2-6-05

Sunday afternoons seem to be my longest stretch of "down" time so I usually use this time to catch up on my e-mail. This was a pretty uneventful week for me although John Mark sweat BBs over two tests he had on Friday. He had about 200 verbs that he needed to memorize how to conjugate, plus some stirring vocabulary including vegetables/fruits with descriptive adjectives to talk about them! Christine's youth group had a lock-in on Friday night at their meeting place and John Mark & I volunteered to help as sponsors. I thought staying up all night would be harder than it was. As a group, we watched all three "Lord of the Ring" movies back to back, which took a loooooong time. Lots of pizza, chips, two cups of coffee & 3 glasses of diet Coke all helped keep me going through the night. I still don't think my mind is fully functional but its getting better! John Mark managed to find a quiet corner of a room & slept, (a generous word) from 9:30 PM until 5:30 AM. He claims he did that so he'd be fresh in the morning to help with breakfast. . . . . .

On a cultural note. . .our street guard put up a grape trellis on which he is growing chaiyote, a vining plant that produces lots of shade as well as a vegetable. My conversation teacher, Eugenia, told us that the chaiyote vegetable is used to make a casserole dish called "chancleta". Chancleta also happens to be the word that is used for flip-flops, you know, those rubber sandals. Don't ask me how that footwear is related to the veggie casserole, but isn't that interesting?

We attended a Thursday night bible study at our Spanish church for additional language practice & listening comprehension. Unfortunately, after about an hour & 15 minutes of lecture on Romans my eyes were seriously glazing over. In faith we are believing, like Kevin Costner, that "if we listen, it will come"!!

Christine & I made some chocolate chip cookie bars to take to a Super Bowl party at another missionary's home tonight. We have Spanish church at 6:00PM so we'll miss a little bit of the game - ah shucks!

All for now. . .

Cheryl & all

2-13-05

Is this one of those stages of adjustment? I'm critical of everything around me - the sidewalks that aren't big enough for two, the potholes in the streets, the broken sidewalks that make staring at the ground as you walk a necessity, store clerks who don't know anything, unpredictable weather that leaves you chilled or hot alternatively through the day, another odd grammar construction that seems unnecessarily complicated, teachers telling you "Tranquil" while giving you another 50 verbs to memorize - the list could go on & on. If I remember right, I felt this way about Taiwan at times too. Apart from my emotions, let me tell you what God has done for me this week.

I had been earnestly praying for a language helper/exchange situation in order to get more practice in normal conversation. In my heart I was wishing for someone near my age who shares some of the same interests/concerns that I do, but I had resigned myself to the idea of using a college student because they are typically the ones who are wanting to practice their English. I checked the bulletin board at school one day & found a name & number of someone who wanted to help me practice my Spanish (no mention of English exchange). I worked up a few sentences in Spanish (& a lot of nerve) and made the phone call. Vanessa is a 40 yr. old mother of two, ages 23 & 18, (yes, she got married at 17) who did this kind of language practice 15 yrs. ago with a single woman missionary & had a great experience. She wants to do it again & I'm the happy recipient! Isn't it ridiculous how quickly we assume things are just too difficult for God and then how quickly our emotions gain the upper hand and we forget what God has just done for us! I don't think its an accident that just this week I've been reading about Elijah & his confrontation with the prophets of Baal & Elijah's subsequent emotional turmoil.

Part of the fun of being at the Instituto de Lengua Espanola is getting to know the other students. We had the pleasure of spending time with another couple, the Aldriges, this week. Simon & Laurel hail from Canada, well actually Laurel hails from New Brunswick & Simon is British. They met at a bible college in England where they fell in love. Simon has recently become a Canadian citizen and they will be running a Christian camp up in the mountains of Costa Rica. Simon has a wonderful ear for language and can imitate accents from many places in England & Canada and thus kept us in stitches. Lots of fascinating people here!

Christine has become quite a devoted viewer of the home & garden channel. Between that & the cooking channel, she has lots of ideas about how things should be done. We're very limited in space & motivation to decorate right now but we'll see what happens when we get to Panama! She wanted to try a recipe on the cooking channel so we got all of the ingredients that she needed. Other than forgetting to grease the muffin tins (so it came out in chunks & crumbs) and the whipping cream turning to cottage cheese when she beat it (we suspect it may have been old but we're still not sure what happened) it turned out well! I'm all for sticking with the tried & true recipes that turn out well every time but that's the difference between she & I. She is doing well in school even though she is playing a little bit of catch up here & there. She is also still sizing up her teachers & learning how they do things, their habits, expectations, etc. There is an art to doing well in school and part of it is understanding your teachers.

By the way, all weekend we've been watching how they make different kinds of candy/chocolate, its been interesting...

Cheryl & all

2-27-05

With fear & trepidation we invited our Spanish pastor & his family to our home for supper on Friday night. My plan was to spend Friday afternoon cleaning & cooking for company. However. . . . . .God had different ideas. As I was beginning to cook, my neighbor dropped in to say "hi". Entertaining someone in Costa Rica is not a quickie affair - it requires drinks & snacks & lots of conversation, after all, maintaining relationships is more important than anything else you could be doing, right? I actually gained a couple of important bits of information during her visit. One was a suggestion for the type of salad I should fix for my company and the other was her instructions on how to properly entertain drop-in guests! As she was leaving (after about an hour & a half) John Mark's language helper arrived late, after renewing his relationship with an old friend across the street from us (there's that relationship "thing" again). He was still at the house when our company arrived so we invited him to stay also. (Did I mention that the language helper already knows our pastor?) At any rate, we had a wonderful evening, they enjoyed the salad that my neighbor had suggested, John Mark's language helper was a godsend in helping him communicate effectively with our pastor, and the pastor's wife was a delightfully encouraging person to communicate with. Their daughter attends a bilingual school, so she speaks English very well and had no problem communicating with Christine. By the way, John Mark ended up ordering pizza over the phone & we got what we thought we ordered - a real success story!

Christine is fasting for 36 hours to raise money for World Vision's hunger relief efforts. This is a first time experience for her - she seems to be doing well. The youth group is also raising some additional money by washing cars today, so she is keeping busy.

John Mark & I had an evangelism workshop sponsored by our regional leadership team these last two days. It was good review of some other materials that we've been exposed to plus some good video clips of some animistic/folk religion practices here. The syncretistic mix of religion here is mind boggling. For us, the workshop underscored how important it is to know exactly what people believe & practice before trying to speak to their spiritual needs.

We continue to plod along in language study. John Mark is thrilled to be exchanging one of his group classes for private tutoring. It would be glorious if we could do one-on-one for all of our studies but that isn't one of our options, so we make do with what we have & trust that God will use it well. We have been encouraged by our comprehension at some of the services at church recently. However, others leave us completely in the dark! Its amazing how variable the experiences can be. This morning we decided on a whim to attend the morning service at our Spanish church. We were bewildered when it appeared that a wedding ceremony was being performed instead of the usual service. The "bride & groom" were seated up front in a nice suit, cocktail dress, & black hat! A unity candle was centered on the table on the platform & a wedding cake, complete with little figures of the bride & groom on top, was arranged on a serving table up front. There were no adult attendants standing with them but several preschoolers served as flower girls, ring bearer, and bible bearer. One of our deacons did the homily & we were all served a plate of food in our chairs afterward. We felt a little foolish being there when we didn't know the couple or their family but I guess it was a congregational affair. At least we had an opportunity to give an offering for the new couple at the end of the service! Our understanding was that this was not a typical wedding but a religious ceremony uniting a couple who have been living together out of wedlock & have several children already. They have recently become believers & wanted to do the right thing in God's eyes.

We were blessed when a friend from our Chinese congregation dropped off some onion cakes for us this week - they are really quite good. In fact, the food here is so good that we are struggling to keep our weight constant. Pray for our self discipline & for our wisdom in choosing well!

All for now. . .

Cheryl & John Mark

March 18, 2005

After talking to friends and family in upper midwest of the U. S. A., I sure don't miss Nebraska's strange weather. I think we have turned a corner, seasonally speaking. It is consistently warmer now so sleeveless feels good & we don't have much rain. None of our houses here have air conditioning so during the warmest part of the day we run our fans. As long as the air is moving it feels pretty decent.

Several of you have asked about John Mark's dyslexia. As he has studied about it, it becomes clear that he probably has always had it. He remembers how frustrating it was for him to read aloud all through grade school, switching letters in words, or substituting entire words, mispronouncing some things for years, etc. He was blessed to have a mother who read to him ALOT - which helped him to draw on his strength, which was & is his oral skills. It explained why he could do so well in written French, yet be unable to pronounce the words. More recently he experienced the same issues when learning Mandarin and Taiwanese. We are very grateful that our mission is allowing John Mark the freedom to create a learning situation that specifically addresses his learning needs. Please pray that we will have wisdom & discernment in choosing materials for him to use & that God will bring to our attention those people who will make great teachers & language helpers for John Mark.

Nathan has been spending his spring break with his grandparents in Omaha. He really enjoyed his week with them.

Christine had a good report card this week. . .she struggles with the word problems in algebra ( as do I when I try to help her) so this has been a trying unit for her. Even so, she managed a high "B" in algebra - one that represents a lot of hard work for her. She has been frustrated with her placement in Spanish. Because she is the only beginning Spanish student in high school, they don't really have a class specifically for her level & they can't justify a teacher just for her. Therefore, they threw her in with some other high schoolers who are quite a bit more advanced than she & she has been struggling in that class for the last two months. She managed to get a "B" in that class also so we are quite proud of her. This summer she will get to be in an intensive Spanish program for three months - we're hopeful that it will be geared more to her needs & that it will help pull together other things that she has been exposed to already. All of her other grades were "A"s. This weekend Christine is at one of the beaches on the Pacific coast with 3 other girls (& the family of one of the girl's) to celebrate the girl's birthday. We had to make an emergency trip to the closest mall last night to buy a present for her. She left this afternoon & will be back on Sunday afternoon - hopefully without a nasty burn. The newest thing in her life is guitar lessons, which are scheduled to begin the week after Easter. She will have a one hour lesson once a week. We will be borrowing a guitar for a couple of months to see if she has any long-term interest in the guitar before investing in one for her. One of our long-term missionaries in Costa Rica took John Mark to a guitar factory a couple of months ago where he watched them hand-make custom guitars for very reasonable prices. We would like to get one made for Christine if she shows some commitment to the idea.

Next week, of course, is Holy Week here also, which is called "Santa Semana" or "Semana Santa", depending on who is talking. It is vacation time from school for the local kids & a time for families to leave town for beaches, etc. Easter is not as big a spiritual holiday here as it is in the states but there are certain kinds of activities at the Catholic churches that are very traditional. John Mark & I are participating in a field trip tomorrow that will visit the basilica in Cartago to tour it & observe some of the traditions. We'll tell you more about our experience afterward. We will also get to visit one of the nearer volcanoes, Irazu. We're hoping for a clear day so we can see something.

I volunteered to bring one of the "finger foods" for bible study at church on Thursday evening this week. I asked my conversation teacher what would be a good thing to take, something that everyone would like. She suggested tuna salad with Ritz crackers to eat it on. That's exactly what I did & they ate all of it! I guess that's a good sign. We had a guest pastor who led the study on Genesis. We are slowly understanding more & are more able to make conversation with people. Its a slow, almost imperceptible process but if you look back a month or two you can really see progress. John Mark got to help take up the offering last Sunday. It is a little thing but it helps us feel more like real people who can participate in normal ways.

The grammar structure continues to get more complicated. Its true that you learn a lot about your own language as you study another. We have been studying direct & indirect objects & their pronouns, reflexive verbs, & now intransitive verbs. Some of these things will take a lot of time & exposure to understand well & use correctly but you have to start somewhere! I am enjoying both my friend, Vanesa, whom I spend time with once a week, and my language tutor, Harold, whom I work with three days a week. Vanesa & I have taken to going shopping together & usually end up sitting somewhere at the mall, talking. I usually review whatever I'm working on in gramatica with Harold. John Mark works with Harold five days a week. Next "term" John Mark is probably going to switch completely to private tutoring & skip the language school altogether. He learns much better with lots of oral repetition rather than reading off the page. We are thrilled that he has the option to study this way.

We have Thursday & Friday off for Easter but don't have any special plans to do anything. Some folks in my language classes are planning a potluck for Good Friday - we will probably go to that. The next weekend Christine will go to "camp" for three days with her youth group while John Mark & I have a required regional meeting. Do you think she'd trade with us?

All for now. . .

Cheryl & all

March 19, 2005

Today we visited Volcano Irazu at 3432 meters (11,080 feet) above sea level. It was a beautiful day above the clouds. The landscape is like the moon around the volcano. Below us was a sea of clouds.

We also visited The Lankester Gardens. There are more than 1,400 varieties of orchids in Cost Rica, and no fewer than 800 species are on display at this 27-acre botanical garden in Cartago province.

We also went to the ruins of the oldest church in Costa Rica, built in 1693 and destroyed by an earthquake in 1831.

John Mark

Note:

National Orchid Show: In March over 1500 local and foreign species and hybrids on display in San José.

Pilgrimage to Ujarrás: March Mid-month. Religious procession from Cartago to ruins of Costa Rica's first church in Ujarrás.

Day of San José: March 19th, religious celebrations in all towns and neighborhoods with that name. Traditional day to visit Poás Volcano.

For year-long list of Costa Rican activities: costaricamap.com/ing/infofiestas.html

3-27-05

Why do we call it "Good Friday"? Shouldn't we call it "Sad Friday" and "Good Sunday"? Anyway, we attended the Good Friday procession of the large Catholic church in our suburb of San Jose. It is unlike any parade in the U.S. where you mark your spot and park your lawn chair and sit and wait. Here the parade was to start at 9:00, but started instead at 9:55 (technically within the 9:00 hour). It started with a drama in front of the church and the whole crowd walked WITH the actors portraying Christ's crucifixion for 2 hours. They stopped at determined lengths and dramatized different "stations of the cross". (Stations of the Cross are a part of Catholic tradition.)

Here in San Jose, it was surprising when the audience clapping as they took the dead Jesus off the cross. Here, Friday is the most sacred and revered day, whereas Sunday is just any other day. This is in contrast to the joy we see in the Scripture that the day of resurrection is the most important, because we serve a risen Savior, not a dead corpse.

Thanks,

John Mark

 

Note:

Costa Rica is different from other Latin American countries, because it practices a "lukewarm" Catholicism that causes a strange mixture of partying and religious celebration during these holidays. Ever since colonial times, the Catholic Institution hasn't exerted a powerful influence either politically or culturally. Most Costa Rican Catholics view their religion more as a tradition than as a practice or even a faith. Also, the Indian population is so small, that religious events don't offer a mixture of Catholic and Indian practices; thus, Costa Rican processions, for example, aren't as colorful as in Mexico or Guatemala. Even though some Costa Ricans decide to party during religious celebrations, they still prefer to do it in the company of their family, thus maintaining cultural and family unity. Ticos are extremely friendly to foreigners, and once they've gotten to know you they'll invite you to family gatherings and celebrations. After all, hospitality is probably the most widespread tradition in Costa Rica. http://www.costarica.net/features/culture.htm, http://www.forovial.com/costarica/culture_overview.asp