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Before Jason & Kathy came to visit, we sent them a list of items that we were missing from the states (mainly food!) so they could bring a few of each of them to us.  We’ll, little did we know that they had involved our church in Kansas City, so we ended up with a suitcase (also donated) full of goodies!  Just a few items on the list:  mechanical pencils, pinto beans (believe it or not, they don’t have them here and they are a must for charro beans!), spices, chocolate baking chips (too expensive here!), chocolate pudding, Hershey’s cocoa, and Gates BBQ sauce!  In addition to Antioch’s gifts, some of our good friends from Scott’s former church in Cincinnati sent us some pecans, rechargeable batteries, blank CD’s, a rain jacket for Scott and of course, more chocolate!!  It was a pleasant surprise and a wonderful blessing!

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During our short break from classes, our friends from Kansas City, MO, Jason and Kathy came to visit.  What a blessing and encouragement they were to us.  Kathy, being the “details” person she is, had the entire vacation planned, which was a big blessing to us because it allowed us to just enjoy the time and not have to think about all of the details!  We were able to visit a couple of volcanoes (both active), ride the zip lines thru the cloud forest, tour a coffee plantation, and best of all…relax in the hot springs heated by the lava flowing from Volcano Arenal!

We all had some good laughs together, especially when it came to the GPS that we affectionately named “Olga”.  We may have had some laughs at her expense, but she directed us to where we needed to go most of the time (although sometimes it was off-road!).  When you live in a country where they are no street signs, any help one can get is a gift!  Although Olga wasn’t much help when it came to the time when we had to stop and wait for two hours on a two-lane highway while the highway construction workers painted the road.  We were first in line, so we just missed being allowed to pass!  If you’d like to learn to be a more patient person, just come and visit us because there are many patience building opportunities awaiting you!!!

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Okay, maybe it’s not out for summer, but at least we’re out for about 2 weeks.  We’re ready for the break.  We recently received our language results and Scott is at the level he needs to be to go to Mexico and I’m right on his heels.  Praise the Lord!  We’re still here for 2 more trimesters (until December), so we pray we’ll continue to progress. 

The picture above is of our class on the last day of classes.  All of us are continuing on (at the institute) except Matt (in the white t-shirt), who is returning to Wichita, KS to plant churches in the inner city among Spanish speakers.  The t-shirt he is wearing was a gift from us.  The front says “Que Feo Mateo!”, (Translated: How Ugly Matthew) which was often said in our classes because of his sneakiness while shooting video when we were least expecting it.

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One Saturday evening we had three of the single young people from church over to our house for dinner and some games.  It was our way of thanking of one of them, Roger, for coming to our house every Saturday to practice Spanish.  The night started with some Mexican food (we checked with them first to see if they were up for it!) then we got out one of the card games we had brought with us from the US.

We had only played Dutch Blitz once before, when our good friends, the Essers, from KC taught us to play it two years ago. We had some difficulty remembering how to play it, so we had the ultimate language task of reading the instructions in English and interpreting them in Spanish to teach our friends how to play.   It took us about 30 minutes to finally convey the rules correctly (our confusion, not theirs!), and then we played for several hours.  At the end of each game when a player wins the round, he is suppose to shout out “Blitz!”.  We quickly learned that this word is challenging for a Spanish speaker to say.  Needless to say, we all had a great time and some really good laughs!

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Each year, the week before Easter is designated as Holy Week (or Semana Santa).  We were out of school for the entire week but for everyone else, those who worked in the city only had Thursday and Friday off.  So, most of San Jose was shut down for those two days; no buses, taxis, etc.  Also, those who celebrate Holy Week refrain from eating meat and even the liquor stores are prohibited by the government to sell liquor on Thursday and Friday, which means unfortunately that most people stock up the days before.

On Friday before Easter, they simulate the crucifixion of Christ and parade figures of Jesus on the cross thru the streets of the city.  Unfortunately, their enthusiasm for Christ’s resurrection isn’t as obvious.  Even in the evangelical church we attend, there was very little mention of it being Easter.  I am certain, it will be even less when we get to Mexico.