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.
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.