Feliz de acción de gracias!

Feliz de acción de gracias!  Or in other words -- Happy Thanksgiving!  This has been a very different Thanksgiving for Ike and me.  For one thing we went to school on Thanksgiving Day just like we do every day.  And we spent the afternoon with our tutor Marcos, learning about pasados, preterites, and mandatos.  But in between our "routine" activities, we did have time to think about our families and friends.  It's sad to be apart -  but it's been fun to remember special times that we have shared.  Looking at photographs (of many of you!), smelling yummy hot spiced tea simmering on the stovetop and pumpkin bread baking in the oven, and listening to Christmas music are just a few of the triggers that bring back memories of special times together.  And even though we are far from home, we have much to be thankful for!  We are thankful for each of you - for your emails, for your prayers, for your encouragement and support of us.
Since we had school on Thursday (the kids had school on Friday as well), we celebrated thanksgiving with our team on Saturday.  Lots of yummy food and sweet fellowship!

Brooke and Kristen making final preparations before we serve our plates.

Giving thanks before the meal.

Yum-Yum!

Our menu consisted of chicken, dressing and cranberry sauce (☺), green beans, broccoli casserole, zucchini casserole, camote (kindof like sweet potatoes) soufflé, and strawberry salad.  And that doesn't even include the appetizers and desserts!  After we ate, the kids had "fun time" and the adults had time to talk and thank God together for his faithfulness and provision.

Abe and Eliza

"¡Grande, Señor, es tu fidelidad!"

(Great, Lord, is your faithfulness)

Life in San Francisco Del dos Rios

Many of you have asked about our life here in Costa Rica, so I thought that I would share with you what a typical day looks like for us.

5:30 am          We actually start the day pretty early.  The sun is up by 5:30 and even at that early hour, there is already a hustle and bustle outside in the streets.  After coffee and breakfast, Ike and I both usually find a little time to study before getting ready for school.

The school is just up the hill
on the left side of the street.

Pedro, the guardo at the
school, greets us each
morning at the top gate.

7:20 am          With our backpacks and umbrellas, we head out the door to school.  It's just a 5-minute walk for us to the front gate of the school so we have time to greet fellow students before classes begin.



















7:30-12:05      We are in class.  Our classes consist of gramática, lenguaje, and fonética.  Ike and I are not in the same classes, but we both really like the teachers that we have.  For the most part, our teachers speak only in spanish in the classroom.  That can be a bit challenging when all the directions are in spanish!!

This is my (Joanne's) Lenguage class.  My profesora Patricia
has on the red shirt.  We have a good time in class!

12:15              Time for lunch!!  After a morning of spanish classes, we are always hungry!  We walk the short distance home and prepare a quick lunch.  On Wednesdays we have a special treat.  Our costa rican friend Rosa comes to our house and prepares a typical costa rican food (like chile rellanos, guacamole, etc.) for us.  She also eats with us and since she knows very little english, we get to put our language learning into practice.  After about an hour, my brain hurts - but, my stomach is very happy!!

2:00-4:00       Depending on the day, we either go for our tutoring sessions with Marcos, exercise, walk to one of the nearby grocery stores, visit with friends, wash the laundry, etc.  A couple of weeks ago Ike and I decided that it would be helpful if we got a tutor to provide us with some additional individual instruction.  Many years ago Marcos actually taught at ILE so he is very familiar with the curriculum.  As well as challenging us with new information, he spends lots of time in conversation with us so we are putting into practice what we are learning at school.  We look forward to our Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with him!

4:15ish    Homework Time!

5:30             Time to get supper ready!  We have to wash all of our fresh veggies and fruits in a clorox and water solution.  It's a slightly time consuming process, but a necessary one.  Our meals usually consist of some type of meat (chicken or beef), rice and beans, and fresh veggies.  In the dish drainer to the left there are limons, apples, tomatoes, avocados, and sweet peppers.  The colander has cilantro in it - a much used ingredient here!!


6:45ish         After supper we spend more time studying.  It gets dark here by about 5:30 so even though it's only about 7:00 it feels much later than that.  Most nights we are ready for bed by 8:00.  Tuesday nights are my (Joanne's) late night.   That's because  Tuesday nights are when our school has volleyball night.  That's right - after about a 12-year hiatus I've put my knee pads back on and I'm playing volleyball again!  I wasn't sure I would remember how to play after all these years, but much of it is coming back (although I cannot dive for the ball the way I use to!) and it is lots of fun!  We play from 6:00-8:00 every Tuesday night.

Well, that's a rough overview of our week.  I'll have to write later about our weekends.

Three Essentials for Every Home

Okay, these essentials are probably not what you are thinking.  I'm not talking about anything life-changing or momentous.  No, I am thinking of . . . saltine crackers, ginger ale, and gatorade!  After this last week, I have decided that we should always have those three items in our house.  Isaac and I have never been sick at the same time before.  Well, now we have!  We went down within about an hour of each other early Monday morning.  And it was not fun!!  (On a side note, I will say that we are thankful that we have two banyos (bathrooms) in our house.)  The next 24 hours were rough.  For the first 6 or so hours, I didn't want to even think about food or drink.  But you have to eventually start to drink or you begin to dehydrate.  Well, the only drinks we had in our house were water, coffee, and crystal light.  None of those are very appetizing when you're sick!  (I did end up going 4 days without drinking coffee.  For those of you who know how much I enjoy coffee, you now that was quite a feat!)  When our friend, neighbor, and team-member David got home from school, he walked to the store for us and brought us back the "three essentials".  Not to worry though - we are much better now!  And as soon as we were able to get out and walk, we headed to the store and stocked up on saltine crackers, ginger ale, and gatorade.  Those three items now have a permanent place in our kitchen pantry!


". . . but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."  --- 1 John 4:12b

The church that we attended is about a 15-20 minute walk
from our house.  At least the rain held off until we were
walking home!

Sunday With The Team

  

Peter, Hank, Kristen, Nathan, and Ike waiting for the
service to begin.  After the singing was over, all of
the children in the service left the sanctuary and
went to "children's church".

On Sunday Ike and I were well enough to go to church.  Our team went together to a church that Nathan and Kristen have been going to for the last few weeks.  The entire service was in Spanish (except for one part where the Pastor welcomed us and encouraged us in our language studies - he had his daughter translate for him).  The words for the music were displayed on an overhead so I was able to follow along.  It was really exciting to me to not only recognize some of the words that I saw, but to actually know what they meant.  I understood a few points from the sermon, but I know that I missed a lot.  However, I understood more this time than I did at the first church service I attended
after we arrived!    Poca a poca!!!

Life in San Jose

Abe and Ike in the Kinder parade
 at school celebrating Independence Day

It's hard to believe that we have been living in San Jose for one month.  So much has happened in that short amount of time.  We have already met many new friends - both English-speaking and Spanish-speaking.  We are experiencing the culture:  the food,  the festive celebrations, the correct way to greet people, the waiting in lines.  We are finding our way around our area of San Jose.  We live in San Francisco del Dos Rios, which is a "suburb" on the southeast side of San Jose.  We walk almost everywhere we go, though we do take a bus or taxi occasionally.  We know how to give directions to our casa

Typical Costa Rican food that

we had at school for a Fiesta -

eggs, casados (black beans and rice),

 corn tortilla with sausage and salsa,

and prestinos 

(house).  It is very important to be able to do that because they do not have addresses here!   Whenever we leave our casa, we have learned to carry our umbrella or raincoat with us - even if the sun is shining! - because most likely, it will rain at some point before we get back home again.  And . . . we are on our way to learning a  new language - poca a poca!

          Things We Are Getting Used To

     ☺locking and unlocking doors and gates multiple times daily

☺bars on our windows and doors

 ☺paying utility bills at the grocery store 

☺no street names or house numbers

☺not flushing paper down the toilet

☺no water pressure

☺termites in our ceilings

☺finding milk and eggs on the shelves in the store - not in the refrigerated section  

     ☺the constant "noise" - whether it's day or night (traffic, car alarms, horns, people talking, loud speakers on trucks that ride through the neighborhoods making announcements, roosters crowing, dogs barking)

     ☺the smell of diesel fuel - all the cars here use diesel 

     ☺the frequent smell of burning - it smells like someone burned popcorn in a microwave            

☺rain, rain, and more rain

Some new friends brought us a houseplant    

Things That Help Make The Previous List

       A Little Easier To Get Used To

☺friendly and helpful people

☺pleasant temperatures

☺beautiful mountains

☺great coffee

☺an abundance of fresh vegetables

☺hot water

☺tap water that we can drink without boiling or treating first

Celebrating!!

Lydia Jane, Kristen, and Hannah - getting ready for
The Parade of Lanterns

Desfile de Faroles

The Parade of Lanterns -

the night before Independence Day 

Entomology 101

Bedbugs and termites and ants - oh my!  Science is really not my thing, but I am learning lots about insects!  Let me update you on our bug situation.  Either the plastic that we wrapped around our mattress  has contained the bedbugs or . . . it's not bedbugs that we have!  We're leaning toward the latter because we have identified that we definitely have termites!!!  The ceilings in our rooms upstairs are wood and the termites have found a home in the ceiling above our bed.  Dick, the director of student life at the language school, and his wife Sheila, who also helps with caring for students, came over to our house on Monday and identified the termites.  Actually, here in Costa Rica, termites are called comejen and they are a very common and widespread problem.  As a temporary fix, we have ducktaped plastic to the ceiling in the bedroom (that plastic and duct tape sure is coming in handy!!) and our landlord is planning to spray for the comejen sometime next week.  I must say that I have slept much better since we discovered the comejen!  Don't ask me why, but termites don't seem to freak me out the way bedbugs do.  And yes, we do have ants also.  They seem to be staying downstairs.  We've only had to spray for them one time.  (The spray was pretty powerful smelling so I think it did the job!)
Well, with the insects under control (relatively speaking, anyway), Ike and I were able to focus on our language studies this week.  And that was a good thing, because we both had tests in all 3 of our classes!  We have really had to study this week.  But we have great teachers who are patient and encouraging.  I'm still amazed at how much material we have covered in just 2 weeks time.  My prayer is that I'll be able to retain what I'm learning.


  Ike enjoys sitting and reading on our little balcony early in the morning before we head off to school.

Aarrrgh-gh-gh BEDBUGS!!!!!

Yes, that's right - BEDBUGS!!! Yuck, yuck, yuck! We discovered them last night as we went to bed. This morning we googled "bed bugs" to confirm our suspicion and to find out a course of action. The short term/long term? solution is to totally encase the mattress or buy a new mattress. You can imagine how restful our sleep was last night! However, this morning we went ahead to church as planned, trusting in the Lord's sovereignty over all the circumstances in our lives. Needless to say, today has been busy. First thing, all of the bed linens went straight into a hot water wash. (I am so thankful that we have hot water!) Next, we scrubbed the bed frame and night stands with disinfectant. After church this morning, some friends of Ike's brother (Mike and Sue - they've been living here as missionaries since January) were planning to pick us up and take us out to lunch. Well, they did that and a whole lot more. They scoured the city with us for a plastic mattress cover that encloses and zips shut. In case you're wondering, they don't appear to have that type of mattress cover in San Jose. So, we had to pull a Macgyver -

duct tape and heavy-duty plastic. David came over this afternoon and helped Ike wrap the mattress up like a package. Then we put the clean cloth mattress cover and bedsheets on top of the plastic. I guess we'll know in the morning if this works. I really, really, really hope it works! The adventure continues . . . .

". . . . . let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." --Hebrews 12:1b

The Best Laid Plans . . .

With my teacher mind-set, I had my first day of language school all planned out. And, . . well . . . things did not go exactly as I had planned. Ike and I were late for our very first day of school! (Stephanie, Nick, and Jarrod - No llegue tarde a la escuela. No llegue tarde a la escuela. No llegue tarde a la escuela.)

The story begins at 5:00 Tuesday morning. Ike and I got up and walked down the street to exercise at the gym. By the time we left our house at 5:15, it was beginning to get light outside. (The sun begins coming up here between 5:00 and 5:30 and we have good daylight before 6:00 am.) We exercised for about 35 minutes and then walked back home. We unlocked the gate and closed it back. (We are having to become accustomed to all the locked gates and doors, as well as the bars on all the windows.) Then we went up the walkway to our front door. Ike unlocked the first door and then tried to unlock the second door. The key would not turn in the lock of the second door. Ike tried and then I tried. After about 5 minutes, we realized that we had a problem. Thankfully, we have some wonderful neighbors - David and Brooke (and of course the little ones!). We went to the window and called quietly because we weren't sure if the girls were up. The girls were up and they came to the gate and talked with us while David tried to call our landlord. He didn't have success reaching the landlord and I was beginning to panic because it was after 6:30 by now and we needed to be at school, in class, at 7:30! We could have used the shower at Brooke and David's, but we wouldn't have any clothes to put on. We had on our gym clothes and that would not be acceptable attire to go to school here in San Jose. In the United States you could get away with wearing your gym clothes to school, but not here in Costa Rica. In addition to our clothes, my well-packed bookbag was sitting on the table inside of the house that I couldn't get into! Not good! We finally decided that it wasn't doing us any good to just stand outside our door so we went over to Brooke and David's. Ike got on the phone and called the school to let them know about our situation and that it looked like we would be late (for our very first day!). I got a cup of coffee and sang "Amazing Grace" with Anna Grace. Then Ike called "Mommy" and "Poppy" - the Costa Rican family that Nathan and Kristen live with. And it's Poppy to the rescue! He drove over to our house, got out his toolbox, and tried his best to get the door open. Alas, to no avail. It was after 7:00 by this time. Poppy said that we would need to call in a professional (locksmith). He has a friend who does this type of work, but he does not begin work until 7:30. Poppy drove off to contact the friend and Brooke and David and the girls set out for school. Ike and I stayed behind and waited for 7:30 to arrive. And at 7:30, up drives Poppy blowing his horn with another car behind him. It takes only about 10 minutes for them to get the door open. Ike and I quickly take showers and put on clean clothes. Thank goodness we are only about a 3-minute walk to school! We made it in time for the second hour of our grammatica class. What a way to begin our year of language study!

This was another reminder to me of how I love to control the circumstances in my life. And when those circumstances go awry, it is easy for me to become angry and frustrated. That was my initial reaction when I realized that we were most likely going to be late for school. But then, through the encouragement of others and reading God's Word, I was reminded of God's faithfulness and provision for me. Not just in this situation, but in all of life. Proverbs 16:9 says, "In his heart a man plans his course, but the Lord determines his steps." God wants me to plan, but He also wants me to be content when His plan is different.

First Day of School . . . .

Even after teaching little ninos for over 20 years, I can still get excited about the first day of school! Tomorrow will be a different kind of first day for me because, instead of being the teacher, this time I'll be the student. So - I'm excited and I'm a little nervous! We start bright and early at 7:30 in the morning. This evening I packed my bookbag: Spanish-English dictionary, tape recorder, pencils, pens, highlighters, paper, and a notebook. Tomorrow in class, the teachers will pass out our books. We will be taking 3 classes each day: a 2-hour Gramatico (grammar) class, a 1-hour Lenguaje (language) class, and a 1-hour Fonetica (pronunciation) class. I wonder if we will have homework the first day?

Friday, August 20th . . .

The day began early. We were up at 4:30 a.m. and Judy and Craig (my sister and brother-in-law) drove us to the Atlanta airport for our 9:40 flight to San Jose. A mere 18 hours later we finally went to sleep in our "new" home in Costa Rica. It was a long day! Not bad - just packed full with things to do. Our flight from Atlanta arrived on time in San Jose. Our big brother, Chad and Nikki, met us at the airport and whisked us away to the house that we now call our home. We briefly checked out the house and unloaded our bags. Then it was off to do some shopping! First stop - PriceSmart (like Sam's or Costco)! Nikki and Chad helped us fill out the application for membership and we got our member cards just moments later. As we walked the aisles, Nikki and Chad helped us convert the prices from colones to dollars. We purchased things like paper towels, napkins, soap, disinfectant, etc. After we finished, we got a taxi to bring us back to the house where we dropped off our purchases. We did this very quickly because we needed to keep the taxi so he could take us to our next destination - Pequeno Mundo (kind of like a Big Lots). After returning from Pequeno Mundo, we walked to a bus stop and Nikki and Chad showed us how to get to Hiper Mas (Walmart) by taking the bus. First, you have to know which bus to get on - there are many that pass by the bus stops. Second, you have to wave down the bus if you want it to stop - it doesn't automatically stop. Third, there is no set schedule for when the buses come, so you may have to wait at the bus stop for only 10 minutes or you might be there waiting for 40 minutes. Once you get on the bus you have to pay attention so that you know when to get off the bus. (Obviously, Chad and Nikki taught us well because the next day Ike and I did it by ourselves!) When we left Hiper Mas, we took a taxi back to our house because it's not recommended to ride the bus back from a store with bags and packages. By then it was close to 6:00 and quickly getting dark. For dinner we went to a restaurant that served typical Costa Rican food - chicken, beans and rice, veggies. It was really good, but I can't remember the name of it. After taking care of a few more errands, it was home to unpack and make our bed. We finally collapsed into bed about 11:00 pm. We were so tired we had no trouble falling asleep. And we slept well . . . until about 5:30 the next morning when a rooster started crowing.

Two Trunks Down . . . .

Last night about 11:00 pm, Ike and I finally finished packing up 2 of the trunks that contain kitchen supplies, bedding, and books that we will need while we are living in Costa Rica. We borrowed some scales so that we could weigh the trunks and make sure they stay under 50 lbs. We would pack, weigh, take out, weigh, put in, weigh, rearrange, weigh, etc. Over half-way into the process, Ike finally announced - rather reluctantly - that everything was not going to fit and we were going to need to take an additional bag. And of course that means - an extra $200! Tonight we're working on packing (and weighing) the other 3 bags that we'll be taking. Even with the additional bag, everything is not going to fit. (Actually, we have 2 extra bags because the Wilsons gave us one of theirs ☺.) Of course, we will be able to buy some things that we need in Costa Rica. The quality may not be as good and some items will be more expensive. Ike was excited to learn that they have a Price-Mart in San Jose. Price-Mart is similar to Sam's and Costco. I have a feeling we'll be visiting Price-Mart rather frequently!

11 days . . . . .

In 11 days we will be boarding a plane and heading for San Jose, Costa Rica. Not for a visit or vacation; but to make our home there for the next year. We'll leave behind friends and family and the comforts of home. We'll immerse ourselves in a different culture - learning the language, eating the food, meeting new people. . . .

Winter Wonderland

It's a beautiful morning in Augusta! I'm sitting at the kitchen table with a cup of coffee, looking out the back window at a virtual winter wonderland. Everything is covered with snow; the trees are actually draped in white. Earlier I took a tape measure and my camera out so that I could measure the snow. At school we are learning about measurements in math so this was a perfect learning experience for me to record with the camera! I have no doubt that all of our lessons on Tuesday will revolve around the snow. I measured in two different places. Isaac said my first measurement was probably off - it read about 5 and 1/2 inches. My second measurement read about 4 inches. So, I say we got at least 4 inches of snow! At any rate, it's beautiful out there this morning! Very still and quiet and peaceful. The sun is supposed to come out and the temperature will be rising so it won't last long. In the meantime, this snow-loving girl is going to enjoy it!!

Ike and I have been going full-steam ahead so being encouraged to "stay-in" until later today is rather nice. We have pretty much completed packing up our things and are in the process of finalizing getting the house ready (touch-up painting, staging, that kind of thing) so the "For Sale" sign can be placed out front.

In two weeks we'll be going to Charleston to attend a missions conference at East Cooper Baptist. ECBC is the church where Ike's sister and brother-in-law (Elaine and Joey) as well as his cousin Mike and Sharon Basha and family attend. We'll get to stay with Elaine and Joey and visit with them as well as attending the conference.

Have fun in the snow!!