Week 1

Monday
As school began at 8:30 this morning we were filled with mixed emotions. Joy to be in such a beautiful place, anxiety about how much we have to learn. We were each assigned our own indivdual teachers and began our studies in classrooms throughout the school grounds.

Jenni got acquainted with her profesora, Diana. And in a ranchero by the river school began at the beginning.

a- "ah", b-"bay", c-"say", d-"day", e-"A", f-"effay"......

Scarlet and Maverek enjoyed learning to express how they were feeling...."estoy feliz, consado, infermo, etc." Their profesores are intent on making school fun for them, and they got to go on a field trip to the local plaza the very first morning.

Grayson's profesor calls himself "Bruce Willis" because it is easier for Grayson to remember than his real name. "Bruce" is full of energy and his teaching style involves telling alot of jokes in espanol. Grayson is having fun even while having to conjugate verbs.

You do not see a picture of Kelly's classroom, because his classroom is inside the school and not really large enough to fit two grown men, a table, a book AND a camera. I promise to catch him in action soon and put him up here with the rest of us. As for his classes....when presented with the verb "volver" he asked the teacher if it was the same meaning as "regressar" His teacher, Hermando, replied, "Ah, bien, significa es igual." Oh, very good, it means the same. To which Kelly took the "volver" card and threw it out. He is under the firm conviction he only needs to know ONE way to say things well!

Tuesday

Part of our educational experience here in Costa Rica is to learn about the people and the culture. One way that this is achieved is through a "tico" food experience once a week. During this time, we as a family spend time in a cocina (kitchen) with a local woman who guides us through preparing and then eating a typical Costa Rican dish. This dish, enyucados, was a hit with everyone....even Scarlet! Hip hip hooray!

This is a typical type of plant growing EVERYWHERE in our rain forest climate. It is amazingly beautiful here, despite the heat!

Wednesday

Scarlet and Maverek can hardly keep their hands off the banana tree in the back yard.

Thursday & Friday

School, school, school. Study, study, study.

Saturday

In an effort to cool our brains from learning Spanish, we sat out on an adventure in the Costa Rican jungle....

Here Maverek poses for his "Rambo" picture, hand steadied on his machete in case he needs to defend self and family against the wilds of the rainforest. I stop to tighten my sandals before the walk gets more interesting. For my dear girlfriends reading this and sipping a cup of coffee, Yes! There were in fact, leeches in this lovely river along with various and asundry other crawling critters and parasites.

Most of the hike takes place climbing up and over the slippery rocks of the river. Getting wet was a delightful relief from the heat. The Costa Ricans classify this as an easy 30 minute walk, it took our family, all but Kelly quite unsurefooted, almost an hour and a half. If you can not identify him from his backside, this is Kelly descending a 60 foot cliff.

Once we arrived at our destination, a beautiful waterfall, that I failed to capture with justice; Kelly and Grayson had fun repelling down a cliff face. They took turns climbing a steep, vine entangled ridge. After the boys arrived victoriously covered with mud and foilage at the crest, they would then make a quick but thrilling descent into the river. Scarlet and Maverek were disappointed to not have a harness that fit them. I myself, debated...."Is it safer to have them descending the cliff or splashing and playing the leech filled pools." Grannies don't worry, I opted for the leeches, suprisingly enough, and quite happily we did not bring any home.

Click here to see Grayson's full repel.

Did we mention that it rains every afternoon. By rain, I mean, downpour! Each evening our front yard is turned into a lake in which the children splash and play. Here they donned their goggles and engaged in a water war.

For those of you anxiously awaiting news of language learning and ministry. Keep praying, it is happening at a pace hard to wrap our brains around. By 8:30 p.m. each evening we are all wiped out! Each of us are developing relationships in our neighborhood and are praying for the opportunity to share the gospel with them. As our confidence in our new found language grows so will the opportunities to be sharing.