This is a Spanish World

Ty's preschool is entirely in Spanish (except half the kids are American, so they speak English with each other). He loves his teachers, Monica (think MOE -knee -ca) and Pamela (Pa -MAY -la) and he's learning a ton of Spanish. I asked him the other day about one of his friends, if he was American or Costa Rican. He didn't know. So I said, "Does he speak English or Spanish. He still didn't know. I asked if he understood him when he talked, and he said, "No, Mama, his voice is in Spanish." So cute that he doesn't SPEAK Spanish, but his VOICE is in Spanish. And then the other day at the store, I asked him what he needed to say to the man checking us out. He said thank you and when I reminded him he needed to say it in Spanish, he said, "Oh yeah, Mama, it's cause this is a Spanish world."

Oh, and Sam started medicine for parasites today. He's had an upset stomach off and on for over a week, so now we have medicine. I'm so thankful for a good doctor here at the school! Es la vida - living in the global south!

one more trimester

We've officially decided to stay in Costa Rica for another trimester of language school. We've learned a ton already, but realize how much more there is to learn, and we definitely want to be as proficient as possible. So we will finish up in early August. We all feel really good about this decision. Also, I (Angela) am getting a tutor one afternoon a week to help me with conversation. That's the hardest part for me. It all makes sense in my head and on paper (well, not everything, but at least all that we've learned :) but it gets all jumbled up when I try to speak. Like at the grocery store yesterday when I asked the worker if I could buy half a carrot when meant to ask if I could buy half a watermelon. ARGH! What's so frustrating about that is that the word sandia (watermelon) was one of the first vocabulary words I learned! Oh well....I just need more practice time with a native speaker.

Skate or Die

Yeah, today I went with some guys from school to a skatepark in downtown San Jose. Lots of fun, and after a little while of being back on a board in 18 years, I was gettin' my groove a bit, sort of "tearin' it up" as we use to say,. Speaking of what we use to say and do, I recollected today on skate terms and skaters I have not thought about in 18 years, for you skaters out there, here is a list of nostalgia for you: The Search for Animal Chin; Bones Brigade; clear griptape; Steve Caballero and Lance Mountain and Nadas Kapas and Gator Ragowski, etc; Independent and Gullwing Trucks; quarter- and half-pipes...the list goes on.

My friend Brock here who is about 6'8" was catching air on the half-pipe. We call him him El Gigante, all the little tico boys see us gringoes walking in and they kind of laugh (thinking these guys are posers) and then Brock gets up there and grinds it up all over the place.

I did tweak my shoulder a bit, fell with about 10 minutes left, heard some muscles crunch, pretty sore now, gonna hurt for a few days.

Here is a link to a short panoramic video of the place:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQJxN6_IHLo&feature=related

Mama Come Pan

Sam and Georgia have Spanish class every day. They really like it, and they amaze us with all the vocabulary they are learning. They taught us a song that they sing sometimes - it's really cute.

Georgia: Mama (insert any name) come pan en la casa de San Juan.
(Mama eats bread in the house of Saint John)

Mama: Quien yo?
(who me?)

Georgia: Si, tu!
(yes, you)

Mama: Yo no fui.
(It wasn't me)

Georgia: Entonces, quien?
(Then who?)

Mama: Sam come pan in la casa de San Juan.

Sam: Quien yo?

and so it continues......it's really quite catchy.

Bingo in Desamparados San Antonio

My phonetics teacher invited us to her neighborhood to play Bingo to raise money to make improvements to the playground in their community. On Friday, Gabriella (my teacher), described for us her neighborhood, she said it is very poor and that they want to improve the playground area to give them a place to fellowship as a community on a regular basis. She described how expensive it is to make improvements, one in particular being to add lights to the terraza so they can play Bingo at night. 200,000 colones she said to add lights. This is $400 USD, and I thought how this amount of money can be raised in minutes in the US...

So, I tried to rally a few friends to go with me but I found no takers, so I set out on my own on Sunday afternoon about 4:30 to make the 2.5 mile walk down to Desamparados San Antonio for Sunday night Bingo.

I found the street called Calle Trejos, looking for La Casa de Manuel Obando with the directions Gabriella gave me. The narrow tributary roads that feed Calle Trejos are nothing more than dirt paths, but small residences line them with their corrugated tin roofs hanging over small stoops where dogs lay and children sit on tricycles in front of darkened doorways.

After passing up and down the street at least twice, each time not finding la casa, I noticed a woman slipping down one of these narrow roads with a cooler in hand, so I followed her and then looking beyond her to the very end of the road, I could see out underneath a patio a small gathering of people sitting around a few picnic tables...this had to be the place.

So there was no turning back. I was no longer in our comfortable gringo outpost around our school. I was a true foreigner. I was nervous. I wondered how long I would have to stay...having to stay turned into wanting to stay and I did for three hours, playing game after game of Bingo, maiz (corn pieces for chips) and premios (prizes) included, elbow to elbow with Tico children, their padres (parents) and abuelos (grandparents) and tios and tias (uncles and aunts), hamburguesas and helado and calientes perros (hot dogs) and tres leches...Spanish numbers being thrown at me like major league fastballs...being the guest of honor as the Gringo in a strange land...

I think my first genuine cross-cultural experience, the beginnings of shaping my perspective on ministry in Latin America...

Monkeys and Milkshakes

We decided to explore downtown San Jose a bit this afternoon. It's only about a 15 minute bus ride from our house. We wandered through a few parks and up and down curious side streets of downtown, and then found a zoo. The kids had a great time! The tropical birds were a hit and so were the monkeys. We walked around the zoo for a couple hours, and then tired and hungry, found a "coffee shop" type place and had milkshakes and brownies. It was a great day! Enjoy the pictures.

iChat-video-support-team meeting

Check this out. Above in the picture are a few of our best friends from Charlottesville. These guys also make up part of our core support team. We met with them last night via iChat—like we were sitting down with them in Charlottesville, or Costa Rica, or "Costattesville', in whatever virtual world we imagined at the moment. Good to be an Apple user, heh?

We talked and laughed and prayed together last night with our friends. We shared our struggles, our successes, our hopes, our needs. This is one of the times I have been most thankful for cool technology.

I want to communicate!

I think a woman was telling me earlier this evening that she was robbed. But I couldn't tell if she was saying she was robbed, or someone else was robbed, or if it had just happened, or if it had happened another day. All I could do was to shake my head and make a face that I hope said "how terrible". Of course, after I came inside, I thought of 100 things I could have said or asked (okay so maybe only 10). That's where I am now in my language learning. I generally get a good idea of what people are saying to me, but the specific details get lost. And then on paper I know what to say and how to respond, but getting that information from my brain to my mouth doesn't seem to happen very quickly. I long to be able to communicate with people in Spanish! How can I tell people about their need for Jesus if I can't even ask them if they need help because they might have been robbed? Please pray for us and our ability to learn Spanish quickly and well. We are encouraged by how much we've already learned, but we realize how far we have to go.

Stolen Keys

Well, it has been an eventful weekend, to say the least. On Friday night, we were about to go to bed around 10:30 when I decided to make sure all the sets of keys were hanging up. I usually don't do this, but I was the last one to go out (to get some ice cream to bring home:) I realized the keys I had used to get in and out of our house and gate were missing. I couldn't find them anywhere and became obsessed with finding them. Bubba and I thought maybe one of the kids had been playing with them before bed, but I couldn't let go of trying to find them. We looked all over the house and outside a few times. It was a little unnerving to say the least when we found the keychain, minus the keys, lying on the ground beside our gate. I freaked out and couldn't stop sobbing - out of fear, responsibility, etc..... Someone had the keys to our gate and our house! Everyone here has tall gates with multiple locks, razor wire, street guards, and guard dogs for a reason. And now someone had the ability to use our keys and walk right in our house. We were able to find the guard for our street and communicate with him what had happened. Our neighbors heard us and came out, and between the two of them, we got a few different locks for our gate for the night. Our guard, Jose, said he'd look out for our house. But the fear was still there that someone could jump our gate and walk right in. Needless to say, we spent a sleepless night, with Bubba on guard sleeping on the living room couch. On Saturday, we were able to get a locksmith here in the afternoon (after going to friends' house for lunch and carting all our valuables with us - passports, laptop, camera). We got 3 locks changed, including soldering one on our gate, for only $60! WOW. We realize how much we have to be thankful for, how even though it was scary and surreal, that the Lord had his hand in it. We're so thankful that we continued to look for the keys and weren't content to go to bed without finding them...that whoever took the keys left the keychain for whatever reason because then we knew the keys were gone...that we have a kind guard on our street who helped us and watched our house extra carefully...for neighbors who prayed with and for us when I was terrified....for safety that night....and for being able to get the locks changed quickly and cheaply.

"I lift my eyes up, to the heavens, where does my help come from. My help comes from You, maker of Heaven and Earth."