Semana Santa

We are in the middle of Semana Santa (Holy Week), which is celebrated in Latin America with most people off of work and school, to celebrate the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, which brings us salvation.

On Thursday and Friday, the city of San Jose was almost empty...apparently the buses and taxis don't even go during this time. We are off of school this week, so have been catching up on rest, doing our newsletter and preparing for a 5 page report on "Ethno-Centric Mono-Culturalistic" counseling, due in April for Global University (in English).

Even though, we've still managed to have a few fun days this week so far. We went with our friends to Sarchi, where they are famous for their painted oxcarts and souveniers, and we also took a trip to Jaco Beach on the Pacific Ocean and spent the day in the sun with them. This was our 1st time to the beach, even though its only 2hours from here. Today, we went to see the Volcano Poas, which has a sulfuric lake with gases spewing out...its at about 2400 meters. We also found out today that some other students were robbed a couple nights ago while on vacation at a beach, so we feel that we are blessed to not have encountered any problems, and are also feeling that its a warning to be more careful in all that we do. These 2 young couples and their little ones had someone come into their beachhome at 1am and rob their car keys, wallets, money, credit cards and ID. We are awaiting for their arrival back here (they are about 10 hours from here), as they may need to stay at our home tonight..they are both really great young missionaries heading to the field. We also had another friend here get very sick overnight and went to the hospital this am, he had a bacterial infection from traveling...he was so dehydrated, they had to give him 10 liters of fluid. Please pray for all of these servants of God.

Our spanish classes have been going well, and we can tell that we have both been learning alot, and filling in those gaps and structuring our sentences better. We feel so fortunate to already speak the language, as we see those that are at the very beginning, struggling so hard to make it. Also, for us, since we've lived in Latin America,we aren't facing the cultural shock as others are. We feel at home here, but dearly miss our Monterrey friends and can't wait to get back "home"!

4 Angels appeared from under the bridge

On Saturday, we went with some friends high in the rainforest/mountains to visit 5 waterfalls and a bird/butterfly santuary. We had a fun trip with them there, and took our time going through the santuary. We saw many different kinds of animals and birds that are regional here like Toucans, parrots, hummingbirds, monkeys and butterflies (there were snakes too, but I didn't go look at them, yuk!). Then we hiked down a long trail, and many, many, many steps...and went to 5 different waterfalls! They were incredible....

While we were hiking, we got the entire experience of being in the rainforest, as the rain began to fall, but it just made it more beautiful! How can anyone go to an area as beautiful as that, and see those birds with beaks and feathers that blend into the forest, and not see that God created it all, with a stroke of his hand!?!

Well, the adventure continues...when we left there, we were going up and down the mountains (we were at over 4,000 ft) and the clutch went out while we were crossing a bridge. While we were pushing the vehicle off of the road, we began to pray. (It is dangerous to be out on the roads, esp. being gringos...we could've been robbed or who knows?). Well, God answers prayer! Up from under the bridge came 4 guys (we called them angels), who had been swimming, and all 4 were mecanics! They offered to hook us up to their 4x4 SUV and pulled us all the way back to the city, and to their shop, where they will work on it this week. It was a 5-6 hour trip back...being pulled up and down the steep mountains. What a blessing they were! Then they got a van and drove us another hour to our apartments. God sent us 4 angels!!

busy February in Costa Rica

We are now halfway through our 1st Trimester of language school here in San Jose, C.R. For me (Debbi), its been like filling in the cracks in a road with a solid foundation, and Roger says for him its been like repairing the missing parts of the road after a disaster!! Every Friday in our Conversation Class (2 hours/day with a crazy fun teacher:), we have to do a 5 minute oral presentation on a different subject that we must investigate (i.e., provinces in Costa Rica, a family member, a scripture devotional, etc). They really stretch us, but its been really good to do.

We have met some really nice friends at the language school here and even our next door neighbors in our apartment (students also). We have lots of laughs with them and other friends...laughter takes away the stress of learning!

Last Friday, the entire school body and teachers went to Cartago (a city near to San Jose), where we visited the Catholic church and learned about their beliefs here....very interesting. We then went to the top of Volcano Irazu, which last erupted the day that President Kennedy arrived to visit Costa Rica, in 1963. There are approx. 35 volcanoes in Costa Rica, as its the area where the plates meet from the Pacific Ocean and the Carribean. When we got to the top of the volcano, we could see down into the crater where there is now a lake of green sulfuric water. We arrived a bit too late in the day, however they say that if you arrive early, before the clouds roll in, you can see both the Carribean and the Pacific Oceans from there. I think we'll go again sometime!

After the volcano, we went to a coffee plantation and had lunch. The coffee here is absolutely incredible, due to the fertile ground from volcanic ash and very high mountains (and pretty cheap here too:). They have little "personal coffee makers" (can't remember what its called, but its a wooden frame with a "sock"...small bag of material, where the coffee goes, then you fill it with hot water and the coffee seeps through the "sock" into your cup underneath. Very tasty! I'll download a photo of it soon.

Lots happening in the last few weeks! Josh is safe!

I (Debbi) had a wonderful birthday surprise a couple weeks ago...our daughter Charity came to visit for a few days. We had a Packer/birthday party and celebrated both of our birthdays (Debbi...1/21 and Charity...1/29) together with some of our fellow students! We had classes while she was here, so couldn't go too far, but it was just good to have here with us! Shes making plans to come during our Trimester break in April, so we can go experience Costa Rica with her then (and hopefully Jeremy, Josh and Albessa can come then too). With her being a flight attendant, its almost free to come here (cost more for the airport exit fee than her flight!).

The week after Charity left, we moved to another apartment, where we are much more comfortable. We live a little closer to school, and next to some fellow students (so its alot more fun), but most of all, we have a bed that we can sleep all night on (we'd wake up at 4am due to such a hard bed in the other place), and a really comfortable couch (the other one was shot...wood with a little material covering it). The first night at our new apartment, both Roger and fell asleep watching tv on the couch (one of my favorite things to do:).

Last night we had a "SuperBowl" party! (Too bad the Packers weren't in it, but oh well, can't win them all!) We opened up our apartment along with the one next door (with the Amslers) and one upstairs (with the Knoodles). Lots of students came over and we had tons of food, and lots of fun with people going from apt. to apt.

Now the best news....Josh is back from Iraq! Thank you so much for praying for him! We know that God's hand of protection was upon him...and he arrived back with his wife in San Antonio on Sat. pm for a month of R & R. He will then go back to his base in Germany for 2 months, then muster out of the military as he's finishes 6 years active duty in April.

Back in school again!

We just finished our 2nd full week of language school here in San Jose, Costa Rica. We live about a mile from the school, so we take a taxi part way and walk the rest of the way (I can't walk all the way with my bad knees).

We've already learned alot, and our heads are full by the end of the night! We have been given tons of homework every night from the 1st day of school, plus we have to go out and meet with 10 Tican's (as they call the locals here) that we meet away from the school (same people every week if possible) and practice with them as our Interaction class. We have to fill out a journal on our times with these people and report them to our teacher weekly. On Friday, our Conversation teacher taught us to make the traditional Costa Rican dish, called "Gallo Pinto"...which is basically black beans and rice mixed together with cilantro, garlic, celery, onion and a sause. Its ok, but it's definitely NOT Mexican...or as good:).


We had a Cowboys get-together last Sat. and a Packer's get-together at our house last Sunday, which was fun. As you know, the Cowboys lost...so all of our fellow Cowboy friends have now switched over to Back the Pack with us! Can't wait till tomorrow to see how the Packers do!

Beautiful Costa Rica!

This is a beautiful country! So much green and the mountains are georgous. We have a one bedroom apartment, fully furnished with "grandma's deco's", and a nice landlord who lives next door. He is from N.York but has lived here with his Costa Rican wife for 47 years. Her mother also lives with them, and will turn 101 next week!



The city really reminds us of Monterrey, except the streets are all hilly (we're high in the mountains), and there are no...no street names! We took a taxi to the store today, and to get home we had to tell the taxi driver that we are "300 meters south of the bank and 50 meters east"...then you just look till you find your street and house! We live about 1-1/2 miles from the school, so will be taking taxis everyday since I (Debbi) can't walk that far with my knees. The weather is absolutely wonderful....just a bit windy from the downdrafts of the mountains (makes the windows rattle all night:), and even a bit chilly at night!



Today we'll take a tour of the city with the school, then start orientation & classes on Monday (took our placement tests yesterday). I'll take photos of our house and post them soon.



Sure miss our kids and dog....and all of our friends, but soon we'll have our Vonage phone hooked up (about a week) and we'll be using our old cell number, so it'll be a call to McAllen, TX!





;

"I'm leaving, on a jet plane..don't know when I'll be back again"

We have been busy, busy, busy! Roger and I got all of our stuff loaded in a U-Haul and put in a storage unit in the RGV this past weekend, then drove to Corpus to do a service in a new church plant...had lunch on the causeway to Padre Island with the Pastor and family and fun friends (great place to eat fish at...called Snoopys). Then we drove back to McAllen to pick up Jeremy and he drove to Alice with us to drop us off at Bifferts, then he took our car back with him. We are staying here with our friends until tomorrow morning...getting up at 3am to dressand leave for Corpus airport)...then we're flying off to Costa Rica, finally! We are all packed and finally having a chance to get excited about it. You know,,,,we love the good ole USA, but we're outta here anyway! Now its on to our next adventure with God...language study!
I will be posting photos soon and updating you on how things are going. So, stay tuned!