Parque de La Paz slideshow

Patacones and Mongodo

I (Bubba) am the cook in the family now. This weekend I rustled up some patacones—take not-yet-ripe plantains, cut 'em up into one inch pieces, fry them in a little oil, then smash them into patties, then fry them again until golden brown, good with a slice of tico cheese on top, or a little cinnamon sugar.

Then today in lenguage class we are eating Mongodo, tasty little treat of COW STOMACH...costariccense delicacy.

Sunday Afternoon at the Park

We found this park this afternoon, Parque de la Paz. It's about a 15 minute walk from our house. It's a huge park with a big hill in the middle where people fly kites. It also has a few lakes, some fields, and a walking/biking path. The 2 most popular things to do are fly a kite, and slide down the hill on pieces of cardboard. Our kids loved sledding on grass! I must say it doesn't work all that well (doesn't quite compare to sledding on snow, but I guess in a city where it never snows, it's a close second :)

Our daily schedule

I thought I'd give everyone an idea of our daily schedule. Hopefully this along with seeing the pictures will help you envision our life here a little better.

5:00 - our alarm goes off
5:15 - 5:30 - we roll out of bed
5:30 - 6:00 - coffee and quiet times
6:00 - Angela gets ready, Bubba fixes the kids snacks and lunches
6:30 - the kids get up, get dressed, and we all eat breakfast
7:10 - all 5 of us are out the door to school! (a small miracle :)
7:30 - school starts for all of us
7:30 - 9:15 - Bubba and Angela have grammar class with Oscar Rodriguez
9:20 - 10:10 - Conversation class, Angela with Rita and Bubba with Elena
10:10 - 11:15 - Break time!
11:15 - 12:05 - Phonetics class, Angela with Ana and Bubba with Gabriella
12:10 - pick up Ty and head home for lunch
2:30 - pick up Sam and Georgia from school
In the afternnons we usually end up going to a local park, or Bubba heads out for an adventure :)
4:30 - homework time for Sam and Georgia, Bubba usually fixes dinner while I help with homework
5:30 - dinner
7:00 - bedtime for the kids, study time for us
8:30 - 9:00 - bedtime for us! (you would not believe how exhausted we are -walking everywhere along with using all our mental faculties just to say "my name is.....where is the sugar....what time is it...") but really this is 9:30 - 10:00 east coast time :)

Bathroom Games, anyone?

Ok, another funny language learning story. This week in class, studying vocabulary, the word "juegos" came up. Juegos primarily means "games." Well, I recalled seeing a sign in our neighborhood outside an interior decorator's shop that said, among other things, "Juegos de bano."

So I asked our teacher, his name is Oscar, "Well, I saw this sign ya see, and it said juegos de bano, so are we talking about "bathroom games?" Oscar started laughing, as did everyone else in class when Oscar told us that when juegos is used in this manner it refers to a "set" of something, so you can have "bathroom sets", you can also have "juegos de cama"—a la cama is a bed and no it does not mean "bed games", but a set of sheets for the bed.

So no, bathroom games and bed games are not weird cultural pastimes of Costa Rica.

My List of Things I Love in Costa Rica

First of all, I should say that we got our internet hooked up at home today!! Now we'll be more connected and hopefully make more regular posts.

I (Angela) was thinking the other day of all the things I miss about home, about Charlottesville, and about life in general in the United States. Suffice it to say, if I made a list of all I miss or all that is hard, it would be a long list. So....I decided to make a list of the things I love here in Costa Rica.

*wearing tank tops and flip flops in January
*walking to and from school everyday with my family
*holding hands with my children as we walk (everywhere, everyday!!!)
*crema dulce in my coffee (there is no half and half here - crema dulce is whipping cream!)
*the satisfaction that comes from understanding and communicating with a native speaker, mas despacio por favor
*the crisp blue sky in the mornings

More pics, more news

The above slideshow has more pics than the ones from the other day. Below is our house, on the corner there, terracotta with black gate.

Yesterday I (Bubba) took ill in the morning during class. Hit me like a freight train. Never got sick per se, but my body felt so fatigued that in the afternoon I stayed in bed until dinner. I am ok now.

Sam remarked yesterday, " I love school." We are grateful for this. Ty is now doing well also but Georgia is still having a hard time in the mornings letting go.

Espanol es bueno. First three days of classes for Angela and I have gone well.

Funny story. I walked to the Costa Rican version of Sam's Club on Wednesday from our home. About two miles. Place called PriceSmart. I bought a membership (in Spanish mind you, lots of "despacio por favor" from me). About half way thru shopping spree, I realized I had to get all this bulk stuff home. Taxis cannot come into lot so it is not as easy as just unloading into a taxi. So, improvising, I tipped a young tico boy uno mil colones ($2) to fetch two industrial strength, large trash bags for me to load up my groceries. I filled em up, and began to walk through the parking lot with two large trash bags, and a box of Fab laundry detergent under one arm. I was able to hail a cab at the highway, but only after much physicial strain, and gringo embarrassment.

More soon. The mountains around us are beautiful. But the city here looks and feels much like what I imagined a developing country to feel like. The sort of exotic places that we think of when we think of Costa Rica are certainly along the coasts. The highest paid jobs in Costa Rica pay about $13,000 per year.

The First Days

Well, alas, this journey has begun. We are here in San Jose, Costa Rica, getting settled. Our language school (Instituto de Lengua Espanola) begins Wednesday Jan 9. Sam, Georgia and Ty begin school tomorrow on Monday.

We have been here one week. The first couple of days for all of us was difficult—leaving Charlottesville and our friends and family left big empty spaces in our hearts. Each day gets easier though as we hold firmly to the belief that God has appointed us to this place and so we would rather be nowhere else.

I should emphasize how difficult it was for all of us those first couple days. I did not want to unpack our things because that meant committing to staying and I was not ready to stay. Tonight as I write, we all feel vastly different, we are experiencing peace and contentment—“fight the good fight” has been our mantra. The difference between now and five days ago is so stark that I believe God has intervened through the prayer of our friends and family to lift those onerous feelings from us.

Funny story: Angela took Ty and Georgia to the panaderia (bakery) yesterday while I cooked dinner and Sam rested. The clerk asked Angela if she wanted her pastries in a bag (bolsa). Angela said, “What? Umm, yes, botella.” The clerk just stared at her with a confused look. She came home and told me the story and asked why the clerk seemed confused. I said, “Honey, that’s because you told him to put the pastries in a bottle (botella)!”

There are no street addresses here. You merely describe where you are in relation to landmarks. So here is how we give our address: San Francisco de dos rios (our neighborhood), Parque Los Sauces (park adjacent to us), La esquina enfrente de Abstacedor (corner opposite the Abastacedor ((store)), La casa con terracotta y verja negra (the house with terra cotta and a black gate).

But if you want to mail us something don’t write the above description on envelope. Send us letters and packages to:

Ken and Angela Massey
Instituto de Lengua Espanola
Apartado 100-2350
San Jose, Costa Rica
America Central

We will post some pics later!

Final Days...here anyway

It is Dec 21, we are 10 days away from our departure to Costa Rica for language school where we will study Spanish for 4 months before moving to Bolivia.

Today Angela and Sam and Georgia said goodbye to their violin teacher. Ty spent his last day at pre-school and said goodbye to his teachers and friends. Last night we said goodbye to a dear friend, Katie Pennock. A week ago I said goodbye to my friend and co-worker of the last 9 years, Debbie Bretches. We are in the stage of final goodbyes and it is not easy. Leaving is not easy. Changing patterns that are engrained into our days is not easy...but it is invigorating.

The nights are cold here now. The lawn outside is usually frost-covered in the morning—and when I step out to breathe the cold on these days I feel a bit more awakened to the world, a bit more alive, my blood starts to flow. This is what I mean by invigorating.

Mid-November

Well, we are now headlong into the last days of leaving. I have resigned and left my job, we have rented our home, we are studying Spanish, we are getting papers sealed and notarized and certified, getting shots, getting sad to leave our friends but encouraged that our friendships will remain strong...at the heart of all this is waiting, waiting to leave, waiting to see God's story for us unravel more...I can think of no better place to be than here waiting, a little insecure, a little scared, but waiting with peace enough to move forward in faith...