raising wok - hidden dragon

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

A gender confused day

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

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

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

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

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

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

Josh was wrong again

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

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

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

Take two and call me in the morning

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

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

At least we know where the hospital is

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

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

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

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

A big encouragement

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

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

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

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

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

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

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