Poco a Poco... Espanol

Many people have asked me, 'So how's your spanish coming?'.

I would say...slow and steady.  I'm definitely better than when I arrived, but I struggle every day. Some days I feel a lot more confident after I've had very successful conversations. Other days I can't seem to understand anything and I'm completely lost.  For instance, when I'm volunteering in El Llanito...all the teachers and cocineras only speak spanish (which is great for learning).  One on one I can usually get my point across, but put 2 or 3 spanish speakers together and talking at a pretty fast pace, and my ears shut off somehow... it's a very weird disease I have!!

I'm currently taking classes with a local Tica women, Ivette. She used to work for a language school near Quepos, but now offers classes out of her house in Potrero. My goal each week is to spend about 3-4 hours practicing spanish with her.  Currently, I'm in a group with 2 other students, Carrie and Kristen.  We have more of a conversational type of class and lately we've been having classes at night time so she's been teaching us some local cuisine...namely empanadas!

Ivette's beautifully painted living room!

Like any student, it's important to practice! I would say the one downfall of where I'm living is that there are quite a few gringos (english speaking) people that live in the region and many of the ticos speak english because of the tourism industry (which is why it's so important to teach english).  So, I will start talking in spanish and of course struggle a bit, and then the ticos will start talking back to me in english.  I know my family will say...'that is the same excuse you used last time you lived in Costa Rica'...which it was true then as well ....I said it was a strange disease I have.

Funny story... So, John keeps telling me that I have to practice (which I agree with), however he thinks that I should be able to talk on the phone... which for me is extremely hard because I can't read lips and there are no helpful hand motions (all that nice non-verbal communication). So, the last time I had to make a call, it was to confirm plans for taking Isabella and Maria to the beach after church...simple task right??  So, John promised that he would help me, so I agree to call. Well if you know me well, I have a hard time talking on the phone and doing anything else (one of the two things will suffer - I know my sister can relate). So, I plan out what I need to say, but of course things don't go according to plan.  I'm trying to listen to Isabella and hear what John is telling me to say, and it's a mess.  Towards the end of the conversation that is on speaker phone...I'm sweating, John is trying to run from me, while I'm holding the phone out for him to help me, and Isabella is probably wondering why I stopped talking.

I can't wait to be good at Spanish!!  Since college, I've wanted this skill set and I know I have to take advantage of my surroundings, so no worries I'm still in full throttle trying to learn! Carrie and I were posing for some pictures to go on Ivette's website that John is making her. Our pic didn't make the cut, but feel free to check out the site or even sign up for a skype lesson: http://www.costaricaspanishtutor.com/

Ok last funny story. So, I had pretty much my first in-depth conversation about the Lord in Spanish about 2 weeks ago or so with one of our tica friends (Yay). Afterwards, John asks me what I said (because he was out fishing at the time), and I told him all these things we were talking about for a good 20 minutes or so.  His next question was 'how did you say all that?'.  We both started laughing because I have no idea and I probably couldn't try to re-live the experience for him. I just pray that God wouldn't let me say something completely wrong in another language.

Lastly, we could use your prayers for a home bible study we are trying to start in El Llanito. One of our students in our adult spanish class has agreed to host it in her home once a week, so now we just need to get the word out to other english class participants and in the community.  Also, pray for John's spanish as well because talking about God in spanish is a lot different than talking about the food, weather, etc.  Also, if anyone has any cool ideas that we can do with the class...please email me, etc.

I hope everyone has a good weekend! Hasta Luego!

End of Session 3 in Brasilito

Last week was a fun and exciting week in Brasilito! It also was the end of Session 3 for the kids and adult students. Which means they all get a break for one week and then Session 4 will start this coming Monday, October 22 and run through Dec. 14.

John was leading his Soccer class on Monday. They are now preparing to play another pueblo team in the near future. He has about 6-7 kids that are pretty consistent and then the rest change every other week, etc. The kids now have this game in mind, so we will see how they recruit in the neighborhood to make sure they have a complete team.  We will keep you posted on how the kids do.

Carrie and Serena were giving some one-on-one attention to some of our older students on Monday. The older kids are currently learning anything and everything around travel and transportation. So, they are getting to pick places in the world they would like to travel to and explain why.

The travel theme kind of goes along with our Fun Friday in Potrero last week called International Day. At this event, the kids were able to go from station to station (U.S., France, Japan, Australia, Africa, etc) and get stamps for visiting the country with their Passport. It was a huge hit and here's a cute link for the Hollywood station:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPZcrfYT6C8&feature=youtu.be

On Wednesday, the kids learned 'L' is for Lion. It's funny...each week we review what they learned in previous weeks. When we went over 'J' is for Jump, we had lots of jumping activities for the kids. So, now every time we are going over past weeks...we always have to start jumping around for the letter 'J', at least we get a work out!!

On Thursday, Ashley (another volunteer) led a bracelet making work shop. The kids absolutely love beads and really take their time picking their colors and stringing them perfectly.  Afterwards, we treated them to Popsicles in celebration of the end of the session.

I'll update you soon on our excursions over the 1 week break ....Vamos a Granada, Nicaragua!!

Nicaragua Trip

In Costa Rica, your tourist visa is only good for 90 days. So, since we had to exit Costa Rica we thought we might as well do some exploring in the nearby country of Nicaragua (only 2 hours from where we live).

With a combination of friends driving us, buses, taxis, and ferries...we actually made it across the border in very good time for public transportation. The actual border process is a huge mess...there are no signs AND tons of people bombarding you to buy passport papers, buy your very own passport stamp so you don't even have to cross, and flinging money at you to change your colones into cordobas.  After you pass through Costa Rica customs (which is free), you have to walk a little less than a mile to the Nicaragua customs agent (which is not free). We ended up letting one of the guys that was hounding us to help us through the process and he actually proved to be super helpful! For example, the lines for the customs agent randomly close without telling the people in the line, so he would literally move us to get in certain lines to keep us moving AND since Nicaraguan customs only accepts exact change... he took us around to all the money changers to help us out.  That process alone probably would have taken us an hour or so, so that was a great investment!

There was a huge wind energy farm along the road from the airport alongside Lake Nicaragua. I kept trying to see if GE owned any of them, but sadly no.

We stayed on Ometepe Island which is an island in the middle of Lake Nicaragua (which is absolutely huge).  Two enormous volcanoes make up the island (Concepcion (10-hr hike) and Maderas (8hr hike)).  This is a pic from our ferry.

We stayed in some cute cabinas at Villa Paraiso Hotel. We got lucky with some great low season rates (which I now love the low season) and the food in Nicaragua is super cheap, so we ate pretty well. 

We hung out in the picture perfect glass lake a lot.  The water was like bath water...a little too warm but still refreshing.  We heard that Santo Domingo (which is where we stayed) was one of the windiest places on the island but last weekend it definitely didn't feel like it.

The first day we went on a 3 hour hike to the San Ramon waterfall which is on the side of Volcanoe Maderas. The road to get there was only 15 kilometers but it took us about 1 hour because the roads are so rocky and they haven't paved the south island.

The next day we rented bikes and headed to 'El Ojo de agua' which was a huge natural spring pool. Since I might have been complaining about the bath warm lake water...these pools definitely shut me up...they were a little chilly. The springs produce 400 gallons of water a minute.  The water flows into a river (where tons of kids and adults bath and do laundry) and eventually out into Lake Nicaragua. Also, the volcanic minerals are said to make you look 5 years younger after bathing!! Not so sure it worked for us this time ... I guess we'll have to go back!!

Here's John swinging from the rope swing. I did it too, but my picture wasn't as graceful :)

Overall, we had a great trip and can't wait to explore more of Nicaragua!  However, we were thankful to be back home in Costa Rica!  Also, on the way back, we picked up our car that is now fixed - woohoo!!! Adios amigos!!

Buses, Horses & Volcanoes....

So, the past week has been quite exciting and it's just neat to look back and think about all the ways God is in our moments with us.

I'll start with last Sunday.  After hearing a great sermon on forgiveness, we (John, Ryan and myself) decided to spend the day at Rincon de la Viejo (a volcano about 2 hours from where we live).  We hiked a 2 hour loop around the volcano...where we saw geisers, boiling mud pots/lagoons, and could actually feel hot rocks at different points in our hike.  I had never been this close to what seems like 'activity.'

 
Afterwards we hiked to a waterfall where we had the lagoon all to ourselves.  On the way back, we had an encounter with some wild horses (we'll keep that story between us).  Let's just stay it delayed us for about 30 minutes or so.   John, with his awesome spanish, got us out of having to pay the full entrance amounts 3 times (2 hikes and then we got to view some hot springs).  Thankfully it worked because we literally went there with hardly any money (no bueno) and we would have had to drive 40 minutes back to society on a dirt road and then returned.

Afterwards, Ryan and I are trying to find this restaurant recommended in Lonely Planet book and of course it's already dark and we can't find it. Anyways, we take this turn and have to go through some massive mud puddles.  After we turn around...our car dies in the last puddle.  Thankfully, it dies right beside a gas/mechanic station (and not back on our crazy 15 mile dirt road journey) ...so Ryan helps to push us there (thank you again!).  After about 15 minutes our car starts back up on its own and we continue on our journey home (thank you God!).

Another pic from Ryan's trip.  He ran in a half marathon in the Costa Rican heat.

Next, I was driving to volunteer in El Llanito, like any normal Tuesday. I pick up a female hitch hiker (John tells me I'm absolutely not allowed to pick up male hitchhikers...which I agree with, but it's really hard to pass by females especially with kids when I have an empty car). Right when I pick her up, my car starts to make this awful (culack-culack noise). I continue to drive for another 10 minutes and then hope that after I'm done volunteering it will magically not be there anymore.  After, class I always take Isabel, Maria and Martha home.  Once I get to Isabell's house, they pretty much tell me that it sounds so bad that the mechanic that lives right beside Isa should take a look at it before I drive on the main road. I was completely out of oil and the mechanic didn't have any...so Isa's son's friend rides on his bike to get me some oil.  Then Martha calls her husband and there is a good mechanic he knows and he'll help me get there.  So, Martha and I drive in 1st gear for about 30 minutes back to Huacas...it is so hard for me to drive slow!  When I get there her husband puts in more oil for me and then we are off to the mechanics. Bad news...no oil means broken pistons, viellas, etc (lots of other spanish mechanic terms). Car is now out of service for at least a week.  John ends up taking the bus to come meet me and talk to the mechanic and then we walk to the bus stop to start our many bus adventures.  Martha and her husband were super helpful through the whole process and stayed with us to make sure we understood everything.

Bus adventures...

As we are waiting for the bus...a guy that Martha's husband knows, tells us to jump in (woohoo). He takes us to Huacas and then a friend from church sees us and gives us a lift the rest of the way home (woohoo again). John and I decide to finally put the basket on our bike that we bought over 2 months ago since we are now carless and still need to go grocery shopping, etc. After thinking we had destroyed the bike's turning radius...we get it working and now our bike has a nice little basket, that I'm very proud of.

The next morning I get on my first bus.  Mind you...there are no bus schedules in Costa Rica. Every person tells you a different time, so you pretty much just sit and wait.  John later asks me later that night...'if I thought God was trying to teach me anything from all of this'.  I think for a few moments and then I say 'patience' which he nodded in agreement (that little booger).  However, I do think it's true, that things that were once urgent can't be urgent anymore and things get shifted into perspective.  As Americans we are geared to go-go-go and we are running from one thing to the next at an insane pace. In this culture, it's just different. You don't plan that much because it just takes time/patience to do things and go places.

On with my story. So, after class, where we learned 'I' is for icecream, another volunteer (from Winston-Salem - mom with 2 kids) offers to drive me home (woohoo!).

I had to cancel a lot of my night adventures this week because buses don't really run at night...like meeting Janene for some prayer time, cancelling my spanish class, cancelling going out for a friends birthday in Tamarindo...so life shifted somewhat.  I still think it's crazy that buses don't run at night because lots of people work at restaurants and hotels and now I don't really know how they get home :(

The next morning, I have to catch a bus and then make a connection (du-du-du) to get to El Llanito. Martha told me she thinks there will be a bus for Santa Cruz around 8am. Well...funny story. Since my day has to get started a lot earlier, John and I decided to do some quick sprints up our hill. We were about through, when this lady (who seems a little out of place) comes slowly walking up the hill.  We say 'hola' and then we see her black pitbull behind her about 10-15 foot. I ask her in spanish if her dog was nice and she responds 'mas o meno' (more or less). Thankfully the dog just stared us down and continued walking behind his master. But...no leash and the owner was not trying to get her dog under control at all.  We finish our work-out, but now we start heading back up to our place and the dog is standing guard at the first house. He literally is in attack mode and is not letting us get close or pass by. We try a couple times but by the end of our efforts the dog has slowly moved John and I to the bottom of the hill and now we are headed anywhere but home (and my bus is coming at any moment...which means I'm going to miss it).  Then another guy from our church passes us and asks if we need help. It was quite embarrassing, but we asked him if he could drive us home because of this dog...which on the way back up we couldn't even find the dog!  I get changed and then John escorts me back down the hill with his machete...thankfully no dog...but we definitely need some pepper spray!!

I find the first bus, have to hitch-hike the second connection after waiting for 30 minutes, Martha's husband picks us both up after class, and then the connection bus comes within 5 minutes. I was home probably in record time. Then, John and I head back out to volunteer for Thrilling Thursday with the kids in Brasilito. We were waiting on the bus and one of our neighbors stops and picks us up. Then on the way back, our other neighbor picks us back up...so we don't even have to walk up our hill. And...since we were leaving for Nicaragua the next morning...she offers to drive us half-way there since she is going that way anyways (woohoo!)

It's just amazing when so many things fall into place and what could have been bad or stressful situations just turn into little moments where I can say 'thank you Lord!'

This verse I believe is so true, especially with my time here.  Just recognizing and thinking of God throughout my days and the special moments he gives us.  'Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.' James 4:8

More to come on our Nicaragua adventures on Ometepe Island ...