pictures to help everyone out. We are still pretty early into the rainy season but this is what we have seen so far (keep in mind the heaviest rain is in October).

1. In the morning, there is usually a bit of sun poking through

2. By 10am, things start getting cloudy.

3. By 1pm, it usuallys starts raining.

4. Sometime in the afternoon, it usually rains like this for at least an hour:

Some days it rains so hard that our back patio drainage begins to flood. You can actually see that happening in this little movie below. When this happens, water starts coming into our kitchen. To prevent flooding we have to jam a towel under the door. I honestly do not even know how this door is still in one piece if it gets this much exposure to water.

Towel preventing *some* water from coming in the door.

5. Somtimes is sprinkles all night, but usually it stops by about 7 or 8.

6. The process repeats.

Giving props where props is due

2008-06-07T19:38:00.008-06:00

Christy and I did something on Friday that we had been putting off for a while. Getting our Costa Rican drivers license. I think I may have mentioned earlier I thought we could drive on the US license forever, but that was bad info. That aside, most of the time I write my blogs based on things that I think are odd, silly, stupid or all of the above. Today I'm going to turn a new leaf and just call out how well I thought the Costa Rican process went. The lines moved quickly, people were FRIENDLY (try saying the same thing about the DMV in Illinois) and the whole thing really only took an hour or so. Well done Costa Rica, I salute you.

PS - Yes...Donador does me that I am an organ donor. The guy asked and I was like 'Yeah, I'll be a donor' That's one of those things where you forget you are not in the States where you are pretty sure you'll be taken care of in an accident. Down here, I'm not really sure how that all shakes out. Let's hope the answer to that question does not come back to bite me!

An aspiring artist

2008-06-05T19:17:00.006-06:00

Its been a while so I thought I would share another picture with you all from Elizabeth. I'm not sure if you can tell, but there are five people in this picture. Super-Sam is represented in the lower left hand corner. Elizabeth is the little person directly above him.

The people are 'a little' creepy...but hey, she is not even four yet.

Things that sound good

2008-06-03T19:20:00.002-06:00

- A Gino's East pizza (meat lovers minus the bacon + some extra tomatoes)
- Macaroni Grill's 'pasta milano'
- A Moe's 'Home Wrecker' or 'Tripple Lindy'
- Chili's peppercorn burger or chicken tacos
- Capital Ale House fries with dipping sauces (for you richmonders)
- The Bank burger with chipotle mayo and blue cheese (for you wheatoners)
- A really good Fuji or Braeburn apple
- Extra sharp (truly sharp) cheddar cheese
- Panera Bacon Turkey Bravo sandwich

If anyone wants to pack some of these in with dry ice and try to get it through customs, that would be awesome.

No two people are not on fire...awwww

2008-06-02T16:18:00.007-06:00

This weekend while talking with Bryan & Robin Kandall, missionaries currently serving at La Palabra de Vida, we reminded each other of a website we both thought was funny. The name of it is home star runner. If you do not love silly and/or dumb humor, I would not recommend you go there. If you are one of my supporters, I think maybe you should not go at all as I can not vouch for almost anything on the site. That aside, there is cartoon on the website where one of the characters (strongbad) talks about a children's book he once made.

He basically takes a Dick and Jane book and 'modifies' it based on what he thinks it should look like. I can not speak for all the women in the house - but as a boy - this is exactly what I used to (still do) do. There are several pictures in our grammar work books that look just like these pictures. Every time we look at them or get a similar handout, Christy and I always giggle and quote the strongbad cartoon or make up our own captions.

While doing a homework assignment today for grammar, Christy stumbled upon something surprising. A photo that did not need any modifications for it to be funny. I'm not even sure how this one 'made the cut' - but I have scanned it in below so you could see. I've also added a few of my own subtitles below it. I've probably butchered the Spanish - but hey - I tried.

- Martin está muerto (he really is, look under the bus)

- Fernando está a punto de morir

- Ramon tiene una dislocación del cuello

- Pablo objetivos para las personas en su autobús

- Xilene tiene una dudosa profesión

- Jorge vive en 1972

A weekend of refocus

2008-06-01T22:20:00.004-06:00

This weekend we had the opportunity (mandate to be fair) to go to an all Costa Rican Latin America Mission missionary retreat. Try saying that five times fast! There were so many reasons this was a great retreat for me to be at, I'll at least try to hit a few of the high points.

First of all, I have to be honest by saying I've never been much of a 'retreat' guy. Given that I much prefer to have one or two close friends that I spend a significant amount of time with - going and spending 3.5 days of very precious 'I could be studying Spanish' time with many people I do not know was not appealing. However, God combated these thoughts with another tool that the devil often uses in missionary's minds - missing home. Mind you, I'm not down here in Costa Rica crying myself to sleep - however this last week was the first since I have been here that I really thought it would be fun to be back in the states. I genuinely miss my job, my friends, my family and just the normalcy of life back home. After some reflecting, this is just another way that God can take something that was intended to be for evil, hurt or in this case distraction from what I am doing here - and use it for His glory (Gen 50:20). By the time the retreat rolled around I was eagerly anticipating seeing the folks I know at La Palabra de Vida, folks from our Miami Service Office and also meeting many new missionaries who serve in Costa Rica - and not even worried about the fact that it was a retreat.

The main theme for the weekend was defining what success looks like. As a Christian, and I guess especially as a missionary, I am ashamed that some of my more natural responses to this question are something like the following:

- Making money
- Having career advancement
- Being well liked
- Having power
- Acceptance
- Interesting and exciting jobs
- Easy and smooth life

Let me first say that any of those things in and of themselves is not bad. God does not despise any of those things, and I do not believe that we should either. However, what is bad is when we begin to use any of those as the measure of success for our lives - and it is SO easy to do this. As easy as it is, we must not as God does not. (Actually, God rejects them as important measures Luke 4:1-14) I can think back to a conversation I had two weeks ago where I was asking someone what his 5-10 year plan was. Implicit in the question was 'Whats next for you? You can not teach forever can you? You have to BE someone, DO something, MOVE onto something bigger.' You can instantly see how I was marginalizing this person's service in the Kingdom because it did not cync up with three important Josh measurement factors. Who am I to declare what is successful or what is important - in this persons life or mine? God often does just the opposite of what the world values just to show that same world that he is, as a speaker said this weekend, an unconventional God who uses unconventional methods. The entire story of Jesus' was just that....all including the disciples expected a great king who would really advance the Jewish nation and finally 'take care of' the bad guys. Instead all they got was a Savior who atoned for sin and provided a means of reconciliation for everyone through his own humiliation and suffering. What a bummer, huh? Maybe if God thought more like us things would turn out better.

This is such an important lesson because this is a real struggle for me. There is not a week that goes by when I do not think about some variation of this issue. How can I get my career back on track after this whole 'missionary' thing? THAT persons job sounds interesting, how do I get over there so I can do something cool like them? What do I need so do so I can get in a position of authority and make some real change? Etc ... I sure spend alot of effort thinking (worrying?) about these things. What a wonderful feeling of rest I finally had this weekend being reminded that I am here because God wants me here. I'm doing what I am because it is precisely what is needed by him. If I simply ask, listen and obey to His will - I can fully rest that future directions in my life are precisely what they need to be as well. It matters not if I lead a 'team of me' cooking meals for the needy or being the captain of a fortune 100 company. To all my non-Christian or non-believing fiends out there - how do you find rest? Does measuring and advancing yourself against the measures of the world get you there? What happens in 50 years when you die, or tomorrow if a tragedy happens? I feel like I age 10 years for each 1 worrying about this stuff and I have the answer.

Another great thing about the retreat were the people! What an amazing thing to listen to people ranging from 2 months of service on the field (Christy and I) to 50+ years on the field. Beyond just the amazing stories - you can see and hear so much more. Their very real struggles, amazing fellowship with each other, compassion, kindness, realness, etc. What a blessing to not only spend a weekend with people like that, but to have open access to them whenever we need advice, questions answered or just a friend.

Lastly, it didn't rain! The tropical storm in the pacific made the week before the retreat miserable! However, Friday, Saturday and Sunday were AMAZING. It did not rain until we packed to leave the retreat.

I could go on and on, but...I won't. At the end of the day, you can see it was exactly what I needed. God provides what we need, when we need it, always - we just have to ask, listen, obey and understand that our way is not always his way.

I'm off to study some verbs and get some sleep. Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Forgot these two things!

2008-05-28T18:16:00.006-06:00

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

2008-05-28T15:43:00.003-06:00

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!!!!

2008-05-25T18:58:00.000-06:00

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

2008-05-25T15:26:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-23T15:41:00.004-06:00

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

2008-05-20T21:33:00.013-06:00

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 wan ted 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....

2008-05-18T12:34:00.019-06:00

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

2008-05-13T17:06:00.006-06:00

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

2008-05-11T21:50:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-10T11:27:00.004-06:00

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

2008-05-08T18:27:00.005-06:00

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

2008-05-05T19:27:00.002-06:00

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

2008-05-04T20:43:00.003-06:00

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

2008-05-03T20:31:00.014-06:00

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

2008-05-02T06:03:00.002-06:00

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....

2008-05-01T20:44:00.006-06:00

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.

To my neighbor

2008-04-29T19:36:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-28T07:36:00.010-06:00

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

2008-04-25T20:03:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-24T19:42:00.013-06:00

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

2008-04-22T19:39:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-21T20:23:00.004-06:00

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

2008-04-20T22:08:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-18T19:35:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-17T21:34:00.006-06:00

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

2008-04-16T21:01:00.009-06:00

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

2008-04-14T18:08:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-13T22:28:00.003-06:00

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

2008-04-10T20:13:00.004-06:00

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)

2008-04-10T06:28:00.016-06:00

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...

2008-04-07T14:55:00.002-06:00

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

2008-04-06T20:54:00.014-06:00

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!

Ways I know I am no longer in the States

2008-03-29T20:08:00.007-06:00

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

2008-03-28T08:13:00.008-06:00

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!

2008-03-25T20:03:00.002-06:00

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)...

2008-03-24T17:15:00.009-06:00

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

2008-03-19T20:33:00.007-06:00

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!

2008-03-18T18:21:00.002-06:00

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

2008-03-03T20:57:00.014-06:00

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.

Less than six weeks!

2008-02-13T23:05:00.009-06:00

Christy and I realized while we were in Colorado that we had less than six weeks to go before we leave Illinois for the next year. Madness. Packing has not started yet - but we are trying to get all of our final paper work done. This includes signing up for language school, getting the kids enrolled in their equivalent of school, getting on Latin America Mission's payroll, getting our taxes done, etc. Six weeks feels like a long time, but we will also be in Michigan and Richmond for a combined 2 weeks - so we really only have about four weeks left. Christy's parents have offered to watch the kids as much as needed for us starting in early March (after our trip to Richmond and Michigan) so that we can get all of our stuff packed up and leave the condo we are using in a state that they can have visitors stay here without tripping over kids toys and books.

In between getting forms filled out and finishing up my two classes at Covenant (I'm done with one and hope to be done with the other by this Friday, 6 credits out of 60 completed for the degree!) - we've been busy with the kids. They like to do various activities like riding in their laundry basket cars, work at the computer, and play racquetball with dad. I've posted a couple pictures for everyone's entertainment.

The first picture of Sammy I have titled 'Sammy MEYER' because this is one of the first pictures of him that I think he REALLY looks like a Meyer. Given the powder blue shirt (which was in style during the 70s and now is apparently again) - this could easily be a picture of my middle brother Jon. I think it looks very similar to many of his baby pictures. My mother also tells me often that he acts and looks alot like Jon did. Hmmm....oh well, I guess he didn't get my brains (everyone at Capital One is snickering because I was barely in the bottom tenth decile of smartest people there) but Jon is 3'' taller than me so maybe there is hope at baseball or some sport like that.

We bought Lizzy some 'computer games' last time we were at International Aid - a low cost store that missionaries can shop at. They are less games and more learning activities. The most interesting thing so far is that she can now type her name...well....LIZZY...on a computer keyboard. I've attached a picture that Christy took of her working away on a real computer. As neat as it is to see this as a parent - it is still a little crazy too. My 3.5 year old daughter using a computer. It still makes me have a 'WHEN I WAS A BOY...' moment as I think back to the 286 Packard Bell which we got when I was just entering middle school.

The last couple pictures are of Elizabeth and I playing in the Racquetball court. The picture of me is one that she proudly took. It took a couple shots but she managed to get my entire face in the picture. What I notice here is not so much the goofy face or the beard, but the wrinkles under my eyes. Mind you, not that I care, but it is a reminder that 30 is around the corner, kids make you age fast, and life is short. When I was recently looking at my passport photo that was taken right before Christy and I got married, I no longer say 'Hey, I look a little different' but rather think 'I hardly can tell its the same person'. I imagine these thoughts will accelerate between 30 and 40 and even more so between 40 and 50. C'est la vie. I've also included a picture of Elizabeth triumphantly holding a racquetball at the mercy of a racquet. All in all we've had just a wonderful time in Wheaton. We'll miss having our play time like you see in these pictures, but we are eager (if not a little nervous) about getting down to Costa Rica.

Its late and I promised Christy I would watch the kids tomorrow morning so she could sleep in (it is Valentines day you know) so I'm heading off to sleep.

Leaving you with a little racquetball...Elizabeth style...

Yet another medical call

2008-02-02T22:02:00.000-06:00

We have been up in the mountains since Tuesday and overall having a great time. On Thursday afternoon one of my old friends from Capital One, Ben, came up from near Denver to spend the afternoon with me. Since neither of us had ever tried it before, we got some snow shoes and went on our way at about 2pm up the mountain. Our first mistake was deciding to hike by foot up the ski slope to ski lift that would take us higher up the mountain directly in front of a snowshoe / cross country ski park at Beaver Creek. This absolutely destroyed us, and toward the top we stripped off hats, gloves, and jacket layers because we were sweating to death. Instead of waiting a second and putting all of those things on, we jumped onto the ski lift to take us up. This may have been (probably was) the coldest 13 minutes of my life. My hands holding my metal poles and metal snow shoes, jacket unzipped, no hats on, sweat freezing on the head, in windy 15 degree temperature. By the time we got off the lift I could not feel my ears or two of my fingers - everything else just killed. Luckily, there was a little warming hut which we spent 10 minutes in before we went on our way. We ended up hiking to an overlook point which you can see a picture of to the right. I brought my camera with, but I admit to being to cold to ever use it. Ben however is much more tough (manly?) than I and took several pictures. All the pictures here were by him, and many I think are great quality. The birch trees were so amazing against the the snow as you can see to the left. As we were coming down the mountain (we had to hike all the way down as the ski lifts close at 3:30) - it was about 5:30 and the sun was just about set. We figured we were probably just 2 of maybe 10 or so people on the entire mountain. We speculated that someone might be nervous about us coming back at all, and sure enough my father-in-law was there to great us when we finally came into sight (he had been keeping an eye out for us). I'm not sure how far we hiked that day but it must have been several miles. It gave us a great time to catch up and just enjoy some of God's beautiful creation.

On Friday morning Christy and I both decided to try our hand at something new - snowboarding. Step one was simply learning how to put the boards on and navigate enough so that we could get off the ski lift without killing ourselves or others. Getting on the ski lift and debarking was a success. When we got to the top of the hill, we strapped the boards on and headed down the slopes. My first 150 feet involved me heading down the mountain doing 360s uncontrollably. I was not doing this on purpose or riding any 'edge', rather just free falling on the board down the hill. Christy and I both fell about the same time, and then realized another problem. Christy was expending so much energy trying to stand up while attached to the board, that it made learning how to snow board nearly impossible. After about 1.5 hours and 1/3 of the way down the mountain, my mother-in-law offered to take Christy to a place called 'Zack's Cabin' for lunch so she could recharge, while my brother-in-law Jonathan and I finished down the hill. I think we both thought it was fun, but agreed that we might need a few runs on the bunny hill before we tried another run on the full sized mountain.

Tonight (Saturday) we also had more excitement. Right after dinner Sammy got bit by one of his cousins on the cheek - he has a perfect welt on his face with 8 top teeth and 8 bottom teeth showing. Needless to say he was not thrilled. Shortly after that situation was calmed down, the kids were playing out in the family room. Lizzy was spinning with her cousin Luke (a common activity) and while doing circles, Lizzy tripped over a pillow and went head first into the floor. She started crying so I ran over to pick her up - however - when I did her eyes rolled back in her head and she started to throw-up. Christy's mom called 911 to get an ambulance...while she started talking though Lizzy came to and was coherent. I told her to wave off the ambulance (I figured we would just watch her for 20 or 30 minutes and she how she was reacting) but they said they would come free of charge just to make sure she was okay. Over the next 30 minutes we had a public safety officer, a fire man, 2 EMTs and one representative from the hotel come into our condo. I must say though, I'm so glad they came. The EMTs were GREAT and showed that they really cared about our little girl. They checked her head and spine, monitored her breathing, heart rate, circulation in her hands, eye function and other things to make sure she was okay. They stayed with us for 30 minutes to make sure things were okay - and offered to take her to a hospital if we would like. In the end, we elected not to have her taken to the hospital because she was acting very much like herself (laughing, playing, giving the EMT man a high five) - but we did keep her up for another 1.5 hours just to make sure she did not show any symptoms of head trauma. We will keep a close eye on her breathing and energy levels over the next day to make sure. Although it was really scary, praise God that she was okay.

We are hoping you are all doing well and your week has not involved any ER visits or ambulance calls! Christy and I we just saying last night how amazed we were that we are flying to Miami in 6 weeks and Costa Rica in 7 - crazy. Pray for us as we continue traveling quite a bit with the family (Virginia, Michigan and Baltimore) and gear up to go. Please do let us all know how you are doing.

Rocky Mountain High

2008-01-30T10:09:00.000-06:00

It has been quite a crazy couple weeks to say the least. Last week I was in St Louis at Covenant Seminary where I was taking a Christian Education course during their residency period. The class was truly wonderful. There was a diverse group of folks ranging from full time MDiv students to retired military to business men and woman to....well...me. The class was very interactive and the teachers did a great job keeping the class interesting by actually using many of the different tactics/ideas they were teaching in their own lectures. I met many people that I will likely keep in touch with in the future. All that I have left to do now for the Christian Education course is to finish up the final project.

During that week I was gone, Christy took the kids up to Michigan to hang out with my mom. What started off with a fun filled Monday went down in flames quickly as Elizabeth, Christy, Sammy, my Mom and Dad all got sick. My mom took Lizzy to see the new Veggie Tales movie on Tuesday - and about half way through she said she wanted to go home. Later that evening, they were having dinner and she fell asleep on the floor underneath the chairs. Then, when she woke up as folks were finishing dinner - massive amounts of throw-up everywhere. As much as I felt bad that I was not there to help - I was very happy to be in St Louis for the remainder of the week :-)

I got home late Saturday night and Christy and I had about enough time to finish the laundry before we flew out of Chicago to Denver on Monday early afternoon. We stayed at Christy's sister's (Bekah) house on Monday night as I-70 (the highway to get up to the mountains) was shut down due to ice/snow/wind. This worked out okay though as Bekah and her family had just flown in from Ethiopia that day, and we had an opportunity to meet our new nephew (Miles) who they had just adopted.

We drove up to the mountains on Tuesday (the weather was much better) and made it to Bachelor's Gulch where we are staying. The first thing that caught my eye this year was a little slip of paper placed by the phone (you can see a picture of it to your left - simply click it to make it larger). It exposes a dichotomy that I have long been confused of. The cheaper a hotel is, the more you often get, and vs vr. For example, if you go to a Days Inn, you probably stay for about 30 to 40 bucks a night, get all your phone service paid for, get free Internet and I bet you might even get a continental breakfast. When you come to where we are staying, it is quite expensive, however, to make a local phone call costs one dollar. To make a long distance phone call is a $16 dollar connection charge, a prevailing per minute charge for sprint and a 99% surcharge on the bill. I just do not understand.....I guess the corporate philosophy is that you charge more simply because you can. However, I can think of very few industries where this model actually works. People get mad about payday loan lenders charger 100% interest....I think if you put this hotel's telephone fees into a APR, we'd be in the thousands!

Anyway, after musing over the phone bills for a while. we decided to explore the natural beauty that is Colorado. Actually, Sammy was watching TV (see to the left). The best part about that picture is that the shades are drawn....majestic mountains outside and we like dark rooms. The other fun thing we liked to do was play with the EXIT sign on the floor out in the hallway. Oh well, maybe we'll start working on exploring a little more than just the hallway and the room. I think I'm going to go snow shoeing tomorrow (which should be an amusing exercise in futility) and probably log in some skiing or snow boarding later this week.

I hope you all are doing well and we'll be in touch.

Quite an adventure

2008-01-18T23:34:00.000-06:00

Well, another blog, another 2 weeks. I really do apologize for taking so long to update this in between updates. I wish I had a better excuse, but...even now I can not think of one. We have already had a pretty busy January. I was able to fly out to Phoenix and visit my long time friend Kenn who I went to UW-Madison with and have been close with every since. I flew out on Wed and got back Sunday morning. We did everything from eat out almost every meal, played pool, bowled (I managed to get into the 130's...not to shabby), solved Halo3, played alot of call to duty 4 and watched my beloved packers get to the 2nd largest game in the NFL. Quite alot accomplished by anyones standards. All in all, it was a great trip, however, I did lose my voice well out there due to a nasty cold that I think everyone in Christy's extended had since Christmas. Also, I think Christy got slightly less excited about me being out there every day I spoke to her on the phone. Needless to say, she was happy to have me home to help out with the kids when I flew in on Sunday afternoon. This week has been good as I've been spending time preparing for my residency down in St Louis at Covenant Seminary (writing papers and reading multiple text books) while Christy has spent her free time sewing everything from baby slings to cloth diapers. You do not have to cry for me yet; however, I am going to take the Amtrak (coach) from Chicago to St Louis on Monday morning. We'll have to see how this all turns out....I think it will involve me getting up at 6 to take a Metra downtown Chicago, and then taking a smelly, old, cramped Amtrak train for 5.5 hours down to St Louis - topped off with an overpriced cab ride to the hotel. I'm not holding out much hope...but, maybe it won't be as bad as I have it in my head. One interesting thing that has started happening is that the kids will pretend to have 'nap time' together. I'm not entirely sure where this has come from....at first I thought maybe Elizabeth had naps at preschool (which I would wonder why we pay them anything as she is only there for 4 hours a week) but Christy assured me this was not the case. I'm assuming this is just something that Elizabeth has come up with on her own - and Sam being the good sport he is goes along with it. Either way, they sure are cute when they play this way together. Even if it only lasts for about 3 minutes, it gives me hope that some day, maybe...just maybe, they will not hate each other. The jury is still out on that and we will have to wait and see.

Another exciting happening occurred this morning. There was a gentle cry...which turned into a big cry....from Elizabeth's bedroom. I hear Christy say....'Josh, you've gotta come here and see this - quick!' So, instead of coming quick I do the first thing any father would, grab the camera. I'm so glad I did, you can see to the left the problem Sam got himself into. In case you can not tell, that is legit the #2 that he managed to stick his hand into - so it is very stuck. We had to empty all the block pieces out of there, and get Vaseline all over his hand and the toy to pull it out. He looks just like me in this picture minus the vein running down each side of his forehead. As much as we wanted to comfort him, Christy and I were both laughing pretty hard this morning (and continue to do so when we see this picture). Ahhhh...the things you get to deal with when you have small children.

After the St Louis trip next week, our whole family will be going to Denver for about 10 days. It looks like our next trip after that will be Richmond, Virginia around February 20th - so hopefully we will get a chance to see all of you then.

Go Pack Go!