Hey folks! Sorry its been so long since we've posted anything. We've been a little out of touch since we've moved to San Jose to begin language school. Our host family doesn't have internet, so we can't check email all that often, much less post a blog. The first week or so of language school has been good....tiring, but good. Since it is an intensive course, they're moving at a break-neck speed. It seems like there are so many words floating around in our heads that we'll never make sense of them all. As our "mama tica" says, "Poco a poco" or "little by little". The family is great. Flora and Orlando are the wife and husband and they have two sons, Joshua and Orlando, Jr. The boys are both our age or older. Culturally, kids typically live with their mother and father until they get married. For some, that means till they're 20, for others 40! Flora serves us typical tico food: rice & beans, eggs, bell peppers, fruits and veggies, and fresco (typically a blended up fruit drink). We've also had the pleasure of having "gallo pinto" for breakfast. Gallo pinto (pronounced "guy-oh peen-toe") is a typical tico dish made of onions, black beans, rice, garlic, a little bit of Lizano (Costa Rica's version of Tabasco) and peppers and fried together into a blackish mixture. Yum! All in all, things are going pretty well. We figured out why the 4-wheel drive on the car was always engaged. The sensor that tells the car that it needs to go into 4-wheel drive had gone bad. Since we're still under the 30-day guarantee, they're going to fix it for free! However, the part will take 8 days to arrive. Just another chapter in the get-used-to-things-taking-more-time-here saga!
I'd like to make it a habit of listing prayer requests at the bottom of each blog posting. So, here's the first installment:
(1) Pray that our minds would continue to be open to the language. Concentrating on every word everyone says to you all day long can be pretty tiring. By 7pm, my brain begins shutting down.
(2) Pray that we would continue to form relationships with the locals here and that our ministry while in language school would be fruitful.
(3) Pray for my (Josh's) grandmother. She is now in hospice care and they are having to administer morphine to aleviate the pain she's feeling in her neck and head. It doesn't sound like things are going very well and she could pass away soon. Pray that we would have wisdom in decisions to come home and be there during this time.
(4) We are constantly in the process of support raising. We've had supporters fall off recently and we need to be vigilant in our efforts to raise support. It's hard not having access to communication to do this.
(5) Please pray for the families of EMI's staff here in Atenas. Pray that they're ministry would be fruitful and honoring to the Lord.
We look forward to hearing from you all!
The President/CEO of our organization is visiting for 9 days. Their names are Jim and Nancy Hall and they flew in Wednesday night. Josh and I had the pleasure of taking them out for dinner last night. During the afternoon yesterday, we had our regular weekly staff meeting where all the families of the staff get together at someone's home. Normally, we take one family and pray for them and have the focus on their family for the week. Well, yesterday was about getting to know Jim and Nancy who have a long history of working with international missions, mostly in Uzbekistan. They worked there for many years until God closed the door for their ministry there several years ago. Jim was instrumental in the early years of EMI also. It was so great sitting in an outdoor restaurant with the sun going down and hues of pink and purple around us, just talking about what the Lord has done in both of our families. We went to one of our favorite restaurants called Guanacaste which is up on a hill so it has some pretty views and it has pretty good food. Can you believe I actually got barbecue short ribs. Now, they were nothing like pork ribs you get in the states, but pretty good. It was just great sitting and sharing what the Lord has done in our lives and hearing all the stories of faith and provision that God has given them over the years. It was definitely an encouragement. Jim and Nancy will be here for another week which is full of all kinds of events taking place so they can meet everyone involved with EMI in Latin America. Tonight, we're having dinner at Tom's house and all the families and interns will attend. Then tomorrow, we are heading to the beach with all the office staff. Josh and I have not seen the beach yet, so we're very excited. I can't wait to see the beauty of the Costa Rican shoreline. We'll definitely post some picture after we get back.
Typical streets
We’ve spent the last few days looking for some sort of transportation. We’ve looked high and low, near and far, done all sorts of research, asked questions of the locals about what is better: manual or automatica, diesel or gasolina, “cual estilo” (which style: “todo terreno” (SUV), cars, trucks, vans, etc.), and what is easiest to repair or find parts for in case of a repair. With the roads here the way they are and the mountainous terrain, we’ve arrived at some sort of todo terreno (SUV) with some decent ground clearance, power, and suspension. Diesel would be nice (cheaper fuel and more fuel efficient) and an automatic even better! We test drove a manual, but the consensus was, “Why make life harder on ourselves than it needs to be?” So, automatic it is!
Actually, it turns out that automatics are cheaper here since the majority of people (maybe 75%) drive manuals. So, away we went. We hit the internet pretty hard searching out ads for cars that might fit our style and budget. Having a handful in mind, we set out for outlying towns to check out what might be sitting in someone’s yard or in an “agencia de vehiculos usados” (used car dealer or agent). A long, rainy day of looking, test driving, and talking ended with one very real possibility and one “worst case scenario” possibility.
The next day, after much moaning and gnashing of teeth, we were able to get the owner of the best one we found to meet us at a mechanic we knew in town. Five minutes later we were apologizing to them for their trouble and saying we were no longer interested (some sort of serious oil ring issues in the engine). So, we were back to square one. Apparently this is fairly typical here when searching for cars. On the way back home, we stopped off at a few more places and, in what took us a whole day the day before, we were able to find two more possibilities within an hour and a half! So, the plan as it stands right now is to follow up on these on Monday. We’ll keep you posted on how these go!
Every morning we’ve been here, we’ve awoken to the brightest, most penetrating sunshine I’ve ever seen in my life…at 4:45am!!! It’s pretty ridiculous, actually. Then as if that weren’t enough, the birds here have some serious pipes, and they love the show them off…at 4:45am!!! So, the idea of going to bed around 10 or 11pm and getting up around 7 or 8am is completely out the window. Ticos (locals) tend to live on a much earlier schedule, mainly due to the fact that the sun comes up so much earlier here. And to boot, the sun’s schedule stays the same…all year round! So, inadvertently, without even trying, we’ve quickly adopted the Tico lifestyle: early to bed, early to rise. We’ve hit the sack every night so far around 8pm and risen sometime around 5:30am!
It’s funny (and sometimes uncomfortable) how the Lord works sometimes. The Lord has used the sunshine to allow me some serious time alone with Him. Before, it was way to easy to sleep in when it was pitch black dark outside every morning. But now, I’m up and at ‘em around 5 and to sit out on the porch on such beautiful mornings and dig into the Word has been an awesome improvement. In the same way that the Lord held the sun and moon still for a day to allow Joshua to destroy his enemies in Chapter 10, the Lord has given my enemy, sleep, into my hands. Pretty sweet huh?
We're sitting here tonight having finally found some time to settle our minds and take a moment to reflect on the last two days. These are those reflections:
After a fitful few hours of sleep, interrupted by thoughts of travelling, potentially overweight luggage, the prospect of losing said luggage, and the occasional moment of overwhelming excitement (the kind that makes you want to giggle uncontrollably), we loaded the remaining boxes and luggage into caars and headed to the airport. Arriving around 5 am, we found my mother and sister waiting there for us. With the help of Alli's mom and dad and a couple of carts, one borrowed and one rented, we approached the counter to check into the next phase of our lives. One, two, three, then all 7 bags and boxes were checked; some were half a pound shy of the limit, others were dead on...50 lbs! Fretting over having to lug around our "carry-ons" that looked larger and were heavier than the bags we’d previously checked, we were delighted to hear the check-in attendant ask if we’d like to also check our carry-on baggage for no additional charge. It was a full flight. We said, “SURE!”
We spent the next hour nervously chatting about this and that. Finally the time came for us to say goodbye and snake our way through the lines toward the security check-points. Hugs, kisses, and a few tears were followed by a few smiles, a wave or two, and then a look back….to wave goodbye again.
So, onward we went, making our way through the lines, doing the dance of no shoes, no belts, no change in our pockets, the nervous pass through the metal detectors, and the ritual of getting dressed again in front of perfect strangers. Down the escalator, along the Tram, and onto the plane we walked.
Interestingly enough, as we flew out of Fort Lauderdale (our layover to our final destination), we looked down out of the plane to find the distinct shape of our old apartment building shining in the South Beach sun! A few reminiscent chuckles and sighs later, we napped our way to Central America.
Watching the baggage claim carousel rotate turn after turn can be a nerve-racking experience waiting on your bags to fall off the conveyor belt and “clunk” down to the bottom of the rotating blades. Luckily, we happened to look over to the “oversized bags” carousel to see the first of our boxes sliding across! Whew! I thought we might be wearing what we had on for a few extra days! We exited the airport to the sight of eager smiles and frantic waves of our fellow missionaries there to pick us up. A swarm of 11 converged on us as we walked through the sliding doors; hello’s, how-was-the-trip’s, and hugs all around.
We spent the rest of the day and night spending time with everyone and making a to-do list of things we needed to get done:
(1) Driver’s Licenses:
a. Have our blood drawn to determine our blood type (and have a doctor sign it)
b. Have a physical done
c. File for license itself (No test, by the way! I guess they figure if you can drive in the States, you can drive here. That remains to be seen!)
• Turns out, I’m “A Positive” and Alli is “O Positive”.
(2) Open up a local bank account. Things needed to do so:
a. 2 letters of recommendation from locals
b. Passport
c. A copy of a bill to prove residency
d. Proof of “income”
(3) Search for a car
(4) Firm up our dates with the Costa Rican host family we’ll be living with for the first 2 months of language school.
(5) Meet the lady who owns the place where we’ll be living for language school after we leave the host family and firm up the availability of that place.
(6) Deliver some heating pads to the director of the language school. (Random story, I can tell you later.)
The list goes on and on. Day 2 was spent accomplishing as many of these tasks as possible. The search for a car continues. We’ll keep you updated on how that pans out.
So far, everything here is good. We are obviously tired by the end of the day, which is good. There’s something fulfilling about a good days work when you lay your head down at night. I think those of us who knew GrandPa Baker know what I’m talking about. A good night’s sleep, free of air conditioning, can actually be very nice. It’ll take some getting used to for me of course; I sweat reading a book sometimes! I close my laptop now, glistening as I type.
Stay tuned for more updates in the next few days!
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